Textual Analysis

✔ Semiology: concentrates on the idea that meaning is created,

both as the result of the relationship between different
textual elements (“the message”) and as the result of a
text’s production and circulation within the public domain.

✔ The three aspects of the study of the text are:

TEXTUAL

CONTEXTUAL

INTERTEXTUAL
What is content analysis?
✔ A form of research based on counting the
frequency of certain elements in a clearly
defined sample and then analysing those
frequencies.
✔ The selected elements must be coded, that is
a set of descriptive categories
Content Analysis
✔ Content analysis does not produce really in
depth data such as the semiological
approach, but it can provide more
quantitative data, an overview of a wider
range of material.
✔ Whereas the semiologist will look for
descriptive categories from the analysed
data, the content analyst begins his/her
research with predetermined categories
he/she will use.
✔ Semiologists often make statements which
grow from a general observation, whereas
content analysts are able to give facts and
figures about a sample, with the knowledge
that the information will give a general
picture with some precise details.
✔ Content analysis becomes problematic
when taken to be completely scientific.
✔ Categories must be constructed, and this is
clearly controlled by the researcher. The
researcher comes up with his/her categories,
which are out of their original context, and
furthermore, deliberately chosen for study.
✔ Critics of content analysis highlight the
pitfalls of taking elements out of context
and then adding them up as tallies.