1

CHAPTER LEARNING OUTCOMES

When you have completed this Chapter, you will be able to:
1. Define what is the content analysis method
2. Identify the characteristics of the content analysis method
3. Describe the deductive content analysis approach.
4. Describe the inductive content analysis approach

CHAPTER OVERVIEW

• Preamble
• What is the content analysis • Deductive content analysis
method? • Inductive content analysis
• The power of words
• Manifest content and latent References
content
 2

PREAMBLE

This chapter discusses the Content Analysis method in qualitative research. The deductive
approach and the inductive is discussed.

WHAT IS THE CONTENT ANALYSIS METHOD?

Content analysis is a method of analysing written, verbal or visual communicatio n

messages (Cole 1988). It was first used as a method for analysing hymns, newspaper and
magazine articles, advertisements and political speeches in the 19th century. Today, content
analysis has a long history of use in communication, journalism, sociology, psychology,
education and business, and during the last few decades its use has shown steady growth

The purpose of content analysis is to finding out ‘Who

says what, to whom, why, to what extent and with what
effect?’ (Lasswell, 1948).

• Shannon and Hsiu (2005) defined qualitative content analysis as a research

method for interpretation of text through a systematic method of coding and
identifying themes or patterns.

• Mayring (2000) defined qualitative content analysis as the analysis of texts using
step-by-step procedures to explore the underlying meanings of messages and
grouping them into themes and to draw inferences from them.

EXAMPLE:

An example of a text is a newspaper article and the researcher is interested in knowing what
was said or communicated in the article. In other words, when the content analysis method is
used
 3

• the researcher makes inferences about the

characteristics that was communicated in the
newspaper article

• the researcher makes inferences about what

possibly led to what was communicated in the
newspaper article,
• the researcher makes inferences about the
likely effects or consequences on what was communicated in the newspaper
article.

THE POWER OF WORDS

When you analyse content, you are examining large amounts of text which are made up of
words, phrases, diagram, images and so forth. There are FIVE main types of texts in
content analysis:

1. Written text, such as books and papers

2. Oral text, such as speeches and theatrical performances
3. Iconic text, such as drawings, paintings, and images
4. Audio-Visual text, such as TV programmes, movies, and videos
5. Hypertexts which are texts found on the internet such as websites, social media, blogs
and others

Identity
Beliefs

Perspective
Actions

Experience Intentions

Figure 9.1 Power of Words

 4

See Figure 9.1 which shows that ‘words’ reveal a lot about beliefs, perspectives, identity,
intentions, experiences and others conveyed is a message whether it be a newspaper article,
chapter in a book, minutes of a meeting, a cartoon, a video clip, tweets, entry in blog and so
forth.

LEARNING ACTIVITY

a) What is content analysis?

b) What is purpose of content analysis?
c) Why are ‘words’ considered ‘powerful’?

MANIFEST CONTENT AND LATENT CONTENT

When a researcher examines a body of text he or she looks at TWO kinds of content (see
Figure 9.1):

Types of Content

Manifest Content Latent Content

What is on the surface or What is underlying the surface?

easily observable

Figure 9.1 Types of Content

Manifest Content – these are elements of the text that What is Manifest?
are physically present and countable. For when you
analyse a speech given a politician, you may assess
• That which is clear or
how radical it was or whether it was controversial. In
obvious to the eye or mind.
other words, manifest content is the surface structure
present in the message that is easily observable. • Obvious, clear, apparent,
evident, overt, glaring,
explicit, conspicuous,
noticeable, observable
 5

What is Latent?

• That which is present but not visible or

apparent Latent Content – these are elements of the
• Something that is lying dormant, text that have an underlying meaning. In
hidden or concealed or untapped. other words, inferences can be made about
the latent meanings of messages. For
example, in the speech by the politician, he
may use certain words and phrases that have underlying meanings. The politician says. “There
has been irregularities in the contracts given to people involving millions of ringgit”. The word
‘irregularities’ gives rise to several interpretation such as ‘corruption’, ‘bribes’, ‘not following
proper procedure’ and so forth. In other words, you are deciphering the latent meanings of
words and phrases in the text. However, when interpreting the underlying meaning of words,
you should incorporate independent corroborative techniques. For example, you should
establish that besides yourself, the two to three other independent coders agree with your
interpretation or inferences made about the words and phrases. It would be biased to rely solely
on your interpretation or inferences of the words in the text.

