Chapter 8- Other sources of qualitative data

Exercise:

Returning to the research questions outlined in Chapter 3 (or in relation to a research topic of your own choosing) think about how you could use these other methods – whether documentary sources, online sources, or  visual methods to address your research questions. 

Decide whether it would be most useful to use pre-existing documents (newspaper articles, policy documents, internal reports/discussion documents produced by organizations, such as workplaces, support groups or campaigning groups,), online data (from chatrooms, discussion forums, Facebook pages or twitter feeds) or visual materials (photographs, adverts, videos, art works)  –  and, if so, which you would choose and why these are the most appropriate for your task at hand?

Think about whether you would want to generate your own data online.  How would you go about doing this? - through online interviews, using email or Skype; through setting up a project Facebook page, or setting up a twitter feed (hashtag) and monitoring contributions?

Give some thought as to whether you could elicit material from research participants – whether in the form of diaries, diagrams, drawing, photography or video (or a combination of these) and also think about how you might go about analysing these.

Further Reading:

• Wiles, R., Prosser, J., Bagnoli, A., Clark, A., Davies, K., Holland, S. and Renold, E (2008) . “Visual Ethics: Ethical Issues in Visual Research”, Paper produced by the National Centre for Research Methods, NCRM/011

This paper provides useful links to a range of resources for visual research, including information about software for anonymizing visual images:

• http://www.yowussup.com/pixelating-images.php
• http://www.virtualdub.org/
• http@//compression.ru/video/cartoonizer/index_en.html