When can content analysis tell us more about a certain topic or phenomenon than other forms of analysis? Why?

When can content analysis tell us more about a certain topic or phenomenon than other forms of analysis? Why? With content analysis, do researchers risk misinterpreting the original intent of the material they are analyzing, and is there any way to measure the likelihood of that risk? Is the original intent of material irrelevant, given that interpretation of the content is ultimately the content being analyzed? For example, if a political cartoon is meant to be satirical, but all readers (including your expert coders) interpret it literally, would the cartoon be coded in terms of its literal content or its intended content? And how would you know?