Text Analysis

Text analysis constitutes a variety of social science research methods designed to ascertain meaning and bring structure to large amounts of unstructured information derived from different acts of communication embodied in written language. As such, text analysis differs from observation-based methods in that the acts in question have already taken place. Examples of texts include books, transcripts of political speeches, advertisements, interviews, newspaper editorials, and government documents. Text analysis can be generally defined as a research technique designed to make systematic and replicable inferences from texts. Text analysis is regularly utilized in a number of social science disciplines, including sociology, anthropology, psychology, and political science. With its focus on written language, text analysis is somewhat distinct from content analysis, which can focus on text but also encompasses other diverse symbolic behavior such as music, visual art, and body language.

Jack Sprat could eat no fat; his wife could eat no lean. And so betwixt them both, they licked the platter clean.

The meanings inferred from written sources via text analysis may be either manifest or latent. Manifest meaning refers to the literal, surface meaning of the words in question. It is a recognition of the universal meaning of the words and phrases employed in the text, divorced from the intentions of the author and/or any reception from its intended audience. With this meaning in mind, one may infer from the age-old nursery rhyme above an equitable division of a meal by a married couple. By contrast, it is the very situational context—the creator's intent, the recipient's response, the connection between the parties—that constitutes the latent meaning of a text. In this case, meaning can be inferred from factors such as the type of language employed (e.g., formal versus informal) or the identity and relative status of the author and of the addressees (e.g., government and citizens). That “Jack” and “his wife” refer to King Charles I and his queen and “the platter” refers to England's treasury denotes a much more pointed outcome than the amicable repast the surface meaning implies.

Text analysis may be qualitative or quantitative in nature, depending on the orientation of the researcher and the research questions devised. Qualitative analyses tend to be more inductive and exploratory, whereby researchers examine data looking for patterns, while quantitative analyses are more deductive and used to confirm existing hypotheses. Often, both quantitative and qualitative methods are employed within a single research design.

A relatively recent innovation has been the introduction of computer software programs (e.g., ATLAS/ti, NUD∗IST) designed to facilitate text analyses by cutting down or even eliminating many of the time-consuming elements, such as the coding of data by hand. In addition, the amount of readily available textual information produced and disseminated digitally by newspapers, academic journals, government publications, businesses, and so on continues to grow exponentially, furnishing a continuous and easily accessible supply of raw data for analysis.