content analysis

• -          Content analysis is the process of changing qualitative data from interviews into quantitative data- numbers.
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  -          In order to turn writing or visual information into numbers you need to count how many times the chosen Coding occurs
• -          the coding unit can either be top down and decide before you do the content analysis using pre-existing coding schemes validated by previous research or you can use the bottom up and decide after you have viewed the material and have picked up on reoccurring categories and themes
• -          I content analysis is a statistical process that involves categorising and quantifying events and aspects of behaviour as they occur in some select medium this may be through the media of TV Internet or newspapers
• -          a researcher may be interested in how tabloid newspaper stereotypes gender when describing men and women in news stories
• -          content analysis is often used alongside other methods and is used to collaborate data gathered through other methods in order to check its validity
• -          a code in unit is a specific behaviour action or word or phrase that you are going to count in the material chosen to be analysed this could be anything the researcher is interested in
• -          a coding unit could be a particular word or phrase- stress for example

  -          a coding unit could be a semantic category referring to an event or object or a concept

  -          a coding unit could be a type of utterance like an adjective or laughter or silence

  -          a coding units could also be a specific observable behaviour like hugging shaking or crying
• -          a coding system needs to be reliable so once it is developed it needs to be trailed and adjusted-  at least one of the independent observer using the coding system on the same data as the researcher and looking to see if they are in close agreement which proves high inter rater reliability
• -          once data has been collected it needs to be analysed this can be done using statistical testing
• -          + a strength of content analysis is that it allows us to analyse large amounts of qualitative data relatively quickly and systematically-once the time has been spent designing clear objective coding units then all you have to do is count-there is also computer software’s can shift through qualitative information and count specific words for you enabling us to analyse large amounts of data and give more representative results of the particular topic being measured
• -          another positive of content analysis is that it is easy to test for reliability whether consistent results of found using the code in system or not- reliability can be tested by getting I second person to check your coding of the material - a second person can code the data independently and compare the outcome Or you could have the same code or analyse the material again on a different occasion and if the coding system is shown to be reliable then it provides support for content analysis being an objective and non biassed qualitative analysis
• -          a problem with content analysis is that it is potential for bias this is because if a researcher chooses the coding system then they may only choose data that is specific to their hypothesis and therefore misses out of the conflicting important data which would reduce the internal validity of results as they may not accurately represent what is being measured
• -          a problem with content analysis is that data may not be accurately analysed- if you come across material that is very ambiguous or unclear and does not fit nicely into any according units then it will simply be ignored-also in content analysis it is often the frequency of something that is counted but just because a certain word appears often we cannot assume that this makes it important therefore the results may not be accurately representing a phenomenon that is being measured and reduces the internal validity