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Rating: 
Summary: Researchers need this book
Review: As a budding scholar I found this book to be full of helpful material. It is essential to buy and read if you are planning on doing a content analysis or if you have an interest in this research method. I found Krippendorf's book to be a little cryptic, or difficult to read; "Analyzing media messages" is a great book on the method as applied to communication research; while Neuendorf's book ties a lot of what has been written on the subject together in an efficient and organized fashion and adds to this extensively. The book is good for both students and faculty -- providing easily referenced material on and about content analysis. I highly recommend the book.
Rating:
Summary: Researchers need this book
Review: As a budding scholar I found this book to be full of helpful material. It is essential to buy and read if you are planning on doing a content analysis or if you have an interest in this research method. I found Krippendorf's book to be a little cryptic, or difficult to read; "Analyzing media messages" is a great book on the method as applied to communication research; while Neuendorf's book ties a lot of what has been written on the subject together in an efficient and organized fashion and adds to this extensively. The book is good for both students and faculty -- providing easily referenced material on and about content analysis. I highly recommend the book.
Rating:
Summary: Conent Analysis Made Simple!!!
Review: As a graduate student, I was searching for just the right methodology to analize an amorphous amount of text. A colleague turned me on to content analysis. I investigated several "expert" texts by Krippendorf et al. and nearly lost my mind sorting through a maze of theory and babble. After an internet search I located Neuendorf's Content Analysis Guidebook. Simply put, this book was an answer to my prayers! Neuendorf writes in a style that is very friendly to the average reader. It is complex enough to stimulate inquiry yet simple enough not to have to read the same chapter ten times! Neuendorf presents readers with a true "guidebook"; a map to not only understanding the history and value of content analysis, but several different paths to acheiving a particular research objective. I see this book as a great tool for undergraduate and graduate students as well as those who have a need or desire to conduct content analysis research. Thank you Kim Neuendorf....GREAT BOOK!!!
Rating:
Summary: Conent Analysis Made Simple!!!
Review: As a graduate student, I was searching for just the right methodology to analize an amorphous amount of text. A colleague turned me on to content analysis. I investigated several "expert" texts by Krippendorf et al. and nearly lost my mind sorting through a maze of theory and babble. After an internet search I located Neuendorf's Content Analysis Guidebook. Simply put, this book was an answer to my prayers! Neuendorf writes in a style that is very friendly to the average reader. It is complex enough to stimulate inquiry yet simple enough not to have to read the same chapter ten times! Neuendorf presents readers with a true "guidebook"; a map to not only understanding the history and value of content analysis, but several different paths to acheiving a particular research objective. I see this book as a great tool for undergraduate and graduate students as well as those who have a need or desire to conduct content analysis research. Thank you Kim Neuendorf....GREAT BOOK!!!
Rating:
Summary: Conent Analysis Made Simple!!!
Review: As a graduate student, I was searching for just the right methodology to analize an amorphous amount of text. A colleague turned me on to content analysis. I investigated several "expert" texts by Krippendorf et al. and nearly lost my mind sorting through a maze of theory and babble. After an internet search I located Neuendorf's Content Analysis Guidebook. Simply put, this book was an answer to my prayers! Neuendorf writes in a style that is very friendly to the average reader. It is complex enough to stimulate inquiry yet simple enough not to have to read the same chapter ten times! Neuendorf presents readers with a true "guidebook"; a map to not only understanding the history and value of content analysis, but several different paths to acheiving a particular research objective. I see this book as a great tool for undergraduate and graduate students as well as those who have a need or desire to conduct content analysis research. Thank you Kim Neuendorf....GREAT BOOK!!!
Rating:
Summary: Now I fully understand Content Analysis!
Review: Finally, a book comes along that makes the method of Content Analysis clear! The book fully explains the purposes and methods of Content Analysis, and in a simple and friendly manner. When I began reading through this text, I knew very little about Content Analysis, but upon completion of the text, I know that I can analyze any content I desire. This book makes it clear that Content Analysis knows no boundaries. One can analyze anything from films to music, or from literatture to billboards. This book not only can inspire the reader to try his or her own Content Analysis study, but it gives he or she all the tools that needed to bring the analysis to a satisfying conclusion.
And, for those out there, like me, who are intimidated by statistics and the analysis of these numbers, this book explains the statistics in an effective and (thankfully) easy-to-follow manner. For instance, I now actually understand what Scott's Pi is telling me, as well as Cohen's Kappa, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. Thank you for finally writing a methods book that does not overwhelm the reader and thank you for the helpful website that accompanies the book, for it is a wonderful online companion to the text.
Rating: 
Summary: Over-Explaining Over-Analysis
Review: Neuendorf has become a leader in her chosen field, content analysis, and that's worthy of respect. Here she has created what is probably the most practical and current guidebook for students and researchers undertaking this type of research methodology. However, this is mostly academic over-explanation from a practitioner who apparently yearns for their methods to be taken seriously by other professors in more structured fields. Hence, relatively straightforward methods of collecting data and writing are transformed into an over-elaborated "science" with strenuous categorizations and hierarchies of methodology.There is merit to Neuendorf's claims that content analysis is more complicated than many people think. But much of this book's bulk is not dedicated to exploring the intricacies of the discipline, because such intricacy mostly doesn't exist. Instead, much space is given over to statistics, which is not part of the discipline but a tool to use with it (though I will admit that this book accidentally offers a useful refresher on basic stats). Then there is the fatuous academic writing, in which one is required to pile on fleeting examples of obscure dissertations in which the various methods may have been used, and to trot out corroborating quotes every time any sort of informative statement is made. For example, in introducing the concept of measurement, Neuendorf took the time to track down the following gem of a quote by another academic from 1951: "Measurement is the assignment of numerals to objects or events according to rules." Wow, I wouldn't have believed something so obvious if Neuendorf had simply said it herself. Though this does offer her the opportunity to add the volume in which that quote originated to this book's overflowing 35-page bibliography, proving once again that in academia, it's less important to say something yourself than to find a few hundred people who said something similar in the past. This book was apparently created for an academic audience of a few professors who would have then congratulated Neuendorf for properly following the accepted methods, which is more important than making insightful points to the interested student or general reader. Admittedly, this book will be useful as a reference work that you can consult periodically for specific tidbits on research methodology. But that's only if you need to write something that will only be worthwhile for your professor, instead of yourself or anyone that you hope to truly enlighten with your research. [~doomsdayer520~]
Rating: 
Summary: lacks clarity and concision
Review: This is one more of those books written by college professors that was done so more for the purpose of showing off to the author's colleagues than to be helpful to students. It's very esoteric.(To have 25 years of experience in content analysis does
not entail being able to get the message across.) The book, as a whole, lacks clarity and concision. The definitions, often, contain words more difficult and abstract than the word being defined. The author's definition of content analysis alone has
55 words! Berelson's definition, found on the same page, has only
19 and it is much clearer. This is the kind of book that, even
if you're fanatic about content analysis, you end up by reading
chapter one entirely, leafing through chapter two, and then finally putting it aside, criticizing yourself for having bought
a pig in a poke that cost a lot.
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