RESEARCH REPORT

PRO302 Public Relations Project

Seminar 5 Analysing and interpreting data

Seminar objectives

•  To work out how to make sense of your ‘data’ •  To introduce processes of ordering and

structuring to data analysis

•  To discuss coding and categorising data in order to identify patterns

•  To consider ways of interpreting and ‘making meaning’ of your data analysis

Too much data?

•  L’Etang likened developing an historical narrative out of masses of data in archives as ‘more akin to triage than scholarship’ (L’Etang, 2008, p. 325).

•  ‘It is a process of piecing together data, of making the invisible obvious, of recognizing the significant from the insignificant, of linking seemingly unrelated facts logically, of fitting categories with one another, and of attributing consequences to antecedents. It is a process of conjecture and verification, of correction and modification, of suggestion and defence.’ (Morse, 1994, p. 25)

Data analysis

•  Data reduction: how to reduce the wealth of data you have collected into something meaningful? You need to reduce your data into manageable and meaningful data.

•  ‘Search for themes, categories, clusters in the data gathered from all your sources and then find interlinkages to help you explain them. Draw on the literature to relate your data to theoretical ideas. This will enable you to develop abstract concepts which explain your findings.’ (Daymon, Holloway & Holland, 2002, p. 233)

Data interpretation

•  How to make sense of your data: turning it into something coherent and meaningful

•  Identify broader themes, concepts and patterns •  ‘Finding patterns in the data enables you to

relate your concepts and themes in the existing literature.’ (Daymon, Holloway & Holland, p. 246)

•  Interpretation demands reflexivity: are there alternative explanations? What about negative results? What has been excluded?

Dr Crystal Abidin