Overview of Content

Analysis
Harwood & Gary
Content Analysis: An Overview
 Appropriate for analyzing patterns/ characteristics of messages conveyed through
language or communication
 May be qualitative in developmental stages of research and quantitative to determine
the frequency of occurrence.

 Analysis done through coding of related categories of data

◦ -based on research questions developed from past literature review
◦ -data units may be sentence,phrase,single word ,image, theme, character, item
 Numerous applications :
 auditing content against objectives
 Constructing and applying communication standards
 Identifying features of style
 Identifying the characteristics of communicators
 Determining psychological states of individuals or groups
 Identifying international differences in communications
 Determining cultural pattern
 Revealing the focus of attention
 Describing communication responses
Types of Content Analysis
 Pragmatic Content Analysis : analyzing likely cause and effect
 Semantic Content Analysis: analyzing meanings
 Designation Analysis: frequency of reference to objects
 Attribution Analysis: frequency of characterisations
 Assertions Analysis: frequency of characterisations to certain objects
 Sign-Vehicle Analysis: frequency of an actual utterance
Techniques of Content Analysis
 Systems
◦ An entity that maintains its existence and functions as a whole through the
interaction of its parts
 The essential constituents are
 Components,relations,transformations
 Analysis identifies past trends, patterns and differences which enhances
prediction.
 Standards allow comparison of objects by identifying, evaluating and auditing the
content of communication.
◦ Evaluation is somewhat subjective
 Indices
◦ Krippendorf(1980),McClelland(1958)
 Linguistic Representations
◦ Lexical items with similar meanings in isolation,however,in the context of use may
have entirely different meanings.
 Communications
◦ Interrelationships among subjects
 Institutional Processes
◦ Organizational communications are governed by legal and professional directives
overlaid with macro and micro environmental influences.
Flow Chart of Content Analysis
Research Design
Reliability of Content Analysis
 Stability
 Reproducibility
 Accuracy
 Statistical Tests of Reliability:
- Coefficient of Agreement between Judges
- Spearman Rank Order Correlation
- Kendall’s Tau
- Cronbach’s Alpha
- Cohen’s Kappa
- Scott’s Pi
-Guetzkow (1950) process
Validity of Content Analysis
 Internal Validity
 External Validity :
- Construct Validity
- Hypothesis Validity
- Predictive Validity
- Semantic Validity
Operationalization of Content
Analysis
 Manual recording
 Manual analysis
 Automatic Analysis : ACAMRIT (Automated Content Analysis of
Marketing Research Interview Transcripts), QSR NUDIST, BEST
 SAS Text Miner
Pluralistic Approach
Sequential Analysis:
 Time series
 Log linear modelling
 Lag sequential analysis
 Grammar
 Markov chain
Steps in Sequential Analysis
 Selection of coding system
 Interaction data coded as sequence of

behaviors
 Test of reliability of codes
 Sequence data converted into matrix
 Analysis of between-group/over-time

questions
Benefits & Limitations of CA