Week 9: Content analysis and NVivo
Summary
This week we move from automated text analysis to hands-on coding of fan mail as a form of interpretation. Using the Amazing Spider-Man fan mail corpus (“The Spider’s Web”), you will apply a shared coding scheme to a set of letters and explore how qualitative coding transforms text into structured data.
In class, you will use NVivo (or a comparable tool) to code fan letters, identify patterns in reader responses, and reflect on how different coding choices shape the results of analysis. You will work individually or in small groups, compare your coding with others, and revise coding categories as a class.
By the end of the session, you will understand how coding functions as a research method and how coded texts can serve as the basis for building datasets and conducting further analysis in upcoming weeks.
Weekly Learning Objectives
By the end of this week, you will be able to:
- explain qualitative coding as an interpretive research method
- apply a predefined coding scheme to a corpus of fan mail
- use NVivo (or a comparable tool) to code and organize textual data
- evaluate the strengths and limitations of a given coding scheme
- compare coding decisions across individuals or groups and identify points of disagreement
- revise coding categories based on evidence from the texts
- recognize how coded texts can be transformed into structured datasets for further analysis
Before class: Readings, resources, and tasks
Read
- Saldaña, J. (2021). “An Introduction to Codes and Coding” from _The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers.
Install
- NVivo, available from https://iuware.iu.edu/.
In Class
- Brief introduction to qualitative coding as an interpretive method, including a short, guided example using a fan letter
- Introduction to NVivo (or a comparable tool), including basic setup and coding workflow
- Hands-on coding of selected fan mail from the Amazing Spider-Man corpus, working individually or in small groups
- Comparison and discussion of coding decisions across the class
- Collaborative revision of the coding scheme based on observations from the activity
- Brief reflection on how coded texts can be aggregated and used as a dataset for further analysis
Comics-related text corpora
- “The Spider’s Web” fan mail from Amazing Spider-Man, 1964-1995: spiders_web_1963-1995_txt.zip
- Mallet topic modeling output of “The Spider’s Web” fan mail from Amazing Spider-Man, 1964-1995: asm_topic_model_mallet_output.zip