Content Analysis in the Research Field of Cultural Coverage

Abstract

The study of culture in media or mediated culture—referred to here as the study of cultural coverage—often makes use of content analysis to build up a more systematized knowledge of possibly evolving patterns that can only be observed by gathering certain amounts of data over a certain period of time. Typically, content analysis is employed to trace the anatomy of the mediated culture, either as hierarchies of artistic forms or of as a representation of a specific cultural phenomenon. Content analysis is also applied to identify the mechanisms of mediation and follow their evolution over time, i.e., cultural change.