CONTENT ANALYSIS

► The term content analysis was probably first used in modern social sciences by
researchers in the 1930s who were trying to analyse the characteristics of
messages in the mass media in order to understand how processes of persuasion
and propaganda worked (Berelson, 1947; Berelson & Lazarsfeld, 1948).
► Berelson (1984) summarised the development of content analysis methods in
communications research and articulated the value of breaking down a message
into its defined constituent elements and quantifying the frequency with which
each appeared.
► This represented a move to make the analysis of messages more systematic and
subject to verification by other researchers.
► Initially, researchers used content analysis as either a qualitative or quantitative
method in their studies (Berelson, 1952).
► Later, content analysis was used primarily as a quantitative research method,
with text data coded into explicit categories and then described using statistics.
This approach is sometimes referred to as quantitative analysis of qualitative data
(Morgan, 1993)
► Qualitative content analysis goes beyond merely counting words to examining language
intensely for the purpose of classifying large amounts of text into an efficient number
of categories that represent similar meanings (Weber, 1990).
► These categories can represent either explicit communication or inferred
communication. The goal of content analysis is “to provide knowledge and
understanding of the phenomenon under study” (Downe-Wamboldt, 1992).
► Therefore, qualitative content analysis can be defined as a research method for the
subjective interpretation of the content of text data through the systematic
classification process of coding and identifying themes or patterns.
► The systematic reading of a body of texts, images, and symbolic matter, not
necessarily from an author’s or user’s perspective (Krippendorff, 2004).
► Content analysis is the systematic description of phenomena.
► Content analysis can be applied to data, information or evidence from a broad range of
contexts including: participant and non-participant observation, interviews, archives
and documents within non-experimental, experimental and quasi-experimental designs.
Use
► Content analysis is distinguished from other kinds of social science research in
that it does not require the collection of data from people. Like documentary
research, content analysis is the study of recorded information, or
information which has been recorded in texts, media or physical items.
► Systematically collect data from a set of texts, which can be written, oral or
visual
► Books, newspaper & magazines
► Speeches & interviews
► Web content & social media posts
► Photographs & films
When to use content analysis

► Reveal differences in communication

► Detect the existence of propaganda
► Identify the intentions, focus of communication trends of an individual, group
or institution
► Describe attitudinal & behavioral responses to communication
► Determine psychological or emotional state of persons or groups
Types

► Content analysis: Qualitative & Quantitative

► Qualitative: Conceptual & relational
► Quantitative: facts from text are presented in the form of frequency
expressed as a percentage or actual numbers of key categories
Qualitative content analysis
CONCEPTUAL RELATIONAL

In conceptual analysis, a concept is Like conceptual analysis, begins with

chosen for an examination, and the the act of identifying concepts present
analysis involves quantifying and in a given text or set of texts.
tallying its presence. Also known as
thematic analysis.

The focus here is on looking at the However, relational analysis seeks to go

occurrence of the selected terms beyond presence by exploring the
within a text or texts, although the relationships between the concepts
terms maybe implicit as well as identified. Relational analysis has also
explicit. been termed as sematic analysis.
► Identify your research question
► Select your sample
► Skim the material selected through the sampling procedure and make a list of
main themes
► Make categories which are not overlapping
► Make separate category for codes not falling in main category
► You can also quantify by using frequency method
► CONDENSATION: process of shortening the text while still preserving the core
meaning.
► CODE: a label can be thought of as a label; a name that most exactly describes
what this particular condensed meaning unit is about. Usually one or two words
long.
► CATEGORY: is formed by grouping together those codes that are related to each
other through their content or context. In the other words, codes are organised
into a category when they are describing different aspects, similarities or
differences, of the text’s content that belong together.
► THEME: expressing an underlying meaning i.e. dormant content, found in two or
more categories. A theme answers questions such as why, how, in what way or by
what means? A theme is intended to communicate with the reader or both an
intellectual and emotional level.
► CODES ORGANISING THEMES GLOBAL THEME

