Content Analysis 225 traditional or transformative therapeutic contexts. oriented constructivist approaches due to the circu- Action-research interventions include enlightening larity of language and problems of unbounded cases of co-constructed dynamics of change. Here, reflexivity. Beyond knowledge production, the the role of the researcher’s, teacher’s, or therapist’s broad consideration of formative processes can subjectivity and personal creativity in the active make the construction metaphor difficult to distin- constructing of scientific realities, and how this guish from other perspectives with which it shares subjectivity should be taken into account from a affinities (interpretivism, poststructuralism, critical methodological point of view, are considered. qualitative inquiry). For instance, social construc- Sociocultural traditions are concerned with tionists influenced by critical developments in local, conversational, and discursive practices con- anthropology have increasingly recognized the poli- stituting the construction and maintenance of tics of field work relations—between researcher social norms, concepts, and categories (e.g., sub- and subjects, subjects and other subjects, between jectivity, gender, culture, identity, institutions, devi- researchers, and in wider social contexts because of ance) as well as scientific factual knowledge, the inseparability of power and knowledge. explanation, and argumentation. Ethnographic research in sociology of scientific knowledge pro- Garance Maréchal duced case studies of scientific knowledge produc- See also Epistemology; Ontology; Philosophy of Science; tion in laboratories, while conversation and Reality; Reflexivity; Scientific Method; Subjectivism discourse analyses investigated the rhetorics of factual writing or the politics of scientific consen- sus and authority. In psychology, social construc- Further Readings tionist approaches demonstrated the cultural situatedness and discursive texture of traditionally Delanty, G. (2005). Social science: Philosophical and universal concepts like emotions or perception. methodological foundations. Maidenhead, UK: Open University Press. More generally, experimental writing incorporat- Friedman, L. (1999). Why is reality a troubling concept? ing co- and practical authorship, self-reflexive Journal of the American Psychoanalytical Association, deconstruction of narrative traditions, and a diver- 47(2), 410–425. sity of styles and forms of representation have been Gaukroger, S. W. (1976). Bachelard and the problem of encouraged. epistemological analysis. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, 7(3), 189–244. Critical Summary Miller, G., & Fox, K. J. (1999). Learning from sociological practice: The case of applied Constructivism eschews belief in an absolute foun- constructionism. American Sociologist, 30(1), 54–73. dation of human knowledge and ascription of Shotter, J. (1995). In dialogue: Social constructionism and truth-value independent of the determining effects radical constructionism. In L. P. Steffe & J. Gale of human social activity. Human action is under- (Eds.), Constructivism in education (pp. 41–56). stood as occasioned in accordance with systemic Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. constraints or sociolinguistic rules rather than Sismondo, S. (1993). Some social constructions. Social determined by scientific laws. Through its investiga- Studies of Science, 23(3), 515–553. tion of cognitive and sociolinguistic practices, con- structivism/constructionism shows the problematic, socially negotiated, culturally, and linguistically bounded status of factual knowledge and explana- CONTENT ANALYSIS tory systems of thought, challenging traditional views of the relations between the particular and Content analysis is a tool of qualitative research the universal. However, debates are ongoing about used to determine the presence and meaning of the extent of the relativism practiced (ontological, concepts, terms, or words in one or more pieces epistemological, or methodological). Proponents of recorded communication. This systematic and and critics of constructivist approaches raise the replicable technique allows for compressing many issue of the self-refuting character of linguistically words of text into fewer content categories based 226 Content Analysis on explicit rules of coding in order to allow help researchers learn a great deal about individu- researchers to make inferences about the author als, groups, organizations, institutions, and even the (individuals, groups, organizations, or institu- larger society in which they are embedded. tions), the audience, and their culture and time. Application Conceptual Overview and Discussion Content analysis is possible whenever there is a Content analysis became a relatively established physical record of communication. This record of method of systematic analysis during the 1940s. At communication can be (a) created independently of first, content analysis was a time-consuming pro- the research process and internally by the individual cess, executed manually, prone to human error, or organization under study (as, e.g., newspaper and subject to serious time and resource con- articles, or archived documents detailing household straints. Because of this, the technique was limited consumption), (b) internally generated and exter- to examinations of texts for the frequency of nally directed (e.g., the verbatim transcripts of leg- occurrence of identified terms or to short texts, islative hearings or committee debates generated by being deemed impractical for more complex inves- a number of parliaments around the world, which tigations, for larger texts, or for most recorded may reflect or obscure the political decision-making communication other than written texts. By the process), or (c) produced by the researchers them- 1950s, researchers had recognized the need for selves in view of the analysis that needs to be con- more sophisticated methods of analysis, and as a ducted (as, e.g., videotapes of television news result they started to focus on concepts rather than programs or commercials, or of debates carried out words, and on semantic relationships rather than in the legislature and/or town council). The popula- just the mere presence of certain words. tion of available communications greatly influences Since then, content analysis has been extended the nature of the questions that can be answered to almost every type of recorded communication, through content analysis, as well as the reliability ranging from books, newspaper articles, historical and validity of the final research results. documents, medical records, Web sites, speeches, The most basic quantitative content analysis and communiqués to theater, television programs, consists of a frequency count of words, although sketches and drawings, informal conversation, the assumption that the most frequently mentioned writing journals, interviews, classroom discus- words reflect the greatest concerns does not always sions, lectures, and manifestos of political parties. hold true. A concept’s importance might be over- As a result, today this research technique is used in estimated when the word has multiple meanings fields as varied as marketing and advertising, lit- (as when a record includes references to cabinet erature and rhetoric, media studies, ethnography “ministers” and religious “ministers,” and the and anthropology, cultural, gender and age stud- researcher fails to set these meanings apart). Its ies, sociology, political science, psychology and importance can be underestimated when synonyms cognitive science, theology, and religious studies. are used for stylistic reasons (e.g., an author uses Since the 1980s, content analysis has also been the name of the president—“Obama”—and “our widely used in media analysis and media evalua- head of state” in order not to repeat the word tion, often in combination with data on media cir- president) or when the author avoids raising the culation, frequency of publication, readership, and issue represented by the concept as a result of self- number of viewers or listeners. During recent censorship in response to societal bias or political decades, various software packages have greatly pressure (e.g., the author omits references to cur- facilitated the execution of content analysis by rent political leaders for fear of censorship). allowing researchers to sift systematically through To avoid such problems, researchers first use large volumes of data with relative ease, and to frequency counts to identify words of potential make inferences that can then be corroborated by interest, and then conduct a Key Word In Context using other methods of data collection and data (KWIC) search to test for the consistency of usage analysis. Today it is widely recognized that the care- of words. Most qualitative research software ful examination of communication patterns can programs allow researchers to read the whole Content Analysis 227 sentence in order to see the word in context, a To construct the categories, words with similar procedure that strengthens the validity of infer- meanings and connotations are organized in mutu- ences made from the data. Newer software pack- ally exclusive and exhaustive categories, which ages, which can differentiate between the different ensures that no word falls between two categories, meanings of the same word based on context, have all words are assigned to the categories, and the greatly reduced the level of difficulty in conducting