1. Content analysis and interaction analysis are two quantitative methods for analyzing communication texts.
2. Content analysis is the most basic methodology for analyzing message content; it integrates data collection method and analytical technique in a research design to reveal the occurrence of some identifiable element in a text or set of messages.
3. Category schemes allow researchers to code the manifest and latent meanings to text.
4. Content analyses are often reported and analyzed using frequency counts and chi-square.
5. Coding schemes can be developed from existing theory or other published research findings, or coding schemes can emerge from the data.
6. Virtually any communication phenomena can be content analyzed; codable elements include words or phrases, complete thoughts or sentences, themes, paragraphs or short whole texts, characters or speakers, communicative acts or behaviors, advertisements, and entire television programs.
7. At least two trained coders code the selected content; interrater reliability must be calculated for both unitizing and coding decisions.
8. Validity issues for content coding rest primarily with the appropriateness and adequacy of the coding scheme.
9. Content analysis can be used to identify frequencies of occurrence, differences, trends, patterns, and standards; first-order linkages should also be considered in the research design.
10. Computer software is available to assist the researcher in the coding process.
11. Interaction analysis, especially suitable for interpersonal and group communication, codes the ongoing conversation between two or more individuals into categories.
12. Interaction analysis focuses on the features or functions of the stream of conversational elements.
13. Coding of interaction elements is based on the element itself, and what happens before and after it.
