Basic Content Analysis
A basic content analysis is defined as being largely deductive in form while focusing on content features that are easily categorized with little to no interpretation (Drisko and Maschi 2015). This allows researchers to understand surface level explanations in data and is largely quantitative in nature, mostly featuring the use of statistics and numerical data.
The quantitative section of this data collection was done by collecting certain items through a basic content analysis about the content of the video like the number of views, emojis, likes, content type, and a dummy coding of if the food featured in the video is considered junk food or healthy food. Additionally, information on the overall feedback of the videos was collected with each comment to analyze if the comment was positive, neutral, or negative overall. An overall emotion score was also assigned to each video using the findings from the qualitative portion of the analysis. These elements help describe the content of the video and possible reasons why the comments would react differently.
Interpretive Content Analysis
An interpretive content analysis is a process where a researcher is able to deduct meaning from content while ensuring that it is still replicable for other researchers to achieve and understand (Drisko and Maschi 2015). This allows the research to look at deeper meanings while coding and find things that are farther beneath surface level explanations.
The qualitative section of this data collection features an interpretive content analysis that analyzes elements of the comments and reactions toward the video itself. These comments were coded for codewords like weight, fasting, diet, love, love, emoji type, and more that were coded using descriptive and in vivo coding methods to help understand the overall themes that are present in the comments under each video. This method is also where the coding of positive, neutral, or negative feelings of comments was understood. These methods of content analysis work towards the understanding of any differences between reactions to comments under perceived thin and perceived not thin mukbang YouTubers as well as if overall opinions present in the comments differ as well.