Data from Document, Texts & Audio/Video Qualitative Research Methods.
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Transcript of Data from Document, Texts & Audio/Video Qualitative Research Methods.
Data From Documents
Defining
Document: umbrella term referring to a wide range of written, visual, digital and physical material relevant to the study at hand
Data From Documents
Defining
Artifacts: “things” or objects in the environment that represent some form of communication
Data From Documents
What are documents?
Official records Letters
Newspapers accounts Poems
Gov’t accounts Songs
Corporate records Diaries
Historical accounts Photos
Autobiographies Films
Etc.
Data From Documents
Types of Documents
Public Records:The official ongoing record of a society’s
activities
Presume that if an event happened, some record of it exists somewhere
Data From Documents
Types of Documents
Public Records:
Includes: records of births, deaths, marriages
Police records Program docs
Court transcripts Mass media
Agency records Public notices
Association manuals Etc.
Data From Documents
Types of Documents
Public Records:Paper trails can provide valuable information and
be a stimulus for additional paths of inquiry
- Routine records - Memos
- Correspondences - Charts
- Financial records - Bulletin boards
- Org. rules/regulations
Data From Documents
Types of Documents
Public Records: Includes previous studies and data banks
- relying on other’s work/interpretations of the data
i.e., Human Relations Area Files
http://www.yale.edu/hraf/index.html
Data From Documents
Types of Documents
Personal Documents:Any first-person narrative that describes an
individual’s actions, experiences and beliefs
Letters Diaries
Scrapbooks Growth Charts
Calendars Travel logs
Etc.
Data From Documents
Types of DocumentsPersonal Documents:Reliable source of data concerning a
person’s attitudes, beliefs and view of the world
- highly subjective- only reflect the participant’s perspective
Data From DocumentsTypes of Documents
Personal Documents:Things to consider:
1. Is the material trustworthy?2. Is the material atypical?3. Has the material been edited/refined?4. Does the material only contain highlights of life that are considered interesting?5. Keep in mind that only certain types of people
keep autobiographies and/or diaries.
Data From DocumentsTypes of Documents
Personal Documents:Studies using only personal documents:
Abramson (1992) case study of Russian Jewish emigration
Thomas & Znaniecki (1927) Polish immigrant life
Data From DocumentsTypes of Documents
Popular Culture Documents:Materials designed to entertain, inform, and
persuade the public
Can be categorized as public record
Data From DocumentsTypes of Documents
Popular Culture Documents:Includes popular media forms:
Television Film
Radio Newspaper
Literary works Photography
Cartoons Internet
Etc.
Data From Documents
Types of Documents
Popular Culture Documents:Materials designed to entertain, inform, and
persuade the public
Can be categorized as public record
Data From DocumentsTypes of Documents
Popular Culture Documents:Materials designed to entertain, inform, and
persuade the public
Can be categorized as public record
Data From DocumentsTypes of Documents
Popular Culture Documents:Includes popular media forms:
Television Film
Radio Newspaper
Literary works Photography
Cartoons Internet
Etc.
Data From DocumentsTypes of Documents
Popular Culture Documents:Materials designed to entertain, inform, and
persuade the public
Can be categorized as public recordTV Radio MagazinesFilm Internet
NewspapersPhotos Cartoons Etc.
