A Grounded Theory and Sentiment Analysis approach were both considered, but neither of these approaches were appropriate for this particular research. Instead, a Template
Analysis as outlined by King (King, 2004, Symon & Cassell, 2012, Brooks, et al., 2015) was chosen to analyze the units of analysis. Template analysis is a type of thematic analysis and is explained by Brooks, et al., (2015) as a form of analysis that:
“.... emphasises the use of hierarchical coding but balances a relatively high degree of structure in the process of analysing textual data with the flexibility to adapt it to the needs of a particular study.” (p. 203)
Consideration was taken to find a method of analysis that had a high degree of structure during the analyses of text. King (2004) argues that although template analysis makes use of codes and coding of data, it is ‘not as prescriptive as Grounded Theory and does not follow its realist methodology’. The usefulness of template analysis is that it can be ‘used within a range of epistemological positions’ (King, 2004).
The main issue finding a suitable method of analysis was that it needed to also be flexible to accommodate this thesis, considering previous studies were largely quantitative in nature and previous approaches in frame theory and MFT theory were not suitable. Template analysis was a suitable approach for analysing newspaper textual content because it focuses on a mixture of having both descriptive and interpretive aspects to the coding of the data (King, 2004). In other words, the findings of this research were not solely describing listed codes -- but rather -- how the codes were interpreted, and how they answered the research questions.
3.3.1 Epistemological Approach of Template Analysis for This Thesis
As outlined by Brooks, et al., (2015) template analysis can be taken from a ‘contextual constructivist position’, meaning, researchers assume there are ‘multiple and polysemic meanings to be made from textual data.’ The same approach will be used in this thesis.
However, to maintain the template and results’ quality, audits were conducted as the data was coded and when the template was refined. These audits were included in the appendix in section 8.1 and 8.2.
3.3.2 Defining Codes and Themes
A code is a piece of text that is indexed due to its relatedness to a theme which a researcher interprets as important and it is also a process to transform textual data into a standardised form (King, 2004, Babbie, 2015). In thematic analysis, codes are representative of themes. Themes are defined by Braun & Clarke (2006) as ‘representing a patterned meaning in data’ and codes capture important information that is relevant to the data and research questions. Symon & Cassell (2012) define themes further as being ‘repetitive and not simply isolated phenomenon and also being distinct enough from each other with some overlap, but not too much.’
3.3.3 Priori Codes
Many codes and themes were found throughout the coding phase, but priori codes were also included. As a deductive template analysis, priori codes were included because these codes were deduced from previous literature. Some priori codes -- which can all be found in the appendix (section 9.3) -- included:
1. Partisan Newspapers 1.1. Liberal 1.2. Conservative 1.3. Neutral
2. Reasons School Shooting 2.1. Video Games 2.2. Guns (NRA) 2.3. Mental Health 2.4. Society 2.5. Parents
Template analysis is a mixture of bottom up (IPA & Grounded Theory through exploratory means to analyze data) and top bottom (Matrix analysis & framework analysis using prior theories to guide research) because it allowed this research to adopt priori codes and themes -- or themes and codes that are derived from previous research that can aid in current research -- while also allowing this research to discover new codes and themes (Symon, & Cassell, 2012). While these priori themes and codes were useful, they were also not fixed. Symon, & Cassell (2012) explain the flexibility of Template analysis allows for the
‘deletion of priori codes and initial codes and the scope can be changed if a code is too narrowly or broadly defined and it can be it can be re-defined.’
3.3.4 Processes of Template Analysis
The process of performing a template analysis differs from thematic analysis. Fereday &
Muir-Cochrane’s (2006) process outlined six stages for their thematic analysis that share and differentiate certain steps with template analysis. Rather than focusing on developing a code
book to rely on throughout the entire process of coding, template analysis instead relies on creating initial templates that evolve as more data sets are coded. This will be explained below by Brooks, et al (2015) in six steps that this study used to code the data.
1. Become familiar with the unit of analysis; which in this study, was sentences, paragraphs, and entire reports. This leads into the second step.
2. Perform a preliminary coding of the newspapers. This is done to highlight parts of the text that will contribute to understanding how video games are blamed as reasons in the data. Priori codes can be included.
3. With emerging themes, organize them. The organization of themes were placed in a hierarchy. This hierarchy allowed this study to analyze texts in different levels of specificity by organization themes in a lateral manner to showcase links between themes and also allowed for the distinction between main themes, sub-themes. This hierarchy of themes was also used to present the data in the findings, results, and discussion (Fereday & Muir-Cochrane, 2006, Symon & Cassel, 2012).
4. Once the initial coding was completed, the template was defined. Deciding when a template can be defined depends on the data, and how long it will take to find a subset of themes that best capture the issue of the study in the data takes time.
5. The template was modified through applying the initial template to further data. New data was examined from the data-set and pinpointing where themes fit and do not fit resulted in the modification of the template. The modifications were not made until at least several units of analysis had been examined to justify reorganization of the template. Overall, these modifications served to enrich the template to accommodate new insights and was an ongoing process of analysis that differed from other thematic analysis techniques (Fereday & Muir-Cochrane, 2006) that prescribed a fully formed
codebook before the entire data set could be analysed. While it is important to form an initial template to further analyze the data, the template is formed throughout the process of coding all of the data.
6. Once the template became comprehensive, it was applied it to the full data set to further refine the template and to ensure all themes were relevant. Once the template reflected the full data set and explained the meaning of the data to answer research questions, the template was then analyzed further for results and discussion. It is important to note that King (2004), Symon & Cassell,2012, and Brooks, et al., (2015) all state that judging whether a template is the final version is difficult and researchers will usually come to the decision that their template is finished because it is sufficient to answer their research questions and when there is no longer any ‘substantial
sections of data are relevant, but cannot be coded’. The data was eventually exhausted and two comprehensive templates were formed, and the findings and results were then formulized and written.
