INFO 272. Qualitative Research Methods

Outline Classic Content Analysis Lightweight Document Analysis Heavy-duty Document Analysis Analyzing the contents of documents in isolation Analyzing documents in context Bob Glushko - Systematic collection and analysis of documents in context in order to define requirements, improve business processes

1. What accounts for incomplete, badly kept records? 2. What is the context within which records are produced? Review of Readings

Classic content analysis

Method 1) Sample documents (can even do a random sample) 2) Divide documents into units 1. syntactical vs. semantic elements 2. Articles, words, sentences, themes, propositions 3) Construct a coding frame and assign codes to units 4) Calculate frequencies

Purposes/Designs  Construct an open-system (often for media monitoring)  Comparisons (between newspapers, between audiences, against standards)  Construct indices (of societal values)  Reconstruct ‘maps of knowledge’ [Bauer and Gaskell]

Wordfrequency Fatigue55 Chronic51 Illness50 Syndrome46 Research29 Virus/viral/virology23 Disease19 Fibromyalgia18 Depression14 Immune/immune- related/immunology 9 Genetic4 Psychology/psychological4 Neurology/neurological4 Word frequency in a 2315-word leaflet on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome produced by CFS patients [source: Prior]

Document analysis: Lightweight

 Incorporating collected documents into interviews Projective Interviewing

J: “um, I kept the brochure, that said that the church was ‘changing destinies and taking new territories’ and I wondered if you could sort of explain what that means for the church?” M: “yeah, um, changing destinies means that people…look at their lives in a particular way. For example, people who would look at the patterns in their family and they may say well all our family, everybody is an alcoholic so I’m more likely to become an alcoholic or people looking to their families and say that we all come from very poor backgrounds so we are all likely to become poor and so you know, they have a mentality that predates and is based on what they’ve been told…” Projective Interviewing

 Content analysis of collected documents  Combined with other forms of data to make an argument about ‘inclusiveness’ World Summit on the Information Society

Document analysis: Heavy-Duty

Information-rich settings A comprehensive approach to document collection and analysis for requirements definition and business process redesign [source: Bob Glushko]

What is a document?  A self-contained package of related information  Documents organize business interactions around the information needed to carry out transactions  Documents are the inputs and outputs of business processes [source: Bob Glushko]

Document characteristics [source: Bob Glushko]

Method 1. Collect documents (iteratively and according to a logic of selection) 2. Create a document inventory (also using document checklist) 3. Classify the documents 4. Analyze the inventory 5. Outcomes [source: Bob Glushko]

Finding the right documents for the inventory  Not all types of documents are equally important  Org charts as documents: don’t assume that job titles and formal organizational structure reflects what people actually do  Don’t assume that the names given to documents fit the people, tasks, and organizations in which we locate them  Regardless of the title, make sure a document is being used before you conclude it is important. [source: Bob Glushko]

Interrogating your documents  Who is the author? Are they identified or not?  Is it bound with other documents and where is its placement?  What is the document material?  Is it written or printed? What can you say about the fonts, size?  Is it translated?  Is a signature on a document required and what does it mean?

In Summary  Limits of content analysis  Lightweight document analysis where documents support central research concern  Heavy-duty document analysis where documents are the central research concern