Stage 3: Selection of time frame
3.5 DATA COLLECTION METHODS
In this study, data were collected through quantitative-qualitative content analysis.
Qualitative content analysis involved examining what was written in the news reports relating to the consumption of nyaope, whereas quantitative content analysis involved quantifying data based on the news reports. The researcher used the check list as a method of collecting the data. A prerequisite for successful content analysis is that data can be reduced to concepts that describe the research phenomenon,by creating categories, concepts, a model, conceptual system, or conceptual map. The approach is popular with mass media researchers because it is an efficient way to investigate the content of the media (Wimmer & Dominick, 2011:156). Therefore, for the purpose of this study, the methods sought to examine the coverage of news reports of the consumption of nyaope in the Daily Sun and Sowetan newspapers.
92 3.5.1 Quantitative-qualitative content analysis
For the process of coding in quantitative-qualitative content analysis, the researcher used the inductive category development to code the variables of the news reports and decided whether the level of analysis would be one specific word, a key phrase or a string of words. As espoused by Mayring (2000), inductive category development is oriented to the reductive processes formulated within the psychology of text processing. The main idea of the procedure is, to formulate a criterion of definition, derived from theoretical background and research question and/ or objectives, which determine the aspects of the textual material taken into account.
Following this criterion, the material is worked through and categories are tentative and step by step deduced. Within a feedback loop those categories are revised, eventually reduced to main categories and checked in respect to their reliability.
Furthermore, the researcher formulated the text of the news reports in the newspapers, according to the themes derived from the objectives (See section 1.4.2). Therefore, the textual content derived from the variables was taken into account. In addition, once this was done the researcher needed to decide how many concepts to code. This was because conceptual analysis usually required to decide beforehand what the code set should look like, by determining important, relevant key terms or codes beforehand, after looking at the relevant literature on a subject (Kelle, 2005).
In addition, coding the data required the researcher to choose whether to indicate that certain codes did in fact occur (coding for existence) or whether to code each part of the news reports data where a certain code occurs (coding for frequency).
When the researcher was coding for existence, only the variables of the news reports on consumption of nyaope that occurred were indicated. For example, the researcher wanted to know whether there was coverage of nyaope in the newspapers. When coding for frequency of news reports, the researcher noted that each time the newspapers reported on nyaope, it was once or several times during the sampled period. This eventually displayed a frequency of the news reports (Kelle, 2005).
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Another step in the coding process required the researcher to decide whether only code instances of the data appeared exactly as the code, or whether the researcher was prepared to generalise around the content of the data to include all meaningful instances for a specific code’s data. In this study, the researcher, for example only coded health effects of nyaope when she read a news report of the health effects of nyaope. The advantage of doing so was that the researcher stood a less chance of
“subjectively biasing data”. The researcher bore in mind that qualitative research is predominantly about understanding the meaning of data collected for the study.
3.5.2 Check list
The researcher personally collected data through the use of a check list as a data collection tool. The check list helped to note the data through readily described variables such as objectivity in reportage, nature of sources consulted, expert analysis and pictorial reportage, the focus of news reports, structure of headlines, choice of language, in-depth journalism, constructive news, and narrative reportage from the news reports on the consumption of nyaope in the tabloid newspapers.
Furthermore, the researcher used the checklist to determine themes to be discussed from news reports in relation to key concepts, editorial angles and other journalistic principles associated with standard reporting.
The checklist was also used to guide the researcher in determining when qualitative and quantitative methods were appropriate for a comparative inquiry. The researcher drafted questions based on ideas and information discussed in the relevant literature as well as information that came up from the preliminary observations of the study. In addition, the check list as an observatory tool for research involved observing and systematically recording the results as guided by the research objectives. Therefore the information was conscious and planned. They differed from casual everyday interpretations of behaviour which are often casual, selective, and inaccurate. This is in agreement with Wurtzel’s (2005) notion that this analytic synthesis should be systematically recorded in the check list.