3.3.4 Coding Audits
An essential part of coding is auditing. The data has to be exhausted before it can be analysed. Part of coding and forming templates was analysing and coding at the same and refining codes to both be representative of the data and answer the research questions. The coding process took one month of reading and the data was eventually exhausted for relevant information for further codes that were related to this study
The first codebook was an amalgamation of codes found through exploration of the datasets. Rather than limit the focus of the study through selective coding, a wider spectrum was chosen to allow a more holistic understanding to prevail. A total of 66 codes were found across liberal, conservative and neutral newspaper reporting. This codebook best represents
the first attempt at making a template for both the school shootings. In later codebooks, partial and full reasons were combined. The reasoning for this will be explained below. As a side note, the codebooks found in section 8.1 used denotations such as: (C) denotes
Columbine, while a (SH) denotes Sandy Hook. The first audit of the codebook resulted in the first initial codebook, as seen in section 8.1.1.
The second codebook audit focused the study further. After coding the entire dataset again and attempting to form themes in a template, it was found that certain codes were not relevant to 1) the research questions and 2) and were not relevant because they were not referenced enough. As such, the following edits to the codebook were made (mainly reducing codes, and putting codes together to create greater society and local community) in section 8.1.2. This codebook best represents the second attempt at creating a template in section 8.2.3
A third codebook audit was finalized after a final audit. In this finalized version, partial and focused reasons were removed in place of a general reason. This was because the differences between partial and focused reasons were not significant enough and did not add anything to answering the research question or gave a better understanding of the data. As such, partial and focused reasons were combined and explained to a degree in the findings..
Of the original 66 codes found, only 25% of them were used in the final codebook and template (17).
The codebook and templates were formed simultaneously and were crafted over time.
This had the benefit of creating a template that best emulated the codebook while it was being crafted. By coding and forming a template at the same time, they were interlinked at each audit.
3.3.4 Template Audits
Keeping in line with King (2004, 2015), template audits were conducted. These audits were conducted to ensure that the template best exemplified the coded data, while also being useful to answer research questions.
As the codebook became more refined through rereading datasets and putting codes into themes, and deleting and adding codes, so too did the template change. There were three major stages of template audits and they are found below.
The first template that was formed had four themes, namely; Video Game Secondary Reporting, Video Game Primary Reporting, Other Reasons for the School Shooting,
Defending Reasons. Two templates were formed, not one. This was because a single template with the information from five newspapers across two time periods was too complex and would be difficult to understand. Instead, the template was broken into two parts; 1) The Columbine reporting and 2) The Sandy Hook reporting. This allowed Columbine and Sandy Hook datasets to be researched separately to answer the research questions and for them also to be more easily compared and contrasted to answer research questions. This is shown in section 8.2.1 of the appendix.
This first initial template was found to be too confusing. The codes under the themes were very general, and were not descriptive of what information for liberal and conservative newspapers was most relevant and salient. To help showcase in the template the differences across liberal and conservative reporting, the template was refined further by the importance of codes through the process of picking codes with the highest amount of references and relevancy to answering the research questions, while codes with the lowest references and relevancy were removed.
The second audit led to the template being more refined and mirrored the coded data in terms of taking the number of coding references and their context into the process of forming
the template. The themes were broken into four main groups and were given more in-depth summaries.
1. Video Game Secondary Reporting - This theme was placed as the most important part of the template because it is the most relevant information needed for this study to answer research questions. The reporting was broken into partial and full reasons.
Partial reasons were relevant because video games were not seen as the sole reason for the school shootings, but simply a factor among many. Being placed as the full reason for school shootings was uncommon and was only present in mostly conservative newspaper reporting.
2. Significant Secondary Reporting - Understanding how newspapers reported on video games was not enough to answer the research questions. Considering video games were seen as one factor among many as to why school shootings may occur, it was essential to explain what other significant reasons were reported to have been a reason for the school shooting.
3. Minor Reasons - Outside of video games, and other significant reasons for school shootings, there were other minor reasons listed as perhaps leading to school shootings, and it was important to understand them.
4. Defending reasons - Some reasons such as video games and guns were defended from being reasons for school shootings.
Defending reasons were found to be important in the template hierarchy because they offered an insight into which reasons both partisan views deemed defendable in their
reporting. While showcasing how partisan newspapers report on video games is important, it is also essential to show what it is they defend as well. Significant secondary reporting and minor reasons were not as relevant as defending reasons and this was taken into account for the second audit outcome for the templates.
The second audit in section 8.2.3 of the appendix shows the template in a more holistic sense. As stated before, the importance of Defended reasons was taken into account. Also taken into account was that the number of references of particular sections of the template were not substantial enough to be mentioned, and because they were not necessary for the research questions, they were removed. After reviewing the second audit and refining the codebook, a final audit was performed.
The final audit, found in section 8.2.4 of the appendix shows the finished template. The Columbine and Sandy Hook templates were both refined further by removing sections that, although relevant for context building and understanding the general news reporting behind video games, were not necessary for answering the research question and were not referenced enough to become relevant. As such, the final audit gave the finalized template.
The audits were a time-consuming part of the thesis and this summarized section only accounts for the basic outcomes of the audits. Performing audits takes time, concentration, and an in-depth understanding of the documents being researched. Audits cannot be rushed and take time to form.