The importance of intercoder agreement for content analysis

Authors

  • Macarena Peña y Lillo University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5354/rcm.v0i25.24521

Keywords:

intercoder agreement, content analysis, reliability, quantitative methods

Abstract

Content analysis is a widely utilized technique by researchers on mass media. Generally, researchers in quantitative content analysis rely on several coders to enter the data. A key question they face is whether it is possible to assure that the coders’ decisions are consistent across the analysis. It is expected for different people to have different interpretations of the texts, which threatens the reliability of the obtained results and the study’s conclusions. In order to avoid this threat, researchers must evaluate and report intercoder agreement. In this essay, arguments for this practice are presented and a reflection about its use on an empirical case study is offered

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Published

2012-01-01

How to Cite

Peña y Lillo, M. (2012). The importance of intercoder agreement for content analysis. Comunicación Y Medios, (25), Pág. 47 – 56. https://doi.org/10.5354/rcm.v0i25.24521

Issue

No. 25 (2012): Publicidad privada y libertad de expresión: problemas, debates y perspectivas de estudio

Section

monographs

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