Page 70 - DLIS401_METHODOLOGY_OF_RESEARCH_AND_STATISTICAL_TECHNIQUES

Unit 4: Historical and Experimental Research Methods

from many disciplines use the case study method to build upon theory, to produce new Notes
theory, to dispute or challenge theory, to explain a situation, to provide a basis to apply
solutions to situations, to explore, or to describe an object or phenomenon. The advantages of
the case study method are its applicability to real-life, contemporary, human situations and its
public accessibility through written reports. Case study results relate directly to the common
reader's everyday experience and facilitate an understanding of complex real-life situations.

Self Assessment

Fill in the blanks:
1. Maintaining the relationship between the issue and the evidence is ........................ .
2. Many communities have constructed electronic community networks on the ........................ .

3. Within-case analysis is the first analysis technique used with each ........................ under
study.
4. Case study research, with its applicability across many disciplines, is an appropriate
methodology to use in ........................ .
5. In all cases, the researcher treats the evidence fairly to produce analytic conclusions
answering the original ........................ and ........................ research questions.

4.4 Content Analysis

Content analysis is a methodology in the social sciences for studying the content of communication.
Earl Babbie defines it as “the study of recorded human communications, such as books, websites,
paintings and laws.” It is most commonly used by researchers in the social sciences to analyze
recorded transcripts of interviews with participants.

Notes Content analysis is also considered a scholarly methodology in the humanities by
which texts are studied as to authorship, authenticity, of meaning. This latter subject
include philology, hermeneutics, and semiotics.

Harold Lasswell formulated the core questions of content analysis: “Who says what, to whom,
why, to what extent and with what effect?.” Ole Holsti (1969) offers a broad definition of
content analysis as “any technique for making inferences by objectively and systematically
identifying specified characteristics of messages.” Kimberly A. Neuendorf (2002) offers a six-
part definition of content analysis:

“Content analysis is an indepth analysis using quantitative or qualitative techniques
of messages using a scientific method (including attention to objectivity-intersubjectivity,
a priori design, reliability, validity, generalizability, replicability, and hypothesis
testing) 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.”

Description

In the 1931s, Alfred R Lindesmith developed a methodology to refute existing hypotheses,
which became known as a content analysis technique, and it gained popularity in the 1960s
by Glaser and is referred to as the “The Constant Comparative Method of Qualitative Analysis”
in an article published in 1964-65. Glaser and Strauss (1967) referred to their adaptation of it

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