1. Chapter 10 Qualitative Methods and Field Research

2. Content Analysis The study of recorded human communications, such as books, websites, paintings, and laws. Used to study communication and political discourse. Who says what to whom, why, and how? Example: Analysis of editorials about Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. What words are being used?

3. Content Analysis Unit of analysis can be tricky. Always make sure to take a sample of what you are trying to research if you can’t get the entire document. Coding is also difficult since it is rather subject. Images of violence, use of religious rhetoric or injecting race in the conversation. How do you measure?

4. Content Analysis Manifest Content: Concrete terms that are obvious in connection to the analysis. Latent Content: Underlying meaning that is difficult to pick up in connection to the analysis. Example: Bill Clinton’s use of the word “kid” when talking about Barack Obama.

5. Advantages and Disadvantages Advantage Time Easy to correct mistakes Historical perspective Disadvantage Somewhat limited Misinterpretation can lead to bad findings

6. Comparative Historical Examination of societies over time and in comparison to one another. View of History is critical if examining one society or one group over time. Cyclical Linear Progression Path Dependency

7. Sources and Analysis In historical research you generally begin with someone else’s guiding your own research. However, it is important to bring something new to the table. Either through new research OR perhaps a different theoretical perspective and re- analyzing the previous research.

8. Case Studies In-depth examination of a single instance of some social phenomenon, such as a village, a family, or a juvenile gang.

9. Focus Group A group of people are brought together in a room to engage in guided discussion of a topic.

10. Qualitative Interview An interaction between an interviewer and a respondent in which the interviewer has a general plan of inquiry but not a specific set of questions that must be asked with particular words and in a particular order.

11. Seven Stages of Interviewing 1. Thematizing 2. Design 3. Interviewing 4. Transcribing

12. Seven Stages of Interviewing 5. Analyzing 6. Verifying and checking facts 7. Reporting

13. Guidelines - Taking Research Notes Don’t trust your memory. Take notes while you observe. Take sketchy notes in the field and rewrite them later, filling in the details. Write down everything, but realize most of what you write isn’t going to make the cut.

14. Elements of Social Life Appropriate to Field Research Practices: voting, debating Episodes: elections, crime, illness Encounters: people interacting Role: occupations, family roles Relationships: political, family

15. Elements of Social Life Appropriate to Field Research Groups: social movements and groups Organizations: parties, interest groups Settlements: neighborhoods, ghettoes Social worlds: "wall street", "the beltway” Lifestyles (subcultures): urban, homeless

16. Preparing for Field Work Fill in your knowledge of the subject. Discuss the group you plan to research with an informant/gatekeeper. Develop an identity with the people to be studied. Realize that your initial contact with the group can influence your observations.

17. Reactivity The problem that the subjects of social research may react to the fact of being studied, thus altering their behavior from what it would have been normally. Hawthorne Effect

18. Emic and Etic Anthropologists use the term emic perspective in reference to taking on the point of view of those being studied. The etic perspective maintains a distance from the native point of view in the interest of achieving more objectivity

19. Naturalism Approach to field research based on the assumption that an objective social reality exists and can be observed and reported accurately.

20. Ethnography A report on social life that focuses on description rather than explanation. Autoethnography assumes a personal stance, breaking the proscription against the researcher getting involved at that level.