Content analysis: essence, tasks, procedures

Content analysis (eng. Content analysis; from content - content) is a formalized method for studying textual and graphical information, which consists in translating the information under study into quantitative indicators and its statistical processing. It is characterized by great severity, systematic.

The essence of the method of content analysis is to fix certain units of content that is being studied, as well as to quantify the data obtained.

The object of content analysis can be the content of various publications, radio and television broadcasts, movies, advertising messages, documents, public speaking, questionnaire materials.

Content analysis began to be used in social sciences since the 1930s. in USA. For the first time this method was applied in journalism and literary criticism. The main content analysis procedures were developed by American sociologists X. Lasswell and B. Berelson.

Mr. Lasswell used it in the late 1930s for research in the field of politics and propaganda. Lassuel upgraded content analysis, introduced new categories and procedures, and attached particular importance to data quantification.

The development of mass media has caused an increase in content-analytical research in this area. During the Second World War, content analysis was used by some US and British government agencies to study the effectiveness of propaganda in different countries, as well as for intelligence purposes.

The accumulated experience of content-analytical research was summarized in the book by B. Berelson "Content analysis in communication research" (early 50s). The author has determined the content analysis method itself, as well as its different types, criteria and units for quantitative research. The book of B. Berelson is still a fundamental description that gives an understanding of the main points of content analysis.

After the generalizations made by B. Berelson, many studies have appeared in the USA in which content analysis is applied in various scientific fields. The most interesting methodological innovation was the technique of “connectedness of symbols” by Charles Osgood (1959), which made it possible to reveal the non-randomly related elements of the content.

Western European researchers in the use of the method of content analysis relied mainly on the American experience. Nevertheless, several original methods of qualitative and quantitative analysis of the content also appeared here (J. Kleizer, A. Mole).

Currently, the main procedures for content analysis include:

1. Identification of semantic units of content analysis, which can be:

a) concepts expressed in separate terms;
b) topics expressed in whole semantic paragraphs, parts of texts, articles, radio programs, etc .;
c) the names of the people;
d) events, facts, etc .;
e) the meaning of appeals to a potential addressee.

Content analysis units are distinguished depending on the content, goals, objectives, and hypotheses of a particular study.

2. The allocation of units of the account, which may or may not coincide with the units of analysis. In the 1st case, the procedure is reduced to counting the frequency of mentioning the selected semantic unit, in the 2nd case, the researcher, based on the analyzed material and common sense, puts forward the counting units, which can be:

a) the physical length of the texts;
b) the area of ​​the text, filled with semantic units;
c) the number of lines (paragraphs, characters, columns of text);
d) the duration of the broadcast by radio or TV;
d) the footage of the film with audio and video recordings,
e) the number of drawings with a specific content, plot, etc.

3. The counting procedure in general is similar to the standard classification techniques for the selected groups. The compilation of special tables, the use of computer programs, special formulas (for example, “the formula for assessing the proportion of semantic categories in the total volume of the text”), statistical calculations of the intelligibility and attractiveness of the text are used.

The method of content analysis is widely used as an aid in psychology, sociology, and other sciences when analyzing the answers to open-ended questionnaires, observation materials, psychological test results (in particular, in projective techniques), for analyzing the results in the focus group method. Similar methods are also used in studies of mass communications, in marketing and many other studies. Content analysis can be used to study most of the documentary sources, but it works best with a relatively large amount of single-order data.

Content analysis in psychology

In social psychology, content analysis can be applied, firstly, as an independent research method of studying the content of a message; secondly, in combination with other methods, i.e., when not only the message, but also other elements of the communication process are simultaneously examined; thirdly, as an auxiliary method for processing a data array obtained by other methods

In social psychology, content analysis is primarily used to study human communication, communications, and their subjects as representatives of micro- and macrogroups. Direct research materials are documents that are considered as a “message”. The concept of "message" is a specific socio-psychological, it emphasizes the dynamic nature of the object, its inclusion in the communication system. (Ie we mean the dependence of the message on the personal and group characteristics of the communicator and the recipient).

It is possible to identify the main areas of application of content analysis in the socio-psychological research:

• studying through the content of messages the socio-psychological characteristics of their authors (communicators);
• the study of real socio-psychological phenomena (object, substance of messages), which are displayed in the content of messages, including those phenomena that occurred in the past and are not available for research by other methods;
• studying, through the content of messages, the social and psychological specifics of various means of communication, as well as the peculiarities of the forms and methods of organizing the content, in particular, propaganda;
• studying through the content of messages the social and psychological characteristics of their recipients;
• studying, through the content of messages, social and psychological aspects of the influence of communication on recipients as representatives of different micro and macrogroups, as well as studying the success of communication.

In addition, you can select the applications of content analysis for auxiliary purposes:

• for processing and refining data obtained by other methods in the socio-psychological research;
• special - use for the study of scientific literature.

Sources:

1. Large psychological dictionary. Under total ed. B.G. Meshcheryakova, V.P. Zinchenko. Moscow, 2004.
2. Methodological and methodological problems of content analysis . Issue 1-2. M., 1973;
3. Methods of analyzing documents in sociological research . M, 1985;