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Choosing Units of Analysis in Temporal Discourse

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Advances in Quantitative Ethnography (ICQE 2021)

Part of the book series: Communications in Computer and Information Science ((CCIS,volume 1522))

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Abstract

Despite the promise of quantitative ethnographic approaches for visualizing the trajectories of change over time (temporal analysis) further work is needed to develop strategies for accurately representing phenomena. This holds especially true for identifying the relational context of discourse, which includes the creation of time units that group lines of data for the purpose of interpretation. While in-depth interpretive review of discourse may serve as the ‘gold standard’ for identification of thematic time units, this approach is tedious and may not be appropriate for larger datasets. Incremental approaches, such as creating a new unit for every ten lines of chronological data, are functional for larger datasets, but may lack nuance. This work introduces the Knowledge Building Discourse Explorer (KBDeX), which computationally identifies relational units using socio-semantic network analysis, allowing for the identification of time units based on characteristics of the discourse that can be systematically applied to larger datasets. To examine the utility of each approach, epistemic networks of COVID-19 press releases from seven countries were created with time units derived from the incremental and computational approaches, which were then compared to the interpretive approach. Results indicated that KBDeX and incremental network means were closer to the ‘gold standard’ interpretive approach in some instances. Two countries’ trajectories are examined in greater depth to understand when each approach might be most appropriate. The work concludes with a discussion of the affordances and constraints of each approach, and contexts in which they may be useful.

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Acknowledgements

Thank you to the organizers of the ICQE data challenges for connecting the team of authors on this project, and for facilitating our continued collaboration in this research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Drexel University, Philadelphia, USA

    Amanda Barany

  2. Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

    Michael Philips

  3. Shizuoka University, Shizuoka, Japan

    Anthony J. Taiki Kawakubo & Jun Oshima

Authors
  1. Amanda Barany
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  2. Michael Philips
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  3. Anthony J. Taiki Kawakubo
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  4. Jun Oshima
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Amanda Barany .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway

    Barbara Wasson

  2. Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary

    Szilvia Zörgő

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Barany, A., Philips, M., Kawakubo, A.J.T., Oshima, J. (2022). Choosing Units of Analysis in Temporal Discourse. In: Wasson, B., Zörgő, S. (eds) Advances in Quantitative Ethnography. ICQE 2021. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 1522. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-93859-8_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-93859-8_6

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-93858-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-93859-8

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