Transcript Seminar Topic on Content Analysis

Seminar Topic on
Content Analysis
Venkatesha
Research Scholar
Under the Guidance
Dr. Sarasvathy. P
Senior Assistant Librarian
Department of Library and Information Science
Introduction
• Content analysis is a set of procedures for
collecting and organizing information in a
standardized format that allows analysts to make
inferences about the characteristics and meaning
of written and other recorded material.
• Content analysis is a summarizing, quantitative
analysis of messages that relies on the scientific
method and is not limited as to the types of
variables that may be measured or the context in
which the messages are created or presented.
Definitions
• According to Dr. Farooq Joubish, content
analysis is considered a scholarly methodology
in the humanities by which texts are studied as
to authorship, authenticity, or meaning.
• According to Berelson “Content analysis is a
research technique for the objective,
systematic and quantitative description of the
manifest content of communication”.
Use of Content Analysis
• Detect the existence of ideas, Concepts and truth
hidden in the texts.
• Identify the intentions, focus or communication
trends of an individual, group or institution.
• Describe attitudinal and behavioral responses to
communications.
• Determine psychological or emotional state of
persons or groups.
History of Content Analysis
• content analysis was already an often utilized research
method by the 1940's. Although initially limited to studies
that examined texts for the frequency of the occurrence of
identified terms.
• the mid-1950's researchers were already starting to consider
the need for more sophisticated methods of analysis.
• focusing on concepts rather than simply words, and on
semantic relationships rather than just presence (de Sola
Pool 1959).
• content analysis now is also utilized to explore mental
models, and their linguistic, affective, cognitive, social,
cultural and historical significance.
Types of Content Analysis
1. Conceptual Analysis :
A concept is chosen for examination, and the analysis
involves quantifying and tallying its presence. The focus here
is on looking at the occurrence of selected terms within a
text.
2. Relational Analysis :
It begins with the act of identifying concepts present in a
given text or set to texts and seeks to go beyond presence by
exploring the relations between the concepts identified.
Issues of Reliability & Validity
• Stability : the tendency for coders to consistently re-code
the same data in the same way over a period of time.
• Reproducibility : tendency for a group of coders to
classify categories membership in the same way.
• Accuracy : the extent to which the classification of a text
corresponds to a standard or norm statistically.
The validity of categories in implicit concept analysis,
in particular, is achieved by utilizing multiple classifiers to
arrive at an agreed upon definition of the category.
Advantages of Content Analysis
• Looks directly at communication via texts or
transcripts, and hence gets at the central aspect of
social interaction.
• Can allow for both quantitative and qualitative
operations.
• Can provide valuable historical/cultural insights
over time through analysis of texts.
• Allows closeness to text which can alternate
between specific categories and relationships and
also statistically analyzes the coded form of the
text.
Cont…….
Cont…….
• can be used to interpret texts for purposes such as
the development of expert systems.
• is an unobtrusive means of analyzing interactions.
• provides insight into complex models of human
thought and language use.
• when done well, is considered as a relatively
"exact" research method.
Disadvantages of Content Analysis
• Can be extremely time consuming.
• Is subject to increased error, particularly when
relational analysis is used to attain a higher level
of interpretation.
• Is inherently reductive, particularly when dealing
with complex texts.
• Tends too often to simply consist of word counts.
• Can be difficult to automate or computerize.
• Often disregards the context that produced the
text, as well as the state of things after the text is
produced.
Conclusion
• The method can be costly in that formulating
categories that can be reliably coded, preparing coding instructions, and training and
supervising coders can all be time consuming.
Additionally, complex coding schemes, which
usu- ally yield the most interesting findings,
may produce the least reliable results because
they entail a substantial element of coder
judgment. Content analysis, therefore, requires
rigorous reliability and validity checks if its
results are to withstand critical scrutiny.
References
• Berelson, Bernard.
Content Analysis in Communication
Research. New York: Free Press, 1952.
• Budd, Richard. Content Analysis of Communications. New
York: Macmillan Company, 1967.
• Busha, Charles H. and Stephen P. Harter.
Research
Methods in Librarianship: Techniques and Int
• de Sola Pool, Ithiel. Trends in Content Analysis. Urbana:
University of Illinois Press, 1959.erpretation. New York:
Academic Press, 1980.
• Carley, Kathleen. "Content Analysis." In R.E. Asher
(Ed.),
The
Encyclopedia
of
Language
and
Linguistics. Edinburgh: Pergamon Press, 1990.
• Weber, Robert Philip. Basic Content Analysis, Second
Edition. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, 1990.
• http://www.colostate.edu/Depts/WritingCenter/references/
research/content/page2.htm
• http://archive.gao.gov
Thank you