Techniques of Content Analysis
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Compared with human-coded or interpretive modes of text analysis, one of the most important advantages of computer-aided content analysis is that the rules for coding text are made explicit. This public nature of the coding rules yields tools for inquiry that, when applied to a variety of texts, generate formally comparable results. Over time, this comparability should lead to the cumulation of research findings. A second major advantage of computer-aided content analysis is that, once formalized either by computer programs and/or content-coding schemes, the computer provides perfect coder reliability in the application of coding rules to text. High coder reliability then frees the investigator to concentrate on other aspects of inquiry, such as validity, interpretation, and explanation. Even with the assistance of computers, however, a remaining difficulty is that there is too much information in texts. Their richness and detail preclude analysis without some form of data reduction. The key to content analysis — in fact, to all modes of inquiry — is choosing a strategy for information loss that yields substantially interesting and theoretically useful generalizations while reducing the amount of information analyzed and reported by the investigator. Researchers must, of course, tailor their methods to the requirements of…
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