Page 73 - DLIS401_METHODOLOGY_OF_RESEARCH_AND_STATISTICAL_TECHNIQUES

Methodology of Research and Statistical Techniques

Notes • Analyze style

Message What? • Describe trends in communication
content
• Relate known characteristics of
sources to messages they produce
• Compare communication content
to standards
Recipient To whom? • Relate known characteristics of
audiences to messages produced
for them
• Describe patterns of communication
Make inferences Decoding With what • Measure readability

about the process effect? • Analyze the flow of information
consequences • Assess responses to communications
of communications

Notes Purpose, communication element, & question from Holsti (1969). Uses primarily
from Berelson (1952) as adapted by Holsti (1969).

The Process of a Content Analysis

According to Dr. Klaus Krippendorff (1980 and 2004), six questions must be addressed in
every content analysis:

1. Which data are analyzed?
2. How are they defined?
3. What is the population from which they are drawn?
4. What is the context relative to which the data are analyzed?
5. What are the boundaries of the analysis?
6. What is the target of the inferences?

The assumption is that words and phrases mentioned most often are those reflecting important
concerns in every communication. Therefore, quantitative content analysis starts with word
frequencies, space measurements (column centimeters/inches in the case of newspapers), time
counts (for radio and television time) and keyword frequencies. However, content analysis
extends far beyond plain word counts, e.g. with Keyword In Context routines words can be
analysed in their specific context to be disambiguated. Synonyms and homonyms can be
isolated in accordance to linguistic properties of a language.
Qualitatively, content analysis can involve any kind of analysis where communication content
(speech, written text, interviews, images ...) is categorized and classified. In its beginnings,
using the first newspapers at the end of 19th century, analysis was done manually by measuring
the number of lines and amount of space given a subject. With the rise of common computing
facilities like PCs, computer-based methods of analysis are growing in popularity. Answers to

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