Mixed methodology: combining quantitative and qualitative research

In this study of the state of arts reporting in community newspapers published in Cape Town, I chose a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods to answer various research

questions (see Chapter 1 and the discussion below). Quantitative research methods allowed me to address the following aspects of the research questions: ascertain how the coverage of arts and entertainment in the different newspapers compare to each other, find how many were attributed to reporters and how many appeared without a byline, as well as how many of these arts and entertainment items focused on the different artistic disciplines. As was discussed in Chapter 1, the disciplines focused on were music, dance, theatre, comedy, books/literature, visual art, and other (which would include multidisciplinary events, festivals or entertainment events not related to the aforementioned disciplines). This selection reflects, largely the disciplines covered by the Hisses and Whistles study which looked at six key arts genres: music, film, literature, theatre, visual arts and dance (MMP, 2006: 12). Because the research sample for this study included a large number of items related to comedy, this discipline was included. Film, on the other hand, did not feature prominently, so it was included in an “other” category which also incorporated multidisciplinary events and festivals.

Qualitative research methods enabled the analysis of the content and tone of the articles in the research sample, and also the information gathered through interviews with editors, reporters, communications practitioners and two former judges of a national arts journalism competition about the allocation of resources to arts reporting, challenges facing reporters who write about the arts, how content for the entertainment pages was selected and their thoughts on what defined good or bad arts reporting.

This study focused primarily on media content and the processes which determined what was used – and how it was used – and thereby contributed to the state of arts reporting in this sector of the industry. It did not focus on how this reporting was received by audiences and therefore did not go into reception or effects studies.

The discussion begins with the distinctions scholars have made between quantitative research and qualitative research, followed by a review of the work published by proponents of a mixed methodology approach, that is, combining quantitative and qualitative research

methodologies when undertaking communication and media research.

In an effort to define the quantitative approach to research, Du Plooy (2009: 22) explains that it restricts itself to “data of experiences”, rejecting any form of speculation. A qualitative approach to research, on the other hand, aims to interpret and construct the

“qualitative aspects of communication experiences” (Du Plooy, 2009: 30). Babbie (2013: 24), however, believes that the differences are far simpler, writing that “the distinction between quantitative and qualitative data in social research is essentially the distinction between numerical and non-numerical data”.

In this study, the numerical data collected relates to the number of art and entertainment items contained in each newspapers in the research sample, the number of articles relates to each of the disciplines outlined above, as well as the number of different kinds of news items. For the purposes of this study, and in reference to the literature review in Chapter 2, the categories of classification identified were single-paragraph “what’s on” notices, pictures with extended captions, personality profiles, stories about upcoming events, snippets (a short entertainment story, which contains more information than a what’s on notice), book reviews, competitions and show reviews or report on past event.

Babbie (2013: 25) also notes that while a quantitative approach allows for statistical analysis, and offers the “advantages numbers have over words as measures of some quality”, it does include a “potential loss in richness of meaning” which can be derived through qualitative research.

According to Denzin and Lincoln (2011: 1), quantitative research was seriously

impacted by the “paradigm wars” of the 1980s, which lasted until the 1990s, when proponents of constructivism, post-positivism and critical theory started talking to each other, addressing issues of ethics, field studies and knowledge accumulation. It was around this time that there was an “explosion of published work” (Denzin & Lincoln, 2011: 2) on qualitative research, which they define as being “situated activity that locates the observer in the world [and] consists of a set of interpretative, material practices that make the world visible” (2011: 3). Often researchers in this field are considered to be journalists and their work regarded as unscientific, largely because of the interpretative traditions associated with qualitative research (Denzin & Lincoln, 2011: 2). As a working definition of qualitative research, Jankowski and Wester (2002: 44) offer the following:

[It] is a form of long-term first hand observation conducted in close proximity to the phenomena under study. The research is, ideally, performed in a naturalistic setting with emphasis on everyday behaviour and is often descriptive in nature.

