A poem is recorded information in the form of text. The poem, “The Blue Bowl”, by Jane Kenyon and it talks about the difficulties one faces when burying a pet. By identifying the different phrases or words that are close to the main word in the poem and finding the relationship between these words, we are able to analyze this poem. This poem addresses how painful it is to bury a pet and according to the norms, it is not supposed to be as sad because there are more painful things than burying just a pet.
This poem is a good material for content analysis because it is durable, that is to say that this kind of information will be there for a long time and is not likely to change over time. This is a poem represent what the author wrote and no alterations made by anyone. Because of the durability of this material, there is no ambiguous text and any missing passage. Therefore, it is easily codable. Another reason that makes this choice a good candidate for content analysis is the fact that it is minimally sized and has self-contained textual information. In addition, the fact that several clauses in this poem can cause emotional scale makes it a good material for content analysis.
Coding of data is a transformation of data into a language that is understandable by a computer operating software. In order for data coding to be possible, it must undergo categorization into coding units. Coding units defined in terms of their boarders and hence this poem has natural boundaries. The coding system conducts a poem content analysis using emergent coding system. In this coding system, categories creation is possible after primary examination the poem. After which several steps follow. These steps include are discussed below.
Step two: After coming up with two different checklists, the two researchers then compare their checklist to find out if there are any differences in their notes. If any differences occur, they reconcile such differences.
Step three: This step involves coming up with a consolidated checklist. After reconciling their checklist and ensuring that both their checklist are similar, the two researchers then combine their checklist to come up with a consolidated checklist. Using this consolidated checklist, each researcher independently does the coding.
Step four: This is the final step and it involves checking at how realizable the coding system is. Reliability simply means making inferences that are valid from the text. It means that the coding system should be consistent, that is to say different researchers should be able to code the same text in the same way. Reliability takes place in two terms, and that is stability and reproducibility. By stability, it means that can the same coding system, or coder get the same results try after try and by reproducibility, it means that can the some coding system be used by different people and produce the same results. Reliability measurement occurs by the percentage of agreement between different raters. This possible by summing up all cases coded the same way by two different raters and then dividing by the total number of cases. An agreement of 95% is an indication of a reliable coding system.
After checking the level of reliability and it is found out that the level is not acceptable, then the researchers will have to repeat the steps above until a 95% agreement is reached or until the coding system is reliable. After the system’s reliability establishment, the coding on a large-scale basis takes place. Lastly, quality control check takes place periodically.
In summary, content analysis is a powerful technique used in systematic reduction of words when used properly. The major advantage of using content analysis comes from the fact that it is a systematic and replicable tool used to reduce many and complex words into fewer categorized words in accordance to coding rules. Due this several benefits, this technique of content analysis is very useful when dealing with large volumes of data whether recorded or non- recorded data.
References
Neuendorf, K. A. (2002). The content analysis guidebook. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications.
