6.2 Core Section two: Data collection


Generally speaking, if you wish to analyse discourse relating to a particular topic, then you can always seek to generate relevant data by interviewing people. However, if you wish to use naturally occurring discourse, then you need to find appropriate material. In the case of published texts, there are plenty from which to choose.

There are millions of books, pamphlets and periodicals such as newspapers, magazines, scientific and academic journals, including those relating to your own particular subject area. However, before you can begin, you need to know what you are looking for. Which texts are most appropriate for your analysis depends upon your research question.

For example, Wallwork and Dixon (2004) were interested in the rhetoric of nationalism, particularly in how it was tied to specific notions of place (such as rural Britain). In order to find appropriate data, they examined the discourse surrounding a particular event (a march, organized in 1998 by the Countryside Alliance, as a protest to a government proposal to ban fox hunting). They then searched in periodicals where they expected to find the event discussed in ways that included references to rural and national identity (not only certain newspapers, but also magazines aimed at a rural readership). For example, here is an extract from The Field (a hunting and shooting journal):
Text 3: from Wallwork and Dixon (2004)

‘If they do not come [the marchers], we will become like Holland, whose urban population has so distorted its society that it is not done to hunt, rear game, or shoot purpose-bred quarry species. Those that do are reviled, their children bullied. It is legal to smoke cannabis openly, prostitutes sit naked in shop windows. The way we are heading mirrors this’.



From reading the extract, you can see how this particular event (the march) is described in ways that link rural and national concerns: ‘we’ is contrasted with ‘Holland, whose urban population has distorted society’. The ‘distortion’ of Dutch ‘society’ by the ‘urban population’ is clearly described in a way that represents a possible undesirable future, where ‘we’ do not want to ‘head’.

In terms of data collection, then, you need to think about where appropriate discourse might be found. By identifying people, objects or events (relevant to your research question) and relevant publications (in which they are discussed), you can find appropriate data.