In the case of this research, I observed first-hand, the arts and entertainment content of a sample of community newspapers distributed in the city in which I am based. The everyday

behaviour I studied – by asking particularly focused questions - included the newsroom practices which informed what was reported on, and how these arts and entertainment stories were reported on.

Arguing against the “quantitative logic” – that quantitative content analysis should be used to determine what is disseminated as news content – Tuchman (2002: 80) promotes taking a qualitative approach, emphasising that “what matters more is the context”. While data collection in qualitative research can be done through in-depth interviewing, document analysis and unstructured observation, many qualitative studies rely only on a single method of data collection – either interviews or analysis of documents (Jankowski & Wester, 2002: 59). For the purposes of this study, my qualitative research methods will include interviewing and document analysis, with the documents being the published arts and entertainment articles.

When it comes to writing up the findings of qualitative research, these reports can take one of three forms, including descriptive reports which make little or no reference to theoretical perspectives; analytical discussions which are based on the concepts emerging from the study; and substantive accounts which are intended to contribute to general theory (Jankowski & Wester, 2002: 69). While I will be working within the theoretical framework of normative functionalism, my research findings will be largely descriptive, but will include a discussion of the context which has contributed to how the arts and entertainment news are reported on.

Du Plooy (2009: 16-19) writes that while distinctions are made between qualitative and quantitative approaches to communication research, in practice, methods from both approaches are often used, and she recommends that when embarking on communication research, one ought to consider a mixture of approaches. Du Plooy (2009: 34) argues that if one considers communication to be a process during which meaning is shared, a quantitative approach alone is not able to research the “symbol systems” involved in communication.

Also in favour of using a mixed methodology are Onwuegbuzie and Leech (2005: 383) who write that the “inclusion of quantitative data can help compensate for the fact that

qualitative data typically cannot be generalised” and that combing the two techniques enables researchers to be more flexible in their investigative techniques. Furthermore, they note, neither quantitative not qualitative research is independent of the other, and neither is able to

encompass the whole research process and so it is essential to use both approaches if one is to gain a more complete understanding of the phenomena being studied (Onwuegbuzie & Leech, 2005: 380). Advocating for more of a focus to be placed on the similarities between

quantitative and qualitative research, rather than the differences between the two, they note that while quantitative researchers use statistical techniques and subjective inferences to interpret

data, and qualitative researchers use phenomenological procedures and their views of reality to discover meaning, they both have the same goal: to uncover meaning and provide explanations for their findings (2005: 379).

The differences and similarities between quantitative and qualitative approaches to research and arguments against or in favour of a mixed methodology approach, can, largely, also be applied to quantitative and qualitative methods of content analysis which have been employed in this study. In media studies quantitative content analysis collects data about media content but scholars are divided as to whether media content analysis is ideally quantitative only, or if both quantitative and qualitative approaches should be used when analysing media texts (McNamara, 2005: 4). Differentiating between the two approaches, Hancock and Algozinne (2006: 8) write that, in the case of quantitative research, the researcher prefers to remain “blind” in order to maintain objectivity while the goal of qualitative research is to understand the matter being investigated, from the participants’ perspective, with the researcher spending a lot of time in the environment of those (things) being studied. In favour of using a combination of the two methods, MacNamara argues that it is “too simplistic” to base findings and decisions on statistical content analysis and that:

The ideal approach is a combination of the two because the ultimate goal of analysing media content is the desire to understand deeper meaning of media content and their possible interpretations. (2005: 4-5)

While her work in the field of news media research promotes the use of a qualitative approach to communication studies, Tuchman puts the emphasis on matching the questions being investigated with the methods used, rather than focusing on choosing a particular research paradigm. She writes:

The old rule remains valid: the method one should choose when approaching any topic, including news, depends upon the question one wants to answer. (2002: 79).

Therefore, because my research questions, outlined in the section below, address questions which can be answered through quantitative research as well as questions which will be better answered through qualitative inquiry, I’ve decided to employ a mixed methodology approach to this study.