Enough of Bardin!: The Vicious Circle of Brazilian Content Analysis

Abstract

Content analysis is a widely employed technique. However, there are weaknesses in its application in Brazil, with excessive predominance of Laurence Bardin's manual. This article discusses a "vicious circle" in which tutorials replicate both strengths and limitations of Bardin, hindering the incorporation of recent methodological advances and openness to international dialogue. Content analysis was applied to a corpus of 71 Brazilian tutorial materials to verify Bardin's citation, replication of her model, and the presence of nine research quality aspects. The most prevalent aspects are sample, unit of analysis, and software, coinciding with Bardin, while the least present elements are coder training, replicability, and multiple coders—limitations also observed in Bardin's manual. An agenda is proposed to break this circle, encouraging critical studies, new materials, events, epistemological discussions, interdisciplinary integration, training, and digital repositories.