Data analysis
Often analysis of text. Most pervasive and persistent artefact of political behaviour. Context is important, intonation and expression matters in the case of a speech/reaction.
Text as data
Quantitative. count the words. They would use a very structured way of data coding. They analyse the text indirectly, by using abstract data.
Text as text
Qualitative. This way, data coding becomes more flexible and there are no abstractions from the text. The analysis of the text would then be a direct interpretation of it.
Characteristics of quantitative content analysis
- Focus on what it says
- Little context needed
- Strict handling of reliability
- More reliability than validity checks
- Partly concept-driven
- Fewer inferences to context, author, recipients
- Strict sequence of steps
Characteristics of qualitative content analysis
- Focus on what it could mean
- Much context needed
- Variable handling of reliability
- Both reliability and validity checks
- At least partly data-driven
- More inferences to context, author, recipients
- Less stricht sequence of steps
Three different philosophical perspectives towards qualitative content analysis
- Purist; quite interpretivist, claims that quantitative and qualitative content analysis techniques are fundamentally different and cannot be both quantified and socially interpreted, because reality is measured in only one of these two ways.
- Neo-positivist; both techniques can be used following a positivist approach. This is criticised for being quantitative imperialism.
- Dualist; quite pragmatist, claims that both qualitative and quantitative content analysis techniques have their strengths and weaknesses: you should use what is most useful for the question you’re interested in.
Three types of qualitative content analysis
- Rhetorical; about the delivery of a message: how do the strategies in style of writing, type of diction, tone, key words, icons (etc.) explain a certain purpose?
- Discourse analysis; about the ideas behind a message: what are the broader ideational foundations (values, norms, ideologies, etc.) of a text?
- Narrative; about the message itself: what is the content, origin or impact of the message?
Steps in process of doing qualitative content analysis
- Embedding of the material within the context of communication. The material is examined with regard to its origin and effects (who is the center of the message, who is the receiver and how does this affect the receiver)
- Establishing and following systematic, rule-bound procedures (procedural model to define the steps of analysis, definition of content-analytical units.
Three approaches to content analysis
- Conventional content analysis
- Directed content analysis
- Mixed content analysis
Conventional content analysis
- Inductive approach; data forms the categories
- You start with very broad defining and conceptualising, then you look at the data (usually through in-depth interviews), form more specific categories, continue to look at the data and then form a theory.
Directed content analysis
- Deductive approach
- You start with a theory and have categories in mind along the lines of this theory and only after that, you start looking at the data.
- Concept driven, frequency measures after qualitative content analysis
Mixed content analysis
Combination of inductive and deductive approach
How to ensure trustworthiness of qualitative research
- Triangulation = corroborating your findings with other sources
- Intense exposure and thick description (knowing your stuff, showing coding procedure, proving enough evidence)
- Audit trails and discrepant evidence; publcation of coding instrument, questionnaires, preparing audit trail document, transparent treatment of discrepant evidence
