Ulrike, I did very similar work (and had no trouble with gaining permission at Oxford University-- my sense is that it is much easier to do social science research in countries less litigious than the good old USA). If you're interested in having a conversation about my grounded theory analysis, I'd be happy to do that. I can also send you a copy of articles I've written on this (my PhD work). All the best, Drew Ross Visiting Research Fellow Oxford University OUDES, Department of Educational Studies On 8/8/06, Charlie Balch <charlie@balch.org> wrote:

Ulrike, Some very interesting research that you are taking on.

First, you might want to have a chat with your Institutional Review Board (IRB). Even lurking on websites and collecting data may not be allowed.

Second there are some good programs for analyzing text. Atlis.ti and Nudist come to mind (I hope I got those names correct - I am traveling).

Many qualitative text analysis methods break out into something like find all the unique ideas/concepts, catagorize them, find where the categories overlap/are not unique, find the ideas that don't fit in the schema. Repeat. Spradley is a good example.

Other qualitative researches suggest that categories are an illusion and suggest a more holistic understanding.

Your biggest challenge may be to combine empathy with online communication. A number of researchers have found that online communication substantially changes the way we communicate. People open up in ways that they would not otherwise while the cues we use to understand traditional communication are lost.

I'll be interested to hear how your research goes. Charlie Balch Arizona Western College

-----Original Message----- From: air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org [mailto:air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Ulrike Pfeil Sent: Tuesday, August 08, 2006 11:52 AM To: air-l@listserv.aoir.org Subject: SPAM-LOW: [Air-l] qualitative analysis of discussion board postings

Dear All I am currently starting my PhD in the area of CMC. I am especially interested in the phenomenon of empathy and how it manifests in online communication. In my current study, I investigate message postings from a (quite emotional) discussion board and through grounded theory came up with a detailed categorisation scheme of the content. Apart from the basic statistics with the codings, I would like to relate the patterns I found in the online discussion board to the phenomenon of empathy in offline communication. However, I struggle with the approach I should take. I have read about different kinds of qualitative analysis (like thematic analysis, discourse analysis and some parts of content analysis...) but I am not sure how exactly to go about it. Does anybody have experience with this kind of analysis (relation of coding results to general characteristics of a phenomenon like empathy) or can recommend literature that might help me? It would not be a problem to write about it but I am searching for a more "prescribed procedure". Does anybody know of similar studies? I also thought about using word frequencies and concordances for the analysis - does anybody have any recommendation concerning this? Any help would be greatly appreciated! Kind regards, Ulrike --

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Hello Ulrike, Drew and Yanuar, I'm currently doing a study on religious websites in Germany. Therefore I'm also looking for qualitative methods for analysing web content and conducting e-mail interviews. At the moment I'm trying to apply relativly new hermeneutic methods from the narrative identity research (as basics see Ulrich Oevermann, for a complex method of text analysis on narrative identities see Gabriele Lucius-Hoene (only in German)) in a modified way for my analysis. But I would also be very interessted in seeing your works on Grounded Theory, Drew. (Maybe you could send me a copy?) Considering the diversity and complexivity of qualitative methods I would be very happy to get into deeper discussions with you. Greetings from Germany Nadja -- Nadja Miczek M.A. SFB 619 Ritualdynamik - Teilprojekt C2 Institut für Religionswissenschaft Universität Heidelberg Akademiestr. 4-8 D - 69117 Heidelberg Tel.: ++49-(0)6221-547682 Fax.: ++49-(0)6221-547624 E-Mail: nadja.miczek@zegk.uni-heidelberg.de http://www.rituals-online.uni-hd.de/ Yanuar Nugroho <yanuar-n@unisosdem.org> schrieb:

Hello Drew,

I am Yanuar, member of AoIR. Following your suggestion to Ulrike, I feel like I am in the same position as her. So, I am interested to know more. Could I have the soft copy of your PhD dissertation or the articles you have written on that?

Many thanks in anticipation, y ---------------------------------- Yanuar Nugroho http://myprofile.cos.com/yanuar-n Research Assistant & PhD Researcher PREST - Institute of Innovation Research The University of Manchester

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I also feel somewhat in the same problem as everyone else who's posted on the topic - trying to find a theoretical framework by which to analyse online content.

Nexus Analysis: Discourse and the emerging Internet Ron Scollon and Suzie Wong Scollon Mediated discourse Ron Scollon On 8/9/06 1:03 AM, "Paul Teusner" <paul.teusner@rmit.edu.au> wrote:

Hi Nadja,

I'm also studying online religion, in particularly religious blogging in Australia. Would love to compare notes sometime.

I also feel somewhat in the same problem as everyone else who's posted on the topic - trying to find a theoretical framework by which to analyse online content. Thanks to all those who've offered suggestions.

I'm now going through John Thornton Caldwell's (ed.) Electronic Media and Technoculture (New Brunswick NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2000). There's some good writing on social histories of technology which are offering me some questions to consider as I approach online religion.

paul teusner

-----Original Message----- From: air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org [mailto:air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of nadja.miczek@zegk.uni-heidelberg.de Sent: Wednesday, 9 August 2006 17:54 To: air-l@listserv.aoir.org Subject: Re: [Air-l] qualitative analysis of discussion board postings

Hello Ulrike, Drew and Yanuar,

I'm currently doing a study on religious websites in Germany. Therefore I'm also looking for qualitative methods for analysing web content and conducting e-mail interviews. At the moment I'm trying to apply relativly new hermeneutic methods from the narrative identity research (as basics see Ulrich Oevermann, for a complex method of text analysis on narrative identities see Gabriele Lucius-Hoene (only in German)) in a modified way for my analysis. But I would also be very interessted in seeing your works on Grounded Theory, Drew. (Maybe you could send me a copy?) Considering the diversity and complexivity of qualitative methods I would be very happy to get into deeper discussions with you.

Greetings from Germany Nadja

this "grounded theory has been busted for the nonsense that it is" sounds suspiciously like what i termed methodological ideology. If it isn't ideological, perhaps it is just a form of methodological orthodoxy. I'm not going to say that grounded theory is good or great personally, as i've only read a few texts and never used it, it does seem to be one of the major theories that frames qualitative analysis. I think the key to grounded theory is to realize that is designed to discover theories, which is a problematic concept in some ways. if you aren't in the process of 'theory development' then it might not be the model for you. in any case, there is a ton of dissertations, and related 'quality' scholarship in using grounded theory that to the casual observer indicates that it has some usefulness. i'd propose suspending judgement until sufficient citations are provided. There are many ways of thinking and analyzing the world that would be antagonistic toward grounded theory. i can imagine if one is a practice-turn ethnographer that the facility for theory discovery seems less necessary in the face of the brute facts of the experiences that you describe. But, I don't know. i think the best way to think of methods is methodological pluralism, which in my mind argues that there are many ways to access knowledge and that the knowledge generated is always the same sort about the same thing, but in the end the application of one suite of methodoligical tools to its appropriate data is as valuable as another suite and that any given analysis is likely to be limited by the methods used. On Aug 10, 2006, at 4:11 AM, Denise N. Rall wrote:

Dear Ulla et al.-

Thanks for the framing theory. I was going to recommend *anything but* grounded theory - as Georgina Born said recently in Masterclass (sorry but she's cool) - "grounded theory has been busted for the nonsense it is" but unfortunately I forget who said this. She's an ethnographer so there might be some bias built in there.

Cheers, Denise

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