LA SITUACIÓN ACTUAL: ¿FINAL DE UN CICLO O TIEMPO DE BARBECHO Y DE

This is another method that has been utilised in this research project. It is a broadly used qualitative research tool to analyse information from texts and documents (Hsieh and Shannon (2005). It compresses large amounts of texts and documents into a small number of content categories depending on clear rules of coding (Stemler, 2001). It is a research tool “for making replicable and valid inferences from data to their context” and includes particular measures for dealing with information in order to produce “knowledge, new insights, a representation of ‘facts’, and a practical guide to action” (Krippendorff, 1980, p. 21).

In communications studies, this method enables researchers to observe communication of public content at times and places chosen by the researcher himself (Macmillan et al. 1967, p. 2). According to Berelson (1952, p. 18) content analysis initially is “a research technique for the objective, systematic, and quantitative description of the manifest content of communication”. This definition describes this method as quantitative only; however, it can be qualitative also. Scholars believe that content analysis can be qualitative and many current researches use this method as qualitative. For instance, Gunter (2000, p. 82) states that there is an increasing use of this method in media researches relying on an interpretive style. Moreover, Hsieh and Shannon (2005, p. 1278), define content analysis as a qualitative method of research, stating that it is “a research method for the subjective interpretation of the content of text data through the systematic classification process of coding and identifying themes or patterns”. Similarly, Mayring (2000, p. 2) describes content analysis as “an approach of empirical, methodological controlled analysis of texts within their context of communication, following content analytical rules and step by step models, without rash quantification”. This means that, content analysis is also qualitative and goes beyond only counting words to “examine meanings, themes and patterns that may be manifest or latent in a particular text” and assist investigators to understand social reality in a subjective but systematic and logical way (Zhang and Wildemuth, 2009, p. 1).

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In fact, content analysis as a method has been criticised by scholars for having weak points especially as Hansen (1998, p. 95) states, it cannot be objective and does not analyse everything in the content, because the analysis usually begins by delineating certain aspects of the content and the choices for this purpose are influenced by the investigator’s own decision and experience. However, since this method is purely descriptive and cannot directly explain media impact, it is usually used in conjunction with other methods (Gunter, 2000, p. 69), as in the case of this research.

Nevertheless, through this method not only is the manifest content of the message analysed, but also latent meanings behind the components of the content can be analysed, therefore, one of the strengths of this method especially for case studies is “the way it tries to synthesize openness—as claimed by the qualitative research paradigm—and theory-guided investigation—usually demanded by the hypothetical- deductive paradigm” (Kohlbacher, 2006, p. 24). It is also controlled methodologically and the process of analysing the content is step by step. These two strengths enhance the qualitative content analysis’s ability in handling and reducing the complexity of the social situations investigated and social information material obtained from them (Kohlbacher, 2006, p. 24). Therefore, for the current study the researcher carried out thematic qualitative content analysis in order to identify and provide an examination and interpretation for the major themes, patterns and meanings of the content of opinion articles that may be manifest (directly observable in the information) or latent (underlying the situation or phenomenon).

3.3.2.1 Thematic analysis

Thematic analysis provides purely qualitative detailed data (Vaismoradi, et al., 2013, p. 400) and it is an independent approach that is widely relied upon in qualitative analysis by researchers, since it is flexible, simple and less time-consuming.

Thematic analysis is a process for encoding qualitative information. The encoding requires explicit “codes.” This may be a list of themes; a complex model with themes, indicators, and qualifications that are casually related; or something in between these two forms. A theme is a pattern found in the information that at the minimum describes and organizes possible observations or at the maximum interprets aspects of the phenomenon (Boyatzis, 1998, p. 4).

One of the significances of this approach specifically is that it allows researchers, observers and participants to use a broad variety of categories of data methodically, which enhances their accuracy in understanding, explaining and interpreting

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observations about phenomena, situations, people, events and organisations. It also enables investigators in qualitative research to more simply communicate their explanations, results and interpretation of meanings to other investigators who use different methods and this, in turn, helps in a broader understanding of the situation (Boyatzis, 1998, p.5-6), and provides a rich and detailed report of the data (Vaismoradi, et al., 2013, p. 400).

A theme of such analysis, which relies on the coder to identify certain ideas or themes from the text (Beardsworth, 1980, p. 375 cited in Deacon et al., 1999, p. 119), captures something significant about the information related to the research questions and “represents some level of patterned response or meaning within the data set” (Braun and Clarke, 2006, p. 82). It is a content analysis unit, which also refers to a simple sentence particularly to subject and predicate and it is an assertion about a subject (Berelson, 1952, p. 138).

The theme is one of the most valuable content analysis units for investigating the effects of media and communication because it “takes the form in which issues and attitudes are usually discussed” (Berelson, 1952, p. 139), and it can be generated in two different ways: deductively (theory driven and prior research driven) and inductively (driven from the raw information). The latter, which has been applied in this thesis, appears with words and syntax of the content and the researcher interprets their meanings after gaining the findings (Boyatzis, 1998, p.30). In the current study, the coding process involved decoding and segmenting the raw information from the sample and then reorganising them in major themes so their meanings could be easily interpreted by the researcher.

