Blog1: What are the particular difficulties that researchers face when there are no step by step procedures to follow, yet there is a requirement for the systematic analysis of a dataset?

For the study of sociology, there are two main aspects that need to be considered in data analysis: formalization and interpretation. The formalization process produces facts that can be understood as “valid evidence”, and the significance of scientific interpretation of evidence is equally important (Shohat, 2002). In the process, Tonkiss (2004) argues that discourse analysis has a significant place in a wider range of social and cultural studies. However, when researchers do not have a step-by-step procedure to follow, researchers would face many difficulties. Because discourse analysis focuses on language and text, it examines how language and text reproduce ideology. Words in these languages and texts, such as keywords in examples or articles, also reflect and present social meaning, social identity and social facts (Tonkiss, 2004).

Discourse analysis is considered to be a single word or speech act, but also involves a systematic ordering of terms or conventional language. discourse analysis is a ways of representation-a special knowledge of a subject (Hall 1992, p. 290 in Tonkiss, 2004, p. 406). It is not a simple word or act, it is one that can work to organize fields of knowledge and practice (Foucault 1972, p. 49 in Tonkiss, 2004, p. 406). Therefore, the following difficulties are most easily encountered by researchers when they try to organize data:

1. Choosing and processing data with challenging materials and themes

Researchers must conceptualize research issues and can gather data from multiple perspectives, such as parliamentary debates, political speeches, party manifestos. However, based on the availability of rich data, the most important thing in this process is to consider selecting text materials that are related to the research question, rather than blindly pursuing the amount of materials (Tonkiss, 2004).

2.Sorting, coding and analyzing data

In this section, it is not simply to provide data. This is monotonous and useless. The most important thing is to provide the analyzed data. Because Discourse analysis has been called a “craft skill”, and these as the interpretive repertoires at work within a discourse (Potter and Wetherell 1994, p. 55 in Tonkiss, 2004, p. 412).

3. Analyzing the data

The internal and external consistency is the most important thing in this sector. First, identify the key themes and don’t preconceive. Second, think about what ideas are around the subject and how images create special meaning. Finally, it is necessary to connect with social phenomena, consider the connections and concerns of social groups, and explore complexity and inclusiveness (Tonkiss, 2004).

In conclusion, it is like a case study on refugees (Philo, 2013). To analyze a social problem, we must start from different aspects, compare the information of different news media, and spread the scope of investigation as much as possible. In the process of collecting data, the different media information is summarized according to the title and text, and examples are given, and then keywords are searched to find different political opinions from the keywords. In this way, the power of discourse analysis is exerted.

Reference

Philo, G., Briant, E.,and Donald, P. (2013). Case Studies of Media Content, 2011 (pp.87-130). In Bad News for Refugees. London: Pluto Press.

Shohat, E. (2002). Area Studies, Gender Studies, and the Cartographies of Knowledge. Social Text, 20(3), pp.67-78.

Tonkiss, Fan. 2004 “Discourse Analysis.” In Researching Society and Culture, ed by. Clive Seale, 405–423. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

By YueYing Xiang