Data Available or to Be Collected for Content Analysis

Whether or not content analysis is appropriate depends on the nature of the information to be evaluated. The information can be anything written: an original document; a transcript of a speech, conversation, discussion, or oral answer to a question; or a verbal description of visual information, such as a film, video, or photograph. Documents may be government administrative records, newspaper articles or editorials, answers to questions in an interview or questionnaire, transcripts of focus group discussions, advertising copy, judicial decisions, program evaluations, descriptions of program activities, field notes, or summaries of workpapers. Some documents may already exist at the beginning of the assignment; others may have to be created through data collection during the assignment.

Source: GAO (2013), Content Analysis: A Methodology for Structuring and Analyzing Written Material: PEMD-10.3.1, BiblioGov.