RESEARCH METHOD COHEN ok

HOW DOES CONTENT ANALYSIS WORK 477
Step 2: Define the population from which
units of text are to be sampled
The population here refers not only to
people but also, and mainly, to text – the
domains of the analysis. For example, is
it to be newspapers, programmes, interview
transcripts, textbooks, conversations, public
domain documents, examination scripts, emails,
online conversations and so on
involved; who was present; where the documents
come from; how the material was recorded and/or
edited; whether the person was willing to, able
to, and did tell the truth; whether the data are
accurately reported (Robson 1993: 273); whether
the data are corroborated; the authenticity and
credibility of the documents; the context of the
generation of the document; the selection and
evaluation of the evidence contained in the
document.
Chapter 23
Step 3: Define the sample to be included
Here the rules for sampling people can apply
equally well to documents. One has to decide
whether to opt for a probability or non-probability
sample of documents, a stratified sample (and, if
so, the kind of strata to be used), random sampling,
convenience sampling, domain sampling, cluster
sampling, purposive, systematic, time sampling,
snowball and so on (see Chapter 4). Robson
(1993: 275–9) indicates the careful delineation
of the sampling strategy here, for example, suchand-such
a set of documents, such-and-such a
time frame (e.g. of newspapers), such-and-such
anumberoftelevisionprogrammesorinterviews.
The key issues of sampling apply to the sampling of
texts: representativeness, access, size of the sample
and generalizability of the results.
Krippendorp (2004: 145) indicates that there
may be ‘nested recording units’, where one unit is
nested within another, for example, with regard to
newspapers that have been sampled it may be thus:
the issues of a newspaper sampled; the articles in
an issue of a newspaper sampled; the paragraphs in
an article in an issue of a newspaper sampled; the
propositions constituting a paragraph in an article in
an issue of a newspaper sampled.
(Krippendorp 2004: 145)
This is the equivalent of stage sampling, discussed
in Chapter 4.
Step 4: Define the context of the
generation of the document
This will examine, for example: how the material
was generated (Flick 1998: 193); who was
Step 5: Define the units of analysis
This can be at very many levels, for example,
aword,phrase,sentence,paragraph,wholetext,
people and themes. Robson (1993: 276) includes
here, for newspaper analysis, the number of stories
on a topic, column inches, size of headline, number
of stories on a page, position of stories within a
newspaper, the number and type of pictures. His
suggestions indicate the careful thought that needs
to go into the selection of the units of analysis.
Different levels of analysis will raise different
issues of reliability, and these are discussed later.
It is assumed that the units of analysis will be
classifiable into the same category text with the
same or similar meaning in the context of the text
itself (semantic validity) (Krippendorp 2004: 296),
although this can be problematic (discussed later).
The description of units of analysis will also include
the units of measurement and enumeration.
The coding unit defines the smallest element of
material that can be analysed, while the contextual
unit defines the largest textual unit that may appear
in a single category.
Krippendorp (2004: 99–101) distinguishes
three kinds of units. Sampling units are those units
that are included in, or excluded from, an analysis;
they are units of selection. Recording/coding units
are units that are contained within sampling
units and are smaller than sampling units,
thereby avoiding the complexity that characterises
sampling units; they are units of description.
Context units are ‘units of textual matter that set
limits on the information to be considered in the
description of recording units’; they are units that
‘delineate the scope of information that coders