Content Analysis

Abstract

Only movie stars, hit rock groups, and athletes leave more traces of their behavior in the public arena than politicians. Few of a US president’s or a British prime minister’s movements or statements, for example, escape the media’s and archivists’ notice. With 24/7 coverage and the Internet, what leaders from around the world discuss is often beamed into our televisions and put onto the Web. Through content analysis, such materials help us learn more about essentially unavailable public figures, because it does not require their cooperation. Computer-assisted software (such as Atlas.ti, Nudist, Profiler+) and the increase in Internet sources that record material from news services, television, elites’ papers, and archives have improved the ease and reduced the time necessary for conducting such analysis.