3.3.2.2 Sample of thematic analysis

Berelson (1952, p. 176) identifies three steps for media content analysis sampling. First is selecting the titles from the media (i.e. specific media form such as newspaper, TV, magazine, online news site and so on) according to the research subject. Second, selecting the issues or dates of the titles, and finally selecting the relevant content within particular issues of particular titles. As such, in the current study, thematic qualitative content analysis was employed to analyse the discourse of opinion articles of a Kurdish independent mainstream news website, which is Awêne online news site. This was done in order to examine and highlight the main themes of the opinions published on a specific event – the extension of the presidency term of the Kurdistan

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region’s president on 30 June 2013. These articles were written by a variety of Kurdish writers, journalists and anonymous writers and published by this news site intensely in the two weeks following the Kurdistan parliament approving the extension. This topic was chosen because on the one hand it led to a widespread debate reflected in the media channels, especially mainstream news sites. On the other hand, the focus of the debate was on the pinnacle of power in the Kurdistan region, which shows the extent to which people are allowed and have the right to express their opinion freely. In these opinion articles, severe criticism in various ways was directed to the pinnacle of power in the Kurdistan region, either to the president, who represents the supreme executive power, the Kurdistan parliament, which represents the supreme legislative authority, and/or to the two ruling political parties at that period of time. The researcher chose the independent (private sector) mainstream news website rather than a partisan one, because these websites are supposed to be more open and free with fewer restrictions on publishing opinions and journalistic materials. Whereas in contrast, partisan media including their mainstream news websites affiliated to either the ruling political parties or the opposition ones, have political interests that employ a more restricted media policy and limitations on publishing journalistic materials, including opinion articles.

3.3.2.3 Case study: Awêne news

Awêne news (Awene.com) is an independent news site operated by Awêne Company

for Press and Publishing, and was established in January 2006. This online news site operates in Kurdish and Arabic languages from Sulaymaniyah city in the Kurdistan region, but publishes news from throughout greater Kurdistan and the Kurdish diaspora. This news site has three news editors, in addition to the editor-in-chief and they are paid between £220 and £350 monthly. The company is from the private sector that also publishes a weekly printed newspaper entitled Awêne (mirror) and a magazine entitled Awênekan (mirrors). It covers a wide range of news and topics including political affairs, economics, social, sports and entertainment. Furthermore, the news site is ranked among the most viewed Kurdish websites in Iraq, according to Alexa.com.

The majority of the supervisory body of this company are the staff who published the first Kurdish independent newspaper of Hawllatî (citizenship) in 2000. The selection of Awêne news by the researcher as a sample for conducting content analysis, rather than other independent online news sites was due to several factors.

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For example, besides being independent, it also has a proper archive section of opinion articles (since December 2011) on the basis of date, which enabled the researcher to easily collect the related opinion articles for the selected subject and period of time. Another reason is that Asos Hardî, the director of the Awêne Company, who is also a known journalist, was awarded the Gebran Tueni Award, the annual prize of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) in 2009 for being a truly independent media outlet in the Kurdistan region and functioning professionally, in addition to their remarkable contribution in enhancing independent media in the region. Moreover, Hardî was also assaulted and beaten by gunmen in August 2011 due to reasons relating to his work (WAN-IFRA, 2012; CPJ, 2011). On the other hand, Serdar Muhammad the editor-in-chief of Awêne newspaper was nominated by the Reporters Without Borders as one of the 100 information heroes in the world in 2014, for their newspaper’s contribution in promoting the freedom to seek, collect and spread information and ideas through media, regardless of frontiers (Reporters Without Borders, 2014a). These reasons and others have made the media outlets of this company, especially Awêne online, some of the most popular independent media channels in the Kurdistan region having significant audiences and impact.

3.3.2.4 Themes coding

In the two weeks following the parliament’s decision to extend another term for the president (from 30 June to 14 July 2014), Awêne online news site published 28 opinion articles. After reading all of these articles thoroughly, the researcher found that 11 articles were completely or partially focused on this topic and all of them were critical. For developing inductively derived or data derived thematic codes, several steps need to be taken. Braun and Clarke (2006) and Boyatzis (1998, p.45-51) point out that thematic analysis, as with any other research method, can be conducted through several steps where some are similar to the phases of conducting other qualitative analysis. For this purpose, Braun and Clarke (2006) identify six phases, as follows: 1- Becoming familiar with the data

2- Generating initial codes 3- Searching for themes 4- Reviewing themes

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6- Producing the report

As such, the researcher summarised and highlighted all paragraphs and sentences of the articles that focused on the topic, so the raw data could be in a form that allowed easy repeated review. This led to developing several preliminary themes, but after reviewing them on several occasions, comparing and identifying their similarities, they were reduced to five main themes as follows:

1- Illegitimate president 2- Dictatorship authority 3- Corruption

4- Calls to take stand

5- Violation of human rights