Content analysis is commonly used in qualitative data ( e.g from discussions) analysis; identifying themes emerging through the data. Not sure whether it would work in an ordered/ordinal context like the likert-scale. The Likert-scale would be appropriate in analysing the level of satisfaction with content. On the other hand Content Analysis would be appropriate in analysing the content itself based on themes, possibly predetermined.

Hi Asfand,

I noted that you are not that much of fonding the Likert-type of scale. In some cases it is not necessarily the best option. Personally, I feel Likert scale quite reasonable option for getting information of satisfactory level. However, I'm not that much of valuing the classical achoring to "totally disagree" to "totally agree". The wordings may, naturally be different from this classical approach. The positive matter in using closed scales is that we can compare - in some extent - the different respondents and all the items we select to the questionnaire, and we may calculate averages from the results. Naturally, we miss lots of fine information and unique ideas if we do not add open ended questions to the questionnaire. Do you have something better way to acquire the information in your mind? VAS? Fully open ended questions? I guess all the methods have their own limitations; qualitative methods (such as interviews and open-ended questions) are good if you have really limited number of respondents. But they are REALLY laborous when having hundreds or thousands of respondents. Quantitative methods loose information.

The Likert scale is one of the most popular ordinal scales and is used in attitudinal studies.

It should be noted that it allows the measurement of the degree of difference and not the specific difference between the measured quantities.

I recommend some bibliographic references to study the link between using Likert scales in content analysis studies>

1. Article “Guide to Content Analysis” - you can read it here: http://www.asell.org/educational-information/guide-to-content-analysis

2. How to analyze Likert and other rating scale data, by Spencer E. Harpe, in Currents in Pharmacy Teaching and Learning, Volume 7, Issue 6, pp. 836-850.

3. Analyzing Likert Data, by Harry N. Boone, Jr. & Deborah A. Boone, in Journal of extension, April 2012, Volume 50, Number 2 (https://www.joe.org/joe/2012april/pdf/JOE_v50_2tt2.pdf)

4. Theory, Method, and Practice in Computer Content Analysis, edited by Mark D. West.

It sounds like the Likert-scale is being used by the coder as some kind of rating for the content. This is relatively unusual in content analysis, where the most common procedure is to count the presence or absence of a series of well-defined codes.

Dear Asfand,

The following two books can provide lot of answer of your doubts;

Content Analysis in Communications Research

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/273987500_Content_Analysis_in_Communications_Research

Recent Developments in Reliability Analysis

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/32206003_Recent_Developments_in_Reliability_Analysis

Dear Colleague,

Of course, it is an unusual fact to use the Likert scale in content analysis. However, as we have seen in the suggested references, there are authors who find some link between using the Likert scale and the content analysis studies.

This does not mean that the Likert scale "works" in the content analysis studies, but that the authors see certain connections.

Naturally, the use of Likert type of scale is limited to certain kinds of research interests. I read from the original question that the idea was to measure "satisfaction". If we assess the contents of, e.g., a national curriculum from the perspective of subjective satisfaction level of certain wordings or importance of the content area, why not Likert scale? Likert-scale would be a kind of traditional choice. Not always the best option but, in many cases, quite resonable one, I guess...

Content analysis is commonly used in qualitative data ( e.g from discussions) analysis; identifying themes emerging through the data. Not sure whether it would work in an ordered/ordinal context like the likert-scale. The Likert-scale would be appropriate in analysing the level of satisfaction with content. On the other hand Content Analysis would be appropriate in analysing the content itself based on themes, possibly predetermined.

Thank you all for valuable replies.