Content Analysis

Content Analysis + Research Plan

by Joselito Ebro

​Lesson Objectives

• Understand the use of content analysis in Sociology

• ​Plan the mini-research presentation

​Content Analysis

​a method of studying communication and the media which involves classifying the content and counting frequencies.

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​For example: books, newspapers and magazines, television and films and websites.

​You will watch a clip and you need to answer the following:

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​How many "bazingas" did Sheldon say?

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​Ready?

Open Ended

How many "bazingas" did Sheldon say?

​How to do content analysis?

• ​Define a set of categories and study how frequently it appears

• ​This involves counting the number of times particular words are used or the amount of space or time given to a particular item or type of story

EXAMPLE

• Glasgow Media Group uses content analysis findings as evidence to support its claims about bias in the media, showing that striking unionist were given less time to explain their case than management representatives.

• Content analysis ahs also been used to show that disabled people are underrepresented in almost every genre of television programmes.​

​Strengths

• ​It provides information about the content of the media in statistical form

• ​It is reliable

• ​It does not involve people as respondents, so avoiding ethical issues

​LIMITATIONS

• Produces quantitative data (statististics) that won't tell us why how this affects the audience

• ​It can be difficult to decide what categories to use

• ​It can be difficult to allocate material to different categories

​How can you use this in your research?

• ​If you're using a document or a material to answer your question, you can count the frequencies how your selected categories were mentioned.

  • ​for example canteen policy - how many policies/rules were targeting the students and/or teachers?

Poll

How confident are you?

​Reminder:

​Make sure to collect data tonight (can be preliminary) for our activity tomorrow.

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​Take note: Mini-research presentation is on December 13th, Monday.

​Mini-research Plan

Ms. Amy will distribute copies of the mini-research plan.

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​In groups, allocate the tasks to each member of your group.

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​Work on this document for the duration of the period.

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​*Every student should fill out a copy of the document.d