Quantitative Content Analysis

Quantitative content analysis is a research method in which features of textual, visual, or aural material are systematically categorized and recorded so that they can be analyzed. Widely employed in the field of communication, it also has utility in a range of other fields. Central to content analysis is the process of coding, which involves following a set of instructions about what features to look for in a text and then making the designated notation when that feature appears. Conducting a successful content analysis requires careful attention to unitizing (segmenting the texts for analysis), sampling (selecting an appropriate collection of units to analyze), reliability (different researchers making codes consistently), and validity (using a coding scheme that adequately represents the specified phenomena)