Content Analysis of Media Texts

The following is a traditional content analysis method for mass communication materials (media texts). It is important to keep in mind the following. First, the method of content analysis is one of the most common in the practice of studying the content of mass communication. Secondly, content analysis refers in its type to methods of positive empirical science. In this, content analysis is fundamentally different from semiological approaches to the analysis of texts, the empirical verification of which is very problematic. Recall that, in general, hypothesis, data collection and classification, development of experimental methods for testing hypotheses and reliability of results are typical of empirical approaches. Within the framework of semiotic approaches, the central task is to “decipher” the semantic structures of the text, with particular attention being paid to the analysis of the cultural context and the genre specificity of the message.

The conceptual basis of the method of content analysis

The method of content analysis is focused on carrying out an objective, measurable and verifiable study of the content of mass communication messages. Using content analysis, you can determine the degree of compliance of the message with the communicator’s intentions and the specifics of the channel, examine the relationship between message characteristics and audience settings, as well as its real and communicative behavior. Using this method you can answer such questions, for example. What qualities of a candidate were most often mentioned in the materials on the election theme published in a particular publication? How does the cumulative image of the parties involved in the ethnic conflict appear in the informational and socio-political programs of this or that channel? What are the differences in the coverage of the strike movement in the materials of central and regional publications? Note that the range of issues of such a plan can be very broad.

Despite the fact that content analysis includes different procedures, they all somehow have common features. One of the most common is the definition of content analysis proposed by B. Berelson. “Content analysis is an objective, systematic and quantitative description of the explicit content of communication” 1.

Berelson, B. Content Analysis in Communication Research. Glencoe, IL: Free Press. 1952. P. 15.

Below we list some basic assumptions of content analysis. Under this method, it is assumed that, based on knowledge of the content of mass communication materials, a researcher can draw conclusions about the intentions of the communicator or possible effects of the message. Those. the meaning of the message is relatively simple to be restored from itself. It is not by chance that among the above goals of content analysis, both the communicator's motives and the likely effects of the content on the audience stand out.

Content analysis is focused on the study of obvious, obvious content. Moreover, an important circumstance is the semantic or “interpretative” unity in the interpretation of the content by all participants in the communication process, as well as by the researcher. In other words, by classifying fragments of content into one category or another, the researcher assumes that the relevant fragments were understood in the same way and unambiguously by both the communicator and the recipient. That is why content analysis is applied primarily to clear, well-defined content.

Important is the quantitative orientation of the method of content analysis. The premise here is that the quantitative characteristics of the text are its important parameters, which allow one to draw certain conclusions. It is significant that within the framework of content analysis there is no difference in the degree of significance between the units being studied - only the frequency of their appearance is in the center of attention.

The ability to test hypotheses regarding a particular content implies operating with specific units, allowing to classify the material with the necessary degree of detail. In this regard, the researcher is faced with the task of determining the categories of analysis, units of analysis and units of account.

The highest level of abstraction element in the technique of content analysis is the category of analysis. The categories of analysis should be related to the conceptual scheme of the study as a whole. In the current research practice, a brief expression of a certain problem is considered as an analysis category, relative to which content components will be classified.

A unit of analysis is a fragment of content that corresponds to a particular category of analysis. Usually distinguish semantic and qualitative units of analysis.

A content analysis unit can be, for example, an idea, a socially significant topic. As a unit of analysis, the word, utterance, title, paragraph, character, etc. are often used.

The unit of the score is a certain characteristic of the text, the presence or absence of which allows to reveal features of the content. For television, the unit of account may be, for example, the time allotted to the coverage of a particular event. The most common way to measure content characteristics is to count the frequencies of their use.

