Communication

Research
Content Analysis
Content Analysis

 Content analysis is another commonly used

method in social sciences and particularly in
communication research
 It involves looking at ‘texts’ written, audio or
visual
Content Analysis

 Content analysis takes many forms you

must begin with a well-defined research
problem that determines the questions
and categories of interest
Content Analysis
 Content Analysis is a formal system for doing
something that we all do rather frequently
drawing conclusions from observation of
content
 Content Analysis is a research technique,
which can be conducted both quantitatively
and qualitatively
Content Analysis

 The purpose of the method is to identify and

count the occurrences of specified
characteristics or dimensions of text and
through this to be able to say something
about the messages, images representations
of such texts and their significance
Content Analysis
 Traditional content analysis is said to be:

 Objective
 Systematic
 Quantitative
 Manifest
Content Analysis

 Content analysis is the description of

manifest content.
Content Analysis
 This means:
 Objective -means logically, the opposite of subjective. Now how
is this objectivity achieved? It is claimed that objectivity is
achieved by having clearly defined categories, so that different
people can apply them to the same content and get the same
results.
 Systematic - means that a set of procedure is applied in the
same way to all content being analyzed. It also means that
categories are set up so that all relevant content is analyzed and
designed in such a way to secure all the relevant information the
research question or the hypothesis.
 Quantitative - Simply means the recording of the numerical
values or frequencies with which the various defined type of
content occur, a good example would be the frequency with
which development news is given.
Content Analysis
 Definition of content analysis required that
inferences from content data be derived
strictly from the frequencies with which the
symbols or themes occur in the text
 The frequency with which some activity or
phenomenon occur or is portrayed and its
wider implication / impact is more complex
Definitions

“Any systematic procedure devised to

examine the context of recorded
informaton”-Walizer and Wienir
(1978)

“It is a research technique for making

replicable and valid references from
data to their context”.- Krippindorf
(1980)
Content Analysis
 Key steps:
 Definition of the research problem
 Selection of sample material
 Selection of unit of analysis
 Definition of analytical categories
 Construction of coding schedule
 Piloting the coding schedule and checking for
reliability
Content Analysis
 The next thing it is important to understand is
how to develop categories. Researcher must
construct a set of mutually exclusive and
exhaustive categories
 Categories must be:
 Pertinent to the objective of the research.
 Categories must be functional.
 System of categories must be manageable.
Content Analysis

 How to check whether categories pertinent

or not?
 Does the information they yield answer the
research question or permit testing of the
hypothesis of the study.
Content Analysis

 When we say categories should be

functional we presume that the content
under study will say something about the
media process - how decisions are made by
the reporter, cameraperson, editors, anchors
etc.
Content Analysis

Keeping the categories manageable is mostly

about limiting the number of categories
because coders have to refer to a list of
category definitions and if the numbers are too
large it makes matters difficult.
Content Analysis
 The analysis can be made in terms of:
 Frequency with which each category appears
 The amount of space allotted to the category
 The strength or intensity with which the
category is represented
Content Analysis
Operational Definitions
An operational definition tells how you will measure something
and forces you to explain how you understand or interpret a
concept.
Offering an operational definition of your term is very difficult
and is the weak point in many content analyses.
If others rejects your definitions they may reject your findings as
being irrelevant or unsound
• It is the smallest element of a content analysis.

• Operational definitions of the unit of analysis should be clear.

• Ex. Number of minutes, worlds, inches, columns etc.

Content Analysis
 Reliability of Coding: The fact that content analysis
is defined as systematic and objective means the
researcher must be concerned with reliability
 By reliability here we mean simply consistency of
classification e.g. if there are two coders both must
agree what a category means e.g. what is a
favorable statement what is not a favorable
statement.
 The attempt is to achieve the same level of
agreement.
Content Analysis
 Data Analysis:
 The data take form of numbers through some
measurement operation
 This measurement maybe of different kinds
and different levels
 Measurement involves classification or
categorization
Content Analysis
 Classification implies that one is not the same
as the other but does not say one is greater
than the other
 Magnitude is a system of ranking
 Intervals and ratios may also have to be
looked at
 Frequencies tells you the number of times
each observation has occurred in a set of
data
Content Analysis
 Other Statistical Tools:
 Averages and Dispersion:
 Mean
 Mode
 Median
 Variance
 Standard deviation
 Range
 Correlation Coefficient