Content analysis as a public health research tool

Content analysis is a well-established method of communication research, but it has rarely been used in public health. It provides a useful way to investigate the content of print media, broadcast media, and other documents such as archival records in a systematic, objective, and quantitative manner.

Content analysis of general publications, such as newspapers or television news or entertainment programs, can give practitioners insight into public attitudes toward a health topic, and can help in designing an intervention. This method would enable public health researchers to broadly investigate changes in the public’Äôs thinking or approach to a problem.

Content analysis can also be used with trade publications, such as the specialized business press and labor publications. Trade publications can play a role is setting the policy agenda and in mobilizing specialized publics, such as labor and management. We recently undertook such a study.

Download an executive summary of our report (pdf download)

Download our poster from the November 2004 APHA conference (pdf download)

Download our poster from the May 2005 ICA conference (pdf download)

Links

The Content Analysis Guidebook Online (Cleveland State University)

Overview: Content Analysis (Colorado State University)

Bibliography (University of Wales, with hyperlinks)

Online journal article. Stemler, Steve (2001). An overview of content analysis. Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation, 7(17).

Bibliography

Bernard Berelson. (1952). Content Analysis in Communication Research. Glencoe, Ill: Free Press.

Oli R. Holsti (1969). Content Analysis for the Social Sciences and Humanities. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

Fred N. Kerlinger, Foundations of Behavioral Research, Third ed. (New York: Holt: Rinehart & Winston 1986).

Klaus Krippendorff (1980). Content Analysis: An Introduction to Its Methodology. Newbury Park, CA: Sage (second edition scheduled for 2004).

Kimberly Neuendorf. The Content Analysis Guidebook. (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage 2002).

Daniel Riffe, Stephen Lacy, and Frederick G. Fico, Analyzing Media Messages: Using Quantitative Content Analysis in Research (Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1998).

UW Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences

Policy Analysis and Program Evaluation Initiative

UW Department of Communication

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Updated Nov. 3, 2004 by Katherine J. Hall