Elaboration of Underpinning Methods and Data Analysis Process of Directed Qualitative Content Analysis for Communication Studies

Abstract

Directed qualitative content analysis (QCA) is a qualitative analysis method that has been recently explained and employed practically by a few researchers at the international level. They employed it deductively in most cases, primarily within qualitative research guidelines. In contrast to the inductive method, which starts with a general hypothesis and builds upon it as it gathers data, the deductive method, also known as the directed approach, researchers develop the categories and subcategories that guide their research based on an already established theory or theories. The present paper also explained this conceptual method in the context of the deductive approach. The purpose of deductive or directed QCA is to test, verify, or broaden the scope of the study’s underlying theory(s) by applying them to data collected from sources other than those directly relevant to its creation. Researchers employed deductive QCA in sixteen and seven steps in previous studies, respectively. Hence, this article proposes a four-step conceptual model deduced from the present researchers’ previous works and others’ previous studies to address the gaps above in the qualitative research tradition and achieve the same goals with the research data. We provide conceptual sample data in tables as examples for scholars interested in political communication who might use DQCA in their future studies.