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The Secure Information Society pp 137–148Cite as

Content Analysis in the Digital Age: Tools, Functions, and Implications for Security

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Abstract

Content analysis is an established and effective method for research in the social science and, despite what many think, it has been around for quite some time. It has also tremendously benefited from ICT and the growth of computing power, as computers have proved to excel in the dull routine of scanning texts for keywords. But content analysis has become ubiquitous with the advent of the Internet, particularly emails and Web sites. Keyword search, a pivotal element of content analysis, is the most widespread feature of many Internet applications, from search engines to password-cracking programs. Consequently, it has become a central concern for cybersecurity. This chapter investigates some of the most important applications of content analysis on the Net and discusses its increasing essential position in many areas of cybersecurity.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    A texts can be seen as the “material manifestation” of speech. A “step further” from text analysis, the oldest procedure of content analysis, is discourse analysis, where the discourse is no longer considered just a simple reflection of reality but as its essential constituent part (Phillips and Hardy 2002).

  2. 2.

    For an “early” discussion on this trend, see Weare and Lin (2000).

  3. 3.

    For this section, the authors would like to gladly acknowledge the assistance of Fabrizio Coticchia.

  4. 4.

    “Human” coders are also fundamental to gauge “each others’ (or intercoder) reliability”.

  5. 5.

    See the Web site of Hamlet II for example, available at http://apb.newmdsx.com/hamlet2.html.

  6. 6.

    We do not make a distinction here between “qualitative” and “quantitative” content analysis, because we argue that such distinction is fictitious as this method is successfully applied in both approaches.

  7. 7.

    A remarkable example/explanation is given in the reference to “Text Mining” from StatSoft (2011).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Political Science, School of Social Sciences, Södertörn University, 141 89, Huddinge, Sweden

    Johan Eriksson

  2. Department of Political and Social Sciences, University of Bologna, Strada Maggiore, 45, 40125, Bologna, Italy

    Giampiero Giacomello

Authors
  1. Johan Eriksson
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  2. Giampiero Giacomello
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Correspondence to Giampiero Giacomello .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Security Technology, Fraunhofer Institute for Prod. Systems, Pascalstraße 8-9, Berlin, 10587, Germany

    Jörg Krüger

  2. Department of Security Technology, Fraunhofer Institute for Prod. Systems, Pascalstraße 8-9, Berlin, 10587, Germany

    Bertram Nickolay

  3. Dept. of Technology, Philosophy & Theory, University of Stuttgart, Seidenstraße 36, Stuttgart, 70174, Germany

    Sandro Gaycken

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Eriksson, J., Giacomello, G. (2013). Content Analysis in the Digital Age: Tools, Functions, and Implications for Security. In: Krüger, J., Nickolay, B., Gaycken, S. (eds) The Secure Information Society. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-4763-3_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-4763-3_6

  • Publisher Name: Springer, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4471-4762-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4471-4763-3

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