ABSTRACT
Content analysis is a method of textual examination used to describe and explain characteristics of messages embedded in texts. Content analysis in practice can be used as a technique for both data collection and data analysis. In this chapter, content analysis is presented and discussed as a data collection technique. Because content analysis is widely employed and often gets utilized even if a study does not explicitly indicate that content analysis is adopted for data collection (e.g., in observation or in interview), content analysis is considered a super-method. Topics covered in this chapter include comparison of content analysis with other methods of textual analysis such as discourse analysis and secondary analysis, description of manifest and latent content analysis, as well as the procedure for using content analysis as a data collection technique. This chapter also discusses when a coding scheme is needed and how to create one when necessary in the process of content analysis. Dos and don'ts in research using content analysis are summarized before one case study applying both manifest and latent content analysis for data collection is performed.
