Steps in Content Analysis and How to Conduct Them - Mass Media Research.pptx


 In general, a content analysis is conducted in several
discrete stages. Although the steps are listed here in
sequence, they need not be followed in the order
given.
 In fact, the initial stages of analysis can easily be
combined.
 Nonetheless, the following steps may be used as a
rough outline:
10/14/2022
STEPS IN CONTENT ANALYSIS
Muhammad Awais
(facebook.com/awwaiis)


 1. Formulate the research question or hypothesis.
 2. Define the universe in question.
 3. Select an appropriate sample from the population.
 4. Select and define a unit of analysis.
 5. Construct the categories of content to be analyzed.
 6. Establish a quantification system.
 7. Train coders and conduct a pilot study.
 8. Code the content according to established definitions.
 9. Analyze the collected data.
 10. Draw conclusions and search for indications.
10/14/2022
Muhammad Awais


 One problem to avoid in content analysis is the syndrome
of “counting for the sake of counting.” The goal of the
analysis must be clearly articulated to avoid aimless
exercises in data collection that have little utility for mass
media research.
 For example, after counting the punctuation marks used
in the Dawn News and The Nation, one might make a
statement such as “The Nation used 45% more commas
but 23% fewer semicolons than the Dawn News.”
 The value of such information for mass media theory or
policy making is dubious.
 Content analysis should not be conducted simply because
the material exists and can be tabulated.
10/14/2022
Formulating a Research Question
Muhammad Awais


 As with other methods of mass media research, content
analysis should be guided by well-formulated research
questions or hypotheses. A basic review of the literature
is a required step.
 The sources for hypotheses are the same as for other areas
of media research.
 It is possible to generate a research question based on
existing theory, prior research, or practical problems, or
as a response to changing social conditions.
 For example, a research question might ask whether the
growing acceptability of women rights has produced a
change in the way women are depicted in TV shows in
Pakistan.
10/14/2022
Muhammad Awais


 A content analysis might be conducted to determine
whether news on a newspaper website differs from
the news in the print edition of that same newspaper.
 Well-defined research questions or hypotheses lead
to the development of accurate and sensitive content
categories, which in turn helps to produce data that
are more valuable.
10/14/2022
Muhammad Awais


 This stage of the content analysis process is not as flowery as it sounds.
 To “define the universe” is to specify the boundaries of the body of content
to be considered, which requires an appropriate operational definition of
the relevant population.
 If researchers are interested in analyzing the content of popular songs, they
must define what is meant by a “popular song”:
 All songs listed in Billboard’s “Hot 100” chart? The top 50 songs? The top
10?
 They must also ask what time period will be considered: The past 6
months? This month only?
 A researcher who intends to study the image of minority groups on
television must first define what the term television means.
 Does it include broadcast and cable networks? Pay television? DVDs? Is it
evening programming, or does it also include daytime shows?
 Will the study examine news content or confine itself to dramatic
offerings?
10/14/2022
Defining the Universe
Muhammad Awais


 Two dimensions are usually used to determine the
appropriate universe for a content analysis—the topic
area and the time period.
 The topic area should be logically consistent with the
research question and related to the goals of the study.
 For example, if a researcher plans a study of news
coverage of U.S. involvement in Iraq, should the sample
period extend back to the early 1990s?
 Finally, the time period to be examined should be
sufficiently long so that the phenomenon under study has
enough time to occur.
10/14/2022
Muhammad Awais


 Statement
 This study considers TV commercials broadcast in
prime time in the New York City area from
September 1, 2008, to August 31, 2010.
 Or
 This study considers the news content on the front
pages of the Washington Post and the New York
Times, excluding Sundays, from January 1 to
December 31 of the past year.
10/14/2022
Muhammad Awais


 Once the universe is defined, a sample is selected.
Although many of the guidelines and procedures of the
Sampling lecture are applicable here, the sampling of
content involves some special considerations.
 On one hand, some analyses are concerned with a finite
amount of data, and it may be possible to conduct a
census of the content.
 A census of all television series that featured families
from 1950 to 1989, a total of 497 different series.
 On the other hand, in the more typical situation, the
researcher has such a vast amount of content available
that a census is not practical. Thus, a sample must be
selected.
10/14/2022
Selecting a Sample
Muhammad Awais


