Content analysis Marika Lüders /[email protected].

Content analysis

Marika Lüders /[email protected]

2 > Department of Media and Communication

Structure of lecture

1. Texts and communication with a parallell to my lecture a week ago: interviews as texts.

2. Qualitative content analysis

3. Quantitative content analysis


Interviews as texts

”For the qualitative-minded researcher, the open-ended interview appearantly offers the opportunity for an authentic gaze into the soul of another, or even for a politically correct dialogue in which the researcher and researched offer mutual understanding and support. The rhetoric of interviewing ”in depth” repeatedly hints at such a collection of assumptions” (Silverman: 343).

Or perhaps Silverman reads too much into the intentions of researchers conducting qualitative interviews?

Texts and communication


Interviews as texts

Raw material in the form of transcribed qualitative interviews evidently implies analysing textual content.

As such, we have already introduced textual content analysis:

The aim of conducting interviews: to discover the details and nuances of lived realities. Themes, similarities, discrepancies. Yet always requires an awareness of interpretation as part of the research process. Hence, never direct access to the realities of the informants.

Even when using CAQDAS for analysing interviews. Researchers read, re-read and code interviews and hence interpret.



Shared realities?

John Durham Peters (1999) Speaking into the air

Communication is something we do to take part and participate in the creation of a collective world, they are not means that will ever help us cross the fundamental chasm separating us.

”The problem of communication is not language’s slipperiness, it is the unfixable difference between the self and the other. The challenge of communication is not to be true to our own interiority but to have mercy on others for never seeing ourselves as we do” (Peters: 266-267).



Shared realities?

Perspectives on communication easily romanticize communication as facilitating sharing, communality and understanding between individuals; closing the gap between subjects and transcending differences.

Interpretation implies the very likely chance of misinterpretation.

Does not mean we have to surrender to solipsism, only that we need to be aware that communication, whether in the form of face-to-face interactions or written texts, are always subject to interpretation.



S M R

TEXT APPROACHING PASSIV RECEIVER

BUT: we always interpret texts in contexts

Texts and communicationInterpretation of texts through history: the power of texts


Three minutes discussion

http://www.martinlutherking.org/

Discuss the meanings of this text.

Stuart Hall

Intended meaning

Negotiated meaning

Oppositional meaning



Analysing texts

Transcribed interviews are texts

Silverman: text as a heuristic device to identify data consisting of words and images that have become recorded without the intervention of a researcher (348).

Content analysis, usually used to describe quantitative analysis: establishing a set of categories and count the number of instances that fall into these categories (described in detail later in the lecture).

Qualitative content analysis


What is it?

Aim (from Silverman: 348):

Understanding the participants’ categories - see how these are used in activities such as telling stories.

The process through which texts depict ”reality”.

Semiotics

Ethnographically oriented narrative analysis

Discourse analysis

In any case, limit the amount of data, as qualitative analysis (whether of interviews or texts) implies conducting a detailed anlaysis.



Semiotics

SEMIOTICS (Saussure: semiology)

Saussure on the signification process:

SIGN

SIGNIFIER SIGNIFIED

A sign can be defined as something that stands for something else and is the physical vehicle of meaning in a language.

Arbitrary relationship: no intrinsic connection. Cultural convention. We are active makers of meaning.

SIGNIFICATION REFERENT external reality



Semiotics

2. Roland Barthes’s Myth Today. 1957

Denotative meaning: Black soldier giving a military salute

Connotative meaning: “France has a great empire; all her sons, without distinction of colour, serve faithfully under the French flag and there is no better answer to the critics of colonialism than this black’s zeal in serving his supposed oppressors.”



Meanings of texts? (McCullagh)

1. No stable meanings

2. The contexts of texts as linguistically constructedd

3. As products of the discourses in which they were produced

4. The power of the reader

5. Summaries are always subjective

6. Any reading will be biased

7. Problems of hermeneutical circles



1. The uniformity of meanings

Always several different discourses being used, and discourses change over time.

... a discourse is not a disembodied collection of statements, but groupings of utterances or sentences, statements which are enacted within a social context, which are determined by that social context and which contribute to the way that social context continues its existence (Sarah Mills (1997) Discourse: 10).

The contexts of texts will limit the range of possible meanings. Means researchers/historians have to look around the specific text in question.

Trying out possible meanings in a text according to context to look for the best fit.



2. The contexts of texts

Basic meaning of the text/the text’s conventional meaning - uncertainties resolved with reference to the context of the text. Consistent with what is known of the author’s beliefs and attitudes, situation and behaviour.

Locating texts within specific social sites -> disclosing the political, economic and social pressures that condition a culture’s discourse. The reality of social contexts of texts.



Texts as biased according to the author’s intentions?

Michel Foucault: the systematicity of ideas, opinions, concepts, ways of thinking and behaving are formed within a particular context. The effects of those ways of thinking and behaving.

Truth: the types of discourse it harbours and causes to function as true, the techniques and procedures valorised for obtaining truth. Does not appear in transcendental ways.

