Content Analysis

Karamvir KaurManvinderjit Singh

Content Analysis

A technique used to study written material by breaking it into meaningful units, using carefully applied rules.

Use objective and systematic coding to produce a quantitative description of the observed material. Can analyze common myths e.g., women are portrayed as inferior to

men in the workplace. e.g., portrayal of mental illness in Disney

films e.g., representation of father-child

attachment

Content Analysis

Content analysis seeks to avoid confirmation bias – the tendency to look for information that confirms our beliefs and ignore information that disconfirms our belief.

Can be used to quantify concepts Can also be used in a qualitative way. What can be studied

Any written material Audio/visual information

Content Analysis

Useful for 3 types of research Problems involving a large volume of test Research from afar or in the past Revealing themes difficult to see with casual

observation.

Human vs. computer coders Can often utilize computers

Internet searches Automated text search

Great for extremely large sets of data Personal judgment not part of the process Cheaper and faster than humans

Humans Useful for coding complex concepts More flexibility Costs more time and money

The process of Content Analysis

Which data are analyzed? How are they defined? What is the population from which

they are drawn? What is the context relative to which

the data are analyzed? What are the boundaries of the

analysis? What is the target of the inferences?

Steps in Content Analysis

1. Define problem / identify the issue to be studied

2. Select the media that will be used3. Derive coding categories4. Sampling strategy – which sources

will you use?5. Train the coders6. Code the material7. Analyze the data

Content Analysis: An Example

Dowler (2004) - Comparing American and Canadian local television crime stories: A content analysis.

identify problem Is American and Canadian television

different at portraying crime? select media

Specifically interested in television news programs

Types of Content Analysis

Conceptual analysis: Conceptual analysis can be thought of as establishing the existence and frequency of concepts.

Relational Analysis :A researcher converts a text into a map of concepts and relations; the map is then analyzed on the level of concepts and statements, where a statement consists of two concepts and their relationship.

Conceptual Analysis Steps

1. Decide the level of analysis. 2. Decide how many concepts to code for. 3. Decide whether to code for existence or

frequency of a concept. 4. Decide on how you will distinguish among

concepts. 5. Develop rules for coding your texts. 6. Decide what to do with "irrelevant"

information. 7. Code the texts. 8. Analyze your results.

Relational Analysis Categories Affect extraction: emotional

evaluation of concepts explicit in a text.

Proximity analysis: co-occurrence of explicit concepts in the text. Text is defined as a string of words. Window, Clustering, Grouping and Scaling are used.

Cognitive mapping: Represents relationships visually for comparison.

Relational Analysis Steps

1. Identify the Question. 2. Choose a sample or samples for analysis. 3. Determine the type of analysis. 4. Reduce the text to categories and code for

words or patterns. 5. Explore the relationships between

concepts (Strength, Sign & Direction). 6. Code the relationships. 7. Perform Statistical Analyses. 8. Map out the Representations.

Content Analysis Software

Dictionary Based Content Analysis: consist of basic functions including word frequency counting and analysis, sorting and visualization.

Development Environments: automate construction of dictionaries, grammars and other text analysis tools

Annotation Aids: electronic version of notes, cross references and jottings generated while analysis.

Uses Of Content Analysis

Ranges from marketing and media studies, to literature , cultural studies, sociology and political science and other field of enquiry.

Integral role in development of artificial intelligence.

Identify intentions, focus or communication trends of individuals or groups.

Describe attitudinal and behavioral responses.

Advantages

looks directly at communication via texts or transcripts, and hence gets at the central aspect of social interaction

can allow for both quantitative and qualitative operations

can provides valuable historical/cultural insights over time through analysis of texts

can be used to interpret texts for purposes such as the development of expert systems

Advantages

is an unobtrusive means of analyzing interactions

provides insight into complex models of human thought and language use

allows a closeness to text which can alternate between specific categories and relationships and also statistically analyzes the coded form of the text

Disadvantages

can be extremely time consuming is subject to increased error,

particularly when relational analysis is used to attain a higher level of interpretation

is often devoid of theoretical base, or attempts too liberally to draw meaningful inferences about the relationships and impacts implied in a study

Disadvantages

is inherently reductive, particularly when dealing with complex texts

tends too often to simply consist of word counts

often disregards the context that produced the text, as well as the state of things after the text is produced

can be difficult to automate or computerize