Nonreactive research: Content analysis

Reactive

vs. reactive research Reactive: people bei g studied are aware of it

Experiments Surveys

onreactive: Subjects are unaware they are being studied

Unobtrusive measures Often use naturalistic settings

of nonreactive observation Physical traces

Varieties

Erosion measures selective wear Accretion measures deposits of something left behind. Examples:

Analyze garbage Analyze transcripts Analyze floor wear to understand activity Anthropology study pottery Content analysis on restroom graffiti

 Archival

studies study existing data

Historians and historiography Written and audio/visual records Secondary analysis

Observation

Naturalistic observation Mating strategies of elephant seals, satellite frogs Mall behaviors

Content

analysis

 Nonreactive

advantages

No subject confounds Assess actual behavior rather than self-report Safety Reliability Inexpensive Good for longitudinal data
Nonreactive

disadvantages

No control Often dont know anything about the subjects Sample may not be representative Secondary information may have bias Intervening variables e.g., floor erosion Need for triangulation looking at material from several different perspectives gives a more accurate view of it.

experiments? Naturalistic observation Content analysis Archival research

Field

Written and audio/visual records Secondary analysis

 Empirical

gathered by observation

Experiments, surveys, etc.

Theoretical

gather information from books and such with certain themes in mind Nonreactive research can be both.

technique used to study written material by breaking it into meaningful units, using carefully applied rules. Use objective and systematic coding to produce a quantitative description of the observed material.
Can analyze common myths e.g., women are portrayed as inferior to men in the workplace. e.g., portrayal of mental illness in Disney films e.g., representation of father-child attachment

 Content

analysis seeks to avoid confirmation bias the tendency to look for information that confirms our beliefs and ignore information that disconfirms our belief. Can be used to quantify concepts Can also be used in a qualitative way. What can be studied
Any written material Audio/visual information

Useful

for 3 types of research

Problems involving a large volume of test Research from afar or in the past Revealing themes difficult to see with casual observation.

 Human

vs. computer coders Can often utilize computers

Internet searches Automated text search

Great for extremely large sets of data

Personal judgment not part of the process Cheaper and faster than humans

Humans

Useful for coding complex concepts More flexibility Costs more time and money

Define problem / identify the issue to be studied 2. Select the media that will be used 3. Derive coding categories 4. Sampling strategy which sources will you use? 5. Train the coders 6. Code the material 7. Analyze the data
1.

 What

gets counted? is important for understanding themes?

words, pictures

What

Explicit themes Number of times mentioned Amount of space dedicated

Structured

observation systematic observation based on careful rules

you decide specifically on coding categories, you must specify what you are going to measure Coding system a set of rules on how to systematically observe and record content from text. What is the unit of analysis?
Before

One word One paragraph One theme

 Three

possible objects of inquiry Message

What is the content of the material E.g., analyzing soap operas

Sender

What is it about the author that is interesting? What is the authors beliefs, etc?

Audience

Who was the article intended for? E.g., analyzing time slots and commercials

 Four

characteristics of text content

Ex. Health issues due to Chernobyl Simply counting the number of times something occurs Positive vs. negative; happy vs. sad

Frequency

Direction

Intensity

Strength of message Minor vs. major issues

Space

Number of sentences, amount of time, etc.

 Other

things that could be counted characters

Specific individuals

semantics

the meaning of the text

Requires interpretation Must make judgment calls

concepts

Crime, mental illness

themes

vs. manifest content Manifest overt, visible material

Latent

How many of times a word appears How many times someone is mentioned Highly reliable coding No judgment
Latent

content symbolic content; semantic analysis

Ex. Level of violence Requires judgment Depends on coders prior knowledge, expectations, etc. Often required writers portray meaning indirectly Lower reliability, increases with training Allows for more flexibility

 Inductive

vs. deductive category formation Deductive reasoning from the general to the specific Forming categories to score based on theoretical ideas. Theoretical codes
Set up categories based on theory or framework Advantages and disadvantages?

 Inductive

category formation

Reason from the specific to the general Come up with categories from data Advantages and disadvantages?
Can

obtain categories by using grounded theory

 Theories

are empirically grounded into the

data. Data collection and analysis are combined. Cycle observe data, modify theory, observe data based on theory

stages of analysis in grounded theory 1. Find conceptual categories in the data

Open coding

2.

Look at relationship between the categories

Axial coding

3.

To account for relationships, find core categories.

Selective coding

 With

grounded theory, meaning is derived from the

data For content analysis, grounded theory can help find the appropriate codes to use. Quantitative analysis after that.

