QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS
-Qualitative analysis is dependent on researcher! Qualitative analysis uses “sense making” to make sense of social phenomena.
-Differs from Quantitative analysis, which is usually independent of researcher and is driven by statistics
GROUNDED THEORY
-Technique used for analyzing text data
-Developed by Glaser and Strauss, grounded theory ensures it is built on observed evidence only
– First Phase is Open Coding: Process to identify concepts hidden in data that could be related to the topic of interest. Can be done by reading texts for events, interactions, or ideas that relate to the phenomenon.
-Categories: like concepts found in the text are put into categories, broader and more generalized, helps build the big picture
-Second Phase is Axial Coding: can be performed along with open coding, axial codes connect categories together through related relationships and hypotheses
-Third Phase is Selective Coding: this is the part where researchers develop one over-arching category, the core, and relating it to the other categories developed
-All Three phases can change and adapt simultaneously
-Theoretical Saturation: any additional information does not add any significant to what was already found
-4 stages of the comparison process:
- validating categories by comparing texts
- integrating categories
- developing big ideas/theories
- writing theory
-Integrating types:
-storylining: categories are used to develop a story of the phenomenon
-memoing: using figures and visuals to discover patterns and connections between categories
-concept mapping: graphical depiction of relationships of stated concepts
CONTENT ANALYSIS
-systematic analysis of content
-first thing to do when dealing with a large number of texts is to sample a set of texts from the population
-second step is to unitize the texts by pulling out specific segments to analyze
-third step is to begin the coding process as mentioned above
-Sentiment analysis: type of content analysis, used to analyze people’s opinions and attitudes about a topic of study
-limitations of content analysis: coding process is limited by the information available, and sampling is subject to bias if not done carefully
HERMENUETIC ANALYSIS
-researcher interprets meaning of a text using social and historical context
-assumes texts are written from an author in a specific context
Ashton,
Thank you for your summary this week as well as your interpretations of what the most important points were within the reading. I really liked your focus on the four stages of the comparison process which some of our classmates did not discuss in their summary. I think this a very important part to the research process as well as very important from my understanding of the reading. I also enjoyed your distinction of qualitative analysis from quantitative analysis, “Differs from Quantitative analysis, which is usually independent of researcher and is driven by statistics”. This was very helpful for me.
AJ – I really appreciated your summary of Chapter 13. As I am going to be applying qualitative methodology to my research topic, I was extra interested in digesting this chapter as I fully expect most of my data collection to be text from interviews and case studies. I would highlight one addition to your summary around Hermeneutic Analysis that I found particularly valuable. It is my understanding that one of the benefits of Hermeneutic Analysis is that the research can take a part of the data – as in a phrase or section of text – and apply it to the whole – as in the topic or broader context. If I am understanding this technique correctly, I believe it will be extremely helpful as I tackle the vague topic of Digital Ethics!