Power: not a possession or a violation of someone’s rights (thus very unlike conceptions of power within political science). Rather power is dispersed through social relations. A productive model of power.

Knowledge: the result of power struggles.Whose version of events is sanctioned as ”true knowledge”


3. Auhors with intentions?the power of discourses


3. Authors with intentions

Yes, ideas are partly developed from discourses prevalent at the time, yet authors also have their own intentions, and discourses are always also detested and challenged.

Figuring out the intended significance of a text: finding the best explanation of all the relevant evidence. Checking informed imagination against plausible alternatives.

Always uncertainty.



4. The power of the reader

Do texts have meaning of their own? Rather, meaning as interpreted by readers? Reception studies, powerful receivers

Derrida: meaning does not reside in a text but in the writing and reading of it.

Barthes: there are as many texts as there are receivers.

Yet, we are expected to interpret texts according to intended meanings. Meanings can usually be fixed?



5. Subjective summary interpretations?

Aiming to provide accurate, comprehensive and informative summaries of texts.

Accurate: supported by the details of the texts, not inconsistent with any of them.

Comprehensive: relate to all major points in the text.

Informative: picks out the distinctive characteristics.

See McCullagh’s example of interpretations of the political writing of John Locke (page 133).



6. Historians’ bias

Preconceptions and interersts influence the way we read texts.

Searching for evidence inconsistent with a preferred hypothesis. Compared to the continuous attempt to falsify hypotheses, and the impossibility of verifying claims completely (Karl Popper).

Researcher correcting each other.



7. Hermeneutic circles

McCullagh’a answers:

The meaning of the components of a texts are usually quite uanmbigious. The meaning can be decided from the ”intra-textual” context.

Sometimes the ”extra-textual” context resolves ambiguity: the context in which the text was produced.

Independent information about the author and the circumstances to clarify the author’s intentions.



Quantitative content analysis

Robert Philip Weber (1990): Basic Content Analysis

Classifying textual material - more manageable bits of data

Several aims, such as:

To reflect cultural patterns of groups and socities

To reveal the focus of individual, group, institutional, or societal attention

Describe trends in communication content.

Counting, sorting and presenting content.



What is it?

A method for registering and analysing texts, with the aim of reaching a systematic, objective and quantitative description of the content.

The many words of texts are classified into fewer content categories, presumed to carry similar meanings.

Bernard Berelson (1952): Merely analysing manifest content (possitivism)Hence, very different from semiotical textual analyses




Berelson’s claim is rather disputed.

The requirements that the coding process must be focused on the actual text remains.

Interpretations are often part of the actual analytical process. To develop meaningful conclusion. What does the text mean?

The methodological ideal is moreover to combine different methodological approaches.



Requirement: Objective analysis

The research process must be performed according to explicitely formulated procedures.

Coding must therefore be reliable, in the sense of being consistent. Different people should code the same text in the same way.



Requirement: Systematic analysis

The empirical material - form, content, variables, categories - must emerge from general principles.

How it should not be done (example from Ole Holsti):

Weyl and Possony’s study of racial intelligence (1963) - carefully selected texts that could be used to support their hypothesis that Jews are smarter than other people.



How it’s done

Reducing texts (as texts or TV-shows or whatever) into smaller parts, the recording units, and then to categorise these units into variables and values/categories.

Units and variables must be clearly defined (to secure a reliable and valid categorisation).

Sampling populations, means universe must first be identified (such as all of Norway’s regional newspapers).

Simple random sampling

Stratified sampling (ensures each subpopulation is represented)



Recording units

Word

Sentence and paragraphs: If the researcher is interested in words and phrases that appears together. Coders can be instructed to code whether sentences convey a positive, neutral or negative reference to US foreign policy.

The whole text: quite common in media research (Sigurd Allern: Newsvalues in Norwegian newspapers). Usually requires a shorter text.



A hypothetical example

A historical study of how the 2003 war in Iraq was reported in three Norwegian newspapers, Aftenposten, VG and Klassekampen.

UNIT: article

Variables: size, priority, news angle

Values: big/small, first-page/other page, positive/negative





Priority

1. First page story

2. Story referred to on the first page

3. Article starts in news-section in the newspaper

4. Article starts in opinions-section in the newspaper

5. Article starts in cultural-section in the newspaper

6. Article starts in economical-section in the newspaper

7. Other

Variable

Values




Size text

xxx cm

Size illustrations

xxx cm

Size main text

xxx cm




Concepts used on war

1. Libaration

2. Occupation

3. War

Source for article

1. Newsagency

2. Freelance

3. The newspaper’s own correspondent/journalist


Coding

Values on variables must be mutually exclusive as well as cover all possibilities.

Simple and one-dimensional variables.

Again: remember securing reliability by clearly defining units, variables and values.



Analysis - words as recording unit

Looking for the highest frequency words

-> Ordered word-frequency list.

Example from Democratic and Republican Party Platforms:

Carter 1980:

Development, rights, health, women, work, education

Reagen 1980:

Soviet, military, tax, defense



Analysis: Swedish Radio on 9/11

Marina Ghersetti ”A Question of Partisanship: Swedish Radio on September 11”

The aim of the study: ”to map out the information given in the coverage and to study whether or not there were stories or pieces that were either inaccurate or biased” (204).

