A comparative tale of two methods: how thematic and narrative analyses author the data story differently

An interpretive qualitative approach insists on the plural and negotiated nature of the meanings that humans attach to their social realities. Thus, the qualitative researcher must navigate multiple and sometimes conflicting commitments to method, data, oneself, participants, and one’s reader. This...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Fox, S. (Author), McAllum, K. (Author), Simpson, M. (Author), Unson, C. (Author)
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Taylor and Francis Ltd. 2019
Subjects:
Online Access:View Fulltext in Publisher
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020 |a 22063374 (ISSN) 
245 1 0 |a A comparative tale of two methods: how thematic and narrative analyses author the data story differently 
260 0 |b Taylor and Francis Ltd.  |c 2019 
856 |z View Fulltext in Publisher  |u https://doi.org/10.1080/22041451.2019.1677068 
520 3 |a An interpretive qualitative approach insists on the plural and negotiated nature of the meanings that humans attach to their social realities. Thus, the qualitative researcher must navigate multiple and sometimes conflicting commitments to method, data, oneself, participants, and one’s reader. This can lead us to obscure the messiness of data analysis in final research reports and to downplay how methodological choices can make our participants ‘say things.’ In this article, we compare two interpretive methods, thematic and narrative analysis, including their shared epistemological and ontological premises, and offer a pedagogical demonstration of their application to the same data excerpt. However, our broader goal is to use the divergent results to critically examine how our choice of analytic method in interpretive research influences how we (researcher + method) ‘author’ data stories. Ultimately, researcher reflexivity must go beyond acknowledging how one’s position may influence the data analysis or the participant. © 2019, © 2019 Australian and New Zealand Communication Association. 
650 0 4 |a Interpretive research 
650 0 4 |a narrative analysis 
650 0 4 |a qualitative research 
650 0 4 |a researcher commitments 
650 0 4 |a thematic analysis 
700 1 |a Fox, S.  |e author 
700 1 |a McAllum, K.  |e author 
700 1 |a Simpson, M.  |e author 
700 1 |a Unson, C.  |e author 
773 |t Communication Research and Practice