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 appropriate unit of analysis is not related to the possible world of exposure for a model reader (or I should say "need not be"), but is instead related to your research question. You are correct in noting that the web, as an object of study, requires more care be taken in defining the unit of analysis, if only because there is not a deep tradition of research or of information design to fall back on. In analyzing newspaper text, for example, a researcher can refer to an article or paragraph and be assured that others will comprehend what he or she is measuring. Perhaps the only similar measure for the web is the "page," though even this can be problematic given the dynamic nature of the web. It is therefore vital that any examination of web content explicitly define the unit of analysis. That the web is assembled and structured through hyperlinks is, I think, not particularly important; interesting, yes, but not a limiting factor. Books, newspapers, television and conversation are also structured in various ways and bound together with glue and citations and other structural stuff. The question comes first, and both the unit and the method of analysis follows that question, I think. Alex -- // // Alexander Halavais // Graduate Director of Informatics // University at Buffalo School of Informatics // contact info: http://alex.halavais.net //
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/ **
participants (3)
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Alex Halavais -
LEE JENG HOON -
Steffen Büffel