Trends in Qualitative Research Methods in Journalism Studies Articles over Time

The fourth speaker in this session at the ICA 2024 conference is Michael Dieringer, with yet another systematic review of the journalism studies literature, focussing here especially on epistemological and methodological approaches and trends specifically in qualitative journalism research work over time. Such shifts reflect the key issues of the time, as well as fashions in research approaches.

The most common perspective that this study found was a sociological perspective, followed by an implicit use of grounded theory approaches. Articles that did not directly use a theoretical framework often developed one of their own, drawing on a multi-stakeholder approach. Discourse, textual, and thematic analysis was frequently used, but often ad hoc and without a firm analytical framework. Interviews and content analysis were common, but digital ethnography was very rare.

Computational methods were sometimes used for data gathering, but the research remained qualitative and interpretive; the use of qualitative data analysis software was not always explicitly stated. Many articles claimed some form of innovation in their conceptual frameworks, but this was not usually matched by innovation in their methodological approaches – methodology appears to remain stagnant in qualitative journalism research.

Epistemological orientation was often not explicitly stated, and this might affect the correct future use of such research by others. It challenges the transparency and validity of this work, and opens the door to misinterpretation.