CONTENT ANALYSIS

TEXT IS THE PILLAR OF KNOWLEDGE.

• Extensive study and analysis of the word.
• The word is that of the sender, the message, and the messenger.
• Its nature allows it to be a multipurpose research method.

Why is it a Big Deal?

Content Analysis Advantages

• Study of human communication through analysis of written manuscripts.
• Qualitative & Quantitative data.
• Reliable regardless of timeframe of study.
• It shows the relationship between other varying socio-economic factors.
• Unobtrusive.

Blues VS White Pop

It brought black people around their "existence" and "self awareness",unlike white pop.
In relation to the the long periods of time, textual content usually reflect an elite bias, since not much material is written about "lower" forms of cultures"

Aries

Uses of content analysis

• applied to substantive problems at the intersection culture
• used to generate dependent variables in experimental designs
• used to study small groups as microcosms of society

Issues in Content Analysis

Issues

• Some words have multiple meanings depending on the context.
• It can be misregarded as linguistically "naîve"
• Computer aid is limited to what the coded software tells it to do.

Measurement
Indication
Representation
Interpretation

Untitled Slide

• Data-reduction processes
• No consistent coding rules
• Human VS Computer
• Reliability and Validity

Reliability

• Stability
• Reproducibility
• Accuracy

Validity of a category: correspondence between the category and the abstract concept it represents (economy).
Validity of research results: results are generalizable beyond the specific data.

Types of Validity

• Face validity
• Construct Validity
• Hypotesis Validity
• Predicitive Validity
• Semantic Validity

What is a coding scheme?

Simple. It is a reference point to which researchers can return and categorize the collected data in an organized scientific manner.

How to create a coding scheme?

• Define the recording units
• Define the categories
• Test coding on sample
• Assess accuracy or reliability
• Revise coding rules
• Return to step 3
• Code all the text
• Assess achieved reliability or accuracy.

Dictionaries and Computerized Text Classification

Advantages of Dictionaries

• provide a wide range of categories to choose from
• minimize the time needed for dictionary construction, validation, and revision.
• standardize classification
• encourage the accumulation of comparable results when used in many studies.

Harvard IV Psychosocial Dictionary

Lasswell Value Dictionary (LVD)

Reliability and Classification Schemes

LVD lumps together words related to temporal and spatial relations.
HPD classifies words that refer to political ideologies and to political actors in the same category.

Single VS Multiple Classification

LVD
If an entry can be classified under more than one category it is classified in the category that seems most appropriate.

Harvard Psychosocial Dictionary

Studies have shown that it really does not matter which dictionary you use (or any alternate classification scheme).

Units of Aggregation Problems

In a comparison of hand and computer coded content analysis of the same texts, setnences and documents had the highest reliabilities, whereas the reliability for paragraphs was slightly lower.

More research is yet to be done.

@ramideeb