R E G E N T S C H O L A R P R O G R A M3 . 3 . 1 5

CONTENT ANALYSIS

QUALITATIVE METHODOLOGY: AN UMBRELLA TERM FOR A VARIETY OF TECHNIQUES

<QUALITATIVE QUALITATIVE>

 < Ethnography Nonobtrusive Observation Interviews Historical/Archival Content Analysis

>

<How & Why? Hypothesis Testing>

Remember: Qualitative methodology especially adept at learning about MEANINGS & EXPERIENCES

Comparing one context to another process or stages of becoming

Debunking stereotypes types & forms

CONTENT ANALYSIS

• Finding themes and patterns in artifacts, printed materials, media

CONTENT ANALYSIS

What can be studied?• Television commercials• Song lyrics• Garbage• Job rejection letters• Menus• Bumper stickers• Graffiti• Christmas cards!!!

CONTENT ANALYSIS

• Strengths of Content Analysis• Economy of time and money• Data is readily accessible!• Research has little (if any) effect on subjects• Usually doesn’t involve IRB!

CONTENT ANALYSIS

• Weaknesses of Content Analysis• Limited to recorded communications- if it didn’t get written

down, it didn’t happen

• No “indexicality”- context & history of the artifact may not be clear or known. May lead to inaccurate interpretations.

• Challenges to reliability- unless you have provided a clear “operational definition”- two different people may code the same data differently [Use intercoder reliability to safeguard this]

CONTENT ANALYSIS

• Flexible method• Lends itself to quantitative orientation or research

questions

ILLUSTRATIONS OF (QUANTITATIVE) CONTENT ANALYSIS

• Example: Sex stereotyping in television commercials (Craig, 1992)

QUANTITATIVE CONTENT ANALYSIS

Research question: is there bias in the media?All data becomes NUMBERS

LET’S PRACTICE!

• What do you “see” in these three Christmas cards?• Content speaks to us without words!• Can you categorize or create a label for each of

these “types” of cards?

• You could easily proceed by “counting” the number of cards that fall into each “type” we have created….

CONTENT ANALYSIS

• Flexible method• Also lends itself to qualitative orientation or

research question

ILLUSTRATION OF QUALITATIVE CONTENT ANALYSIS

• Girls Scouts have been emancipated. Uniforms have switch from skirts to pants.

• Badges expanded beyond domestic duties to include “Science sleuth” and “Ms. Fix It”

• Demonstrates that changes within Girl Scouts parallel gender role changes in larger society

CONTENT ANALYSIS

• We’ll practice the qualitative version of content analysis tonight.

• This is an INDUCTIVE method.

• Findings “emerge” from the data

• Do not go in with pre-set hypothesis

• There are NO right or wrong answers!

INTERPRETING THE DATA/CODING

• Manifest Content – Visible, surface content. Tally the frequency of various words. Count the demographic characteristics depicted.

INTERPRETING THE DATA/CODING

• Latent Content – Look for patterns & underlying meaning. Involves assessment or “analytic induction”

LET’S PRACTICE!

• What do these cards tell us?• Who are these people?• Looking at LATENT CONTENT, What assumptions

might we make about:Gender?Social class?Relationships?Values?Political views?

GROUP WORK

• Step one: • Analyze the first card• Take notes, or “code” the information you “see.”• “Everything is relevant. Everything is data”• Concentrate on MANIFEST coding at this stage.

GO TO CARD #2

• Again, code & write down what you “see”• Now, compare to card #1• What is similar/different?• Do you see a theme, trend or pattern?• CONSTANT COMPARATIVE METHOD

CARD #3

• Continue to code• Continue to compare to the previous cards

• You may want to start FOCUSING on a trend or pattern that you see.

• Let’s create a list of the MANIFEST CODES each group is noting.

CARD #4

• Continue to code• Continue to compare to previous cards• Now, try to go beyond manifest coding to LATENT

CODING• HOW & WHY are you seeing these patterns?• Analyze and create a theory that explains the

patterns.• What does this mean? What does this say?

CARD 5 & 6

• Continue to code• Continue to compare• Continue to create a tentative explanation of

meaning of what the cards are saying.• Is each new additional card confirming your

hypothesis? If not, why not?

LET’S DISCUSS

• What are some of the LATENT codes, or explanations did you create from your data?

• What does it mean to send Christmas cards???• Are their tacit “rules” to sending Christmas cards?• What do Christmas cards say about America?

Families? Holidays?

WHY DO THIS?

• Suppose this was your data from our European trip.• How could you further develop the themes you’ve

found into a research question for future researchers?

GOING FORWARD

• Did ALL of your cards confirm your explanation? • Your “theory” emerged INDUCTIVELY from the

data.

• With additional data, you can “test” this hypothesis and garner additional support for it.• Your hypothesis might need to be adjusted,

expanded or altered as you continue to analyze the data.

EXCEPTIONS

• Who is NOT depicted in the cards you examined?• Who doesn’t send Christmas cards?• What do these exclusions “say” about Christmas

in the United States?

LIMITATIONS

• What questions can we NOT address or answer with this data/method? [cause/correlation]• How can we be sure we are drawing the right

conclusions from the data? [intercoder reliability]• Is this data “representative?” Why not?

RELEVANCE

• Many of you may choose to pursue CONTENT ANALYSIS for the projects you’ll be creating from our European travels.• The artifacts and data will present themselves to

us.• The patterns and findings will emerge inductively

from the data.• Be cognizant that everything around you (sights,

smells, feels, artifacts) are data…