Content Analysis Flashcards
what is content analysis?
a kind of observational study in which behaviour is usually observed indirectly in visual, written or verbal material
may involve either qualitative or quantitative analysis, or both
it is where a research looks at the content of something and analyses it — they identify behavioural categories and record the instances of each category
for instance, they may look at the contents of a TV programme and the identify patterns, such as the way men and women are portrayed, the way characters interact, etc
these patterns might be put into different behavioural categories or different themes
how to conduct a content analysis?
the process involved in conducting a content analysis is similar to any observational study
but instead of observing actual people, a researcher makes observations indirectly through artefacts that people have produced such as books, films and advertisements
the researcher must make design decisions about…
• the sampling method
• coding the data
• method of representing data
the sampling method
the researcher has to decide…
- if analysing the content of books, do they look at every page or just every fifth page?
- if comparing the contents of books, do they select books randomly from the library or identify certain characteristics (for example, looking at biographies or romantic fiction only)?
- if analysing ads on TV, does the researcher sample behaviours every 30 seconds or note whenever certain behaviours occur?
coding the data
coding is the process of placing quantitative and qualitative data into categories
to code data, the researcher must use behavioural categories
for example, if the researcher wishes to look at the way men and women are portrayed in TV programmes, they create a list of behavioural categories and then count the instances of such behaviours in the programme
decisions about behavioural categories may involve thematic analysis
method of representing data
data can be recorded in each behavioural category in two different ways…
- a researcher can conduct a quantitative analysis by counting the instances of each category
- a researcher can conduct a qualitative analysis by describing examples in each category
example of a quantitative content analysis
Manstead et al (1981) were interested in the way that men and women are portrayed in TV adverts
they observed 170 adverts over 1 week, ignoring those that contained only children or those with animals
in each advert, they were focused on the central adult figure and recorded the frequencies of certain categories in a table
on the table, there was a column for whether the central figure was male or female
the table also featured categories such as the role of the central character (dependent or independent), the argument spoken by the central character (factual or opinion based) and the product type used by the central character (food, alcohol, body or household)
example of a qualitative content analysis
Joronen et al (2005) conducted a study into the role of the family in adolescents’ peer and school experiences
they interviewed 19 adolescents aged between 12 and 16, asking questions such as “what does your family know about your peers?” and “how is your family involved in your school activities?”
they analysed the content of these interviews by placing all answers to the same question together and compressing each statement into a brief one, assigning it an identifier code
statements were then compared with each other and categorised so that those with similar content were placed together and a category or theme could be identified
8 main categories were produced including…
• support — may involve family members helping if the child has a test coming up
• negligence — family members not being interested at all in their child’s friends
strengths of content analysis
content analysis tends to have high ecological validity because it is based on observations of what people actually do, it involves observing real communications that are current and relevant such as recent newspapers or the books that people read
content analysis can be easily replicated when sources can be retained or accessed by others, for example copies of magazines or videos of people giving speeches, therefore the observations can be tested for reliability
main intentions of thematic analysis
to impose some kind of order on the data
to ensure that the order represents the participants perspective
to ensure that this order emerges from the data rather than any preconceptions
to summarise the data so that huge amounts of text or video footage can be reduced
to enable themes to be identified and general conclusions to be drawn
how to conduct a thematic analysis
- read and reread the data transcript dispassionately, trying to understand the meaning communicated and the perspective of the participants
- break the data into meaningful units (e.g. sentences or phrases that are independently able to convey meaning)
- assign a label or code to each unit, these labels represent initial categories to be used
- combine simple codes into larger themes, then instances can be counted or examples provided
- check the emerging categories by collecting a new set of data relating to the topic and applying the categories to this, if the chosen themes are appropriate they should apply to the new data too
limitations of content analysis
observer bias reduces the objectivity and validity of findings because different observers may interpret the meaning of behavioural categories differently
content analysis is likely to be culturally biased because interpretation of verbal or written content will be affected by the language and culture of the observer and the behavioural categories used, different behaviours have different meanings depending of whether a culture is individualist/collectivist or western/non western
what is a thematic analysis?
a technique used in content analysis when analysing and summarising qualitative data
repeated themes or categories in the material are identified to be analysed and the data is then organised according to these themes
the material to be analysed might be a book, TV advertisement or the transcript from interviews
evaluation of thematic analysis
thematic analysis is a very lengthy process because identifying recurring themes can take a long time, every item needs to be carefully considered and the data needs to be gone through repeatedly
quantitative data can be readily summarised with measures of central tendency and dispersion, none of these options are possible with purely descriptive data but thematic analysis allows qualitative data to be analysed and summarised by identifying repeated themes in the material to be analysed
