Principles of Social Research
Data Analysis 5: Content Analysis
Directions:
Choose two different cultural objects for your content analyses (ARTIFACT 1 and ARTIFACT 2 below). Both objects should be publicly available and contain a representation of a specific group done by someone who is not a member of that group. Each content analysis should focus on describing, explaining, and interpreting that specific cultural object. Your objects may be anything human made that reflects on how people from one group see those of another. Take detailed and exhaustive notes! Record everything because you may not realize that something is important until after the fact. Remember that the purpose of these content analyses is to gather data about how members of different groups think about, talk about, behave toward, or otherwise respond to another. You don’t have to record information that does not pertain to our purpose, but do record everything that may shed light on our research topic!
Once you have selected your objects, photograph them or copy the link (if online). Paste the photos or links into the spaces provided in this document. Be creative in your choice of cultural object. It can be anything: advertisement, building, excerpt from a story, video clip, audio clip, etc. Just make sure that others will also be able to access the object for themselves (along with your notes in this file). Find a quite place to record your notes into this form. Clean your notes by removing your shorthand and explaining every detail. Remember that these notes need to be understandable on their own. Include everything and add additional details as you recall them. When you add detail after the fact in this first pass, use “Bright Green” text to distinguish it from your first observations.
Then set your notes aside for about 24 hours so that you can think about them some more. Make a third pass through your notes and use “Blue” text to distinguish these subsequent reflections from your first observations and your initial additions. It is important to make these distinctions clear because your understanding of the cultural object may change with time. Do not worry if your first, second, and third passes through your data agree with one another. Again, your perspective may change. It is important that you do not delete previous notes, but merely add to them each time through.
Finally, in all three passes, be careful to distinguish between characteristics of the object and your interpretation of the object. Actual descriptions should be recorded in regular text (in the appropriate color), but your interpretations, opinions, and inferences from the data should be italicized. Try to maintain this “fact-value” distinction as carefully as you can (although it is impossible to be perfect in this regard). You can use as many pages for your notes as you need. This document will expand to make room. But please be conscientious about recording everything, including your reactions as the observer! And make sure you keep your observations from ARTIFACT 1 and ARTIFACT 2 in their appropriate places. Good luck and have fun!
ARTIFACT 1
Data Collector ID:
Location Found:
Date:
Pictures of (or Links to) Artifact:
Description of Artifact:
Descriptions of Principal Groups Represented in Artifact:
Description of Artifact Perspective (as you understand it):
Description of Artifact Message (as you understand it):
Artifact Analysis:
ARTIFACT 2
Data Collector ID:
Location Found:
Date:
Pictures of (or Links to) Artifact:
Description of Artifact:
Descriptions of Principal Groups Represented in Artifact:
Description of Artifact Perspective (as you understand it):
Description of Artifact Message (as you understand it):
Artifact Analysis:
………………………..Answer preview………………….
Description of the African Tribal Basket
The African tribal basket was found in the Zulu people of the Southern Africa. The baskets were made of reeds of different colors. The baskets were mostly oval shaped and were used by women in their daily activities like carrying food grains and other commodities………………………..
APA
492 words
