Qualitative text analysis Flashcards
What is it?
An umbrella term for a variety of technoques to study texts
- Content Analysis
- Critical discourse analysis
- Rhetorical analysis
Textual analysis is interpretive, all are different, positionality is very important.
It isnt useful for
Statistical analysis
Determining causal relationships
Quantifying data
What is content analysis?
- An analysis of the content of communications
- Careful, detailed examination and interpretation of a particular body of material in an effort to identify patterns, themes, biases, and meanings.
- Summarizes and interprets meanings within content
Steps in CA?
Preliminary stage
- Preperation: select a sample of the data
- Organising: decide on unit of analysis and code the data
- Reporting, what are the patterns you notice in the data.
Organising
Coding - the condensing ofqualitative data into smaller analysable units through the creation of categories and concepts derived from the data
Label and organise qual data to identify different themes and the relationship between them.
Deductive coding
Researchers work from pre-existing themes derived from existing theories and research
Inductive coding
Researchers immerse themselves in documents to identify different themes
Conceptual reporting
Determines how often a concept appears but does not examine the relationships between concepts (quantitative)
Relational reporting
Goes beyond just identifying concepts and examines how they are related within a text (qualitative)
Advantages
Unobtrusive data collection, dont need direct involvement of participants.
Transparent and replicable
Flexible
Disadvantages
Reductive, focusing on words or phrases can sometimes be overly reductive, disregards nuance and context
Subjective, almost always involves some level of subjective interpretation, effects reliability and validity.
Time intensive, manyally coding large volumes of text is extremely time consuming.
Critical discourse analysis
A qualitative analytical approach for critically describing, interpreting, and explaining the ways in which discourses construct, maintain, and legitimize social inequalities
Why is it critical
In the sense that it aims to contribute towards a fairer and more just society, frequently taking the side of oppressed social groups.
What is a discourse?
CDA views discourse as “language use in speech and writing” and as “a form of social practice” which both shapes and is shaped by events, thereby playing a powerful role in societal issues (Brown 2024)
Ideological square
Examines positive self-and negative other presentation
The three dimensional approach
Emphasises an interdisciplinary approach to the study of text and talk, which views ‘language as a form of social practice’