 Most content analysis in mass media involves multistage
sampling.
 This process typically consists of two stages.
 a researcher interested in the changing portrayal of
elderly people in magazine advertisements would first
need to sample from among the thousands of publications
available. In this instance, the researcher might select only
the top 10, 15, or 25 mass-circulation magazines. A further
possibility is to use the technique of stratified sampling.
The magazine researcher might stratify by type of
magazine: news, women’s interests, men’s interests, and
so on. A researcher interested in television content might
stratify by network or by program type.
10/14/2022
Muhammad Awais


 Once the sources have been identified, the second step is to
select the dates. In many studies, the time period from which
the issues are to be selected is determined by the goal of the
project.
 Coverage of Imran’s Dharna after Javed Hashmi’s Hint of
Empire’s Call.
 News content is not distributed randomly over the days of the
week, such a simple random sample or systematic sampling
will not be representative. Another technique for sampling
edition dates is stratification by week of the month and by day
of the week. A sampling rule that no more than two days from
one week can be chosen is one way to ensure a balanced
distribution across the month.
 Another procedure is to construct a composite week for each
month in the sample.
10/14/2022
Muhammad Awais


 If an investigator is trying to describe the portrayal
of Mexican Americans on prime-time television,
several dates have to be sampled to ensure a
representative analysis. If there is an interest in
analyzing the geographic sources of news stories, a
smaller number of dates is needed because almost
every story is relevant.
 68% of all the content analyses in Journalism
Quarterly from 1971 to 1995 used a purposive
sample. Which proves it to be famous technique in
media studies.
10/14/2022
Muhammad Awais


 Another problem that can arise during the sampling
phase is systematic bias in the content itself. For
example, a study of the amount of sports news in a
daily paper might yield inflated results if the
sampling was done only in April, when three or
more professional sports are simultaneously in
season.
 Coverage about marriages and if the Muharram is
selected as a month for sample, what will happen.
10/14/2022
Muhammad Awais


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Page 164
Muhammad Awais


 The next step in the content analysis process is to
select the unit of analysis, which is the smallest
element of a content analysis but also one of the most
important.
 In written content, the unit of analysis might be a
single word or symbol, a theme (a single assertion
about one subject), or an entire article or story.
 In television and film analyses, units of analysis can
be characters, acts, or entire programs.
10/14/2022
Selecting a Unit of Analysis
Muhammad Awais


 It is easier to determine the number of stories on the CBS
Evening News that deal with international news than the
number of acts of violence in a week of network television
because a story is a more readily distinguishable unit of
analysis.
 The beginning and ending of a news story are fairly easy
to discern, but suppose that a researcher trying to catalog
violent content is faced with a long fistfight among three
characters? Is the whole sequence one act of violence, or is
every blow considered an act? What if a fourth character
joins in? Does it then become a different act?
10/14/2022
Muhammad Awais


 Operational definitions of the unit of analysis should
be clear-cut and thorough; the criteria for inclusion
should be apparent and easily observed.
 A prior look into the sample may help in
operationalizing the unit of analysis.
10/14/2022
Muhammad Awais


Page 165
10/14/2022
Muhammad Awais


 At the heart of any content analysis is the category system used
to classify media content.
 There are two ways to go about establishing content categories.
 Emergent Coding
 It establishes categories after a preliminary examination of the
data. The resulting category system is constructed based on
common factors or themes that emerge from the data
themselves.
 For example, Potter (2002) analyzed the content of FM radio
stations’ websites and, after examining the frequency of
various items, found that they clustered into four major
categories: station contact variables, station information
variables, news and information, and other.
10/14/2022
Constructing Content Categories
Muhammad Awais


 Priori coding
 It establishes the categories before the data are
collected, based on some theoretical or conceptual
rationale. In their study of media coverage of
fundamentalist Christians, Kerr and Moy (2002)
developed a 10-category system based on stereotypes
that were reported in the American National Election
Studies, and then they coded more than 2,000
newspaper articles into the 10 categories.
10/14/2022
Muhammad Awais


 To be serviceable, all category systems should be mutually
exclusive, exhaustive, and reliable. A category system is
mutually exclusive if a unit of analysis can be placed in one
and only one category. If the researcher discovers that certain
units fall simultaneously into two categories, then the
definitions of those categories must be revised.
 An attempt to describe the types of programming on network
television: (1) situation comedies, (2) children’s shows, (3)
movies, (4) documentaries, (5) action/adventure programs, (6)
quiz and talk shows, and (7) general drama.
 This list might look acceptable at first glance, but a program
such as CSI: Miami raises questions. Does it belong in the
action/adventure category or in the general drama category?
Definitions must be highly specific to ensure accurate
categorization.
10/14/2022
Muhammad Awais


