Qualitative Research Methods in Public Relations and Marketing Communications, 2nd Edition

Qualitative Research Methods

in Public Relations and

Marketing Communications

The second edition of this highly accessible core textbook continues to offer

students a practical guide to the process of planning, undertaking and writing about

qualitative research in public relations and marketing communications. Through

clear explanations and illustrations, the book encourages undergraduate and

masters level students to engage with the main approaches and techniques for

conducting critical, reflective investigations.

This new edition:

• Identifies the skills and strategies needed to conduct authentic, trustworthy

research

• Highlights specific analytical techniques associated within the main research

approaches

• Provides new sections on internet-based research, critical discourse analysis,

historical research, action research and mixed methods research.

Qualitative Research Methods in Public Relations and Marketing Communications

will be invaluable for those undertaking research methods courses on public

relations and marketing communication degrees, as well as those working on a

dissertation.

Dr Christine Daymon is an Associate Professor in the School of Media,

Communication and Culture at Murdoch University in Western Australia, where

she is Academic Chair for postgraduate courses in Communication and Media

Management. An active researcher, her interests centre on communication in

organizations, gendered issues in public relations, and cross-cultural learning.

Professor Immy Holloway is based at Bournemouth University, UK at the Centre

for Qualitative Research, where she teaches research and supervises research

students. She has written numerous books on qualitative research, some of which

have been translated into several languages.

Qualitative Research

Methods in Public

Relations and Marketing

Communications

Second edition

Christine Daymon

and Immy Holloway

First edition published 2002

Second edition published 2011

by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada

by Routledge

270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

© 2011 Christine Daymon and Immy Holloway

The right of Christine Daymon and Immy Holloway to be identified as authors of

this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the

Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or

utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now

known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any

information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from

the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data

Daymon, Christine.

Qualitative research methods in public relations and marketing communications /

Christine Daymon and Immy Holloway. — 2nd ed.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Corporations—Public relations—Research—Methodology

2. Public relations—Research—Methodology. 3. Marketing research—Methodology.

4. Qualitative research. I. Holloway, Immy. II. Title.

HD59.D347 2010

659.2072—dc22

2010004242

ISBN: 978–0–415–47117–6 (hbk)

ISBN: 978–0–415–47118–3 (pbk)

ISBN: 978–0–203–84654–4 (ebk)

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2010.

To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s

collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.

ISBN 0-203-84654-0 Master e-book ISBN

For the Parkers of Sandpiper Cove,

and Chris Holloway

Contents

Preface ix

PART I

Getting started 1

1 The nature and usefulness of qualitative research for public

relations and marketing communications 3

2 Selecting a topic and relating to your supervisor 18

3 Reviewing the literature and writing the research proposal 39

4 Ethical issues and access to participants 55

5 Ensuring the quality of research 77

PART II

Selecting the research approach 97

6 Choosing between different types of research 99

7 Case studies 114

8 Grounded theory 130

9 Ethnography 145

10 Discourse analysis and critical discourse analysis 165

11 Phenomenology 180

12 Additional approaches: historical research and action research 189

PART III

Collecting the data 207

13 Sampling 209

14 Interviews 220

15 Focus groups 241

16 Observation 258

17 Written, visual and multi-media materials 276

PART IV

Analysing, interpreting and writing about the data 299

18 Analysing and interpreting the data 301

19 Writing the report 325

PART V

Further issues 347

20 Mixed methods research 349

21 Finishing off 358

Appendix: An example interview guide 362

Glossary 364

References 370

Index 387

viii Contents

Preface

We have written this book for undergraduate and masters students of public

relations and marketing communications, especially those undertaking dissertation

research, or studying on research methods courses. Doctoral students may find

this useful as an introduction to the available literature on distinctive qualitative

methodologies.

Students of advertising, corporate communication, public affairs, communication

management, internal communications and marketing are included within our focus.

