Qualitative Research Design – Qualitative Content Analysis (QCA)

Utilizing the data that were obtained from multiple sources, the study underpins the role of media in commodifying hijab as a common practice for material consumption and the root of Islamic cosmopolitanism in Malaysia. The homogeneity in the recursive images of the hijab through its representations by female Malay-Muslims in the media assumes that the hijab is a feasible identity for the ethnicity. In this light, the hijab fills the present gap of Muslimness as it represents their identity and helps Muslims stand out in a multicultural society. It assumes that due to this dominant representation of Malays, their persona is exclusive and distinctive from other, particularly among the affluent segment. Consequently, this denominates Malays as liberals, despite their bind to their Islamic faith. In this regard, the study intends to find how collective actions of female Malay-Muslims is relatable to the misogyny in the nation state, and how the stereotype of “hijabista” or “hijabster” is used to define this unique segment Malay-Muslim women and discriminate those who do not fit into this “prototype”; whilst conforming to the objectification of female bodies through the representation of modern hijab practices.

The study on the effects of communication and media in the past decades had commonly deployed approaches that quantify results of human behaviour through experiments and surveys. This is based on the belief that such approaches are efficient to prove or disprove assumptive hypotheses and determine external psychological causes of human interactions (Nabi & Oliver, 2009). According to Corman (2005, p. 21), the emerging post-positivist paradigm comprises of researchers who value a scientific approach to explaining social phenomena, and those who accept many of the criticisms of the different positivism. As a result, these researchers have developed positions that

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transcend them. In the meantime, postpositivist researchers rely on several premises, such as conceptualisation of phenomena and its verification, while intentionality and experience of social actors are used to explain the phenomena (Corman, 2005; Guba &

Lincoln, 1994). Moreover, other than searching for generative mechanisms for observed patterns that are interactive and evolving, the use of basic statistics can be reduced to maintain objectivity and to support a wider inference that is as neutral and unbiased (Ritchie & Lewis, 2003, pp18-19).

This present study adopted the qualitative methodology as a research design tool that involved a variety of empirical materials that highlight a “complex, holistic picture,” and refers to a dense narrative that includes the multiple dimensions of a problem and displays it in all of its complexity (Creswell 1998, p.17). Therefore, the qualitative content analysis (QCA) approach was adopted to conduct a more systematic and sophisticated analysis.

According to Schreier (2012), the QCA method addresses criticisms of the traditional analysis that was concentrated more on the practice of counting frequencies and describing them as statistics. Scholars argued that the implementation of QCA combines adherents of the quantitative and the qualitative research paradigm where QCA was relatively unknown and considered a “non-statistical analysis” (Mason, 2002; Silverman, 2000).

Several other authors describe QCA as a more organised “thematic coding” that still allows comparison and contrasting of data whilst also permitting the flow of theme and context for interpretation (Boyatzis, 1998; Saldana, 2009). Thus, the uniqueness of this new approach to content analysis is beneficial to novice researchers in helping to systemise their data findings and enables them to work on multiple modes of data simultaneously. Rather than waiting for concepts to emerge from analyses of the data that is practiced in phenomenological studies and grounded theory, predetermining the themes

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in the body work can help find the latent meaning that is manifested in the data based on the established categories.

The qualitative content analysis applied in this study uses the same technique, and at the same time, it explores new texts in multiple platforms. Previously, content analyses are performed in traditional media such as newspapers as elaborated by Schutt (2006, p.430). Scholars have challenged this outdated observation as qualitative content analyses can be potentially used beyond conventional media and have progressed beyond the analysis of hardcopy text. In this light , the perspective of “texts” have advanced into the social media realm, and therefore, online discussions are considered as public conversations that allow self-expression, similar to traditional content analysis (Adler &

Clark, 2011; Attwood, 2009; Donelle & Hoffman-Goetz, 2008; Harding, 2002).

Meanwhile, Howard (2002, p.555) criticised the overrepresentation of social media data and misinterpretation of content. Further to this, this study uses multiple sources of data and follows the recommendation by Patton (1992) to ensure the credibility through triangulation. It is believed that through the multiplicity of data, the study may have substantial evidence that can be explicitly interpreted based on a recursive process of analysis and enable fruitful useful scholarly critiques based on content selected and categories that are determined prior to the analyses. The steps of analyses will be further detailed in the following sections.

QCA can be compared to the process of Critical Discourse Analysis’ “multimodality”

of which makes the connections among all semiotic resources that allows comparisons of different media and discover various narratives that operate in cultural systems and local contexts of audiences (Page, 2010). The approach to CDA conceptualizes a three-dimensional view of discourse that includes analysis of text (spoken or written), discourse

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practices (process of text production and interpretation) and an analysis of the socio-cultural conditions that affect the production and interpretation of texts.

3.3.1 Triangulation in Analysis

Themes that emerged in the data obtained is deliberated in Chapter 4 where the materials coded are discussed and expanded. Then, discussions and conclusions were made with the aim to answer the research objectives set in Chapter 1. Multiple and varying sections of analyses were established to address the research questions through triangulation of data. The broad use of the term “triangulation” is defined by Moran-Ellis (2006) as the use of two or more different research methods allow a study to determine a more accurate measurement of a specific phenomenon. Moran-Ellis also stipulated that the integration of analyses identifies whether any of the research methods employed are flawed, hence increasing confidence in the convergent findings. In the field of social science, triangulation as explained allows methodological pluralism to create a strong foundation of an empirical research through the collection of different data sources, which were used to establish themes from different perspectives of participants; as opposed to mixed methods that tend to be used for researchers to examine different facets of the same phenomenon that comprises of epistemological chasm where quantitative tools deployed allow participants to adhere to a set of research protocols of positivism (Creswell, 2013;

Olsen, 2004).

In this study, the triangulation is shaped from various data sources, ranging from both traditional media, online discourses through the World Wide Web as well as personal communication from face-to-face interviews. The chapter details four datasets collected from different sources for the main body of research after the pilot study; which are fashion magazines, conversations in an online blog, narratives of an online opinion column, and interview transcripts. There were many similar thematic codes that were

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uncovered and some significantly overlapped with each other, hence their analyses can be interrelated. Consequently, the datasets of the study was put into a flow in the form of dialogues, where it can represent collective reactions to the phenomenon of the hijab.

At the same time, the coded data could be compartmentalised and deliberated on their own to illustrate the differences between media users and content producers, which provided a more in-depth look into the issues being studied. The use of these qualitative elements of triangulation encourages interactionism where it creates a new context when participants comply or expand on discussion of the phenomenon at hand. The tandem of deductive and inductive content analysis help organise and bring to light meanings from research that utilise this research design, as described by Elo & Kyngäs (2008) in their deliberation of the qualitative content analysis processes .

This chapter will explain how the aforementioned data were procured and interpreted to increase the credibility of the study. The methodology applied helps to explore the renewed, globalised identity of the hijab and its implications towards the Malay-Muslim.

With that in concern, the following sections detail each methods used in this pluralist approach.