both merely describe the data, during the process it only identifies and discusses emergent themes/codes.
Weakness - issues with generalisation
issues beyond the sample studied. For example, content analysis of football gambling adverts in the 1980's may reveal codes/themes but these may not be valid for gambling in 2000.
Strength - Reliability can be assessed
Inconclusion of an additional research coding the text allows correlation to be conducted. r=0.8+
Strengths - few ethical issues
The material analysts want to study might already exist within the public domain so no issues with obtaining consent, no physical or psychological harm or deception.
Strength - High validity
Analysis is carried out on personal accounts of real life data so high in ecological validity.
Strength - Inferential statistical testing
content analysis involves recording the frequency of codes, it turns qualitative data to quantitative. It can be assessed to see if the findings are significant or just happened by chance.