WHAT TO COUNT or UNIT OF ANALYSIS

In written text, there are several major elements that a researcher can focus on when using the
content analysis method. (Berelson, 1952; Berg, 1983; Merton, 1968; Selltiz et al., 1959). These
elements is also referred to as the ‘unit of analysis’. For example, the researcher decides whether
he or she is planning to count or analyse ‘words’ or ‘characters.’ In other words, the researcher
decides whether the unit of analysis is ‘words’ or ‘characters.’

➢ If the unit of analysis is words, then the researcher counts or analyses the words in the text
or conducts analysis at the ‘word level’.

➢ If the unit of analysis is ‘characters’, the researcher counts the number of times a characte r
is mentioned.

The following are what can be counted when doing content analysis:

• Words.
The word is the smallest element or unit used in content analysis. Its use generally
results in a frequency distribution of specified words or terms.

• Themes
 6

The theme is a more useful unit to count. In its simples t

form, a theme is a simple sentence, a string of words
with a subject and a predicate. Because themes may be
located in a variety of places in most written documents,
it becomes necessary to specify (in advance) which places will be searched. For
example, researchers might use only the primary theme in a given paragraph location or
alternatively might count every theme in a given text under analysis.

• Characters
In some studies, characters (persons) are significant to
the analysis. In such cases, you count the number of times
a specific person or persons are mentioned rather than the
number of words or themes.

Paragraph

• Paragraphs
The paragraph is infrequently used as the basic unit in content analysis chiefly because
of the difficulties that have resulted in attempting to code and classify the various and
often numerous thoughts stated and implied in a single paragraph (see above).

• Items
An item represents the whole unit of the sender's message —
that is, an item may be an entire letter, speech, diary,
newspaper or book (see picture)

• Concepts
The use of concepts as units to count is a more sophisticated type of word counting than
previously mentioned. Concepts involve words grouped together into conceptual
clusters (ideas) that constitute, in some instances, variables in a typical research
hypothesis. For instance, a conceptual cluster may form around the idea of ‘deviance’.
 7

Words such as crime, delinquency, drug addiction and fraud might cluster around the
conceptual idea of deviance (Babbie, 1998).

• Semantics
In the type of content analysis known as semantics, researchers are interested not only
in the number and type of words used but also in how affected the word(s) may be. In
other words, how strong or weak a word (or words) may be in relation to the over all
sentiment of the sentence (Sanders & Pinhey, 1959).

LEARNING ACTIVITY

a) Discuss the difference between ‘manifest’ and ‘latent’

content.
b) Discuss the different units of analysis.

One of the key advantages of using content analysis to analyse social phenomena is its non-
invasive nature, in contrast to getting people to answer questions in an interview or
questionnaire in a survey. There are TWO Approached of doing content analysis: Deductive
Content Analysis and Inductive Content Analysis.

a) DEDUCTIVE CONTENT ANALYSIS

Content analysis is a systematic and objective method of analysing documents with the aim of
grouping words and phrases into categories or themes which share the same meaning. The
themes or categories will give new insights about the data. In other words, the researcher uses
content analysis to condense the broad text into themes and categories to describe a
phenomenon.

Figure 9.2 The Deductive Process

 8

The deductive process is a process whereby a person looks at the facts critically with careful
attention for details and arrives at a conclusion. It is not guessing or making things up.
Deductive Content Analysis is when the researcher puts forward a theory or hypotheses and
gathers data or evidence to test the theory or hypotheses (see Figure 9.2). The approach is often
used in cases where the researcher wishes to test general principles, categories, concepts,
models or hypotheses. In deduction, thought always moves from the general to the particular.

For example, the general principle or hypothesis or theory is ‘Racism in blogs among
Malaysians is on the rise’. The researcher examines several blogs on the web and picks up
instances of words and phrases expressing racist language. There is the danger that such
deduction could lead to incorrect interpretation when the researcher selects evidence to support
the premise or general principle and the truth is not discovered.

