Although qualitative methods traditionally suffer from concerns about reliability, validity, and researcher bias (see Chapter 8), new computer-assisted methods can assist in addressing these issues. Intelligent software, integrated with mixed methods and visualizations can be a valuable tool for media psychology researchers. Techniques for automated text coding assistance, concept, theme, and data relationship extraction with advanced text analytics capabilities provide the ability for researchers to examine large volumes of poor quality data, such as those found in social media studies. The current chapter examines quantitative, qualitative, and text analytics methods within the context of a qualitative media content analysis. For media researchers, an example within the chapter provides insight into many of the challenges of extracting meaning from text. As an exemplar of integrated methods, this chapter extends the exploration of a definition for media psychology from the Introduction of this handbook to derive a definition of media psychology from the actual content of the Handbook.
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