Thematic analysis

While many ‘brand name’ qualitative research methods (e.g. interpretative phenomenological analysis or consensual qualitative research, as outlined by Elliott and Timulak, 2005) could be used to investigate restaurant criticism in Ireland, the thematic analysis method was chosen as a relatively straightforward descriptive and interpretative method suitable for this study. Thematic analysis is defined as “a method for identifying, analysing and reporting patterns (themes) within data” (Braun and Clarke, 2006, p.6). It involves several stages, including familiarising oneself with the data; generating initial codes; searching for themes; reviewing themes; defining and naming themes and producing the report (Braun and Clarke, 2006, pp.16-23). Thematic analysis offers the researcher flexibility and, through focusing on meaning across a data set, it allows the researcher “to see and make sense of collective or shared meanings and experiences” (Braun and Clarke, 2012, p.57).

3.3.1.1 The process

The initial stage of the thematic analysis involved selecting the sample. A pilot analysis was conducted to ascertain the time necessary to thematically analyse a single review. Following the pilot, the initial plan (to analyse all reviews selected for the quantitative analysis) was revised and a decision made to thematically analyse three reviews from one sample point (month) per year from the Irish Independent, the Irish Times, and the

Sunday Tribune. This sample was considered to be representative of restaurant reviews

from 1988 to 2008 and one which was achievable within the time frame. The month per year was alternated so that all 12 months of the year were included. In cases where a review was not available from a particular publication for a particular month, a review from the next available month was chosen. From 1991 through 1994, reviews in all three newspapers were irregular. In total, 55 reviews were thematically analysed.

The next stage of the thematic analysis involved reading through the data and generating initial codes. A deductive approach was taken to this process, which is an approach “driven by the researcher’s theoretical or analytic interest in the area, and [...]

thus more explicitly analyst-driven” (Braun and Clarke, 2006, p. 12). Informed by the literature review and the specific research questions, four domains of inquiry guided the theoretical thematic analysis.

These were:

 The critic’s function

 Changes in Irish food culture and restaurants

 Values prioritised by critics

 Economic references

While Braun and Clarke (2006) state that the deductive approach provides a less rich description of the date overall, it can also provide a more detailed analysis of some aspects of the data.

Coding was conducted by reading printouts of the reviews and subsequently colour coding them according to the domains of inquiry. A deductive approach meant that line- by-line coding was not conducted; rather, sections of the data that were relevant or were found to be interesting were coded. The coded data was then manually typed into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet under the appropriate domain heading. Bree and Gallagher (2016) have observed that this is a cost-effective approach to coding thematic analysis and that Microsoft Excel’s colour and sorting features is helpful for organising, coding, and classifying data.

The next stage of thematic analysis was the search for themes, whereby codes were combined to form one overarching theme. A theme, as defined by Braun and Clarke, “captures something important about the data in relation to the research question, and represents some level of patterned response or meaning within the data set (2006, p.10). Braun and Clarke (2006) also suggest that researcher judgement is necessary for determining what a theme, adding that how important a theme is considered to be is not necessarily quantifiable but can be judged in terms of whether it captures something important relating to the overall research question. For example, in the thematic analysis of reviews, the subject of Irish food preferences was less prevalent than references to a restaurant’s décor, but the former was deemed to be more relevant to the research question as to how restaurant reviews reflected a change in tastes. The subsequent stage

of thematic analysis was the reviewing of themes, an iterative process, and the defining and naming of themes. These themes were explored in the context of the literature review, and specifically, the framework used by Vincent (2018) that draws on the work of Warde (1997) and Johnston and Baumann (2015) was employed to explain some of the themes. The findings were also explored through the opinions expressed by Irish restaurant critics and a newspaper magazine editor.

3.3.2 Semi-structured interviews

This stage of the qualitative research included interviews with persons who played a significant role in the writing and commissioning of restaurant reviews between 1988 and 2008. This sampling was purposeful, as it involved the identification and selection of individuals who are knowledgeable about or experienced in the phenomenon of interest (Creswell and Plano Clark, 2011). They were also available and willing to participate, an important consideration, as noted by Bernard (2002).

