content analysis Flashcards
what is content analysis
-observational method
-studied indirectly via communications ppl produce
-e.g convo, texts, media, Tv films
what is the aim of content analysis
-summarise and describe the communictaion to draw a conclusion
what is stage one?
-coding
-categorise large amount of data into meaningful units
-analyse qualitative to produce quantitative data
what is stage two ?
-counting/recording
-count number of times word or phrase appears to produce qualitative data(manually or on comp software)
what is stage three?
-conclusions
-consider amounts in each catgeory and establish what has been shown
what is a thematic analysis
-a theme in content analysis refers to a recurrent idea in the communication being studied
what does thematic analysis consist of?
-produce qualitative data
-more descriptive
-broader categories
-once reseracher is satisfied themes cover most the data , they can select diff set of data to check the validity of themes and categories
-if adequaltley fits new data . reasearcher writes final report using direct quotes from the data to illustrate themes
strenghts of content analysis
-much of the material to be studied is already public so no ethical issues(no permission needed)
-high external validity
-qualitative and quantitative can be produced depending on aim
(if quantiative can do a statistical test e.g spearmans to test significance)
-repeatable w same themes and categories
weaknesses of content analysis
-may study indirectly as its out of context when being studied
-researcher may attribute opinions the researcher didnt intend especially when theres more descrptive phrases used
-lack of objectivity may occur = low validity
