Documents - Content Analysis

Question 1

Content analysis

Answer 1

A method for dealing systematically with the contents of documents

Question 2

Why do positives favour the content analysis of documents?

Answer 2

Because they can produce quantitative data

Question 3

Example of ways in which positivists can produce quantitative data from the content analysis of documents: newspapers

Answer 3

When analysing the newspaper coverage of specific crime, a researcher can put the crimes into categories and count the number of crimes of each categories that different newspapers include

Question 4

Example of ways in which positivists can produce quantitative data from the content analysis of documents: TV

Answer 4

One can produce quantitative data when analysing gender diversity on TV by counting the amount of female lead actors in different TV companies over a period of time

Question 5

Advantages of content analysis: cost

Answer 5

Cheap

Question 6

Advantages of content analysis: comparability

Answer 6

Researcher can compare the results with official statistics to test accuracy of documents

Question 7

Advantages of content analysis: material

Answer 7

Easy to find sources of material to analyse

Question 8

Advantages of content analysis: positivists

Answer 8

See them as useful source of objective, quantitative and scientific data

Question 9

Disadvantages of content analysis: Interpretivists

Answer 9

Argue counting number of times something appears in a document tells us nothing about its meaning