The interview questions were informed by the four domains of inquiry established by the literature review and further informed by themes that emerged from the thematic analysis. Additional questions posed to the interviewees included:

 What was your brief?

 Did you have a budget?

 How were the restaurants selected?

 Did you visit an establishment more than once?

 What was your reviewing practice – did you take notes?

 On what criteria were you judging the restaurant?

 How often were you recognised?

 Did you have a particular reader in mind when you were writing the review?

 How would you describe the restaurant scene in Ireland at the time when you were writing or commissioning?

 How was the restaurant review column regarded by the newspaper you wrote for?

 Did you receive feedback from readers?

 What did you perceive your role to be?

The relatively small sample size allowed for in-depth perspectives from the interviewees. A reviewer from each of the three newspapers was identified, as well as a magazine editor from the Sunday Tribune, and contacted via email. With this cross- section of people working in the food media arena, it was hoped that their observations could provide richness to the thematic analysis results. Two interviews were conducted face-to-face; one by telephone and one interview was conducted via email due to the interviewee’s time constraints.

Semi-structured interviews see the researcher “relying on a certain set of questions and try[ing] to guide the conversation to remain, more loosely on those questions” (Hess- Biber and Leavy, 2011, p.102). However, as also noted by Hess-Biber and Leavy (2011), the semi-structured interview approach gives respondents the freedom to talk about what is of interest and importance to them. An interview guide was constructed in advance, detailing domains of inquiry. All respondents received an email brief as to the areas to be discussed, with one interviewee asking for a list of proposed questions to be sent in advance. The face-to-face interviews, which ranged in duration from one hour to 40 minutes, were recorded using an audio device and digitally transcribed later. They were subsequently coded according to the domains of inquiry established by the thematic analysis of the reviews and then analysed.

3.4 Data interpretation

This phase involved the synthesis of findings from both the qualitative data and the archival analysis and qualitative analysis of interviews, where the data is integrated into a coherent whole. The use of data from more than one source (i.e. archival and interviews) serves as a form of triangulation, thus contributing to the creditability of findings. Triangulation can also capture multiple perspectives on social reality (Hess- Biber and Leavy, 2011).

3.5 Limitations

The period under investigation spanned 21 years, as the researcher felt this represented an important era in Irish culinary history. However, as the researcher worked alone, it

was necessary to restrict the number of reviews analysed, as well as the number of interviewees. The gathering of data took a significant amount of time, since reviewers, the title given to a review, and frequency of publication changed over time, which meant that locating the reviews was not a straightforward process. Because the Sunday

Tribune reviews are not archived digitally, and because access to them was restricted to

only being allowed to view a small number of months’ publications at any given time at the National Library of Ireland, this added a significant length of time to the data collection process. Although the majority of Irish Independent and Irish Times reviews were available online, during the period when weekend magazine supplements were introduced, some of these reviews were only available in the National Library of Ireland. While snowball sampling indicated that interviews with other restaurant critics and editors would enhance this study, time constraints resulted in the number of interviews restricted to four in total.

3.6 Philosophical underpinnings

While a quantitative approach is associated with positivist paradigm beliefs and a qualitative approach with a constructivist paradigm position, these relationships are not fixed (Bryman, 2004). The pragmatic paradigm links the choice of approach directly to the purpose of and the nature of the research questions posed (Creswell, 2003). It uses both quantitative and qualitative data because they can help provide the best understanding of a research problem. According to Creswell and Creswell (2018, p.10), the pragmatist “is not committed to any one system of philosophy and reality. This applies to mixed methods research in that inquirers draw liberally from both quantitative and qualitative assumptions when they engage in their research”. The authors also state that pragmatic researchers look to the what and how of research based on the intended consequences (Creswell and Creswell, 2018). In this study, a pragmatic paradigm was utilised because the quantitative data allows changes to the format and layout of restaurant reviews to be counted over time. As such, the qualitative data with its constructivist standpoint understands that the meaning of phenomena is formed though participants and their subjective world views (Creswell and Creswell, 2018, p.36).

Chapter 4: Presentation of Findings