Content Analysis

Content analysis is an analytic method used in either quantitative or qualitative research for the systematic reduction and interpretation of text or video data. Data can be generated from a variety of sources including (a) individual or focus group interviews; (b) responses to open-ended survey items; (c) text from social media; (d) printed materials such as research articles, newspapers, or books; (e) video-taped simulations; or (f) naturally occurring conversational events. It is also used in case study research. The aim of content analysis is to describe data as an abstract interpretation.

Use of content analysis as a research technique dates to the 1900s when it was used in communication research primarily to describe the quantity (frequency) rather than quality (meaning) of content contained in textual data. ...