“Content Analysis” Reading

Reading Summary

Content analysis is a popular research method used by mass media researchers. It has been defined as “a method of studying and analyzing communication in a systematic, objective, and quantitative manner for the purpose of measuring variables,” (164). In other words, content analysis is an unbiased and scientific approach to examining certain aspects of media that produces concrete (measurable) results which can be repeated to produce the same results through further analysis and testing.

Content analysis is used for several purposes. One is to describe the content within media, such as what (and how) subject matter is portrayed, and how this changes over time in society. Another is to test a hypothesis of the characteristics of media messages, such as a potential correlation between a news source and a specific portrayal of events. Content analysis is also used to compare media content to real life, assessing its accuracy. The ways in which groups are portrayed in media can be assessed through content analysis, and content analysis can also serve as a starting point for other research (165-167).

Content analysis has certain limitations; it cannot fully asses the effects of media content on its audience, analysis can be limited by categories and definitions chosen, and it is often time-consuming and expensive (167).

Content analysis involves several steps—namely, formulating a research question, defining the population, selecting a sample, selecting a unit of analysis and categories of content to be analyzed, establishing a quantification system, conducting a pilot study, collecting data and analyzing it, and drawing conclusions from that data (167-182).

Outside Connection

Citations Needed is a podcast covering “the intersection of media, PR, and power, and the history of bullshit,” hosted by Nima Shirazi and Adam Johnson. Each episode the hosts analyze certain messages put forth by corporate media outlets/PR firms and talk about specific trends in US news media. It has covered a variety of topics such as “How US Media Pits Labor and Climate Activists Against One Another,” “How Western Media’s False Binary Between ‘Science’ & Indigenous Rights Erases Native People,” and “The Militarization of US Media’s Drug Coverage,” to name a few.

Reading Connection

Although Citations Needed does not use such a structured and scientific procedure of analyzing the content of media laid out by the reading, the podcast appears to employ several elements of content analysis in it’s approach to dissecting certain narratives of US media. Each episode has a purpose similar to those of content analysis described in the reading, whether it be to describe the rhetoric used by Fox News to portray homeless people, or to assess the accuracy of forensics as it is portrayed in shows like Law and Order, and how this impacts the perception of crime.