Benefits of Content Analysis as a Method of Research (Essay Sample)

Benefits of Content Analysis as a Method of Research
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Benefits of Content Analysis as a Method of Research
Introduction
Waltz, Strickland, and Lenz CITATION Wal10 \p 279 \n \t \l 1033 (2010, p. 279) define content analysis as "a set of techniques that are used to identify, measure, describe, and make inferences about specified characteristics within or reflected by written or verbal text." It is a method of social research that is suitable for the study social communications through social artefacts. According to Babbie CITATION Bab12 \p 356 \n \t \l 1033 (2012, p. 356) researchers use it to study not only communication processes but also other aspects of social behavior as well. The common units of analysis in content analysis include elements of communication such as words, paragraphs, books and so forth. It involves coding, transforming raw data into categories based on some conceptual scheme.
Benefits of Content Analysis
Content analysis as a method of research brings with it a myriad of benefits to a research study. These benefits include:
According to Bryman and Bell CITATION Bry11 \p 305 \n \t \l 1033 (2011, p. 305), this method of research has the benefit that it allows for information to be generated about social groups that are difficult to gain access to, it allows for the use of existing information that is available and easily accessible at relatively low cost, and finally available information can be used for multiple purposes.
It is a highly flexible method of research and can be applied to a wide variety of kinds of unstructured information CITATION Bry11 \p 305 \l 1033 (Bryman & Bell, 2011, p. 305). While in the social sciences it is primarily associated with the analysis of mass-media outputs, in business and management research it has a broader applicability.
Like secondary data, content analysis has the benefit that it is unobtrusive, inexpensive to conduct, allows the researcher to examine existing agency documents and databases and finally it allows a researcher to deal with large volumes of data CITATION Roy07 \p 256 \l 1033 (Royse, 2007, p. 256). In addition, no specialized expertise or training is necessitous to conduct a content analysis.
This research method is considered a very transparent research method. The coding scheme and the sampling techniques can be distinctly set out so that replications and follow-up studies are feasible. It is due to this benefit that this research method is referred to as an objective method of analysis.
Other benefits associated with content analysis as identified by du Plooy CITATION duP95 \p 101 \n \t \l 1033 (1995, p. 101) include: it is holistic and can study the whole range of human communication; it can incorporate most other communicatio...