Content Analysis

Reading Summary

In this chapter the author, Glenn Sparks talks about how content analysis is a way to describe texts in a quantitative way even if they aren’t quantitative. Sparks breaks down the characteristics of content analysis and also gives an example of a study about popular music and the references of substance use in lyrics. In this example, the author also states many key steps about the research. A sample is needed in every content analysis to state how the information is going to be used and to know how the researchers picked the information to make sure there are no biased results. Unit analysis and categories are established to make it clear how the information is being filtered and considered in the study. There is also a coding agreement which shows how much information is being considered to be characterized similar by two or more coders. Statistical analysis and interpretation of findings are done after the research has concluded and it is used to link possible results of the main hypothesis or any other information that was found during the research.

Outside Example

Mindhunter is a series on Netflix where two agents from a newly created branch known as behavioral science focus on interviewing various serial killers and try to use the information learned from their interviews to understand the way serial killers think and hopefully in the future they can point out a serial killer before there is a crime committed. As the show advances, it can be seen that these agents’ work is getting attention and support from the government and the people and the department begins to expand and gain funding to find an answer to their main question. The show includes many real life events and many real life serial killers such as Charles Manson, Ed Kemper, Jerry Brudos and more.

Reading Connection

The reading reminded me of mindhunter because in the show we can see how these two agents start from scratch and begin to identify and characterize actions of cases with multiple killings. We see throughout the show how they begin to understand that there are organized and unorganized killers and the difference between serial and sequence killers. In the chapter we see something similar, when there is a new study being done, researchers need to specify how they want to measure their information such as songs used in the example and how they filter different types of songs by genres. These steps are crucial in studies because they keep things organized and we see the effectiveness of that in the show.