CONTEXT

ANALYSIS
UNIT 1
 CONTEXT ANALYSIS

1. Considers the time and place the historical

document was written as well as the situation or
the circumstances during the time.
2. Works pertaining to events in the past are
analyzed by also taking into account the author
of the document, his/her biographical
background, role in the event, and the intent for
writing the document.
 CONTEXT ANALYSIS

1. How authoritative is the

account/source?
2. How is it relevant today?
 USING CONTEXTUAL ANALYSIS TO
EVALUATE TEXTS

A contextual analysis is simply an analysis of a text (in whatever medium,

including multi-media) that helps us to assess that text within the context of its
historical and cultural setting, but also in terms of its textuality – or the qualities
that characterize the text as a text. A contextual analysis combines features of
formal analysis with features of “cultural archeology, ” or the systematic study of
social, political, economic, philosophical, religious, and aesthetic conditions that
were (or can be assumed to have been) in place at the time and place when the
text was created. While this may sound complicated, it is in reality deceptively
simple: it means “situating” the text within the milieu of its times and assessing
the roles of author, readers (intended and actual), and “commentators” (critics,
both professional and otherwise) in the reception of the text.
 A CONTEXTUAL ANALYSIS CAN PROCEED ALONG MANY
LINES, DEPENDING UPON HOW COMPLEX ONE WISHES TO
MAKE THE ANALYSIS. BUT IT GENERALLY INCLUDES SEVERAL
KEY QUESTIONS:
• 1. What does the text reveal about itself as a text?
– Describe (or characterize) the language ( the words, or vocabulary) and the rhetoric (how the
words are arranged in order to achieve some purpose). These are the primary components of
style.
• 2. What does the text tell us about its apparent intended audience(s)?
– What sort of reader does the author seem to have envisioned, as demonstrated by the text’s
language and rhetoric?
– What sort of qualifications does the text appear to require of its intended reader(s)? how can
we tell?
– What sort of readers appear to be excluded from the text’s intended audiences? how can we
tell?
– Is there, perhaps, more than one intended audience?
• 3. What seems to have been the author’s intention? Why did the author write this
text? And why did the author write this text in this particular way, as opposed to other
ways in which the text might have been written?
– Remember that any text is the result of deliberate decisions by the author. the author has
chosen to write (or paint, or whatever) with these particular words and has therefore
chosen not to use other words that she or he might have used. So we need to consider:
– What the author said (the words that have been selected);
– What the author did not say (the words that were not selected); and
– How the author said it (as opposed to other ways it might or could have been said).
• 4. What is the occasion for this text? that is, is it written in response to:
– Some particular, specific contemporary incident or event?
–Ssome more “general” observation by the author about human affairs and/or experiences?
– Some definable set of cultural circumstances?
• 5. Is the text intended as some sort of call to – or for – action?
– If so, by whom? and why?
– And also if so, what action(s) does the author want the reader(s) to take?
• 6. Is the text intended rather as some sort of call to – or for – reflection or
consideration rather than direct action?
– If so, what does the author seem to wish the reader to think about and to conclude or decide?
– Why does the author wish the readers to do this? what is to be gained, and by whom?
• 7. Can we identify any non-textual circumstances that affected the creation and
reception of the text?
– Such circumstances include historical or political events, economic factors, cultural practices,
and intellectual or aesthtic issues, as well as the particular circumstances of the author's own life.
 CONTENT ANALYSIS
• Content analysis is a research tool used to determine the
presence of certain words, themes, or concepts within some
given qualitative data (i.e. text). Using content analysis,
researchers can quantify and analyze the presence, meanings
and relationships of such certain words, themes, or concepts. As
an example, researchers can evaluate language used within a
news article to search for bias or partiality. Researchers can then
make inferences about the messages within the texts, the
writer(s), the audience, and even the culture and time of
surrounding the text.
 Three different definition of content analysis are provided below.
• definition 1: “Any technique for making inferences by systematically and
objectively identifying special characteristics of messages.” (from holsti,
1968)
• definition 2: “An interpretive and naturalistic approach. it is both
observational and narrative in nature and relies less on the experimental
elements normally associated with scientific research (reliability, validity and
generalizability) (from ethnography, observational research, and narrative
inquiry, 1994-2012).
• definition 3: “A research technique for the objective, systematic and
quantitative description of the manifest content of communication.” (from
berelson, 1952)
 USES OF CONTENT ANALYSIS
• IDENTIFY THE INTENTIONS, FOCUS OR COMMUNICATION TRENDS OF AN
INDIVIDUAL, GROUP OR INSTITUTION
• DESCRIBE ATTITUDINAL AND BEHAVIORAL RESPONSES TO COMMUNICATIONS
• DETERMINE PSYCHOLOGICAL OR EMOTIONAL STATE OF PERSONS OR GROUPS
• REVEAL INTERNATIONAL DIFFERENCES IN COMMUNICATION CONTENT
• REVEAL PATTERNS IN COMMUNICATION CONTENT
• PRE-TEST AND IMPROVE AN INTERVENTION OR SURVEY PRIOR TO LAUNCH
• ANALYZE FOCUS GROUP INTERVIEWS AND OPEN-ENDED QUESTIONS TO
COMPLEMENT QUANTITATIVE DATA
 WHAT IS HISTORY?

