Reliability in Cross-National Content Analysis

Cross-national assessment of coding reliability and its methodological problems have largely been neglected. In an exploratory first study and a more elaborate second study, we investigated how coder characteristics such as language skills, political knowledge, coding experience, and coding certainty affected inter-coder and coder-trainer reliability. The second study showed that language skills influenced both reliability types, albeit mediated by coding certainty. Politically knowledgeable coders coded more reliably, while coding experience did not affect reliability. Overall, the results suggest that cross-national researchers pay more attention to cross-national assessment of reliability.

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