Terra incognita: Content Analysis of Public Policy Discourse

Abstract

The article presents one of social research method - content analysis which is still scarcely known to
Lithuanian research community. Discursive nature of public policy and vast amounts of communications
expressed in different symbolic (textual, sound and visual) forms in the processes of public policy are the key
factors implying the potential fruitful use of quantitative content analysis in the research projects. Therefore,
the attempts are made to chart the framework of when and how this method might be most efficient in the
public policy analysis. The emphasis is placed on the advantages of this method. When scientist needs to
conduct extensive, comprehensive, longitudinal, unobtrusive and/or repeated analysis of the contents of huge
amount of social communications or social meanings method of content analysis is rather useful.