Gathering content analysis data

STEP 6. Collect content

Collect only information relevant to your purpose. For a large study, you may not need to examine all the content. Instead, you might randomly sample 20% of a particular content, such as a final presentation. Samples of content should be drawn the same way you would draw a sample of individuals from a larger population. [more on sampling]

Types of data used in content analysis include

• articles
• book chapters
• essays
• interviews
• discussions
• newspapers
• historical documents
• speeches
• conversations
• or any occurrence of communicative language.