content analysis

Question 1

content analysis is the process of

Answer 1

a statistical process changing qualitative data e.g interviews into quantitative data
to turn written information to numbers you need to count how many times the coding occurs
categorising/recording events and

Question 2

coding unit
top or bottom down

Answer 2

either be top down and decided before the content analysis
or bottom down decided after you’ve viewed the material and realised recurring categories

Question 3

what is a coding unit?

Answer 3

specific behaviours/actions/words/phrases you are going to count to be analysed
needs to be trialed and adjusted, another independent observer should use the same coding system on the data to check data is reliable/ high inter rater reliability
once data is collected can be analysed with statistical tests

Question 4

benefits of content analysis
large amounts of qualitative data

Answer 4

analyse large amounts of qualitative data quickly and systematically
after designing clear coding units all you have to do is count
computer software can count info e.g words for you
large amount means more representative results

Question 5

benefits of content analysis
reliability

Answer 5

easy to test for reliability
get second person to check coding material and compare outcome
or same coder on different occasion
if reliable supports content analysis being objective and non-bias

Question 6

problems with content analysis
bias

Answer 6

potential for bias
can choose data specific to hypothesis so miss out on conflicting data
reduces internal validity
not accurately represent what is being measured

Question 7

problems with content analysis
not be accurately analysed

Answer 7

material can be very ambiguous or unclear so not fit nicely into any coding units so will be ignored
based on frequency, just because a word appears more often we can’t assume it is more important
no accurate representation reduces internal validity