CODE 1

CODE2
CATEGORY 1

CODE 3
THEME
CODE 4

CATEGORY 2
CODE 5

CODE 6
 STAGES/PROCEDURE

► Stage 1: Decontextualization: Identify meaning units (What is going on?, sense

of whole text) Familiarisation
► Stage 2: Recontextualization: Include ‘content’ exclude. Link data with
research objectives.
► Stage 3: Categorization: Identify homogenous groups
► Stage 4: Compilation: Draw realistic conclusions

► Categories should be internally homogeneous & externally heterogenous. No

overlapping should be there between categories & no code should fit in two
categories.
► Manifest analysis: What is said? Informant words is used
► Latent analysis: What are dormant themes ? Researcher immerse himself in
data in order to identify hidden meaning in text
Meaning Unit Condensed Subcategories Categories Themes
Meaning Unit

Text Sentence 1 Codes Category 1 Theme 1

Sentence 2 Codes Category 2

 Approaches to Content Analysis

► CONVENTIONAL CONTENT ANALYSIS

► Conventional content analysis is generally used with a study design whose aim
is to describe a phenomenon.

► DIRECTED CONTENT ANALYSIS

► Directed content analysis is used when existing theory or prior research exists
about a phenomenon that is incomplete or would benefit from further
description.

► SUMMATIVE CONTENT ANALYSIS

► Summative content analysis is used for identifying and quantifying certain
words or content in text with the purpose of understanding the contextual use
of the words or content.
CONVENTIONAL CONTENT ANALYSIS
► This type of design is usually appropriate when existing theory or research
literature on a phenomenon is limited. Researchers avoid using preconceived
categories (Kondracki & Wellman, 2002), instead allowing the categories and names
for categories to flow from the data.
► Researchers immerse themselves in the data to allow new insights to emerge
(Kondracki & Wellman, 2002), also described as inductive category development
(Mayring, 2000). Many qualitative methods share this initial approach to study
design and analysis.
► The advantage of the conventional approach to content analysis is gaining direct
information from study participants without imposing preconceived categories or
theoretical perspectives.
DIRECTED CONTENT ANALYSIS
► Content analysis using a directed approach is guided by a more structured
process than in a conventional approach (Hickey & Kipping, 1996).
► The goal of a directed approach to content analysis is to validate or extend
conceptually a theoretical framework or theory.
► Existing theory or research can help focus the research question. It can
provide predictions about the variables of interest or about the relationships
among variables, thus helping to determine the initial coding scheme or
relationships between codes. This has been referred to as deductive category
application (Mayring, 2000).
► More structured than a conventional approach.
► Operational definitions are each category are determined using a theory.
► The main strength of a directed approach to content analysis is that existing
theory can be supported and extended.
SUMMATIVE CONTENT ANALYSIS
► This quantification is an attempt not to infer meaning but, rather, to explore
usage. Analyzing for the appearance of a particular word or content in textual
material is referred to as manifest content analysis (Potter &
Levine-Donnerstein, 1999).
► If the analysis stopped at this point, the analysis would be quantitative,
focusing on counting the frequency of specific words or content (Kondracki
&Wellman, 2002).
► A summative approach to qualitative content analysis goes beyond mere word
counts to include latent content analysis. Latent content analysis refers to
the process of interpretation of content (Holsti, 1969). In this analysis, the
focus is on discovering underlying meanings of the words or the content.
► Key differences among conventional, directed, and summative approaches to
content analysis center on how initial codes are developed.
► In a conventional content analysis, categories are derived from data during
data analysis. The researcher is usually able to gain a richer understanding
of a phenomenon with this approach.
► With a directed content analysis, the researcher uses existing theory or
prior research to develop the initial coding scheme prior to beginning to
analyze the data (Kyngas &Vanhanen, 1999). As analysis proceeds, additional
codes are developed, and the initial coding scheme is revised and refined.
Researchers employing a directed approach can efficiently extend or refine
existing theory.
► The summative approach to content analysis is fundamentally different from
the prior two approaches. Rather than analyzing the data as a whole, the text
is often approached as single words or in relation to particular content. An
analysis of the patterns leads to an interpretation of the contextual
meaning of specific terms or content.