This pages features a new, experimental concept-the 'audio essay'. This essay aims to apply the methods of qualitative research methodology to our experiences during the production of our documentaries. The bottom of the page features an explanation of the relationship between my own approach to audio documentary production and principles of qualitative and ethnogrpahic research. The main part of the page presents a series of radio talks which reflect different aspects of my experience during the process. Each talk uses certain concepts within the social research framework which are explained on the side panel. The combination of the theory in text and appplication in audio should hopefully come together as a meaningful whole to the reader/listener.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

My Philosophy

Qualitative research has regularly been criticised as a non scientific form of research in comparison with quantitative research, but theorists such as Kvale (1996) and Iorio (2004) argue that this type of research has its benefits even within the sciences. Where quantitative research aims to measure the world, qualitative research methods are holistic and interpretative, primarily using words to explain the world (Iorio, 2004).


Kvale argues that “the mode of understanding implied by qualitative research involves alternative conceptions of social knowledge, of meaning, reality, and social science research” (Kvale, 1996, p11). This means that the researcher needs to employ certain methods which would allow them to collect and interpret information from individuals within a society which reflects their understanding and meaning of their world. One such method which fits with the goals of qualitative research is ethnographic research.

Ethnography is considered to be a good form of qualitative research because it is mainly concerned with uncovering meanings intrinsic to a particular group by having the researcher immerse themselves into the life and rituals of the group under study (Cramer &McDevitt, 2004). Christians (2004) views this type of research as an “alternative view of human learning” (p47) where certain methods have to be employed in order to uncover the way people understand and describe their realities.
Two of these methods are validity and triangualation. Validity is important because the selection of material which is representative of the people being interviewed must not be contrived and speculative for the sake of the trust relationship between the subject/s, the researcher and their audience (Christians, 2004). Triangulation aids with validity because it aims to build up a well rounded analysis of a phenomenon by combining as many methods as possible in order to reveal the aspects of the human world being investigated (Christians, 2004).
These two aspects should then be considered when formulating a narrative, which is the final goal of ethnographic research.

Journalism and qualitative research are similar in that they both place emphasis on observation and in-depth interviewing when gathering information on current phenomena and action of individuals (Iorio, 2004). The audio documentarist can therefore use the principles of qualitative and ethnographic research methods to inform the production process of a documentary.
Kvale (1996) describes six steps of analysis which start with the interview process and end with action being taken if necessary. The six steps involve the subject describing their lived world; the subject discovering new meaning in their experiences; the interviewer interpreting the subject’s meaning during the interview; the interpreting of the interview transcript by the interviewer; the re-interview and finally, action where necessary (Kvale, 1996).
This structured method allows for the most information in various different forms to be obtained and interpreted, particularly through the various interpretations done by the interviewer for clarification. Throughout this analysis, the researcher should aim to be objective by applying the notion of deliberative naïveté, which is the absence of preconceived ideas or presuppositions about the subject or matter as the interviewer arrives with an open mind (Kvale, 1996).

The ideas and methods around qualitative research are useful to the audio documentarist because they allow for the collection of material in an organic manner. It is therefore the responsibility of the documentarist to interpret and package the gathered information in a narrative which is representative of the lived realities of the community under study.

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