Adequate use of the content analysis method is subject to a number of conditions. Note the most important of them in relation to the analysis of the text. Used categories should be clear, acceptable for description and understandable for those working with texts. The categories of analysis should be mutually exclusive, arranged in such a way that one interpreted piece of text at the same time could not be assigned to two different categories. In addition, the proposed categories should be equally acceptable for the analysis of all publications that are the subject of research. It is also important that the systematic use of categories by different researchers would provide the same results. Finally, content analysis involves a sample from the general population of the studied texts. In this regard, the problem of representativeness of the sample is important.

Practice content analytical research

Studies using the method of content analysis are widely used in the practice of studying mass communication throughout the world.

Content analysis was introduced into research practice in connection with the needs of journalism. The first attempts to carry out statistically accurate measurements of various aspects of the content of newspapers, to reveal the dynamics of changes in their subject matter were observed in the USA in the 80s of the XIX century. Since then, content analysis has become an integral part of the improvement of editorial policy. Moreover, as the content analysis spread, more and more attention was paid to the research methodology, primarily to the issues of improving the text classification criteria.

Naturally, the possible results of applying content analysis are determined by the goals and objectives of the study as a whole. The latter can be very diverse. We note in this connection that the content analysis application field is also extremely broad. It can be applied both in a society in a stable state, and in the case of other, specific conditions. The practice of using content analysis in the USA during World War II is widely known in this regard.

The purpose of these studies was to determine the political line of a newspaper, to identify whether the American publications made a positive or negative contribution to maintaining the morale of the people in connection with the aggressive actions of fascist Germany. Based on the results of the analysis, the US Supreme Court decided to close some publications. A significant contribution to the scientific support of these studies was made by such a well-known specialist as G. Lasswell2. With the help of specially developed categories of content analysis, it was determined, for example, how much the published materials coincide with the theses of German propaganda. In addition, the content analysis made it possible to identify the frequency of appearance of pro- and anti-American, British and German topics in the information source, comparing it with the reference edition. The content analysis technique was also used to compare the nature of the coverage of a particular event in different editions, as well as to determine the correlation in the information flow of materials provided by each of the opposing sides.

2 Lasswell H., Leites N. Language of Politics. New York: Harper. 1949.

Content analysis is also an effective research technique that allows to reveal the nature of the display or information about specific problems, features of the formation of the image of certain countries or regions. For example, using content analysis, we studied the question of how the image of Latin America appears in the US press news sections. It was revealed that most often this continent was spoken in the context of earthquakes and volcanoes. In the 1970s, further changes took place in the character of the continent’s display, with the primary emphasis on content analysis being on describing the change of dictators and superficial presentation of the situation in the “banana” republics3.

One of the well-known projects, built mainly on the use of content analysis, is associated with the activities of the group of researchers of mass communication at the University of Glasgow (United Kingdom) in the 70-80s. During this period, they published several papers that reflected the results of studying mass communication materials on industrial conflicts, events in the international and domestic life of the United Kingdom. Central to this was the question of whether television news materials are objective and unbiased? In the course of studying the show, for example, industrial conflicts, a selection was made of videotapes of all the British television news broadcasts in one half of 1975. Moreover, scenes on industry and economics were specifically considered. Special procedures were used to increase the accuracy and adequacy of the proposed analysis categories. The main conclusion of the authors was that the television news programs on industrial conflicts are characterized by a selective focus on individual industries, a focus on the forms of implementation and the effects of conflicts, and not on their causes. The idea that the news is not neutral by itself, but is the product of their “submission” received confirmation in the course of other content analytical studies of television. The subject of them was the national strike of the miners, the Falklands War, events in Northern Ireland4.

3 Lorimer R. Mass Communication. A Comparative Introduction. Manchester University Press. 1994. P.210.

4 See for example: Glasgow Media Group. Bad News. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. 1976; Glasgow Media Group. More bad news. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. 1980; Glasgow Media Group. World and Peace News. Open University Press.1985.

Studies of mass communication using content analysis are carried out in our country.

See also:

Content analysis as a research method
Content analysis: essence, tasks, procedures
Content Analysis: Method Description
Conducting content analysis
Political Content Analysis
Advertising content analysis