There are two basic approaches to research and these are quantitative (positivist paradigm) and qualitative (interpretative paradigm) research methods. The different positions of these research approaches have been extensively discussed often with conflicting interests among social science scholars. According to Strauss and Corbin (1994: 17), the concept of a qualitative research approach is described as “any kind of research that produces findings that do not involve statistical procedures or other means of quantification”. Qualitative data refers to information that is gathered in a non-numerical form, this type of research approach does not involve counting of numbers.
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The qualitative research approach is understood to be holistic, explanatory and interpretative in nature, hence it explains a phenomenon instead of measuring the world. As Holloway and Wheeler (2010: 22) clearly note, research that adopts a qualitative approach focuses more on how to interpret and make sense of experiences, mainly within the context in which they exist. However, qualitative research encompasses a multi-method approach and not restricted only to researcher’s experiences, it also involves interpretation, which enables a research to naturally provide solutions to the subject matter (see Denzin and Lincoln, 1994).
Thus, the research participants can study the objects in question through the use of various empirical materials such as case studies, life stories and personal experiences, observational, interactional, historical and visual text. This is different from the constructed materials applicable in quantitative research approach.
A quantitative research approach, on the other hand, deals with data collection that can be sorted, classified and measured, which represents a certain quantity, amount or even range (Huysamen, 1994: 212). Quantitative research befits this study because the study focuses on gathering numerical data from print newspaper articles. This type of approach is mostly conducted in social sciences using the statistical methods to generalise in order to describe a particular phenomenon (Babbie, 2007: 66). In this study, the focus was to if there are changes in the Sunday Times print newspaper content in this new media age.
According to Babbie (2007: 66), quantitative methods deal with objective measurement; the statistical, mathematical, or numerical analysis of data that can be gathered through polls, questionnaires, and surveys, or by manipulating pre- existing statistical data using computational techniques. In this connection, Sheldon (2011), posits that quantitative research approaches describe convergent
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reasoning rather than divergent reasoning. In a sense, it is concerned with the generalisation of a variety of ideas about a research problem in a spontaneous and free-flowing manner.
Quantitative research was most suitable in this study as it employed a statistical method of data collection and analysis, which involved measuring the frequency of count of print newspaper articles in order to determine changes in contents over the study period. This process was guided by the theories of domestication, technological determinism and agenda setting. These theories were crucial as they deal with the philosophy that shaped news coverage and publication by journalists in view of the changes taking place in the media landscape. It served as the framework that enabled the analysis of newspaper content in order to examine changes over time, as well as to examine the prominence given to stories. By adopting quantitative content analysis, using longitudinal research design, the researcher analysed the collected data with the help of statistics, in which the numbers produce an unbiased result that is then generalised to the larger population (see Zhang and Wildemuth, 2009: 319).
Drawing upon quantitative research paradigmatic approach as being positivists in nature, Holliday (2007), describes it as a scientific way of investigating a phenomenon that deals with counting and numerical components. A paradigm is a system of belief or theory that guides the way a researcher investigates a case.
It is also considered as an established set of practices that should be followed (Bardoel and Van Cuilenburg, 2008: 18). According to Kaboub (2008: 343), the positivist research approach emerged as a philosophical paradigm in the 19th century in which some scholars contend that only quantifiable and verifiable
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scientific knowledge can reveal the truth about reality. It was later formally established as the dominant scientific method in the early part of the 20th century.
Furthermore, the positivist paradigm stresses that real events can be observed empirically and explained with logical analysis (Kaboub, 2008: 343). The criterion employed in this process requires evaluating the validity of a scientific theory, that is, this approach tests whether our knowledge claims (theory-based predictions) are coherent with the information we are able to obtain using our senses.
Accordingly, Aliyu, Bello, Kasim and Martin (2014: 81), maintain that the positivists’
research approach is “rooted on the principle that truth and reality are free and independent of the observer”. A clear understanding of the extent and nature of research paradigms provided more insight as to the importance and why this study employed a positivist approach.
Krauss (2005: 759), upheld that the basic approaches of research include the ontological question. This approach set to examine what the structure and type of truth is, and what can be known about it, that is, the philosophy of reality. The epistemological inquiry investigates the connection between the knower or could- be knower and what could be known; it also focuses on how we gain the knowledge of the reality (Krauss, 2005). The methodological approach, however, is concerned with the issue of how the investigator or inquirer sets out in order to discover whatsoever he or she deemed could be known in relation to the research objective.
It is a recognized set of principles or practices used to achieve knowledge of reality (Aliyu, et al., 2014: 81). As a result, the methodological approach proved to be more adaptable in this study.
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Research Method
There are two methods of conducting quantitative research, the primary research method and secondary research method. In primary research method data is gathered directly (raw material) by the researcher instead of relying on previously collected data, whereas secondary research method depends on primary data sources, an already existing data that is reviewed and collated to increase the overall effectiveness of research (Barringer, Jones and Neubaum, 2005: 665;
Reddy and Acharyulu, 2008: 56).
Data collected through research apparatuses such as surveys, participant observations and interviews are all form of primary data. This study used secondary data gathering method because the researcher conducted a quantitative content analysis using a longitudinal research design. This process is concerned with the counting of print newspaper articles and the frequency of occurrences in order to determine changes in content over time. McNeil and Chapman (2005: 131) conclude that secondary quantitative research, or desk research is a research technique that involves utilising officially existing data, produced for non-academic purposes by establishments such as the state, firms, institutions or individuals, in some cases it can appear in form of official statistics, reports among other types of documents.
Secondary research data usually comprises of official records, archived materials, literature, historical documents as an important source of secondary data, which are collected and analysed to build the general viability of research. Furthermore, secondary data can be collected from numerous different sources including the Internet, government and non-governmental sources, public libraries, educational
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institutions and commercial information sources (McNail and Chapman, 2005).
Commercial information sources (print and visual media) were appropriate in this research as data were collected from archived Sunday Times print newspaper available at their head office, Tiso Blackstar Group in Parktown, Johannesburg.