content analysis

Question 1

content analysis

Answer 1

studying human behaviour indirectly by studying things we produce eg tv and newspapers

allow us to have insight into the structured values and beliefs of society

Question 2

how to conduct a content analysis

Answer 2

• Identify hypothesis that you will investigate.
• Create a coding system depending on what you are investigating e.g. 1= male, 2= female.
• Gather resources
• Conduct content analysis and record data in a table.
• Analyse data which is descriptive and qualitative e.g. using ‘thematic analysis’- allows themes, patterns and trends to emerge in data.
• Write up a report in the format of a scientific report.

Question 3

content analysis strengths

Answer 3

strong external validity as data already in real world so has high mundane realism

produces large data set of both quantitative and qualitative data

easy replication

ethical issues such as right of privacy avoided as data already in public domain

Question 4

content analysis limitations

Answer 4

observer bias is presented but it can be eliminated by achieving inter-observer reliability

content of choice to analyse can be biased by researcher

interpretative bias - the researcher may ignore some things but pay extra attention to others