Empirical material: Swedish Radio’s programs on the attacts from 11 to 13th of September

a total of 35 hours and 48 minutes of programming

divided into 1143 units of individual news stories




Two main format groups: Reports on events and analysis/commentary


Total Ekot Other

Reporting on events 75 96 55

Analysis/commentary 24 4 44

Other reporting 1 - 1

Sum 100 100 100

N 1143 577 566


Position taking in reporting: figuring out whether claims of biased reporting in Swedish radio could be justified.

Impartiality: balance and presentation

Balance: does the coverage provide room form all main actors and their arguments?

Measured: how many different actors appeared in each story?

Presentation: the extent to which coverage is netural - does not take a stand either for or against one or the other side.

Measured: The presence of biased journalistic statements, positive or negative statements.




Treatment of main actors

Value judgements about the US and US actors. Percentage



Total Ekot Other

Suoport, positive judgements 67 77 58

Criticism, negatie judgements 33 23 42

Sum 100 100 100

N 241 93 148



Most common Judgement about the US, Percent total judgement:

The US has support and help from around the world 25

The US will find and punish the terrorists 18

The US is arrogant, gets to taste its own medicine 11

The US is united, supporting the President 8

US security forces have failed 8

The US has the right to defend itself and retaliate 7





Value judgement about Terrorism/Terrorists, Number and Percent



Total Ekot Other

Suoport, positive judgements 5 0 9

Criticism, negatie judgements 95 100 91

Sum 100 100 100

N 183 75 108



Most common judgments about Terrorism/Terrorists, Percent total judgment

The Terrorists/terrorism is ruthless, evil, cowardly 31

Terrorism must be defeated 27

Terrorism is a threath to open, democratic society 19

The terrorists shall be punished 12





Hence, the number of value judgments about bin Laden was significantly lower than the number of judgments about US

A total of 95% of judgments about terrorism were negative, compared to 33% of judgments about US.

US was favoured.

The results do thus not support accusations of SR having been biased and inaccurate in disadvantage to the US.




Asian values through content analysis

Massey, B. L. And Chang, L.A (2002) ’Locating Asian Values in Asian Journalism: A Content Analysis of Web Newspapers’. Journal of Communication, 5 (4): 987-1003

’This study tested arguments in the largely anecdotal debate over the existence of Asian values in Asian journalism. News stories uploaded to 10 Asian online newspapers were content analyzed for the prevalence of ”harmony” and ”supportiveness,” which the literature suggests as key Asian values. The findings show that the journalistic emphasis on Asian values is concentrated in the Southeast Asia subregion and tracks restrictions on press freedom.’




Massey and Chang develop five research questions to guide their analysis:

RQ1: To what extent do Asian journalists practice the Asian value of harmony by keeping conflict out of their news reports?

RQ2: To what extent does their news reporting reflect the Asian value of supportiveness?

RQ3: Can Asian journalism be distinguished from Western news work on the basis of Asian values?

RQ4: Does the degree of harmony and supportiveness in Asian journalism vary between the press of East, Southeast, and South Asia?

RQ5: Does the occurrence of Asian values in Asian reporting track the degree to which a press system’s freedoms are restricted?




Sampling-frame narrowed to Web news sites published by general circulation, English-language daily newspapers:

10 newspaper web sites, representing two East Asian countries, six Southeast Asian countries, and two South Asian countries.

Unit of analysis: the current day’s ”hard” news story: articles about international, regional, and domestic news events, and business and sports news.




Each story coded for

The home-country of the newspaper in which it appeared

That country’s Freedom House press freedom rank

Whether it was supplied by an Asian or Western source

Operationalisation of ”harmony”: reliably inferred in news by an absence of conflict as a central storytelling device

Operationalisation of ”supportiveness”: (of the state’s nation-building efforts): story was judged to be supportive if it emphasised political, economic, or social stability or strength, or social cohesion or co-operation.




1845 news stories harvested from 10 online newspapers.

Asian values of ”harmony” and ”supportiveness”


Harmony, as absence of conflict Supportiveness

No conflict Conflict n Supportive Critical n

Ethnocentric orientation

Home news at home 59,6% 40,4% 778 49,3 % 50,7 % 505

Home news abroad 64,4% 35,6% 45 56 % 44 % 25

Foreign news at home 67, 3% 32,7% 49 43,8 % 56,3 % 32

Foreign news abroad 46,7% 53,3% 137 26,1 % 73,9 % 92



1845 news stories harvested from 10 online newspapers.

Asian values by subregion


Harmony, as absence of conflict Supportiveness

No conflict Conflict n Supportive Critical n

Geographic division

East Asia 45,5% 54,6% 152 22,5 % 77,5 % 102

Southeast Asia 66,4% 33,6% 654 56,8 % 43,2% 375

South Asia 43,1% 56,9% 204 36,5 % 63,5 % 178

Content analysis Marika Lüders /[email protected].

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