Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-05T02:10:25.846Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Content Analysis and the Theory of Signs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2022

Abraham Kaplan
Abraham Kaplan*
Affiliation:
The Library of Congress
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

During the past decade or two the influence of theories of language and meaning has made itself felt in almost every field of study, either because, as in the case of psychology and the social sciences, meaning phenomena were part of the subject matter, or because, as in the case of physics and philosophy, the language used in the study demanded analysis and clarification. In recent years there has been (and is being) developed, especially by H. D. Lasswell and his associates, a technique known as content analysis, which attempts to characterize the meanings in a given body of discourse in a systematic and quantitative fashion.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 10 , Issue 4 , October 1943 , pp. 230 - 247
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association 1943

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Selected References

Papers on the theory of signs are altogether omitted here, as the standard introductory materials have often been listed. Also omitted are references on the theory of propaganda and public opinion (except one or two items especially important for content analysis), and specific content analyses without explicit bearing on the general procedures.Google Scholar
(1) Janis, I. L., and Fadner, R. H., “A Coefficient of Imbalance for Content Analysis”, Experimental Division for the Study of War Time Communications, Document No. 31, Library of Congress, 1942.Google Scholar
(2) Janis, I. L., and Janowitz, M., “The Reliability of a Content Analysis Technique”, Experimental Division. op. cit., Document No. 32, 1942.Google Scholar
(3) Kingsbury, S. M., Hart, H., et al., Newspapers and News, Putnams, 1937.Google Scholar
(4) Lasswell, H. D., “Analyzing the Content of Mass Communication: A Brief Introduction”, Experimental Division, op. cit., Document No. 11.Google Scholar
(5) Lasswell, H.D., “A Provisional Classification of Symbol Data”, Psychiatry, 1938, I, 197–204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(6) Lasswell, H.D., “Symbols”, Chap. II in Politics: Who Gets What, When, How, McGraw Hill, 1936.Google Scholar
(7) Lasswell, H.D., “The Technique of Symbol Analysis (Content Analysis)”, Experimental Division, op. cit., 1941.Google Scholar
(8) Lasswell, H.D., “The World Attention Survey”, Public Opinion Quarterly, 1941, III, 456–62.Google Scholar
(9) Lasswell, H.D., World Politics and Personal Insecurity, McGraw Hill, 1935.Google Scholar
(10) Lasswell, H.D., and associates, “The Politically Significant Content of the Press: Coding Procedures”, Journalism Quarterly, 1942, XIX, No. 1.Google Scholar
(11) Lasswell, H.D., and Blumenstock, D., World Revolutionary Propaganda, Knopf, 1939.Google Scholar
(12) Lasswell, H.D., Geller, A., and Kaplan, D., “An Experimental Comparison of Four Ways of Coding Editorial Content”, Journalism Quarterly, 1942, IV, No. 1.Google Scholar
(12a) Lasswell, H.D., “The Differential Use of Flexible and Rigid Procedures of Content Analysis”, Experimental Division, op. cit., Document No. 12, 1943.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(13) Leites, N. C. and Pool, I., “On Content Analysis”, Experimental Division, op. cit., Document No. 26, 1942.Google Scholar
(14) Rice, S. A. and Weaver, W. W., “The Verification of Social Measurements Involving Subjective Classification”, Social Forces, 1929, VIII, 16–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(15) Rickert, E., New Methods for the Study of Literature, University of Chicago Press, 1927.Google Scholar
(16) Waples, D., People and Print, University of Chicago Press, 1937.Google Scholar
(17) Waples, D., (ed.), Print, Radio, and Film in a Democracy, University of Chicago Press, 1942.Google Scholar
(18) Waples, D., and Berelson, B., Public Communications and Public Opinion, Graduate Library School, University of Chicago, 1941.Google Scholar
(19) Waples, D., and Bradshaw, F. R., What Reading Does to People, University of Chicago Press, 1940.Google Scholar
(20) Willey, M. M., The Country Newspaper, University of North Carolina Press, 1926.Google Scholar
(21) Woodward, J. L., “Quantitative Newspaper Analysis as a Technique of Opinion Research”, Social Forces, 1934, XII, 526–37.Google Scholar