In order to analyse the research data, the strategies of grounded theory and the concepts of thematic analysis were adopted to generate key words and themes. According to Charmaz (2011), many researchers combine grounded theory, thematic analysis and narrative analysis to analyse their data (p.363). This research specifically adopted grounded theory and thematic analysis to analyse the interview data and narrative analysis for the documentary data. In the following sections, grounded theory and thematic analysis will be introduced.
4.4.5.1 Analytical approach one: Grounded theory
Grounded theory, developed by the US sociologist Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss, focuses on the meanings of data (Braun and Clarke 2013:184). According to Harry et al. (2005:5), Glaser and Strauss (1967: 106) mention that grounded theory is a constant comparison process; researchers read the data back and forth in order to develop codes, categories and theory. Grounded theory leads researchers, first, to interpret ‘what is happening in the empirical world’ and ‘how and why it happens’; second, to clarify the implicit meanings and actions of interviewees; third, to ‘construct middle-range theory from data’ (Charmaz 2011:361); fourth, to understand ‘how power, oppression, and inequities’ influence individual and individuals as groups; and fifth, to reveal the connections between experience and social structure and practices (Charmaz 2011: 362).
The strengths of grounded theory are the clear analytical procedure, which is useful for analysing social procedure, and the useful ‘line-by-line coding’ for qualitative analysis. However, the weaknesses of grounded theory are that it focuses on sociological
concerns, not psychological ones, and a gap is between ‘theory’ and ‘practice’. The main issue is that some might argue that using grounded theory means not reading any literature until the analysis is complete. Nevertheless, in practice, it is almost impossible for researchers to not read any literature before doing research; the purpose is to do research rather than waste time. Therefore, Braun and Clarke suggest that although researchers have some prior knowledge, open-mindedness is necessary (Braun and Clarke 2013:186-187). Before I started doing the research, some literature was studied. As suggested above, an open-minded attitude was kept while doing the fieldwork.
Furthermore, Charmaz (2011) indicates another issue, which is that ‘grounded theorists might claim to construct theory but neglect to explicate what they assume theory encompasses’ (p.363). Charmaz (2011) critically argues that if theory is about
‘explaining relationships between concepts’ or ‘offering an abstract understanding of them’, most grounded theory research does not fulfill this (p.363). Due to the weakness of grounded theory, in order to draw on theories, thematic analysis was adopted to clarify the main themes, questions, and theories.
4.4.5.2 Analytical approach two: Thematic analysis
Thematic analysis, developed by Gerald Holton in the 1970s, has been accepted as a clear procedure for social research (Braun and Clarke 2013: 177-178). Thematic analysis is mainly for data analysis but not for data collection, theoretical or
philosophical underpinnings (Braun and Clarke 2013: 178). This is both a strength and a weakness of thematic analysis. According to Braun and Clarke (2013), without the considerations of data collection, and theoretical or philosophical positions, thematic analysis is more flexible, and easier to learn for researchers with little or no experiences. However, the weaknesses are that the interpretive power of thematic analysis is limited, and researchers might treat thematic analysis as ‘something or nothing’ due to the lack of theoretical or philosophical underpinnings (Braun and Clarke 2013:180). Although the weakness of thematic analysis is the lack of an underpinning theory or philosophy, it is still a flexible and easily accessible approach from which researchers can draw
theories. For example, the theory of public service was drawn on in order to analyse the data with regard to whether journalists serve the government, business or the public.
Thematic analysis, as Boyatzis (1998) mentions, is a systematic approach that encodes diverse patterns embedded in qualitative data (p.161). A theme may be interpreted directly in the information at a manifest level or underlying information at a latent level (Boyatzis 1998:161). According to Boyatzis (1998), the four stages of developing thematic analysis are recognising themes, encoding consistently, developing codes, and interpreting themes (p.11). In relation to developing codes, codes maybe ‘a list of themes’ or ‘a complex model with themes’ (Boyatzis 1998:161). As Boyatzis (1998) stresses, a good thematic code should contain five elements: first, a label, or a name, developed during coding, should be clear, and close to the data, and conceptually
meaningful to the phenomenon studied (p.31). Coffey and Atkinson (1996) mention that coding is a way to relate ‘our data to our ideas about these data’ (p.27). Second, what issues the theme concerns should be defined (Boyatzis 1998:31). What is more, the third element, as Boyatzis (1998) states, is an indication of when the theme occurs. The fourth issue is the identification of the theme. The fifth element involves taking
examples, such as positive and negative ones to avoid confusion (Boyatzis 1998:31). Thematic analysis is adopted because thematic codes can be inductive at raw data and deductive at a theoretical level.
This research mainly used the initial coding and focused coding of grounded theory to inductively code the raw data; however, due to the weakness of grounded theory due to the lack of theoretical explication, the theory-driven deductive approach of thematic analysis was mainly adopted to analyse at a theoretical level. For example, when
analysing the theory of Foucault with regard to the art of government, thematic analysis was adopted to encompass the theory. This thesis combined thematic analysis and
grounded theory to analyse the interview data due to that grounded theory was adopted to systematically gather, code, and analyse the data. However, the weakness of
grounded theory is the lack of theory explication. Thematic analysis is more flexible than grounded theory in applying theories to interpret data. As a result, this thesis
synthesised grounded theory and thematic analysis to analyse the interview data.