ABSTRACT
In the preceding chapter, we offered a preliminary defi nition of quantitative content analysis that permitted an overview of the method’s importance and utility for a variety of mass communication research applications: The systematic assignment of communication content to categories according to rules and the analysis of relationships involving those categories using statistical methods. A more specifi c defi nition derived from previous ones can now be proffered. It is distinguished from earlier defi nitions by our view of the centrality of communication content. In the complete defi nition, we address both purpose and procedure of content analysis and discuss its constituent terms.
