Frameworks for Analysis

• Media are disseminators of

meanings.
• There is a need to understand
the processes by which these
meanings are constructed
and disseminated.
• Media “construct reality”
• “Media texts do not merely
mirror realities; they
constitute versions of reality
in ways which depend on the
social positions and interests
and objectives of those who
produce them” (Fairclough,
1995, p. 103).
• Media play a key role in
agenda setting by
choosing which stories
and issues are reported
on, and then how those
issues are covered
(McCombs & Shaw, 1974;
Gamson & Modigliani,
1989; Gamson, 1992).
• Media affect how issues
come to be understood as
public issues, reflecting
broader cultural, historical
and institutional affinities.
 Defining Content Analysis
• Content analysis refers to a general set of
techniques for analyzing collections of
communications (texts)
• Content analysis examines “who says what
through which channel to whom with what
effect” (Lasswell, 1948, p. 117).
• “Content analysis is a research method that
uses a set of procedures to make valid
inferences from text” (Weber, 1990, p. 9)
• Most widely used to collect and analyze data to
understand the meanings ascribed to an issue
within a given context (Krippendorf, 1989, p.
403).
 Defining Content Analysis
• Content analysis is a key
non-reactive research
methodology (i.e. non-
intrusive). It is “a technique
for gathering and analyzing
the content of text.
• Content analysis is a
quantitative process for
analyzing communicative
messages that follow a
specific process. https://methods.sagepub.com/reference/the-
sage-encyclopedia-of-communication-
research-methods/i3242.xml
 Defining Content Analysis
• In many communication • Content analysis can be
studies, scholars both quantitative (focused
determine the frequency on counting and
of specific ideas, measuring) and qualitative
concepts, terms, and (focused on interpreting
and understanding). In
other message
both types, you categorize
characteristics and make
or “code” words, themes,
comparisons in order to and concepts within the
describe or explain texts and then analyze the
communicative practice. result
https://www.scribbr.com/methodology/content-analysis/
 Content and Text
• The ‘content’ refers to
• The ‘text’ is anything
words, meanings, pictures,
written, visual, or spoken
symbols, ideas, themes, or
that serves as a medium
any message that can be
for communication”
communicated

(Neuman, 1997, pp. 272–273)

 What can be content analyzed?
 Books, book chapters
 Essays
 Interviews
 Discussions
 Newspaper headlines and articles
 Historical documents
 Speeches
 Conversations
 Advertising messages
 Web content and social media posts
 Photographs and films
 or really any occurrence of
communicative language.
 Key Points:
 Content analysis is positivist,
objective, and quantitative • Advocates of content
 Proceeds from an understanding
that meaning can be counted and
analysis highlight that the
coded strength of the method is
 Use a codebook with an a priori in its reliability and
coding scheme that allows the replicability; if the analytic
researcher to map the patterns
and meaning of particular content
categories and coding
from which inferences can be scheme are properly
drawn (Lowe, 2004). designed, anyone should
 Rely on systematic and replicable
be able to conduct
techniques to generate data for
investigation. the analysis (Krippendorf,
1989; Neuendorf, 2004).
 Why do Content Analysis?
Researchers use content • Unobtrusive data
analysis to find out about collection
the purposes, messages, • Transparent and replicable
and effects of • Follows a systematic
communication content. procedure that can easily
They can also make be replicated by other
inferences about the researchers, yielding
producers and audience of results with high
reliability.
the texts they analyze.
• Highly flexible

https://www.scribbr.com/methodology/content-analysis/
 Approaches to Content Analysis
• 1) Formal content analysis
A systematic sample of
texts is used in the study,
and classification systems
are devised to identify
different features of the
text, which are then
counted with an emphasis
on objectivity and
reliability.
https://www.le.ac.uk/oerresources/lill/fdmvco/module9/page_27.htm
• 2) Thematic analysis
'The idea is to understand the
encoding process, especially the
intentions that lie behind the
production of mass media
documents. The usual strategy is
to pick on a specific area of
reportage and subject it to a
very detailed analysis in the
hope of unearthing the
underlying purposes and
intentions of the authors of the
communication.' (Pawson, R.,
1995)
 Approaches to Content Analysis
3) Textual analysis • 4) Audience analysis
The analysis of the use of Considers the response
words and phrases within a
text - and the consideration of
of the audience of mass
if and how words and phrases media - whether they
may be used to influence the accept or reject the
reader. content and what it
Textual analysis often involves means to them.
semiology or semiotics, which
is the analysis of signs.

https://www.le.ac.uk/oerresources/lill/fdmvco/module9/page_27.htm
 Types of Content Analysis
• Conceptual analysis can • Relational analysis goes
be thought of as one step further by
establishing the examining the
existence and relationships among
frequency of concepts – concepts in a text.
most often represented
by words of phrases – in
a text.
How to do content analysis
 Sample Questions for Media Content
Analysis
• How do children’s TV programs portray violence, racial or
gender differences?
• What types of news stories are prevalent in the evening news,
on the front page, on magazine covers?
• What percentage of (TV or newspaper) news is … crime,
accidents, promotional, human interest?
• How do commercials differ between different types of
programming?
• To what extent do different (magazines, TV shows) reflect the
target market of advertisers?
• What categories or subject matter are prevalent among…
bestselling books, hit movies or music, popular video games?
https://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/sociology/research-methods-in-sociology/media-content-analysis/
 Developing a Coding Scheme for Media
Content Analysis
• In order to minimize research bias, categories must
be developed fully before the coding of data
commences.
• Performing a literature review and a preliminary
reading of a sample of texts to capture important
variables before the
codebook/codesheets are finalized.

Neuendorf (2002)
 Sample Media Content Analysis:
Analyzing Public Discourse: Using Media Content Analysis to
Understand the Policy Process
By Nancy Green Saraisky

“Drawing on a research project that analyzed thirteen years of

media coverage of the Programme for International Student
Assessment (PISA), I demonstrate the utility of media content
analysis for understanding the way in which ideas and global
trends influence national education policy on the ground”
(Saraisky, 2015).
 Coding Scheme
• General Article Description Categories
• Framing Categories
• Speaker Categories
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330329122_Analysis_of_Facebook_
Meme_Groups_Used_During_the_2016_US_Presidential_Election
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/095935351771587
4?journalCode=fapa
https://www.academia.edu/35555144/Disaster_Memes_A_Thematic_Study_of_Social_Medi
a_Content_in_the_Wake_of_Hurricane_Harvey
https://www.jmir.org/2017/3/e95/
It’s your turn. For this activity, you need to work
by group (3 members each).
Analyze any media text using content analysis as
your framework. Draw conclusions based from
your analysis. Limit your sample size to 10 texts.
Include your coding sheet .