secondary sources (documents + content analysis) Flashcards
1
Q
what are secondary sources?
A
- produced by other people
- sociologists use a wide variety of qualitative secondary sources in their research
- qualitative sources include media articles, public reports, private documents, documentaries, paintings etc
2
Q
what are public documents?
A
- produced by organisations such as reports from government departments
- an OFSTED report would be an example
3
Q
what are personal documents
A
- letters, diaries, autobiographies
- first-person accounts
- interpretivists love these
4
Q
what are three examples of times historical documents were used as a secondary source?
A
- LASLETT used parish records to study family structures in pre industrial England - marriages, christenings, funerals
- ANDERSON used 1851 census to study family structures
- ARIES used portraits of children and concluded childhood was a recent construct - wealthy could afford paintings - not smiling - artists own interpretation - small sample of privileged children
5
Q
how do we assess documents?
A
- AUTHENTICITY - hitlers dairies were fake
- CREDABILITY - was the author sincere
- REPRESENTITIVENESS - can we generalise from them?
- MEANING - what did the author mean - could be translated
6
Q
advantages of secondary sources:
A
- with personal documents you get close to the social actor (understandings/meanings)
- sometimes only available information
- cheap and readily available
- save the sociologist time
7
Q
secondary data theoretical considerations: INTERPRETIVISTS
A
- see them as valid
- like the qualitative in depth data
- provide an insight to the authors world view
8
Q
secondary data theoretical considerations: POSITIVIST
A
- dislike them - not reliable/representative
- not standardised - each one is unique
- when using these documents the sociologist may impose their own meaning on them
- however, positivists sometimes use content analysis
9
Q
what do we look for in content analysis?
A
- VIDEO TRENDS/HASHTAGS - popular and recurring themes/challenges and viral content. explore how they develop over time and their impact on engagement
- INFLUENCER STRATEGIES - posting frequently, video length, effects and engagement patterns. explore what strategies they use to employ a local audience
- AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHICS - engaging with specific content. age, gender, geographic demographics. look how content looks across different demographics
- EMOTIONAL APPEALS - categorise emotions expressed and explore how emotional appeal impact video performance and audience reactions
10
Q
what is content analysis?
A
- method used for dealing systematically within the contents of documents/social media
- allows researcher to quantify qualitive data
- first the researcher makes up different categories then counts how many times they occur
- this is often used in media reporting on crime
- LOBBAN used this method to analyse gender roles in children’s reading schemes
- very cheap and easy method
11
Q
ethical considerations on documentations and content
A
- if they are published documents there is no ethical issues
- personal documents need authors consent
12
Q
using documents to study education
A
schools and colleges generate lots of public documents
e.g:
- school websites
- prospectuses
- OFSTED reports
- school policies on bullying, racism etc
13
Q
practice considerations with school documents
A
- easy to access if published
- save the sociologist time and money
- GEWIRTZ used prospectuses to study marketisation
- personal documents are harder to access
- confidential information about pupils would be hard to access
14
Q
how reliable are school documents?
A
- school registers could be a reliable source
- LOBBAN used stories from reading schemes to research into gender roles - content analysis
- this was reliable as it could be checked