 Can

use both deductive and inductive approaches to find codes for content analysis
Divide sample in sections Use grounded theory on a smaller portion to develop categories Use those categories on the rest of the sample.

 Which

sources will be used?

Depends on purpose of study, theory, etc.

Which

dates will be used? What will be analyzed?

All of article, every 2 pages, etc.

 Representative

sample is a must!

E.g., content analysis on important events in America --only look at national inquirer

Can

use various sampling procedures

Random sampling Stratified sampling Purposive sampling picking a sample for a particular reason.

 Organize

and practice Procedure really depends on how you have decided to carry out the content analysis Can use a recording sheet or coding form
Organization of sheet is key Training improves use of sheet

Can

use a counter

 Must

assess interrater reliability

Do the coders agree? Multiple measures of reliability Correlate the raters scores together Percentage of agreement Krippendorfs alpha

the level of agreement between coders beyond that which can be ascribed to mere chance Common in content analysis

depends on procedure Correlation analysis Percentages Inferential analysis

Largely

 Dowler

(2004) - Comparing American and Canadian local television crime stories: A content analysis. 1. identify problem

Is American and Canadian television different at portraying crime?

2.

select media

Specifically interested in television news programs

 Manifest

vs. latent content Manifest coding: code sheet Type of crime

Which crime was being reported on Kept 28 categories of crime, not necessarily mutually exclusive

Local

or national story of story

Origin of study Used stopwatch to measure exact time spent reporting each study

Length

 Stage

of crime

Pre-arrest Arrest Court Disposition

footage? Firearm reported? Was it the lead story?

Live

 Reporting

of motive

Implied or confirmed Ex. Drug-related; gang-related

Emotive

presentation: 3 categories

Presentation of fear
Words were explicitly stated about fear Ex. be advised; on the run

Sensationalism

Involving famous people Comical stories Dramatic arrests Vivid descriptions bizarre Explicit statements made by reporters or interviewees Ex. it is a tragedy; devastated Ex. savage; horrifying

Presentation of outrage or sympathy

Proactive

police response

Pro-active police are seeking suspect Non-pro-active

 Four

markets:

Detroit Toledo Toronto Kitchener, ON

Stratified

sample: equal proportion of broadcasts from each market 400 30-min episodes were taped

 5.

Train the coders 6. Code the material 7. Analyze the data

 Relatively

few differences in the types of crimes that are reported American: more likely to present sensationalism

 Conducting

research on secondary sources

of material
Primary sources empirically arrived. You gather the information yourself Secondary sources analysis of someone elses data

Heaton

(1998) Secondary analysis involves the utilisation of existing data, collected for the purposes of a prior study, in order to pursue a research interest which is distinct from that of the original work

amounts of data is readily available Crime statistics Census reports Substance abuse statistics Economic reports Secondary analysis allows for the study of this data
Large

Can combine two different sources and analyze that.

 Advantages

of secondary analysis Efficiency data has already been collected

Like recycling

Replication Allows

you to extend your scope

Research question requires a large scale project

money Often can import data files directly into SPSS Ethical obligation to fully utilize data
Less

Research is taxing on subjects Allows more access to rare samples

 Disadvantages Contextual

characteristics could be lost factors

You are the outsider You are not familiar with problems that occurred

Methodological

Often

difficult to obtain data sets Data sets can be very large and difficult to manipulate

 Were

ethical considerations made in the first study?

Informed consent Debriefing Anonymity Etc.

Informed

consent participants gave consent to researchers. Did they give it to you? Anonymity must be maintained

 Professional

ethics Problems can come up from using someone elses data

Do they give you permission? Are you copying?

Secondary

analysis must be sufficiently different than primary one Did primary researchers plan to explore what you are?

 Not

as common as quantitative Unique problems

Context is very important Subjective relationship between researcher and subject
Data

must be analyzed by someone who was not there Still, analysis of qualitative data could be quite useful
Advantages of secondary analysis in general Different perspectives

 Can

deal with either quantitative, qualitative, or combined data.

2 quantitative sets 1 quantitative, 1 qualitative Etc.

Secondary

in-depth analysis Secondary subset analysis Alternative interpretation approach

 Internet

is revolutionizing secondary analysis http://www.fedstats.gov/ http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/org/index.html http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/default.htm

 Completely

depends on the data sets being

analyzed Broad range of quantitative techniques

Descriptives Correlation Inferential analyses

Multiple

qualitative techniques

E.g., Recoding of data using grounded theory