A Descriptive-Comparative Investigation of Content Analysis and Discourse Analysis Methods

The objective of the present study is to investigate content analysis and discourse analysis methods as the most important and applied researchmethods and their comparison to know their types, dimensions, principles, deficiencies, advantages, differences and similarities of the mentionedmethods. In quantitative content analysis, numerical values are assigned to the text based on valid measuring principles and the relations between these values are statistically analyzed. But in qualitative, the effect of desired texts on the audience are evaluated. This method tries to make conditions and states of social processes and social events understandable for those involved in the issue. Its objective is to explain the minor aspects of social realities available within words. On the other hand, discourse analysis who has been flourishing in recent decades and undoubtedly it will be increasing in the future, is the results of criticism casted upon the other research approaches such is positivism and quantitative content analysis. This approach tires to analyze different phenomena using the advantages of other approaches and avoiding their deficiencies. Discourse analysis by efforts in line with mixing theory and practice, mixing macro and micro levels as well as fields such as linguistics, psychology, sociology and … has indicated that it has high capability and is able to produce a view regarding many social and mental phenomena of which other fields are ignorant. Discourse analysis is one of the sub-branches of content analysis particularly its qualitative type in spite of having significant differences with quantitative content analysis. It has different classifications and branches each of which has its own different particular characteristics.

Keywords:

content analysis , quantitative content analysis , qualitative content analysis , discourse analysis