94 3.6 DATA ANALYSIS
Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was a method used for the systematic search of themes collected within quantitative-qualitative the data analysis process. The themes took the form of words, sentences or groups of sentences in the story texts. By reading through the news reports, it was possible to highlight the relevant information and then formulate discursive interpretations. In addition, frequency distribution with numerical display showing the number and percentage of news reports corresponding to each value were used where necessary. The percentages were then presented in the form of graphic illustrative data into general statements or understandings based on the re-statement of the objectives of the study. Overall, the study generate descriptive thematic analyses of news narratives which were formulated into readable results, further formulated into findings and conclusions on the subject understudy.
3.6.1 Interpretive thematic analysis
The data were examined in depth to provide detailed descriptions of texts, following which they were categorically coded into grouped themes. The researcher used the thematic analysis technique to establish and compare the themes of the news reports on nyaope in both the Daily Sun and Sowetan newspapers. This is in agreement with Braun & Clarke’s (2006:79) view that, thematic analysis is a qualitative analytic method for identifying, analysing and reporting patterns (themes) within data. It minimally organises and describes data set in (rich) detail. However, it goes further than this, and interprets various aspects of the research topic understudy.
The researcher adopted thematic analysis because of its advantage of usefully summarising key features of a large body of data and offer thick description of the data set of the news reports. It also highlights similarities and differences across the data set (Braun & Clarke, 2006). In addition, the method allowed for social as well as psychological interpretations of data on the news reports about nyaope from the newspapers.
95 3.6.2 Phases in conducting thematic analysis
It is for the purpose of this study that the researcher familiarised with the phases involved in conducting thematic analysis. Braun and Clarke (2006) suggest a 6- phase step-by-step guide in conducting a thematic analysis. Below follows a summary of these 6 steps.
• Phase 1: Familiarising with data
Essentially, this initial phase revolved around the researcher becoming immersed in the news reports on the consumption of nyaope. Braun and Clarke (2006:16) assert that such type of, “immersion usually involves repeated reading of the data and reading the data in an active way searching for meanings, patterns and so on”.
During this familiarising phase, the researcher jotted down initial ideas for coding.
• Phase 2: Generating initial codes
Following the researcher’s in-depth acquaintance with the data, was the production of initial codes from the data. As cited in Braun and Clarke (2006:18), “codes identify a feature of the data that appears interesting to the analyst, and refer to “the most basic segment, or element, of the raw data or information that can be assessed in a meaningful way regarding the phenomenon”. Braun and Clarke (2006) further acknowledge numerous ways for generating codes but state that the most important aspect during this phase is to ensure that all the data is coded and collated. For the purpose of this study, the codes were generated according to the threshold of the news reports on nyaope.
• Phase 3: Searching for themes
This phase signifies the beginning of identifying themes from the codes generated in the previous phase. In this study the phase involved the use of visual representations (tables, mind-maps) to assist in sorting the different codes into themes. At the end of this phase, the researcher had a collection of candidate themes, and sub-themes and all extracts of data that had been coded in relation to the texts (Braun & Clarke, 2006:20). The themes were searched according to the codes of the news reports on nyaope generated in the previous phase. In the end, the researcher had a collection of themes from the news reports.
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• Phase 4: Reviewing themes
The searched themes from the news reports on the consumption of nyaope were reviewed. During this phase the researcher refined the set of candidate themes and sub-themes. This is in agreement with Braun and Clarke’s (2006) perception that, throughout this refinement stage, the researcher will notice that certain candidate themes are not really themes and that other themes might need to be broken down into separate themes.
• Phase 5: Defining and naming themes
The reviewed themes of the news reports were defined and named. This phase consisted of the researcher’s defining and refining themes that were presented for analysis. Defining and refining is explained as identifying the essence of what each theme is about (as well as the themes overall), and determining what aspect of the data each theme captures (Braun & Clarke, 2006:22).
• Phase 6: Producing the report
The last stage was the final analysis and write-up of the report. The task of the write- up of a thematic analysis was to tell the story of the news reports in a way which convinced the reader of the merit and validity of the analysis. Braun and Clarke (2006:23) argue that the researcher’s write-up must be “concise, coherent, logical, non-repetitive and it must provide sufficient evidence of the themes within the data”
(through data extracts). In the case of this study, the researcher followed these analysis procedures to arrive at the interpretative findings of the study.