content analysis

• • Non experimental technique, type of observation
  • Observe and analyse the content of things produced by people e.g. TV shows, magazines
  • Researcher aims to identify patterns and trends and to describe the content in a systematic way so that conclusions can be drawn
• PRIMARY DATA: data that has been collected directly by the researcher, solely for the purpose of their investigation.
• • SECONDARY DATA: information that someone else has collected
• types of analysis:

  • FREQUENCY = the number of times certain words come up
  • CONCORDANCE = the number of times certain phrases come up (looks for similarities)
  • INTERPRETATIVE = Read transcript several times, identify emergent themes, organise themes into clusters, produce frequency table of themes
• strengths

  • very few ethical issues due to no direct contact with the participants
  • high ecological validity + mundane realism - based on real life scenarios
  • easily replicable - increases reliability
• weaknesses

  • open to researcher bias and observer bias - analysis is based on their opinion
  • content can be misinterpreted - cannot ask participant for reasoning behind something
  • cannot establish cause and effect