There are two different ways to approach my methods: through a thematic analysis, or through a content analysis. Now a thematic analysis is qualitative, whereas a content analysis is quantitative. I decided that the best way to use mixed methods, combining both a content analysis and a thematic analysis. Collecting my data for my thematic analysis would consist of me taking detailed notes on plot, dialogue and character changes between dubbed and subbed versions of an anime. The next part of the thematic analysis would be me using the data I collected to come up with themes and changes in complexity of the anime. In the content analysis, I would code for the number of the changes and the trends in what types of changes are most common when an anime is Americanized.
I am certain that I am going to use the thematic analysis in my methods. However, I am not so certain on whether or not I should use a content analysis. First of all, since I am doing more of an exploratory research project, I can not code for the themes that are changed, until after I do my thematic analysis. This could take up a lot of time, so to make it feasible I would have to limit the number of anime episodes I could analyze.
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| Doing some seriously deep thinking. |
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Gursajan! I love your project. Because I had a similar choice to make, I understand where you are coming from. I think that in your case, a thematic analysis would be better, especially since you don't have a clear idea of what you are coding for. That being said, your thematic analysis will need a lot of content as evidence for the argument you make about the themes and trends. So, you will still be analyzing the content just not in a quantitative way. Again, since you are exploring for changes, it would be hard to have direction in your coding without having so many different (and possibly unrelated) topics. Do you have concerns with how many themes you will be able to discuss? Do you think you will pull out the biggest more prevalent ones? Or the most contradictory?
ReplyDeleteGursajan -- I think that in terms of choosing whether or not to include a content analysis, you'll need to think about what extra information the content analysis will provide that would help you in answering your question. If a validity concern of yours is subjectivity, and you think that a content analysis will help bolster validity and credibility, it may be well worth your time. Also, considering that the coding for the content analysis will be based off of an analysis you've already done, it's likely that it'll be a little more streamlined than the thematic analysis.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Grace in that a thematic analysis would be more beneficial and reveal more about the anime you are studying. With a thematic analysis you will need to keep detailed notes and comment about each scene/show/movie. How are you going to limit the number of theme you are looking at? Are you only going to pick specific types? Also how are you going to organize this data? A content analysis would be beneficial to help with your thematic analysis as it would help prove your credibility. You can cut down on the amount of specific content you are looking for by narrowing in on the types of themes you are looking for and using previous research in the field to show what types of content you are looking for. You are doing analyzing and I can't wait to see how this project turns out.
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