Content and thematic analysis

Question 1

What is content analysis?

Answer 1

Indirect study of people’s behaviour using communications e.g. speech, text, e mail, media etc.
Turns qualitative data into quantitative

Question 2

What is the process of content analysis?

Answer 2

1. Transcribe the interview/recording
2. Go through the data – read/watch at least 3 or 4 times
3. When a theme emerges (so, when you see something appearing more than once) make a note of it
4. After you should have compiled a list of themes (there can be sub-themes within these)
5. Go back through the data and tally each time you see an example of one of the themes – quantitative

Question 3

Give some strengths of content analysis

Answer 3

Content analysis has high ecological validity because it’s based on observations of what people actually do.

When sources can be retained or accessed by others (eg back copies of magazines or videos of speeches) the content analysis can be replicated and therefore the observations checked for reliability.

Question 4

Give some negatives of content analysis

Answer 4

Observer bias reduces the objectivity and validity of the findings because different observers may interpret the meaning of the behavioural categories differently.

Content analysis is also likely to be culture biased because the interpretation of verbal or written material will be affected by the language and culture of the observer and the behavioural categories used.

Question 5

What is thematic analysis?

Answer 5

leaves qualitative data as qualitative data.
Looks at creating themes (an idea that keeps cropping up) and then supporting this using quotes.

Question 6

Explain the process of thematic analysis

Answer 6

• First stage is to identify themes from the source
• A “theme” is an idea implicit or explicit that is recurrent I.e. it keeps cropping up
• Likely to be more descriptive than codes ( but may emerge from codes in the first place)
• E.g. in newspapers the mentally ill may be “ a threat to the wellbeing of our children” or “ a drain on the NHS”
• They can then be put into broader categories if needed e.g. “control”, “stereotyping” or “treatment”
• Direct quotes can then be used to illustrate each theme in the final report