[Air-l] qualitative analysis of discussion board postings

[Yanuar Nugroho]

hi all,
just share a thought on the topic of qualitative analysis and grounded
theory.

i think the emerging use of CAQDAS has been evident as a subfield of
expertise, are now widespread and is a fast-growing field. to a full review
of literatures and existing software has already been done since long time
ago (e.g. Burgess, 1995; Tesch, 1990; Weaver and Atkinson, 1994; Weitzman
and Miles, 1994).

to me, it is important however, to note that computer-based approaches of
this sort depend on procedures for coding the text (interview transcripts,
field notes, transcribed recordings, documents) which means marking the text
in order to tag particular segments of the text. codes are thus attached to
discrete stretches of data. by doing this, the purpose is twofold. first, it
facilitates the attachment of these codes to the data. second, it allows the
researcher to retrieve all instances in the data that share a code. in
addition, CAQDAS also allow user to do things like attaching analytic or
other memos to specific points in the text. the aim of this is to
incorporate many of the key tasks of 'grounded theory' within the software
applications. there is, therefore, a close relationship between the
processes of coding and the use of CAQDAS, which needs warning.

although it has been sometime ago, i found Lonkila's note (1995) useful on
this issue. she has summarised key features of two CAQDAS programs, i.e.
ATLAS/ti and NUD*IST:

"It seems clear that the development of the two programs mentioned has been
strongly influenced by grounded theory. But it does not follow from this
that they can only be (or actually are) used in an analysis in line with
grounded methodology. However, nearly all of the programs developed
specifically for qualitative data analysis tell us: if you want to do
qualitative research with the computer, you have to code your data. How you
do it, is basically up to you (even if some of the programs and many of the
articles written on computer-assisted qualitative data analysis suggest that
the researcher get acquainted with grounded theory). It may be that at least
some kind of coding is needed in most qualitative research, but it is also
possible that coding is overemphasized, given the fact that a large part of
the qualitative researcher's work consists of interpretation and a
fine-grained hermeneutic analysis." (Lonkila, 1995: 48-49)

it is suggested that aspects of grounded theory have been over-emphasized in
the development and use of qualitative data analysis software, while other
approaches have been neglected in comparison. therefore, there is a danger
that researchers may be led implicitly towards the uncritical adoption of a
particular set of strategies as a consequence of adopting computer-aided
analysis. CAQDAS offers a variety of useful ways of organizing data in order
to search them, but coding data using software is not analysis.

btw, i am now using Atlas.ti as it handles multimedia data (audio, video)
nicely. i can mark particular segments in the audio/video recording, etc.
and continue with my analysis

best,
yanuar

related references:
Burgess, R. G. (1995), 'Computing and Qualitative Research', Studies in
Qualitative Methodology No. 5, Greenwich CT: JAI Press
Lonkila, M. (1995) 'Grounded theory as an emerging paradigm for
computer-assisted qualitative data analysis', in U. Kelle (eds)
Computer-Aided Qualitative Data Analysis, London: Sage
Tesch, R. (1990) Qualitative Research: Analysis Types and Software Tools.
London: Falmer
Weaver, A. and P. Atkinson (1994) Microcomputing and Qualitative Data
Analysis. Aldershot, Hants: Avebury
Weitzman, E. A. and M. B. Miles (1994) Computer Programs for Qualitative
Analysis. Thousand Oaks CA: Sage

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Yanuar Nugroho
http://myprofile.cos.com/yanuar-n
Research Assistant & PhD Researcher
PREST - Institute of Innovation Research
The University of Manchester