content analysis + thematic analysis

Question 1

what is content analysis

Answer 1

• A type of observational research in which people are studied indirectly via the communications they have produced. This could include spoken word, texts or broader media.
• The aim of content analysis is to summarise and describe communication in a systematic way so overall conclusions can be made.
• The method by which you take qualitative data and analyse it in order to draw conclusions
• Quantitative to qualitative

Question 2

what are the stages of content analysis

Answer 2

• sampling - The researcher must decide which material to use
• Coding units - The researcher must decide how to categorise the analysed material.
• Pilot - Before the actual content analysis takes place the researcher must become familiar with the types of material likely to be encountered and construct a system for categorising the data.
• Coders - Only categorise the data, I.e. record the number of occurrences of a particular coding category. This produces data at the nominal level of measurement (frequencies). → produces quantative

Question 3

what is thematic analysis

Answer 3

• An inductive and qualitative approach to analysis that involves identifying implicit or explicit ideas within the data. - Themes will often emerge once the data has been coded.
  → won’t end up with numerical values
  → looking to see what themes emerge from data

Question 4

what are the stages of thematic analysis

Answer 4

1. Familiarise yourself with the data
2. Generating initial codes
3. Searching for themes
4. Reviewing themes
5. Defining and naming themes
6. Producing the report

Question 5

expand on the first stage, Familiarise yourself with the data

Answer 5

• read it at least once, preferably several times.
• Read it actively by looking for meanings and repeated phrases, ideas or patterns.
• You should end up with a list of points that cover what is in the data and what is interesting.

Question 6

expand on the second stage, Generating initial codes

Answer 6

• begin your coding.
• You can write these onto your transcript.
• It doesn’t matter at this stage that you have lots of codes that are disorganised or overlapping.
• These will be sorted out later.
• You can also come back and change your codes.

Question 7

expand on the third stage, Searching for themes

Answer 7

• when all codes have been identified and listed, the focus of the analysis becomes the development of themes.
• These are overarching conceptual constructs that group together sets of codes at a broader level.
• Some codes may stay separate but most will have some kind of link and can be grouped together into a preliminary theme.

Question 8

expand on the fourth stage, Reviewing themes

Answer 8

• you should have a set of themes that look good enough to explain all or most of the data.
  -The purpose of this stage is to refine those themes so we went up with something like the best overall fit.
• There should be clear separation between themes.
• The idea is to gather the data from each coding and organise it under each theme.
• Some themes will appear as major themes while others will be less important sub-themes

Question 9

expand on the fifth stage, Defining and naming themes

Answer 9

• if the data extracts within each theme form a consistent account you should be able to define the theme in a couple of sentences.
• You should be able to write a detailed account of each theme.
• If this is difficult to do them the themes need refining.
• There should not be too much overlap between themes.
• At this point you can devise names for your themes that are succinct and tell your reader exactly and clearly what the theme is about.

Question 10

expand on the sixth stage, producing the report

Answer 10

• the write up needs to be logical and coherent but also interesting.
• The data should tell a story through the themes.
• It is essential that each theme or sub-theme is support by the evidence by including quotations in the analytic section of your report.

Question 11

what are the positives of content analysis

Answer 11

• Produces qualitative and quantitative data
• Overcomes any ethical issues → public domain → high validity

Question 12

what are the negatives of content analysis

Answer 12

• Subjective
• Time-consuming → difficult to do on your own