Content Analysis

Content analysis is a methodologically explicit way of analyzing texts, involving quantitative and qualitative procedures. Klaus Krippendorff defines content analysis as “a research technique for making replicable and valid inferences from data to their context” (1980, 21). Ole R. Holsti notes that it typically requires an adherence to explicit selection and coding procedures to ensure reliability and validity. The technique was initially developed as an application of natural science methods to the analysis of an emerging mass media after World War I, specifically in terms of the “accuracy” of messages. German radio broadcasts during World War II were analyzed for the detection of hidden content. Since the 1940s, it has been most commonly used in mass communication research and latterly cultural studies, investigating a broader ...