The discussion in the previous sections shows that even the most basic aspects of content
analysis of new media, such as defining and selecting content for analysis, raise
challenges to the traditional CA paradigm, narrowly defined. Notions of units of analysis
comparable to those in traditional media, random sampling, and informed consent must
all be rethought in the context of new media research. These observations, taken together
with the desirability of incorporating new methods to address characteristic features of
new media such as hyperlinks and textual conversations, suggest a need for a broader
construal of CA that allows new media to dictate new methods tailored to the analysis of
digital content.