A Practical Introduction to Content Analysis. Catherine Corrigall-Brown Department of Sociology

Transcription

1 A Practical Introduction to Content Analysis Catherine Corrigall-Brown Department of Sociology

2 Data Most data in social sciences comes from: Opinion surveys, Censuses, Interviews Many benefits & can answer many questions But, they can also be problematic Subjectivity of answers Memory problems Access to people/response rates Type and amount of data restricted

3 What is content analysis? Method used to make sense, in a systematic way, of large amounts of content from documents What type of content can you code? The world is filled with content to be coded! Examples: Newspapers, books, websites, facebook, twitter, press releases, laws, advertisements, song lyrics, images, diaries, government policy, parliamentary speeches, transcripts of news reporting

4 Benefits of Content Coding More objective data Don t need to worry about response rates Access to large amount of data Diverse data available E.g. Ask politicians how much they care about the environment vs. count number of times they mention environment in a speech

5 Collecting Content Content analysis is a method for systematically collecting data Data can be qualitative E.g.: How issues are talked about, the meanings behind texts Qualitative coding (e.g. Envivo, Atlas), textual analysis Data can be quantitative E.g.: Counts of how many times different things appear, the prominence of themes (placement, size) Statistical Analysis (STATA, SPSS, R)

6 An Example of my work with content analysis Media Framing of Protest Corrigall-Brown, Catherine and Rima Wilkes. (2012). Picturing Protest: The Visual Framing of Indigenous Collective Action by First Nations in Canada. American Behavioral Scientist. 56(2):

7 Theoretical Background: Media Coverage of Protest: Most of what we know about protest and social movement comes from the media So, to understand how we learn about social movements, we have to systematically examine this media coverage Reporters write under intense time pressures & on unfamiliar topics Result: Reliance on official sources Protest Paradigm Legitimize the views of officials Marginalize challengers Weak, violent, irrational

8 Why Media Coverage of Protest Matters The media frames protest and protesters Sends signals about who is legitimate & sympathetic Affects public opinion and government policy

9 Visual Framing of Protest Most work is based on analysis of newspaper articles (text) But, what about photographs (images)? Do images of collective action also frame protests and protesters following the protest paradigm?

10 First Nations Protest in Canada Oka Crisis (1990) Face to Face (Shaney Komulainen)

11 Alternative Framings of Oka

12 Hypotheses Representation Officials will be presented in images more often than challengers. Power It will appear that we are looking up at officials more often than challengers. Legitimacy Officials will be shown as rational and challengers will be shown as emotional.

13 Data All stories about Oka & related protests Globe and Mail, Montreal Gazette, Vancouver Sun 2116 articles with 707 photographs (1248 individuals)

14 Coding Images Coded each person in each image: 1. Type of actor Mohawk Warrior, Other Mohawk, Other Native, Government Official, Police, Soldier, Other 2. Gender of actor 3. Age of Actor Child, Adult, Elderly

15 Coding Images Power Measures: Size of Person Small (less than 25% of image) Medium( 26-50% of image) Large (over 50% of image) Angle of Viewer Looking Up, Looking at, Looking Down

16 Coding Images Legitimacy Measures: Person has emotional facial expression Yes or No

17 Coding Example 1: Type of Actor 2: Gender of Actor 3: Age of Actor 4: Size of Person 5: Angle of Viewer 6: Emotional facial expression

18 Results: Representation Texts: Officials are cited and quoted more than challengers Images: Are officials more likely to be named than challengers?

19 Naming in Images by Group Percentage Challengers Mohawk Warrior 5.3% Other Mohawk 20.9% Other Native 23.9% Average 16.7% Authorities Government Rep. 77.0% Police 2.9% Army 0.7% Average 26.9%

20 Texts Results: Power Authorities are powerful and challengers are weak Images Are authorities depicted as powerful in images? Viewer looking up at authorities

21 Angle: Looking Up by Group Percentage Challengers Mohawk Warrior 68.5% Other Mohawk 72.5% Other Native 60.8% Average 67.3% Authorities Government Rep. 87.3% Police 76.0% Army 71.9% Average 77.4%

22 Texts: Results: Legitimacy Authorities as rational Challengers as irrational Images: Are authorities presented as rational and challengers presented as emotional?

23 Emotional Expression by Group Percentage Challengers Mohawk Warrior 4.7% Other Mohawk 32.0% Other Native 19.0% Average 18.6% Authorities Government Rep. 36.9% Police 7.4% Army 8.3% Average 17.5%

24 Findings Images are selected and framed like texts and can have biases Mixed support for protest paradigm in images Variation within groups Media work to position some challengers in a more positive light than others

25 Other Examples of Content Analysis Gender in children s books Data: children s books How often women/men appear, changing work depictions, use of action verbs. Bipartisanship in parliaments/congresses Data: Speeches in parliament, congress How much representatives refer to other party, in what contexts this is more/less likely to happen.

26 Other Examples of Content Analysis Race, Ethnicity, Class and Noncompliance with Juvenile Court Supervision Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences. (2009) 623: Data: Court files. Main Finding: Recording noncompliance subjective and often based on incomplete information. Black youth and youth from poor neighborhoods are especially likely to have noncompliance documented.

27 Methods are tools Why Content Analysis? More or less useful depending on the question/problem you are trying to solve Content Analysis: Easy access to large amounts of data Less respondent and memory bias Can answer a lot of questions that otherwise would be unanswerable