Critically assessing digital documents: materiality and the interpretative role of software

Allen-Robertson, James

doi:10.1080/1369118x.2017.1351575

Cited by 6 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 46 publications

(43 reference statements)

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“…People nowadays can convey information and broadcast live through Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter and others. Thus, this is in line with Allen-Robertson (2018, p. 1738 explores that digitization projects offer people with a comparative description of the ways in which the material form might impact on the range of interpretative affordances, not necessarily as a 'loss' but a shift in the interpretative possibility afforded.…”

Section: Millennial Erasupporting

confidence: 69%

The Hadith Digitization in Millennial Era: A Study at Center for Hadith Studies, Indonesia

Istianah

Wahyuningsih

2019

Qijis

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<p><em>The millennial era has been initially marked by the development of information technology. This article mainly explores the opportunities and challenges of digitizing hadith in the millennial era. This study belongs to a descriptive qualitative method. In-depth interviews with the Programmers of the Center for the study of Hadith in Jakarta, observation and documentation were conducted to gather data. The result reveals that digitizing the books of hadith provides an opportunity for everyone to access the books of hadith by downloading the hadith digitization application freely. Therefore, people can access the hadith books in both PDF and digital formats. On the contrary, it may lead to academic anxiety or challenges. This is because the hadith books in both PDF and digital formats can be deliberately changed by irresponsible people so that the authenticity of the information and the accuracy of the data will be questionable. Further, this tendency could be misused by certain people, by changing its contents and then disseminating it for the certain purposes. Regarding this, one of the ways to overcome this is by maintaining its authenticity, updating the content, and adding the copyright to the data source reference using the source check method.</em></p>

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Section: Millennial Erasupporting

confidence: 69%

The Hadith Digitization in Millennial Era: A Study at Center for Hadith Studies, Indonesia

Istianah

Wahyuningsih

2019

Qijis

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“…Conspicuously absent in the articles reviewed—other than a few articles that analysed medical school webpages—digital documents have been extolled by many as the future of documentary research because of the opportunities they offer. However, digital documents ‘are highly mediated objects with a materiality that plays a significant, if often unseen contributory role in the interpretative process’ (p. 1743) 64 . Recognising that digital documents are different from print documents allows us to ask about the ‘consequences of form’ (p. 96) 65 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, digital documents 'are highly mediated objects with a materiality that plays a significant, if often unseen contributory role in the interpretative process' (p. 1743). 64 Recognising that digital documents are different from print documents allows us to ask about the 'consequences of form' (p. 96). 65 If the medium is important, those working with documents need to consider 'the ontological status of digital text … that will ground future work discussing the specific analytical affordances offered by digital texts' (p. 78).…”

Section: What Guidelines or Standards Are Needed To Strengthen Da Pra...mentioning

confidence: 99%

CARDA: Guiding document analyses in health professions education research

2022

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Introduction Documents, from policies and procedures to curriculum maps and examination papers, structure the everyday experiences of health professions education (HPE), and as such can provide a wealth of empirical information. Document analysis (DA) is an umbrella term for a range of systematic research procedures that use documents as data. Methods A meta‐study review was conducted with the aims of describing the current state of DA in HPE, guiding researchers engaging in DA and improving methodological, analytical and reporting rigour. Structured searches were conducted, returns were filtered for inclusion and the 115 remaining articles were critically analysed for their use of DA methods and methodologies. Results There was a significant increase in the number of articles reporting the use of DA over time. Sixty‐three articles were single method (DA only), while the others were mixed methods research (MMR). Overall, there were major lacunae in terms of why documents were used, how documents were identified, what the authors did and what they found from the documents. This was particularly apparent in MMR where DA reporting was typically poorer than the reporting of other methods in the same paper. Discussion Given these many lacunae, a framework for reporting on DA research was developed to facilitate rigorous DA research and transparent, complete and accurate reporting of the same, to help readers assess the trustworthiness of the findings from document use and analysis in HPE and, potentially, other domains. It was also noted that there are gaps in HPE knowledge that could be addressed through DA, particularly where documents are conceptualised as more than passive holders of information. Scholars are encouraged to reflect more deeply on the applications and practices of DA, with the ultimate aim of ensuring more substantive and more rigorous use of documents for understanding and constructing meaning in our field.

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“…As pointed out by Allen-Robertson, digital documents "arise and persist as signals confined within software and hardware assemblages" (2017, p. 1733). Only the "increasingly userfriendly software that express and mimic the typographic conventions of print culture" (Allen-Robertson, 2018, p. 1733) establishes a familiarity between the user and the document while the digital technologies behind remain "enigmatic black boxes for most researchers working in the field of philology and textual criticism" (Appollon et al, 2014, p. 1). Therefore many scholars in the humanities can only relate to and analyze what we can experience and observe on screen level, even if we are aware of the fact that digital documents only are able to "mimic prior forms [.…”

Section: Digital Documents and A New Awareness Of Materialitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“….] because software has interpreted the data into such a form" (Allen-Robertson, 2018, p. 1738. Although the computational turn in the humanities has led to more interdisciplinary work combining "insights and methods from computer science with methods, questions and theories from the humanities" (Berry and Fagerjord, 2017, p. 26), much scholarly work in the humanities is still done in a more traditional way with close reading of a limited number of textsprinted or electronicas a core method.…”

Section: Digital Documents and A New Awareness Of Materialitymentioning

confidence: 99%

The paratext of digital documents

Skare

2020

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PurposeThe purpose of this study is to provide a discussion on how to apply Genette's concept of the paratext to analyze digital documents. The article argues that the concept, despite its shortcomings, is useful because it gives us the terminology to analyze elements often ignored and overlooked.Design/methodology/approachBy taking Gérard Genette's concept of the paratext as point of departure, the paper focuses on three controversial issues in the scholarly work about paratext and digital documents: the division of paratext into peritext and epitext, the explosive growth of paratext and the question of authorization of text and paratext.FindingsQuestions related to the spatial division of the paratext into peritext and epitext, the difficulty of where to draw the line between text and paratext and the question of authorization are not new for digital documents but did already occur in the analog world. Even if many decisions like what to include and what to exclude in an analysis are left to the researcher, this does not mean that Genette's concept is unsuitable for digital documents. On the contrary, the concept gives us the terminology to analyze elements of often ignored and overlooked, also for digital documents.Research limitations/implicationsAs a scholar in the humanities the author can only relate to and therefore analyze what the author can experience and observe on screen level.Originality/valueIn providing a discussion of digital documents and some of the controversial issues discussed by other researchers, this article shows the relevance of Genette's concept, also for our work with digital documents.

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Critically assessing digital documents: materiality and the interpretative role of software

Cited by 6 publications

References 46 publications

The Hadith Digitization in Millennial Era: A Study at Center for Hadith Studies, Indonesia

The Hadith Digitization in Millennial Era: A Study at Center for Hadith Studies, Indonesia

CARDA: Guiding document analyses in health professions education research

The paratext of digital documents

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