Instructor Resource
Treadwell and Davis, Introducing Communication Research: Paths of Inquiry, 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2020
Lecture Notes
Chapter 11: Quantitative Understanding of Content: Content Analysis
Learning Objectives
11-1 Explain the advantages and disadvantages of content analysis.
Chapter Summary
This chapter begins by explaining the advantages and disadvantages of content analysis. Next,
the chapter identifies settings in which content analysis might be used. Then, the chapter
Annotated Chapter Outline
I. Introduction: Advantages and Disadvantages of Content Analysis
A. Advantages
1. The raw material of content analysis is usually readily accessible.
B. Disadvantages
1. Content analysis addresses only questions of content.
II. A Basic Content Analysis
Instructor Resource
Treadwell and Davis, Introducing Communication Research: Paths of Inquiry, 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2020
A. Steps to content analysis
1. Develop a hypothesis or research question about communication content.
B. Research questions
1. Needed to guide analysis.
C. Define the content to be analyzed
1. Theoretical interest.
D. Sample the content
1. Variety of sampling methods available.
E. Select units for coding
1. Recording or coding units.
F. Develop a coding scheme
1. Create categories which sampled unit are placed.
G. Assign each occurrence of a unit in the sample to a code in the coding scheme
1. Numbering stops when there is no remaining content.
Instructor Resource
Treadwell and Davis, Introducing Communication Research: Paths of Inquiry, 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2020
H. Count occurrences of the coded units
1. Record occurrences on data sheet.
I. Report results, patterns of data, and inferences from data
1. Data reduction necessary to detect patterns in raw data.
III. A Basic Content Analysis: Further Questions
A. Content analysis are complex
1. Questions related to the type of sample and size of the sample become more
complex.
B. Evidence and arguments
1. Relate content findings to theoretical interest.
IV. Content Analysis of Human Interaction
A. Applied to organizational and interpersonal communication
1. Transcripts of interactions among people constitute texts and are open to content
analysis.
V. Content Analysis of the Web
Instructor Resource
Treadwell and Davis, Introducing Communication Research: Paths of Inquiry, 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2020
A. Web content is appealing
1. Inexpensive and diverse content available.
B. Web content raises concerns
1. Unclear relationship between sample and population.
C. Selecting web content
1. Use existing or build your own.
2. Software tools.
3. Save pages as pdfs.
4. Cloud storage sites.
VI. Computer Analysis of Content
A. Content preparation
1. Disambiguation is examining a word in its context and assigning the most
B. Software
1. “Find and replace.”
VII. Content Analysis as Quantitative and Qualitative
A. Content analysis is contested
1. Distinction between phenomena studied and analyses.
Instructor Resource
Treadwell and Davis, Introducing Communication Research: Paths of Inquiry, 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2020
2. Not quantitative, systematic, objective, or manifest.
B. When qualitative becomes appropriate
C. Qualitative/quantitative: a family of methods
1. One branch is characterized by scientific method.