 It becomes an active factor in the study of

Philippine society.
 It also includes a look into the development of
Philippine culture through time especially with
the influences of the colonial period that would
eventually shape the present Philippine identity.
Excerpts from Understanding History: A
Prime of Historical Method by Louis
Gottschalk (1950, New York: Knopf, p. 17)
The English word history is derived from the Greek noun istoia, meaning
learning. As used by the Greek Philosopher Aristotle, history meant a
systematic account of a set of a natural phenomena, whether or not
chronological factoring was a factor in the account…. In the course of time,
however, the equivalent Latin word scientia (English, Science) came to be
used more regularly to designate non-chronological systematic accounts of
natural phenomena; and the word history was reserved usually for accounts
of phenomena (especially human affairs) in chronological order.
By its most common definition, the word history now means, “the past of
mankind.”….
 UNDERSTANDING SOURCES
What are sources?
In his work, Understanding History, Gottschalk (1950)
discusses the importance of sources for the historian’s work:
The historian, however, has to use many materials that are not
in books. Where these are archeological, epigraphical, or
numismatical materials, he has to depend largely on museums.
Where there are official records, he may have to search for them
in archives, courthouses, government libraries, etc. Where there
are private papers not available in official collections, he may
have to hunt among the papers of business houses, the
muniment rooms of ancient castles, the prized possessions of
autograph collectors, the records of parish churches, etc. Having
some subject in mind, which more or less definite delimitation of
the persons, areas, times, ad functions (i.e., the economic,
 UNDERSTANDING SOURCES

aspects) involved, he looks for materials that may have some

bearing upon those persons in that area at the time they function
in that fashion. These materials are his sources. The more precise
his delimitation of persons, area, time, and function, the more
relevant his sources re likely to be. (52 – 53)
It is from historical sources that our history is studied and
written. But in analyzing them, several methodologies and
theories were used by historians to properly study history and
glean from the sources what is, for them, a properly way of
writing history to enhance and disseminate national identity.
 PRIMARY SOURCES
 Are materials produced by people or groups directly
involved in the event or topic being studied.
 These people are either participants or
eyewitnesses to the event. These sources range
from eyewitness accounts, diaries, letters, legal
documents, official documents (government or
private), and even photographs.
 EXAMPLES OF PRIMARY
SOURCES
1. Photographs that may reflect social conditions of historical realities and everyday
life
2. Old sketches and drawings that may indicate the conditions of life of societies in the
past
3. Old maps that may reveal how space and geography were used to emphasize trade
routes, structural build-up, etc.
4. Cartoons for political expressions or propaganda
5. Material evidence of the prehistoric past like cave drawings, old syllabaries, and
ancient writings
6. Statistical tables, graphs, and charts
 EXAMPLES OF PRIMARY
SOURCES
7. Oral history or recordings by electronic means of
accounts of eyewitness or participants; the recordings
are then transcribed and used for research.
8. Published and unpublished primary documents,
eyewitness accounts, and other written sources.
 SECONDARY SOURCES
Gottschalk simply defines secondary sources as
the “testimony of anyone who is not an eyewitness
– that is of one who was not present at the event
of which he tells” (p. 53). These are books, articles,
and scholarly journals that had interpreted primary
sources or had used them to discuss certain
subjects of history.