Figure 9.3 shows the process or the steps of the Deductive Content Analysis approach.

2. Select Unit of 3. Develop

1. Preparation Analysis
Categories

5. Slot Coded
Data into the 4. Make Sense of
6. Reporting Categories Data

Figure 9.3 Steps in the Deductive Content Analysis Approach

Step 1 - Preparation

a) Decide on the theory or hypothesis to be tested.

b) List the Research Questions for the study.

Step 2 – Select Unit of Analysis (or What Gets Counted?)

a) Start with selecting the unit of analysis which can be word, paragraph and so forth.
[Refer to above the discussion on “What to Count or Unit of Analysis”]

b) If the text is very large, some researchers take samples of word or paragraphs. However,
the words or paragraphs taken must be representative of large text (or population) from
which it was drawn
 9

c) Use probability or judgment sampling when the document or text is too large to be
analysed in its entirety. “You can’t count it all”

d) Decide on the unit of analysis, i.e. whether the researcher is intending to use individ ua l
words and phrases or whole paragraphs from the text.

Step 3 – Develop Categories

a) Develop categories based on an earlier theory or model or what earlier research has
demonstrated.

b) Name and Label each category. e.g. Anger and the words that can be classified under
the Category of Anger may be – fed-up, irritated, disgusted and others.

Step 4 – Make Sense of the Data

a) The researcher analyses the data with predetermined categories.

b) When reading the data, the researcher asks these questions:

• who is telling what?

• where is this happening?
• when did it happen?
• what is happening?
• why?

Word Word
Word
Word
Word Word Word

CATEGORY #1:
CATEGORY #2:
Self-Confidence Word Word Self-Regulation

Word
Word

CATEGORY #3
Empathy

Figure 9.4 Data Analysis in Deductive Content Analysis

 10

Step 5 – Slot Coded Data into Categories

a) See Figure 9.4 which shows the researcher having predetermined 3 Categories:

• Category # 1 = Self-Confidence
• Category # 2 = Self-Regulation
• Category # 3 = Empathy

b) The researcher examines in detail the text and identifies several words expressing ‘Self-
Confidence’. The following is an example of raw data which is coded under the
Category – Self-Confidence

“Of course there had been some little problems, but we

solved them all, either I myself or the student gave in,
depends who made a mistake”

c) The same process is repeated for the other categories.

• In the example, the researcher has identified 4 words that can be fitted into
Category #2: Self-Regulation.

Step 6 – Reporting

a) This is the writing stage where the researcher explains whether the coded data fits
into the different categories.

b) Provide examples of coded text to illustrate a category.

c) Are there categories which cannot be supported by the text you examined, even
though earlier study and theory argues there is such a category?

d) It is also possible that there is more evidence for Category A but there is very little
evidence for Category B from the text examined? Explain why?

LEARNING ACTIVITY

a) What is deductive?
b) What is meant by ‘select unit of analysis’?
c) Explain the deductive approach in data analysis.
d) What are ‘categories’?
 11

b) INDUCTIVE CONTENT ANALYSIS

Induction is a process in which the researcher identifies several facts, instances, observation or
words and puts them together to form a general principle, hypothesis, category or theory (see
Figure 9.5). First, the researcher observes the particulars. Then, upon thinking how they relate
to each other and how they fit together, he or she formulates a general principle or category that
summarises all the individual facts. In induction, thought always moves from the particular
to the general.

Figure 9.5 The Deductive Process

Inductive Content Analysis is different from Deductive Content Analysis because the
researcher begins the study without any predetermined ‘CATEGORIES’. The Inductive
approach is used when there is not enough former knowledge about the phenomenon or the
knowledge is fragmented. The categories are derived from the data or the text and data moves
from the specific to the general (see Figure 9.6).

2. Select Unit of
1. Preparation 3. Open Coding
Analysis

4. Generate
5. Abstraction
Reporting Categories

Figure 9.6 Inductive Approach in Content Analysis

 12

Step 1 - Preparation

a) Keep and open mind because the researcher does not have predetermined categories.

b) The researcher has a broad idea on what is to be achieved.

