Lecture 1
● What is content analysis?
○ A research method to analyze characteristics of registered content of
communication
● In this course
○ Quantitative analysis of characteristics of media content (media messages)
○ Quantitative: systematic, objective and replicable manner
○ Types of content: more manifest to more latent, but always measurable and
quantifiable
● Founding fathers of content analysis
○ Bernard Berelson
○ Ole Holsti
○ Klaus Krippendorff
● Why content analysis?
○ Content is central to processes of communication
■ Cause of (and precondition for) media effects and outcome of media
production and environmental settings
○ Content analysis is fundamental to theory-building in Communication Science
■ "Content analysis is crucial to any theory dealing with the impact of
antecedents of content… One cannot study mass communication without
studying content… If knowledge of the relevant content is absent, all
questions about the process generating that content of the effects that
content produces are meaningless.
○ Data from content analysis can be linked with data from a survey
■ Relevant media content is the independent variable in the study about
media impact
■ As a measure of exposure, content is superior to respondent self-report
■ Measuring content leads to explaining media impact, not measuring
content is just speculation
● Advantages of Content Analysis
○ Accessible
○ Non-obtrusive
○ Nonreactive
○ Longitudinal in no time (time machine)
● Roadmap Content Analysis
○ 1. Formulate research question
○ 2. Draw a sample
○ 3. Create codebook with coding scheme
○ 4. Do coder training (adjust/refine codebook)
○ 5. Test reliability of coding
○ 6. Repeat steps 4 and 5
○ 7. Code sampled material
○ 8. Analyze data
, ○ 9. Report study
● Research Questions
○ Research questions can be explanatory or descriptive
○ Descriptive
■ Describe variation in the presence of characteristics of media content in a
given period
■ Dominant in scientific and practice-oriented content analyses
■ "How was Facebook evaluated as a corporation in economic news stories
of quality and business newspapers in 2018?"
■ Raise 'why?' questions but do not answer them
■ May lead to answers that stimulate one's curiosity
■ First step into analyzing effects of and on media content
○ Explanatory
■ Explain variation in the presence of characteristics of media content in a
given period
■ Dominant in analyzing causal relationships
■ "Is the frequency of news about victims of a war negatively related to
public support for that war?"
■ They are not dichotomous, but rather continuous
○ Comparative research
■ Makes descriptive research questions less descriptive and more
explanatory
● Sampling
○ Population
■ All units about which the content analysis wants to make a claim
○ Census
■ All units in the population are examined
■ Never really necessary, because samples are representative
○ Probability samples
■ Created purely by chance, whereby each member of the population has
an equal chance of being selected
■ Requires full view of population, hence sampling frame
● Sampling frame: list with all numbered units of the population that
are available for selection
■ Representative probability samples
● A relevant characteristic of media content in the sample is
distributed in the same way as in the population
● Essential precondition for statistical generalizability from sample to
population (validity)
■ Simple random sample
● Chance based sampling of n units from sampling frame
● Not always effective (less control over dispersion of units across
sampling frame = selection bias)
● What is content analysis?
○ A research method to analyze characteristics of registered content of
communication
● In this course
○ Quantitative analysis of characteristics of media content (media messages)
○ Quantitative: systematic, objective and replicable manner
○ Types of content: more manifest to more latent, but always measurable and
quantifiable
● Founding fathers of content analysis
○ Bernard Berelson
○ Ole Holsti
○ Klaus Krippendorff
● Why content analysis?
○ Content is central to processes of communication
■ Cause of (and precondition for) media effects and outcome of media
production and environmental settings
○ Content analysis is fundamental to theory-building in Communication Science
■ "Content analysis is crucial to any theory dealing with the impact of
antecedents of content… One cannot study mass communication without
studying content… If knowledge of the relevant content is absent, all
questions about the process generating that content of the effects that
content produces are meaningless.
○ Data from content analysis can be linked with data from a survey
■ Relevant media content is the independent variable in the study about
media impact
■ As a measure of exposure, content is superior to respondent self-report
■ Measuring content leads to explaining media impact, not measuring
content is just speculation
● Advantages of Content Analysis
○ Accessible
○ Non-obtrusive
○ Nonreactive
○ Longitudinal in no time (time machine)
● Roadmap Content Analysis
○ 1. Formulate research question
○ 2. Draw a sample
○ 3. Create codebook with coding scheme
○ 4. Do coder training (adjust/refine codebook)
○ 5. Test reliability of coding
○ 6. Repeat steps 4 and 5
○ 7. Code sampled material
○ 8. Analyze data
, ○ 9. Report study
● Research Questions
○ Research questions can be explanatory or descriptive
○ Descriptive
■ Describe variation in the presence of characteristics of media content in a
given period
■ Dominant in scientific and practice-oriented content analyses
■ "How was Facebook evaluated as a corporation in economic news stories
of quality and business newspapers in 2018?"
■ Raise 'why?' questions but do not answer them
■ May lead to answers that stimulate one's curiosity
■ First step into analyzing effects of and on media content
○ Explanatory
■ Explain variation in the presence of characteristics of media content in a
given period
■ Dominant in analyzing causal relationships
■ "Is the frequency of news about victims of a war negatively related to
public support for that war?"
■ They are not dichotomous, but rather continuous
○ Comparative research
■ Makes descriptive research questions less descriptive and more
explanatory
● Sampling
○ Population
■ All units about which the content analysis wants to make a claim
○ Census
■ All units in the population are examined
■ Never really necessary, because samples are representative
○ Probability samples
■ Created purely by chance, whereby each member of the population has
an equal chance of being selected
■ Requires full view of population, hence sampling frame
● Sampling frame: list with all numbered units of the population that
are available for selection
■ Representative probability samples
● A relevant characteristic of media content in the sample is
distributed in the same way as in the population
● Essential precondition for statistical generalizability from sample to
population (validity)
■ Simple random sample
● Chance based sampling of n units from sampling frame
● Not always effective (less control over dispersion of units across
sampling frame = selection bias)
