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The data was examined by using a combination of thematic and content analysis techniques. Content analysis reduced the information for analysis. According to Rabiee, content analysis is a precise type of research device; however, it has many similarities to different kinds of research tools (Rabiee, 2004). It has the same stages as any other research project and Krippendorff (2004:83) identifies the stages as the following:

• Data making

• Data reduction

• Inference

• Analysis

• Validation

• Testing for correspondence with other methods and testing hypotheses regarding other data.

This particular research project used inductive analysis. Inductive analysis is a process of coding the data with trying to make it fit into a preceding coding frame or the analytic preconceptions of the researcher. However, Braun and Clarke (2006) state that a more explicitly analytic approach is theoretical thematic analysis.

Choosing between inductive and theoretical depends on the how and why of the coding.

Figure 4.2 Key features of coding (Adapted from Joffe & Yardley, 2004:63)

4.6.1 Thematic coding

The data collected from the pilot focus group discussion provided information about challenges and factors that could affect the other groups. The main data collection techniques used in this research study was semi-structured group discussion and followed by semi-structured interviews.

Figure 4.3 the Data Analysis Process (Adapted from Seidel, 1998:2)

The researcher makes notes, listens and asks questions in order to attain the participant’s thoughts about what they are viewing. Once the data is collected, the next step will be to sort the information into categories. The objective of the categorisation will be to identify any patterns representing concepts the participants denoted during the data collection phase.

Coding involves noting patterns in the data and labelling these patterns to allow distinctions to be drawn and research questions to be answered.

The researcher must decide whether to code manifest or latent themes, using deductive or inductive coding categories.

As coding progresses, categories are refined by splitting, splicing and linking codes.

The codes are described in a coding frame, which should list their labels, detailed definitions, and one or two example text segments.

Checking the inter-rater reliability of coding ensures that coding decisions are made explicit and consistent.

4.6.2 Explanation-building

This study made use of a semiotic analysis approach within the thematic and content analysis framework. This allowed the research to answer the question of representation, the and how and why an image created meaning and what the

“hidden meanings” of the images were (the ideas, values that the people, places and things in the images represented).

The first step is examining the first layer of denotation (i.e. what or who is depicted).

The second step is moving on to the second layer of connotation (what ideas or values are expressed or represented) (Kress & Van Leeuwen, 2001). The explanation of the data relies heavily on the study’s theoretical framework. Thematic analysis encodes qualitative information. The coding process requires the use of an explicit

“code” for encoding information. Codes may consist of a list of themes, qualifications that are casually related, indicators or a complex model of themes.

Patterns found in the information that organise possible observations or interpret aspects of a phenomenon are known as themes. Themes emerge two ways, (1) deductively generated from prior research (theory), or (2) inductively generated from the raw data. The collation of a number of codes integrated into a study is a codebook (Boytzis, 1998: 291). The advantages of thematic coding are flexibility; it is accessible to researcher with little or no experience of qualitative research and it is a useful method for working with participants as collaborators, within the participatory paradigm. It can summarise key features of a large body of data and can create unanticipated insights. (Braun & Clarke, 2006:37).

Content analysis is “the primary method of obtaining information from responses to

“unstructured” or “open-ended” questions. Therefore, interviews are used in many kinds of research, including communications research, cross-cultural research, life history research, and narrative analysis” (Smith, 2000:317).

By means of content analysis, a large body of qualitative information reduces to a smaller and more manageable form of representation. According to Smith, a content analysis research approach typically involves the following steps described. He also notes that even though the steps are in sequence, they may overlap run concurrently (Smith, 2000:318).

Figure 4.4: Content analytic research steps (Adapted from Smith, 2000:318)

Using the scissor-and-sort-technique, also referred to as the cut-and-paste method, is a fast and economical method for analysing transcripts of focus groups. (Stewart, 2014:124). Chandler (2007) asserts that in semiology, words, pictures, noises, movements and items can be a form of sign. The modern study of how people interpret meaning and how to symbolise actuality becomes part of semiotic sign systems (Chandler, 2007:2).

The first step is to read the transcript, followed by highlighting the information relevant to the questions. The findings will be analysed by filtering the data into the categories based on the interviewee’s responses. A compilation (codebook), with of the various phrases used to identify message elements to analyse the intricacies of semiotic meanings is compiled. It contains a complication of phrases and is used to note, explain and describe their meanings.