Content Analysis

Untalan, Anne Lenielyn M.Opiz,OliverA.

What is Content Analysis?It is use to systematically summarize written, spoken, or visual communication in a quantitative way.

It is a research tool used to determine the presence of certain words or concepts within texts or sets of texts.

TextBooks, Book Chapters, essays, Interviews, Discussions, Newspaper Headlines or Articles, Historical Documents, Speeches…

Any occurrence of communicative language.

History of Content Analysis

•1931-Content Analysis began when Alfred R. Lindesmith created a methodology that was

designed to refute existing hypothesis.

•1940’s- it is already often utilized method in research.

•1950’s-researchers were already starting to consider the need for more sophisticated

methods of analysis.

•1960’s- Content Analysis is frequently referred to as “Grounded Theory”

Nowadays, content analysis is also utilized to explore mental models, and their linguistic, affective, cognitive, social, cultural and historical significance..

Some Applications of Content analysis

marketing and media studiesliterature and rhetoricethnography and cultural studies gender and age issues sociology and political science psychology and cognitive

science

StrengthContent analysis is a readily-

understood, inexpensive research method. It is unobtrusive, and it doesn't require contact with people

LimitationsContent analysis is a purely

descriptive method. It describes what is there, but may not reveal the underlying motives for the observed pattern

Advantageslooks 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

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

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

•is an unobtrusive means of analyzing interactions

DisadvantagesIt is very time consuming and is

subject to error

It is dependent on interpretation of the text

There is also no theoretical base in order to create meaningful inferences and relationships between the text.

This methodology can be extremely difficult to automate or computerize. 

Types of Content Analysis

Conceptual Analysis Relational Analysis

Conceptual Analysis

can be thought of as establishing the existence and frequency of concepts most often represented by words of phrases in a text.

Steps for Conducting Conceptual Analysis

Decide the level of analysis. Decide how many concepts to code

for. Decide whether to code for existence

or frequency of a concept. Decide on how you will distinguish

among concepts. Develop rules for coding your texts.

Decide what to do with

"irrelevant" information. Code the texts. Analyze your results.

Relational Analysis

seeks to go beyond presence by exploring the relationships between the concepts identified.

Theoretical Influences on Relational Analysis

Linguistic approaches- focus analysis of texts on the level of a linguistic unit, typically single clause units.

Cognitive science- include the creation of decision maps and mental models

Mental models-groups or networks of interrelated concepts that are thought to reflect conscious or subconscious perceptions of reality.

Three Subcategories of Relational Analysis

Affect extraction: This approach provides an emotional evaluation of concepts explicit in a text.

Proximity analysis: This approach, on the other hand, is concerned with the co-occurrence of explicit concepts in the text.

Cognitive mapping: This approach is one that allows for further analysis of the results from the two previous approaches.

Steps for Conducting Relational Analysis

Identify the Question.Choose a sample or samples for

analysisDetermine the type of analysis.Reduce the text to categories

and code for words or patterns. e the type of analysis

Explore the relationships between concepts ◦Strength of Relationship◦Sign of a Relationship◦Direction of the Relationship

Code the relationships.Perform Statistical AnalysesMap out the Representations

ReliabilityThe reliability of a content

analysis study refers to its stability, or the tendency for coders to consistently re-code the same data in the same way over a period of time; reproducibility.

ValidityThe validity of a content analysis

study refers to the correspondence of the categories to the conclusions, and the generalizability of results to a theory.

ProblemsThe overarching problem of

content Analysis research is the challenge-able nature of conclusions reached by its inferential procedures.