Lecture 5 Flashcards
What are documents (in the term of qualitative research)?
= files, statistical data, records of official/unofficial nature, images, videos, … -> human artifacts that contain information
Characteristics:
- can be read (‘read’) -> broad sense: looking at pictures, videos, …
- are not produced specifically for research
- are preserved and available for analysis
Examples:
- public docs: policy documents, covenants, acts of parliament, municipality councils, policy evaluation, reports, …
- organizational documents: annual reports, brochures, newletters, records of professional-client interaction, minutes, memos
- personal docs: letters, facebook, insta
- media docs: newspapers, websites, Youtube channels, internet forum
-> only show part of reality: ‘pick and choose’
What is document analysis?
= a research strategy based on
1. the collection and
2. analysis of documentary data
Two types:
1. analysing content
2. analysing the use and function of documents
why document analysis from the interpretive frameworks?
- postpositivist: mirror of reality
- social constructivist: access to social constructions
- postmodernists: access to particular social constructions formed by concepts and symbols, influenced by discourse and power structures
- critical theorists: uncover social injustice in/by documents and generate awareness and change
- pragmatist: effective to answer research question (loads of info, often easy to gather)
What does one want to find when “analyzing content?”
-> what is in the document?
- two forms: primary and secondary analysis
- types: classic content analysis, discourse analysis & narrative analysis
eg. Speech by king Willem: “participatiesamenleving” > first time used => shows changing relation between government and society
Differentiate between primary and secondary analysis?
Primary analysis: researcher = involved in all parts of the research -> researcher seeks the information/the document + analyzes
Secondary analysis: researcher A collects the data + researcher B utilizes that data for own purpose with a different RQ
What is classic content analysis?
= a research tool used to determine the presence of certain words, themes, or concepts within some given qualitative data
-> focus on actual content
What is discourse analysis?
= focus on the meanings conveyed by language in context
-> language & discourse
! context !
eg. How does language influence the document / How does the document influence language
What is narrative analysis?
= interprets long-form participant responses or written stories as data, to uncover themes and meanings -> focus on storied form
What does one want to find out when “analyzing the use and function of documents”?
-> what documents do, documents as objects or agents?
-> document as an agent: eg. How doc can make social change -> look at performance / eg. By saying something, the situation might change eg. ‘I break up w you’
-> 3 forms:
1. classic content analysis
2. discourse analysis
3. narrative analysis
eg. Nancy Pelosi tears up speech by Trump
eg. cermony handing over a paper -> symbol of unity, …
eg. burning books
eg. backfiring documents > actions that you didn’t want to have
eg. contested documents => chain reaction of social action
Give example questions of how to study the use and performance of documents depending on the qualitative approach.
- case study -> What policy documents played an important role in a certain case.
- ethnography -> What is the cultural meaning of the Bible for Christians?
- narrative study -> What does a certain document mean in the life history of a person (eg. green card)
- grounded theory -> What role does a document play in the process
- phenomenology ->How do people experience information overload?
What are the different levels of meaning-making for classic content analysis, discourse analysis & narrative analysis?
Classic content analysis
* ideational level
Discourse analysis & narrative analysis
1. ideational (substantial meaning - I see line X and that means this …….)
2. textual (textual structure what is being said in between the lines? How are they structured?)
3. intertextual (relation w other documents)
What do you look at a textual level?
-> look at structural elements
In writing
* beginning, middle, and end
* words indicating a structure: one day, that day, it all started when, ….
* words indicating sequence: and then, next, after that, …
What do you look at a intertextual level?
-> docs referring to other documents
-> semi-autonomous reality of documents referring to each other
-> meaning does not reside in one document, but in a web of documents
> take into account:
- sequence and hierarchy
- recurring discursive elements: frames, concepts, metaphors, storylines, graphs, images
What does macrolevel analysis mean?
= Foucauldian discourse analysis (macrolevel)
Broad definition: written and spoken communication
Foucauldian definition: “a specific ensemble of ideas, concepts and categorizations that are produced, reproduced and transformed in a particular set of practices and through which meaning is given to physical and social realities -> how ideas are interrelated, how influence society?
- more or less coherent set of ideas, images, categorizations
- institutionalized and existing set of actors
- analysis mainly intertextual and textual level
- societal level
Eg? Middle-ages: Madness = widom, pure VS now: madness = mental ilness => ideas change
What does microanalysis mean?
eg. claps and claptrap: analysis of speaker-audience interaction in political speeches
- detailed microanalysis of videos and audio recordings (! documents!): sentence, structure, choice of words,
- turn taking in conversation
- ‘three part list’ eg. Ask me my three main priorities and I tell you: education, education, and education”
