Political Content Analysis

The content analysis method (eng. Content analysis) is necessary at the initial stage of political research when analyzing the overall situation in the region. To collect geographic, economic, demographic, historical, cultural information, data on the political situation one cannot do without analyzing various statistical information. They can be contained in newspapers, magazines, various industry and specialized collections, and can be stored in computer databases.

When conducting a political content analysis, it should be borne in mind that messages are published and compiled accordingly for some specific purpose - information, description, appeal, prescription, self-defense, disinformation.

Therefore, when analyzing, it is necessary to interpret their content in the context of the goals pursued by the authors, which must also be defined. Finally, you should consider the way the message is distributed. An election leaflet distributed to the list of voter addresses is an example of messages with limited or special distribution. Though the daily newspapers are addressed to a wider circle of readers, different circles have this circle. In any case, it is important to assess the degree of availability of messages that interest us.

Political content analysis is carried out in four stages .

Stage One Determining the totality of the studied sources or messages using a set of predetermined criteria that each message must meet: type of source (press, television, radio, advertising or propaganda materials), type of messages (articles, notes, posters), parties involved in the process communications [sender, recipient (recipient) or both of them together], message size (minimum volume or length), frequency of appearance of messages, method of message distribution, place of message distribution, time of appearance with Communication. For example, if we are interested in how a certain election campaign was covered in newspapers, the target population may include all pre-election newspaper publications (message type) from one newspaper column (message size) published in daily newspapers (frequency of appearance of messages) that were delivered to subscribers (message distribution method) of a given city or district (place of message distribution) within a month prior to the beginning of elections (time of appearance of messages). If necessary, you can use other criteria, but the above listed are most common.

Stage Two . Formation of a selective set of messages. In some cases, it is possible to study all the totality determined at the first stage, since the cases (messages) to be analyzed are often limited in number and readily available. However, sometimes content analysis must rely on a limited sample taken from a larger population. In general, sample sizes usually exceed those required for other types of research (due to the availability and relative cheapness of the source data).

Stage Three . The definition of the unit of analysis is a separate element or indication of the message that we are going to study. The simplest element of the message is the word, and it can be used in content analysis in the most direct way.

Stage Four . Directly conducting the analysis procedure.

Depending on the objectives of the study, you can apply a meaningful

or structural content analysis .

The simplest procedure for meaningful political content analysis based on the study of words, topics and messages, i.e. content, is that certain keywords are set and the frequency of their use in messages is calculated. However, the use of non-standardized indicators can lead to erroneous conclusions. To avoid them, it is advisable to consider not just the number of words used, but their share in the total number of words. In addition, the same word can be used in a variety of contexts that change its meaning up to “the other way around”. The context can be taken into account in two ways: either by using the arbitrators' opinion, in a different way, by coders (they can be the researcher himself), or the second unit of analysis should be added to the topic (a certain combination of words or concepts embodied in a phrase, in a sentence in paragraph). Although the second method explains the context of the use of individual words, but this is due to the considerable complexity of the whole procedure.

Even more difficult is the task of assigning specific references to key references — whether a given reference is given in a positive or negative sense, “for” or “against” an object of interest, etc. In this case, you can use the two most well-known ranking method - the method of Q-sorting and scaling by pair comparison. These methods are based on the judgments of the group of arbitrators about the meaning or strength (intensity) of a certain term. Both senders and message recipients, both the researcher himself and members of the public, can be invited as arbitrators. Along with the words, topics, and other elements that reflect the content of the messages, there are also other units that allow for structural content analysis. You can, for example, consider the length of time or the amount of print space that is given to the subject of interest in a particular source, calculate how many words or newspaper columns are given to each of the candidates during a particular election campaign. You can also pay attention to the form of the message (the way the message is presented) - the presence of a photo, the size of the header, the placement, the degree of emphasis, size, etc.

A source:

Lisovsky S.F., Evstafev V.A. Election technologies: history, theory, practice. M .: RAU, 2000.

Continuing the theme:

Content analysis as a research method
Content analysis - method description
Content analysis: essence, tasks, procedures
Conducting content analysis
Media Text Content Analysis
Advertising content analysis