The "Conceptual Vocabulary" as a Method of Studying the Efficacy of Verbal Dissemination of Ideas

Abstract

Among the various techniques for analyzing raw data in empirical sociological research, the investigation of various types of textual materials — data from interviews, documents, diaries, etc. — holds a leading place. When these materials constitute mass-scale data (and not one-of-a-kind documents), it is advisable to subject them to both qualitative and quantitative analysis. Combined qualitative and quantitative analysis of textual data resolves to the identification of conceptual items of information, which are then statistically processed. Methods and technical devices for combined qualitative and quantitative analysis of textual information, suited primarily for study of the effectiveness of propaganda, were developed by the American psychologist Bernard Berelson and have become widely known under the title of "content analysis" (see B. Berelson, Content Analysis in Communication Research, Free Press of Glencoe, 1952).