QUALITATIVE RESEARCH, TEXTUAL ANALYSIS AND ETHICS IN MEDIA RESEARCH

FIRST BLOG ENTRY

From the blogger’s desk

Hi there! My name is Siyabonga Mfuphi .I welcome you to siyankomonde.blogspot.com. I hope we will have a fun and intellectually engaging and educational time together until the end of the year. I am a 1^st year media studies honors student at the University of South Africa in Pretoria. I will be blogging about media related issues and the implications therein. One of the prominent media centric issues that I will be blogging about is textual analysis, qualitative (field) research and ethics in mass media research. My interest in these topics and more stem from my keen and inquisitive curiosity about the workings of the media both as a social institution and as ideology-producing phenomena. This envelopes the very reason why I went for media studies both as a chosen career and specialization. By the end of this course and by the end of the year I hope to have gained a more critical, informed and plausible insight into the workings of the media industry and media research practices more especially. Moreover, I hope to acquire the necessary skills and knowledge that will enable me to actively contribute and add value to the media/communications discourse in a way that is substantive, responsible and well thought out.

Introduction to the purpose of the blog

The purpose of this blog is to review and give thought to the processes that are part and parcel of an overall qualitative approach in studying the media. I will be critically looking at the research process, textual analysis, and qualitative research and there will be a portion of this blog that will focus on ethics in media research. Here is where thought provoking questions will be asked concerning ethical behavior in both individual and research spaces. This blog will then move on to point out 5 core principles of qualitative research, ethics and textual analysis that media studies scholars should adhere to and accompanying reasons will be given as to why I believe that these 5 principles must be given attention to.

The research process

The research process is a step by step undertaking a particular individual or group of individuals embark on with the aim of identifying, dissecting, investigating, and ultimately solving a stated problem and in the process make sense of a prevalent state of affairs. The research process in other words serves as a motion of enquiry into a present or even past situation that requires understanding and well planned reflection in order to be managed, contextualised, appreciated, and interpreted. In order for a research process to do this it must follow scientifically induced procedures will make it to be credible and all the same possess objective scientific backing. The researcher is a very important part in that he or she must objectively and responsibly deal with the data that he or she collects for research purposes. A more crucial quality of the researcher is that he or she must act towards the notion of ethical responsibility in conducting the research process and in dealing with the data be it people, classes of people, documents or texts Altheide (1996:23) and Stokes (2003:67).

The steps talked about in this process are inclusive of and determined by a research issue or problem, conducting literature review, compiling research questions, establish a research design, collect the data and present the results Wimmer (1987:12). The research process is a sure way of making a particular study objective and ultimately solves an issue in the most productive of ways. A distortion of these procedures in any way I believe would be non-profiting and not to mention a complete waste of time and resources.

Textual analysis

A television drama series, a film, a newspaper, a documentary or a news bulletin update-these media products and more all fall under and are regarded as a type of text or document that we come across with at one point or another on a daily basis. These media texts help us to make sense our surroundings and we in turn derive meaning from these texts through our interactions with them. A television set for instance (which I am sure we all have one) is one type of text that we all consume for different reasons and one of those reasons is sometimes to create a sense of identity Altheide (1996:2). This is particularly true because television is a widespread medium that presents us and one would argue bombards us with different kinds of texts and identities and people as a result make use of these meanings implicitly or explicitly in relation to themselves

Now textual analysis involves an in depth practical inspection into the different kinds of texts that society uses to derive meaning, significance, importance, and might I add esteem from. In Stokes (2003:67) textual analysis is sometimes referred to as narrative or document analysis. Textual analysis is seen as a deed that links the communication message from the sender to the receiver moreover it focuses “on the structure of the story or narrative” Stokes (2003:67).

When one considers the above situation it is impossible and almost unimaginable as to how human life would be like without the existence of texts even historical texts that narrate human life from of old. In an important sense, we have come to learn about ancient events and occurrences through the mediation of these texts. The form that these texts took may indeed vary from the ones we speak of today but the same overarching purpose still prevails: “to bridge the gap between subject and object” Altheide (1996:9).

Qualitative research

Qualitative research is always seen in comparison to its counterpart namely quantitative research. Qualitative research is a type of research methodology that studies social phenomenon or occurrences by setting out to determine the meaning in context that is predominant in these occurrences. Here social phenomenon is viewed through the eyes and interpretations of the people concerned. Qualitative research uses techniques such as in depth interviewing, document analysis, and unstructured observations. These techniques “are often referred to by a single term-participant observation” Jensen and Jankowski (2006:59).

This branch of research known as qualitative research (as I have pointed out in my introduction) is of keen interest to me in that it allows and also makes room for the lay man to tell his version of the story as it were. Think about it, who else can tell the true version of a story than the one who experienced it? This is what I believe qualitative research does and must continue to do without any coercion or intimidation being imposed to the lay man concerned. My point of departure here is that qualitative research as a result should assist in the coming up of a sound constructive solution that benefits the one being researched and not the one who is researching.

Ethics in media research

Earlier on I had mentioned that acting towards ethical responsibility is a crucial quality a researcher must strive towards. Ethical conduct is not only a welcomed trait in society it is also required in the execution of research and more notably (as is the topic here) in media studies research. Ethics requires and is inclusive of “distinguishing right from wrong and the proper from the improper” Wimmer (1987:432). In another place, ethics in media research is acting towards a certain level of integrity Du Plooy (2009:244). In researching the media and all the implications therein it is important that researchers handle data in a fair, transparent, and empathetic manner. The balancing of the interests involved in this type of research is important in deriving at a formidable solution.

The present discourse around ethics in media research ethics is “not limited to the treatment of people as participants or respondents” Du Plooy (2009:244). I would like to pitch in agree with this viewpoint on the basis that even empirical data must also be handled in a transparent and fair manner. There has been a number of cases (published and unpublished) where empirical data is being manipulated or even tainted with to portray a certain situation that may not be entirely valid. This manipulation of data however small I believe goes against everything that ethics in media research and ethical conduct in general stands for. All of this is to reiterate the fact that whether it is people or empirical data one is researching one should be fair, open, objective and ethical!  

5 core principles of qualitative research ethics and textual analysis for media studies scholar

Media studies scholars should;

1 Practice a sense of uprightness and transparency in all the stages of research and in society.

2 Be cautious and wary of external and internal forces that might want to interfere with the process of learning.

3 Be open and also welcoming to new information and discoveries that might lead to a sound and well balanced study.

4 Make it a point that all units of analysis are treated with due merit.

5 Establish a network of trust and mutual feedback.

 

Media studies scholars I believe should strive to acquire these principles because the issue of ethics (although sometimes unduly ignored) represent a very important element in research that might make or break the whole structure as it were. Now these 5 principles I believe more than attest to the qualities of openness, transparency and objectiveness and these qualities are what a media practitioner or scholar should always practice in all spaces of individuality, sociality, and academics. Moreover, these principles make for a well groomed researcher who is sensitive to the issue(s) being researched and the data being collected to analyse, contextualise and solve those issue(s).

REFERENCES

Altheide, DL. 1996. Qualitative media analysis. Arizona: Sage

Du Plooy, G. 2009. Communication research: techniques, methods, and applications. Oxford

Jankowski, N.W. and Jensen, K. B. 2006. A handbook of qualitative methodologies for mass communication research. New York: Routledge.

Stokes, J. 2003. How to do media and cultural studies research. London: Sage

Wimmer, RD. 1987. Mass media research: an introduction. Oxford