Research Title

Content analysisand

Discourse analysis

Multiple Definitions.Essential purpose.Goal of Content analysis.

Uses of Content analysis.Advantages & Disadvantages of Content analysis.

Contentanalysis

“A summarizing, quantitative analysis of messages relying on scientific method and not limited to types of variables measured or context of messages.” (Neuendorf, 2002)

“...systematic reading of texts and symbolic matter not necessarily from an author’s or user's perspective” (Krippendorf, 2004, p. 3)

Content analysis

“...technique for objective, systematic, & quantitative description of manifest content communication” (Berelson, 1952, p. 18)

“...a research technique that uses a set of procedures to make valid inferences from text.” (Weber, 1990, p.9)

ESSENTIAL PURPOSE OF CONTENT ANALYSIS

Who (says) What (to) Whom (in) what Channel (with) What Effect?

(Lasswell, 1948)

GOALS OF CONTENT ANALYSIS

To draw inferences about:A text

To obtain documentary evidence about:A senderA messageA receiver (audience)

Uses of Content analysis

Content analysis used for examine how news, drama, advertising, and entertainment content of mass media reflect social and cultural issues, values and phenomena.

Content analysis is well suited to being combined with other research techniques such as survey, participant observation and audience ethnography.

Uses of Content analysis

It is a research tool used to determine the presence of certain words or concepts within texts or sets of texts.

Determine psychological or emotional state of person or groups.

Describe attitudinal and behavioral responses to communication.

Advantages ofContent Analysis

gets at the central aspect of social interaction looking directly at communication via texts or transcripts, and hence can allow for both qualitative operations.

Provides valuable historical/cultural insights over time through analysis of texts.

Provides insight into complex models of human thought and language use.

Advantages ofContent Analysis

Non-field design/method

Can be carried out on existing content

Un-obstructive design

Many times the only available method

Can reveal macro-structure at minimum cost and maximum convenience

Disadvantages ofContent Analysis

Tends to simply consist of word counts.

Often disregards the context of the text.

Is reductive, when dealing with complex texts.

Can be difficult to automate or computerize.

Disadvantages ofContent Analysis

Does not explain WHY of ‘content’

It’s descriptive and not explanatory

Restricted to available material only

Limited to literate or selected few

May become obsessed with numbers without revealing insights

Multiple Definitions.Approaches to Discourse analysis.

Uses of Discourse analysis.Advantages & Disadvantages of Discourse analysis.

Discourse analysis

Discourse analysis is generally an umbrella term for the many traditions by which discourse may be analyzed. It is a critique of cognitivism that developed from the 1970s onwards, although it has its roots in the ‘turn to language’ in the 1950s (Woolgar, 1988).

Discourse analysis

Is the study of language in text and conversation.Is a general term for a number of approaches to analyze written, vocal, or sign language use or any significant semiotic event.Discourse Analysis works with Utterances not independent sentences.Discourse Analysis involves real text not invented, constructed and artificial text.

Approaches toDiscourse analysis

Uses of Discourse analysis• Discourse analysis is the study of the ways in

which language is used in text and contexts, developed in the 1970s, discourse analysis “concerns itself with the use of language in a running discourse, continued over a number of sentences and involving the interaction of speaker (or writer) and auditor (or reader) in a specific situational context, and within a framework of social and cultural conventions” (M.H. Abrams and G.G. Harpham, A Glossary of Literary Terms, 2005).

Uses of Discourse analysis

Discourse analysis is sometimes defined as the analysis of language “beyond the sentence”.

Discourse analysis looks not only at the basic level of what is said, but takes into consideration the surrounding social and historical contexts.

Discourse analysis is useful tool for studying the political meanings that inform written and spoken text.

Uses of Discourse analysis

Discourse analysis is used at the start of a discussion to foreground the topic under discussion and identify it as important to the speaker.

Discourse analysis not only study language use “beyond the sentence boundary” but also prefer to analyze “naturally occurring” language use, and not invented examples.

Advantages ofDiscourse analysis

Discourse can be characterized as a way of approaching and thinking about the problem.

Discourse analysis can provide a positive social psychological critique of any phenomenon under the gaze of the researcher.

Discourse analysis has a relevance and practical application at any given time, in any given place, and for any given people: discourse analysis is context specific.

Advantages ofDiscourse analysis

Discourse analysis may be used for a variety of reasons.

Discourse analysis will enable to reveal the hidden motivation behind a text or behind of research to interpret that text.

Discourse analysis aims at allowing us to view the problem from a higher stance and to gain a comprehensive view of the problem.

Disadvantages ofDiscourse analysis

One limitation of discourse analysis is that the array of options available through the various traditions can render issues of methodology problematic, as each tradition has its own epistemological position, concepts, procedures, and a particular understanding of discourse and discourse analysis.

Discourse analysis doesn't provide a tangible answer to problems based on scientific research.

Disadvantages ofDiscourse analysis

Discourse analysis is nothing more than a deconstructive reading and interpretation of problem or text

Discourse analysis doesn’t provide absolute answers to specific problem.

Once more, the disadvantages to discourse analysis are specific to each tradition, but generally, proponents of discourse analysis believe that meaning is never fixed and so everything is always open to interpretation and negotiation.

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What is differences between Content analysis and Discourse analysis ?

Differences betweenContent analysis

AndDiscourse analysis

Topic content discourse

ontologyRealist - assumes that an independent reality exists

Constructionist - assumes that reality is socially constructed

Epistemology

Meaning is fixed and reflects reality in ways that can be ascertained through the use of scientific methods

Meaning is fluid and constructs reality in ways that can be posited through the use of interpretive methods

Data source

Textual content in comparison to other texts, for example over time

Textual meaning, usually in relation to other texts, as well as practices of production, dissemination, and consumption،

Topic content discourse

method Quantitative Qualitative (although can involve counting

Categories

Analytical categories taken for granted and data allocated to them

Exploration of how participants actively construct categories

Inductive / Deductive Deductive Inductive

Subjectivity/ Objectivity Objective Subjective

Topic content discourse

Role of context

Does not necessarily link text to context

Can only understand texts in discursive context

Reliability

Formal measures of interceder reliability are crucial for measurement purposes;differences in interpretation are problematic and risk nullifying any results

Formal measures of reliability are not a factor although coding is still justified according to academic norms; differences in interpretation are not a problem and may, in fact, be a source of data

Topic content discourse

Validity

Validity is in the form of accuracy and precision i.e., demonstrating that patterns in the content of texts are accurately measured and reflect reality

Validity in the form of “performativity” i.e. demonstrating a plausible case that patterns in the meaning of texts are constitutive of reality in some way ..،

Reflexivity

Not necessarily high - author simply reports on objective findings

Necessarily high - author is part of the process whereby meaning is constructed.

Radwa Hamdy Salah