MY428      Half Unit
Qualitative Text Analysis

This information is for the 2013/14 session.

Teacher responsible

Dr Aude Bicquelet COL 7.06

Availability

This course is available on the MPhil/Phd in Media and Communications, MSc in Organisational and Social Psychology, MSc in Social Research Methods and MSc in Social and Public Communication. This course is available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

The course is also available to PhD students, please see MY528.

Pre-requisites

Students must have completed MY421 and Fundamentals of Social Science Research Design (MY400).
A postgraduate qualitative research methods course, such as MY421, as pre- or co-requisite. Familiarity with notions of research design in the social sciences, to the level of MY400 or equivalent

Course content

This course covers issues, methods, and applications of qualitative approaches for the analysis of textual data. It introduces techniques and procedures available to researchers to identify and extract information from texts for social scientific purposes. Topics discussed draw on a wide range of analytic traditions such as thematic analysis, content analysis, dialogical analysis and dictionary-based approaches. The aim of this course is to equip participants with the right skills to work within these traditions and select appropriate qualitative methods for analysing textual data according to 1) Research Design 2) Type of data under consideration.

Teaching

20 hours of lectures and 10 hours of seminars in the LT.

Formative coursework

A project proposal (c.1,000 words). Students write a proposal for the project that will comprise their summative assessment.

Indicative reading

Krippendorff, K. (2004). Content Analysis: An Introduction to Its Methodology. Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA, 2nd edition; Neuendorf, K. A. (2002). The Content Analysis Guidebook. Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA. Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA;
Russel, B. H. and Ryan, G.W. (2010). Analysing Qualitative Data: Systematic Approaches. Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA. Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA;
Saldaña, J. (2009). The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers. Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA. Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA.;
Scheier, M. (2012) Qualitative Content Analysis. Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA. Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA.

Assessment

Essay (100%, 4000 words) in the LT.

Key facts

Department: Methodology

Total students 2012/13: Unavailable

Average class size 2012/13: Unavailable

Value: Half Unit

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