[Air-l] qualitative analysis of discussion board postings

[Bunz, Ulla]

I'm currently working on a qualitative project, and I'm not using any software because a) I'm not familiar with it and don't want to potentially bias my research by not using it correctly, and b) I'm not so much interested in counting frequencies of words but more with sense making. I have, of course, my own coding categories, much like it sounds you have done. Talking to a colleague today she told me about Framing Theory that emphasizes less the number of cases you have per category, and more what the category exactly entails. It sounds like that might be useful for your study as you could talk about how each category relates to empathy, or how each category provides information about some sub-component of empathy. She promised more info on this (including write-ups of "how to" that she published) and I will forward if desired. Maybe someone else on the list is familiar with this approach and can pitch in until then.
Ulla
 
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Ulla Bunz
Assistant Professor
Department of Communication
University Center C, Suite 3100
Florida State University
Tallahassee, FL 32306
Email: ubunz at fsu.edu
Phone: 850-644-1809
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