Content analysis

• What are the strengths of studying people indirectly through their communications?

  • No need to worry about ethical issues as information is already public
  • High external validity due to the realistic nature of the data
  • Provides both quantitative and qualitative data
• What are the limitations of studying people indirectly through their communications?

  • People are studied indirectly, which may lead to misinterpretation
  • Researcher may attribute opinions and motivations inaccurately
  • Time-consuming and expensive
  • Potential lack of objectivity, especially in descriptive thematic analysis
• what is content analysis?

  
  

  • Content analysis is a method used to analyse qualitative data by turning it into quantitative data
  • A content analysis quantifies qualitative data through the use of coding
  • A content analysis does not collect data directly, rather it uses pre-recorded examples of spoken interactions, the written word or media content 
• what is the aim of content analysis?

  • The aim of content analysis is to summarise the main ideas presented in the spoken or written material via structured methods to conclude the data
• what is coding in content analysis?

  • Coding is a method of analysis used to convert qualitative, visual or auditory data into quantitative numerical data
  • This is done by assigning each behaviour to a 'code' that can be analysed numerically
• what is thematic analysis?

  • Thematic analysis is a method used to analyse qualitative data
  • Thematic analysis is an inductive method (creates inferences of general laws)
  • Themes emerge from the data, there is no hypothesis-testing involved
  • It allows researchers to identify, analyse and report common/key themes from a set of data