 If one or two unusual instances are detected, they
can be put into a category labeled “other” or
“miscellaneous.” (If too many items fall into this
category, however, a reexamination of the original
category definitions is called for; a study with 10% or
more of its content in the “other” category is
probably overlooking some relevant content
characteristic).
10/14/2022
Muhammad Awais


 The categorization system should also be reliable;
that is, different coders should agree in the great
majority of instances about the proper category for
each unit of analysis.
 Intercoder reliability
 Pretesting the category system for reliability is
highly recommended before researchers begin to
process the main body of content.
 It will be discussed separately later.
10/14/2022
Muhammad Awais


 Researchers may face the question of how many
categories to include in constructing category
system.
 Generally, many researchers suggest that too many
initial categories are preferable to too few, since it is
usually easier to combine several categories than it is
to subdivide a large one after the units have been
coded items.
10/14/2022
Muhammad Awais


 Quantification in content analysis can involve all four of the
levels of data measurement.
 At the nominal level, researchers simply count the frequency of
occurrence of the units in each category.
 How many times a character wearing a dress which is not
suitable to be seen by a child.
 In a study dealing with the images of women in commercials,
each character might be rated by coders on several scales like
these:
 Independent __:__:__:__:__ Dependent
 Dominant __:__:__:__:__ Submissive
 But it enters subjectivity into the picture and it could hinder
reliability.
10/14/2022
Establishing a Quantification
System
Muhammad Awais


 In the print media, column-inch measurements are
used to analyze editorials, advertisements, and
stories about particular events or phenomena.
 In television and radio, ratio-level measurements are
made concerning time: the number of commercial
minutes, the types of programs on the air, the
amount of the program day devoted to programs of
various types, and so on. Interval and ratio data
permit the researcher to use some powerful
statistical techniques.
10/14/2022
Muhammad Awais


 Protocol Sheet
 A sheet which is given to the coders to let them
understand the categories’ operational definitions.
 Coding Sheet
 A coding sheet is a sheet which contains all the coding
categories in which the coders are supposed to fit the
data according to the protocol sheet.
10/14/2022
Muhammad Awais


 Placing a unit of analysis into a content category is called
coding. It is the most time consuming and least
glamorous part of a content analysis. Individuals who do
the coding are called coders. The number of coders
involved in a content analysis is typically small; a brief
examination of a sampling of recent content analyses
indicated that typically two to six coders are used.
 The researcher has vast grasp over his subject but the
coders don’t. Arrange several sessions in which you could
train them. These sessions are used to revise definitions,
clarify category boundaries, and revamp coding sheets
until the coders are comfortable with the materials and
procedure.
10/14/2022
Train Coders And Doing a
Pilot Study
Muhammad Awais


 Give the coding sheet to the coders.
 A pilot study should be conducted to chrck the
intercoder (also known as Interrater) reliability.
 It is suggested that new coders (other than those who
took part in formulatint the coding sheet) should be
asked to do the honors.
10/14/2022
Muhammad Awais


10/14/2022
Muhammad Awais


 Percentages, means, modes, and medians, are
appropriate for content analysis. If hypothesis tests
are planned, then common inferential statistics
(whereby results are generalized to the population)
are acceptable. The chi-square test is the most
commonly used because content analysis data tend
to be nominal in form; however, if the data meet the
requirements of interval or ratio levels, then a t-test,
ANOVA, or Pearson’s r may be appropriate
10/14/2022
Analyzingthe data
Muhammad Awais


 If an investigator is testing specific hypotheses
concerning the relationships between variables, the
interpretation will be evident. If the study is descriptive,
however, questions may arise about the meaning or
importance of the results.
 a content analysis of children’s television programs
reveals that 30% of the commercials are for snacks and
candy.
 Fully or Only 30%?
 High number if compared with other demographic
advertisements.
10/14/2022
Interpreting the results
Muhammad Awais


 Lahore is given more coverage in newspapers than
any other city of Punjab.
 Your are covering geographical area or nature of the
crimes?
10/14/2022
Muhammad Awais

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