Quantitative content analysis metho

Quantitative content analysis methodology
Quantitative media content analysis should be conducted in accordance with ‘the scientific
method’, Neuendorf (2002) argues, involving the following elements.
• Objectivity/intersubjectivity
A major goal of any scientific investigation must be to provide a description or
explanation of a phenomenon in a way that avoids or minimizes the biases of the
investigator and, while true objectivity may not be possible, it should strive for
consistency and what scholars term intersubjectivity (Babbie, 1986, p. 27; Lindlof, 1995
as cited in Neuendorf, 2002, p. 11). Objectivity, or intersubjectivity, is maximised by
several techniques, most notably selection of a representative sample

A priori design
Media content analyses often fail the test of objectivity/intersubjectivity because
researchers construct the list of issues and messages being studied as they go, adding
issues and messages as they find them in articles, arguing that they need to begin media
content analysis before they can accurately identify the issues and messages contained in
the content