I am currently delaing with the same problem and found the already mentioned references to Howard | Schneider & Foot very helpful. You may also habe a look at: Hyperlink Analyses of the World Wide Web: A Review at http://www.ascusc.org/jcmc/vol8/issue4/park.html Chrstine Hine in her Virtual Ethnogrophy book (2000) also deals with the problem when she argues for a partial ethnography. Susan Herring in her "Coputer-mediated discourse analysis" article touches also on sampling procedures. http://ella.slis.indiana.edu/~herring/cmda.html These are all different approches but they all basically try to solve the same kind of problem Hope this helps. Steffen -------------------------------------- wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter University of Trier - Media Studies phone +49 651 201 2273 fax +49 651 201 3741 mobile +49 176 2120 4435 icq 115761393 http://medien.uni-trier.de/132.0.html ** -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht----- ** Von: air-l-aoir.org-bounces@listserv.aoir.org ** [mailto:air-l-aoir.org-bounces@listserv.aoir.org] Im Auftrag ** von LEE JENG HOON ** Gesendet: Donnerstag, 7. April 2005 05:22 ** An: air-l@listserv.aoir.org ** Betreff: [Air-l] Unit of analysis ** ** Hi. ** ** ** As my literature review has progressed, I am sort of ** surprised of the fact ** that not many people touched on a basic issue in content ** analysis. As you ** know, the Internet is a different medium from traditional ** mass media, which ** have distinctive unit of analysis. Considering the web sites are ** interconnected with other web sites through hyperlinks, how ** can we determine ** the appropriate unit of analysis in analyzing web content? ** Traditional ** mass media have ultimate control over the exposure of ** content but the Internet allows users to extend the content. ** If we calculate the amount of content consumed by ** individual users, the actual amount of content available to ** the individual users surely exceeds ones carried by the ** individual web pages the users initially visit. ** ** My question is what is appropriate unit of analysis in web ** content analysis if we want to reflect the actual content ** available to the individual users. ** ** I hope I make myself clear here. Any thoughts will be welcome. ** ** ** Jenghoon Lee ** ** _________________________________________________________________ ** Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! Download ** today it's FREE! ** http://messenger.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200471ave/direct/01/ ** ** _______________________________________________ ** The Air-l-aoir.org@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is ** provided by the Association of Internet Researchers ** http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: ** http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org ** ** Join the Association of Internet Researchers: ** http://www.aoir.org/ **