The article presents discourse analysis as a method of analyzing qualitative interview data. Using examples from a study of users' library conceptions, it is argued that participants' interpretations are much more context dependent and variable than normally recognized, and that this has important implications for the use of interview data. Instead of producing definitive versions of participants' action or beliefs, interview data may be used to reveal regular interpretative practices through which participants construct versions of actions, cognitive processes, and other phenomena. This method does not take the individual as the principal unit of analysis, but strives to recognize cultural regularities in participants' accounts to examine the phenomena studied at a macrosociologic level.
CITATION STYLE
Talja, S. (1999). Analyzing qualitative interview data: The discourse analytic method. Library and Information Science Research, 21(4), 459–477. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0740-8188(99)00024-9
Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.