Week 5 - Research Methods

Research Methods

When research is conducted, there are many ways of going about it depending on what you are trying to find out, and what philosophical view you have on research. These different ways, or methods, of researching are the tools that a researcher uses. There are many different types, but the method I’ll be talking about today is ‘Discourse Analysis’.

Discourse Analysis

According to thoughtco.com,

“Discourse analysis is a broad term for the study of the ways in which language is used between people, both in written texts and spoken contexts.”

Basically it looks beyond what people are saying and looks at how they are saying it. It is analyzing language in context. Other methods of language analysis look more at the structure of language and parts of words for example, but discourse analysis looks at conversation at a higher level looking at the overall conversation rather than the parts of the conversation.

How is it Useful

Discourse analysis is useful because it can be used to understand people better. For example, it could be used to understand how the public or the media view someone. An example is how a critical discourse analysis was undertaken to see how North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un was portrayed by the media.

In medicine it could be used by doctors to see if patients really understand what a doctor is saying. By analyzing how a patient responds both verbally and non-verbally, an understanding of what the patient does and doesn’t understand can be reached. It can also be used to see how patients take being given a diagnosis. How the doctor uses language can have a positive or negative effect on how a patient takes the news.

Another example of how discourse analysis can be used is to understand racism, sexism, and other discrimination. When people use language with racist elements, even if it doesn’t mean anything at first, it can actually encourage racist behavior. Discourse analysis can also link discourse to existing racism.

In business, discourse analysis can be used to understand customers by looking at customer feedback and social media discourse. How customers see a brand or product can be taken from discourse. Businesses can look at how customers talk about them in context and improve advertising etc. based on the results.

How is it Relevant to IT Research

Discourse analysis has a number of uses in IT. Looking back at how businesses use it, the IT industry could use discourse analysis for product development and advertising. IT businesses could look at how customers see their products and improve based on the conclusions of discourse analysis.

When a new technology comes out that may be confronting, discourse analysis could be used to see how people see this technology. For example, self-driving cars are controversial for many, so discourse analysis could be used to see how people view the technology over time.

Strengths

Discourse analysis is great for understanding how something is viewed in different contexts. You can use it understand how language is used in different contexts to understand biases in social groups, or how groups perceive something. When combined with other methodologies you can use it to understand a great deal about groups of people in a context. 

Weaknesses

Looking at what it is good at, discourse analysis is very much focussed on ontological views and context. because of this, it can be biased to whatever context it is conducted in which could reduce accuracy of the research. If used incorrectly this can be a bad thing. Discourse analysis is not objective, it is highly subjective.