Assessing Policy IV: Goal-Means Tree Analysis

Abstract

Media policy is filled with overstated ambitions, for example on the democratic potential of media technologies. Goal-means tree analysis is a method of qualitative document analysis that exactly aims to assess the relationship between the stated ambitions of policy makers and the actual means advanced to meet these objectives. In this chapter we elaborate on the method and apply it in a media policy context. While document analysis in media policy is often equated with the method of close reading, goal-means tree analysis provides a more detailed methodological approach to follow. We go back to the origins of the method and elaborate on the development by Kuypers (Beginselen van beleidsontwikkeling (deel A theorieën), Couthino, Bussum, 1980) and the revisions by Van de Graaf and Hoppe (Een inleiding tot de beleidswetenschap en de beleidskunde, Couthino, Bussum, 1992) to adopt a more contextualised approach.