Step 2 – Select Unit of Analysis (or What Gets Counted?)

e) Start with selecting the unit of analysis which can be word, paragraph and so forth.
[Refer to above the discussion on “What to Count or Unit of Analysis”]

f) If the text is very large, some researchers take samples of word or paragraphs .
However, the words or paragraphs taken must be representative of large text (or
population) from which it was drawn

g) Use probability or judgment sampling when the document or text is too large to be
analysed in its entirety. “You can’t count it all”

h) Decide on the unit of analysis, i.e. whether the researcher is intending to use individ ua l
words and phrases or whole paragraphs from the text.

Step 3 - Open Coding

• Open coding means that notes and headings are written in the text while reading it (see
Figure 9.7).

The data:
“We could find another municipality to live in, if we wanted and
there are other options, and it was very clear, that it was not just
a hint that there were other places to live, so it was very
comfortable”.

From the data above, the researcher extracted TWO codes:

• Lack of empathy
• Lack of help from the system

• The written material is read through again, and as many headings as necessary are
written down in the margins to describe all aspects of the content.
 13

Figure 9.7 Example of Open Coding of Text

Step 4 – Generate Categories

• The headings are collected from the margins on to coding sheets and categories are
freely generated at this stage.

• After this open coding, the lists of categories are grouped under higher order headings.
The aim of grouping data is to reduce the number of categories by collapsing those
that are similar or dissimilar into broader higher order categories.
 14

Word
Word Word
Word
Word Word

Word
Word
Word
Word

GENERATE
GENERATE
CATEGORY #1:
Understanding CATEGORY #3:
their Emotions Managing their
Emotions

GENERATE
CATEGORY #2:
Using their
Emotions

Figure 9.8 Data Analysis in inductive Content Analysis

• See Figure 9.8. The 3 different words and phrases are extracted from the text and
combined to generate Category # 1: Understanding their Emotions. Similarly, 4 words
and phrases are extracted from the text to generate Category #2: Using their Emotions.

• However, Dey (1993) points out that creating categories is not simply bringing together
observations that are similar or related; instead, data are being classified as ‘belonging’
to a particular group and this implies a comparison between these data and other
observations that do not belong to the same category.

• The purpose of generating or creating categories is to provide a means of describing

the phenomenon, to increase understanding and to generate knowledge (Cavanagh
1997).

• When formulating categories by inductive content analysis, the researcher comes to a

decision, through interpretation, as to which things to put in the same category.
 15

Step 5 – Abstraction

• Abstraction is the process of grouping categories to reduce the number of categories to

provide a general description of the research topic.

• Each category is named using content-characteristic words.

• One could move from sub-category to generic category to main category. Subcategories
with similar events and incidents are grouped together as categories and categories are
grouped as main categories.

• The abstraction process continues as far as is reasonable and possible.

LEARNING ACTIVITY

A0 a) What is induction process?

b) Discuss the inductive content analysis approach.
c) How is inductive content analysis different from deductive
content analysis?
d) What is open coding?

REFERENCES

• Lasswell, H.D.. (1948). Power and Personality. New York, NY.

• Hsiu, F. H. and Shannon, S. (2005. Three approaches to qualitative content analysis.

Qualitative Health Research. Sage Publications. vo. 15 (2). 1277-1285

• Sandorova, Z (2014). Content analysis as a research method in investigating the

cultural components in foreign language textbooks.

• Mayring. P. (2000). Qualitative Content Analysis Volume 1, No. 2 – June 2000.

• Cavanagh S. (1997) Content analysis: concepts, methods and applications. Nurse

Researcher 4, 5–16.
 16

• Chinn P.L. & Kramer M.K. (1999) Theory and Nursing a Systematic Approach.
Mosby Year Book, St Louis.
• Cole F.L. (1988) Content analysis: process and application. Clinical Nurse
Specialist 2(1), 53–57.

• Dey I. (1993) Qualitative Data Analysis. A User-Friendly Guide for Social

Scientists. Routledge, London.