Qualitative data analysis with hypertext: A case of New York City crack dealers |
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Authors: | Ali Manwar PhD Bruce D Johnson Eloise Dunlap |
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Institution: | (1) National Development and Research Institutes, Inc., 11 Beach Street, 10013 New York, NY |
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Abstract: | Ethnography has become a useful method in procuring sensitive information from the ‘hidden population’ who may not be accessed
with quantitative survey techniques. Researchers are generating huge amounts of qualitative/textual data. Qualitative data
require careful planning in storage, coding, retrieval, and analysis. Personal computers have solved data management problems,
but data analysis remains problematic. The paper describes some qualitative data management and analytic problems faced by
a team of ethnographers engaged in a longitudinal epidemiological study of cocaine and crack distribution/abuse in New York
City. Ethnographic data was collected through multi-session open-ended interviews with more than one hundred cocaine/crack
dealers and extensive field-notes were kept. Compared to other programs, a hypertext software — Folio Views — was more useful
in solving (a) data management and (b) analytical problems. Authors used this software to handle more than twenty-five thousand
pages of texts; search and sort the database by any words or codes; and retrieve relevant textual materials needed to complete
comparative and thematic analysis. Authors analyzed the data from outsiders’ point of view (etic) as well as from the viewpoint
of the subject populations (emic). |
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Keywords: | ethnography hypertext drug abuse crack |
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