Collecting Qualitative Data
A Practical Guide to Textual, Media and Virtual Techniques

A practical and accessible guide to new and exciting types of qualitative data, and modes of qualitative data collection.

Virginia Braun (Edited by), Victoria Clarke (Edited by), Debra Gray (Edited by)

9781107054974, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 19 October 2017

354 pages, 12 b/w illus. 7 tables
23.5 x 15.7 x 2 cm, 0.7 kg

'With classic brilliance and creativity, Braun, Clarke and Gray have curated an intellectually exciting, thoroughly accessible and methodologically expansive 'field guide' to the practice of collecting qualitative data. The volume is a luscious invitation to new platforms for qualitative inquiry, advancing the landscape of research into the realms of internet, talk radio, online focus groups, diaries and blog based research.' Michelle Fine, Distinguished Professor of Critical Psychology, Graduate Center of the City University of New York

Is there more to qualitative data collection than face-to-face interviews? Answering with a resounding 'yes', this book introduces the reader to a wide array of exciting and novel techniques for collecting qualitative data in the social and health sciences. Collecting Qualitative Data offers a practical and accessible guide to textual, media and virtual methods currently under-utilised within qualitative research. Contributors from a range of disciplines share their experiences of implementing a particular technique, provide step-by-step guidance to using that approach, and highlight both the potential and pitfalls. From gathering blog data to the story completion method to conducting focus groups online, the methods and data types featured in this book are ideally suited to student projects and other time- and resource-limited research. In presenting several innovative ways that data can be collected, new modes of scholarship and new research orientations are opened up to student researchers and established scholars alike.

1. Collecting textual, media and virtual data in qualitative research Virginia Braun, Victoria Clarke and Debra Gray
Part I. Textual Data Collection: 2. Short but often sweet: the surprising potential of qualitative survey methods Gareth Terry and Virginia Braun
3. Once upon a time…: story completion methods Victoria Clarke, Nikki Hayfield, Naomi Moller, Irmgard Tischner and the Story Completion Research Group
4. Hypothetically speaking: using vignettes as a stand-alone qualitative method Debra Gray, Bronwen Royall and Helen Malson
5. 'Coughing everything out': the solicited diary method Paula Meth
Part II. Media Data Collection: 6. Making media data: an introduction to qualitative media research Laura García-Favaro, Rosalind Gill and Laura Harvey
7. 'God's great leveller': talkback radio as qualitative data Scott Hanson-Easey and Martha Augoustinos
8. Archives of everyday life: using blogs in research Nicholas Hookway
9. Online discussion forums: a rich and vibrant source of data David Giles
Part III. Virtual Data Collection: 10. 'Type me your answer': generating interview data via email Lucy Gibson
11. A productive chat: instant messaging interviewing Pamela J. Lannutti
12. I'm not with you, yet I am… virtual face-to-face interviews Paul Hanna and Shadreck Mwale
13. Meeting in virtual spaces: conducting online focus groups Fiona Fox.

Subject Areas: Psychology [JM], Crime & criminology [JKV], Sociology [JHB], Research methods: general [GPS]