Data From DocumentsTypes of Documents
Popular Culture Documents:Mass communication materials are good for
tracking certain cultural changes and trends
i.e., ageism in cartoons, U.S. presidential debates, teenage culture in movies
Focus on one event/program
Data From DocumentsTypes of Documents
Popular Culture Documents:Mass communication materials are good for
tracking certain cultural changes and trends
i.e., ageism in cartoons, U.S. presidential debates, teenage culture in movies
Focus on one event/program
Data From DocumentsTypes of Documents
Visual Documents:Growing interest on the use of and
analyzing of visual data
Can be classified as the other types of documents mentioned
Data From DocumentsTypes of Documents
Visual Documents:Film and photography has been used in
anthropological studies since the early 1900s
1. Gained wide use in the 1990s
2. Captures events/activities as they happen
3. Only limited by what you can imagine and what the camera can capture
Data From DocumentsTypes of Documents
Visual Documents:Film and photography
4. Can be costly and intrusive
5. Can use what already exists or create new
Data From DocumentsTypes of Documents
Physical Material/Artifacts:Physical objects found within the study setting
i.e., The UA garbage study
Physical Trace: changes in the physical setting brought about by activities of people in that setting
i.e., Children’s interest in Christmas and Racial attitudes on campus, libraries and reading habits
Data From DocumentsTypes of Documents
Physical Material/Artifacts:
Advantages:
1. Record the results of actual behavior
2. Usually nonreactive and unobtrusive
- applied after behavior has occurred
3. Ubiquitous and readily available
4. Usually applied to inanimate objects
Data From DocumentsTypes of Documents
Physical Material/Artifacts:
Advantages:
5. Interrelated behaviors can be studied at once
6. Can be used over long periods
- minimal inconvenience and expense
Data From DocumentsTypes of Documents
The Internet:1.Provides numerous references
- widens the scope of data available
2. Supports interaction between groups of people via various CMC
3. Not everyone has access to a computer
Data From DocumentsTypes of Documents
The Internet:4. The quantity of information is no
guarantee for comprehensiveness/substance
5. Each form of CMC has its own impact on the information it transmits/is received
6. Writing skills and computer literacy impact group interaction
Data From DocumentsTypes of Documents
The Internet:7. Discrepancies between real and online
personalities8. Here today, gone tomorrow
****Results are strongly influenced by the characteristics of the data revealed, concealed, or altered because the CMC
Data From DocumentsTypes of Documents
Researcher-Generated Documents:Documents prepared by the researcher or
for the researcher by participants after the study has begun
Provides insight into the situation, person, or event being studied
Data From DocumentsTypes of Documents
Researcher-Generated Documents:Includes:
Diaries Logs
Life histories Photos
Quantitative data Etc.
Data From Documents
Using Document in Qual ResearchNot much different than using any other
kind of data
- Data collection is guided by questions, educated hunches, and emerging findings
Data From Documents
Using Document in Qual ResearchResearcher must keep an open mind
- Possibilities are limitless
The authenticity of documents must be verified before use
- Also the condition in which it was produced should be discovered
Data From DocumentsUsing Document in Qual Research
Questions to consider:
1. What is the history of the document?
2. How was it acquired by the researcher?
3. Is there any guarantee with the document?
4. Has it been tampered with or altered?
5. Under what circumstances and for what purposes was it produced?
Data From DocumentsUsing Document in Qual Research
Questions to consider:
6. Who’s the author? What were they trying to accomplish with the document?
7. What were the author’s sources of information?
- eyewitness acct - reconstruction
-secondhand acct - interpretation
Data From DocumentsUsing Document in Qual Research
Questions to consider:8. What was/is the author’s bias?9. To what extent was the writer likely to
want to tell the truth?10. Do other documents exist that might shed
additional light on the subject? If so, who has them/where are they?
11. Primary or secondary source?
Data From Documents
Using Document in Qual Research A coding and or cataloging system must
be developed by the researcher
- copy written documents if possible
- photograph or videotape artifacts
- qualitative content analysis
Data From Documents
Strengths and LimitationsLimitations:1.Documents are not typically developed for
research- may be incomplete- may not be in a form that makes sense to the researcher
2. Authenticity must be confirmed
Data From DocumentsStrengths and Limitations
Strengths:
1. May be the best source of data on a particular topic
2. Can be used in the same manner as interviews or observations
- descriptions - verify emerging hypothesis
- advance new hypothesis/categories
- offer historical understanding - track changes
Data From DocumentsStrengths and Limitations
Strengths:
3. Stable
4. More objective than other types of data
5. Unobtrusive