Content Analysis Activity
Research Question: What types of health claims are most frequently used on the front of cereal boxes?
Unit of Analysis: claim
Categories for Type of Claim: For each specific brand, you should count the number of each type of health claim on the box and put the total number for each category in the coding sheet. The categories include fat-related, sugar-related, fiber-related, protein-related, and vitamin/mineral-related.
How to Code: One strategy you could use is to start at the top and work your way down the box, one claim at a time. So, find the first health-related claim on the box, determine which category it fits into, and put a one into the correct box. Keep adding in the appropriate categories until you’ve gone through all of the claims. Some claims may not fit into a category. If that’s the case, you just don’t code that claim (although keep it in mind to answer the questions that follow).
Coding Scheme:
| Specific Brand (sample text) | Type of Claim (unit of analysis) | Number of Claims |
| Frosted Flakes | ||
| Fat | ||
| Sugar | ||
| Fiber | ||
| Protein | ||
| Vitamin/Mineral | ||
| Special K | ||
| Fat | ||
| Sugar | ||
| Fiber | ||
| Protein | ||
| Vitamin/Mineral | ||
| Kix | ||
| Fat | ||
| Sugar | ||
| Fiber | ||
| Protein | ||
| Vitamin/Mineral |
Questions:
- How might you change the coding scheme? Would you add additional coding categories? Would you create more specific/different subcategories for the existing coding category (Type of Claim) than those that currently exist? Be sure to thoroughly and clear explain your answers as well as include arguments for the changes that you propose.
- How would you operationally define the subcategories for Type of Claim? For example, what counts as a fat type of claim? What counts as a sugar type of claim? Also, what counts as a claim more generally? Would you stick to only text or would both text and visuals be included in the definition of a claim? Be sure to thoroughly and clearly explain your answers as well as include arguments for the changes that you propose.
