Content Analysis

· A quantitative, objective and systematic method for analyzing the frequency of, or the amount of time and space devoted to certain themes, words or events.

· It involves creating a list of categories and counting how many times they occur in a given document.

Advantages:

· Measures simple objective aspects of content, e.g. number of swear words on television after 9 p.m.

· Reliable data.

· Unobtrusive and so does not influence people.

· Easy to find sources of data.

· Used to test an hypothesis.

· Findings have credibility.

· Identifies issues for further research.

· Makes comparisons.

Disadvantages:

· Subjectivity when defining the categories and allocating the content to the appropriate category.

· Time-consuming(but computers can speed the process)

· Significance of document not explained.

· Biased interpretation of the results.

· Snapshot picture only

· Atheoretical as it merely describes rather than attempts to explain the findings.