ABSTRACT
The chapter starts with exploring all the pieces and how to conduct a quantitative CA. Content Analysis (CA) is a long-standing and well-respected method for conducting communication research. A content analysis is a research method for systematically describing categorizing, and/or making inferences about communication. A content analysis is an effective approach for analyzing written, verbal, and visual communication. A content analysis can develop categories and themes using deductive or inductive analysis. A deductive analysis involves first setting broad categories and then seeing how often they show up in your data. An inductive analysis allows for the themes and categories to emerge from the data. A content analysis uses a coding schedule (or coding sheet) to track and record your coding of the data. A quantitative analysis will need to demonstrate intercoder reliability using an established statistical analysis such as Cohen’s Kappa, Spearman’s rho, Pearson’s correlation, or Krippendorf’s alpha. A qualitative content analysis has three characteristics. The claims we make vary depending on whether using a quantitative or qualitative content analysis.
