7 – Content Analysis

7 – Content Analysis

Why Should I Care?

There are hidden messages and meanings to media that we are exposed to every day. There is a scientific way to analyze these media content, to discover their true face.

Definitions

 

Content AnalysisAnalysis: The systematic coding of ideas, themes, images, etc. in media.

Primary SourceSource: First-person account. From the horse’s mouth.

Secondary SourceSource: Histories and Analysis of events based on primary sources.

Manifest Content: Obvious

Manifest Content                       Obvious

Latent ContentContent:  Between the lines

 

Usefulness

When people write, speak, paint, or draw, they communicate in many ways. What we read into their work depends on what we are looking for. There are degrees of understanding.

 

Objects of Measurement

 

What is data? words,

Words, visual images, sounds, in audio, visual or video formats

Where is the data? 

On written documents such as books, newspapers and magazines, correspondence, email, meeting minutes, field notes.

                                    On other documents of audio and video recordings such as documentaries, movies,  song, music videos, posters, advertisements, etc.

 

Type of Object	Yes	No	Maybe	Example
Personal Characteristic	X
Socio-Demographic Characteristic	X
Opinion	X
Motivations			X
Ideology	X
Biases / Prejudice	X
Preferences		X
Personal History / Background	XX
Family Dynamics	X
Cultural History	X
Perception / Self-Perception			X
Aptitude /Ability			X
Behaviour		X
Level of Knowledge		X

 

 

Sampling

The population refers to the total number of texts, or media, included into the “group” under study.

The sample refers to those documents that will be studied. Hopefully, the sample is 100 percent of the population.

The sampling will be purposive, given that important documents are known to stand out.

Types of Content Analysis

 

1. Quantitative
   • Word Count
   • Word/Idea Weight
   • Time Count (speech)
2. Qualitative
   • Ideologies
   • Issues
   • Rhetoric / Style
   • Chosen Medium

Instruments

Media, Documents.

Includes analyzing artwork, posters, music, lyrics, poetry, prose, political speeches and memoirs, meeting minutes, journalism and magazine publishing.

Scientific Power

Descriptive: You can associate ideas, arguments, and thoughts to people and places, but you cannot explain why things were said, or done. You can’t go back in time and do an experiment.

Steps

1. 195

 

1. Identify topic and population
2. Identify sample and “loose” hypothesis
   • Identify the type and quantity of documents available
   • Identify the type of information you are looking for
   • Operational definitions
   • Set the sample size and type
3. Identify the type of content analysis method to be used
4. Develop the coding system.
5. Do the counting: read, code and collate data.
6. Analyze and Report.

 

Advantages

1. Can be applied to all forms of communication
2. Applied to explicit (manifest) and implicit (latent) content
3. Can use qualitative or quantitative, or both

Disadvantages

1. Sampling can be difficult
2. Meaning is hard to code
3. Quantitative may lose context

Reporting

Tables & Graphs

Descriptive Text

Synthesis Tables

Revue d'histoire de l'Amérique française, Institut d’histoire de l’Amérique française

 

Canadian Journal of History, University of Toronto Press

European Review of History: Revue européenne d'histoire, European Association of Young Historians

Journal of American History, Organization of American Historians

 

Preferred Disciplines

 

History, Political Science, Geography, Anthropology, Sociology

Other Non-scientific Disciplines

Applications in Journalism, Political Attaché, Arts, Anti-terrorism, Cinema

Not useful for

 

Economists, Psychologists (again, this can happen)

Reading – p. 187

SAT Scores                               – SAT: were the exams harder?

Nurses and SARS -                     – SARS: were nurses fairly portrayed?

                                                      – Can you code the data?

Scientific Power:          High                               Medium                             Low

                                    Explanatory                   Descriptive                    Exploratory

Think Piece

 

Write a short proposal of a content analysis research project in line with your project.

Include all the steps of the design process (p. 193).

What are the media/documents you could evaluate?

Would you count elements, or would you use a more qualitative approach?