Practitioners in the field may find some of the chapters interesting for their alter￾native approach to the more commonly practised evaluative research with its

numbers and statistics.

When writing the first edition of this text we had three aims in mind, which

have continued (with only slight amendments) to motivate us when producing this

second edition nine years later.

1 We want to help students make an informed judgement about the relevance

of qualitative research to the investigation of core questions and current issues

related to public relations and marketing communications. We want them to

appreciate its value as an autonomous research methodology or as a comple￾ment to quantitative research in a mixed methods research design.

2 We wish to provide a tool that will enable students to engage effectively and

critically with the practices and discourses of professional communication.

3 We hope to make a contribution towards raising the profile of qualitative

methods within public relations and marketing communications research more

generally, and to encourage those who already do qualitative research to write

more transparently about their work.

We have sought to do this by offering practical guidance together with examples

of empirical studies that are based on a qualitative approach, often from an

interpretive or critical-interpretive stance. In places, we have presented the views

of student researchers about their experiences of researching.

The idea for writing this book grew out of our experience of empirical social

science as researchers and teachers. We came to the project with diverse interests

which converged at the point of qualitative research theory and practice. We both

have a keen desire to demonstrate how qualitative research can be used to provide

critical, innovative insights into communicative processes, the motivations and

involvement of human beings, and the cultural contexts in which they are situated.

These areas relate to the depth, diversity and complexity of human (and societal

and organizational) relationships and meanings that are constructed through com￾munication, aspects that are intrinsic to the study of public relations and marketing

communications.

In terms of layout, the book divides the research process into five parts and is

structured accordingly, although, of course, in reality data collection, analysis and

writing often occur simultaneously rather than in discrete stages. Part I deals with

how to get started with research. This covers the ground between coming to an

awareness of the nature of qualitative research and its relevance for contemporary

public relations and marketing communications, through to writing a research

proposal based on qualitative methods.

Part II is concerned with the design of a research project. It begins by extending

the discussion in Chapter 1 on the philosophies of research, including the implicit

stance of this book, which is interpretive underpinned by social constructivism. It

also offers advice on how to choose between the different and often co-existing

orientations towards research, examining each in detail in the subsequent chapters

on case studies, grounded theory, ethnography, discourse analysis, phenomenology,

historical research and action research. It notes that each of these approaches may

encompass a number of specific techniques or methods.

Part III, which discusses the data collection stage, presents a variety of methods

for sampling and gathering the data.

Part IV focuses on analysing and interpreting the data and writing them up. Part

V considers the mixed methods approach, which, although likely to be too difficult

for novice researchers to tackle, is stimulating increasing interest from researchers

in a range of disciplines. We consider the contribution of qualitative methods to

this approach and note some of the debates concerning the underlying philosophies

associated with the mixing of methodologies and methods.

The second edition differs from the first in the following ways. Throughout this

edition, we have given greater prominence to the notions of reflexivity and trans￾parency because of their importance within both ethical and critical frameworks.

We decided not to create a separate chapter on Internet-based research on the basis

that because it is now intrinsic in some way to all public relations and marketing

communications research it is more appropriate to include it within relevant

chapters. Therefore, alongside a discussion of how to use the Internet for communi￾cation research, we have considered issues concerning the application and ethics

of new technologies, multimedia platforms and software packages for data search￾ing and analysis, as well as disseminating information.

Feedback from student readers told us of their difficulties in making decisions

about which of the different research approaches to choose in order to achieve

their research goals. Therefore, Chapter 6 offers guidance in this respect. Since

the first edition, the study of discourse has become a topical theme, especially in

public relations; for this reason, Chapter 10 is given over to discourse analysis and

x Preface

critical discourse analysis. Phenomenology also has a separate chapter because of

its importance to marketing communications and growing interest by public

relations scholars (Chapter 11). A new chapter covers two approaches which,

although unrelated, are still nascent as research approaches in the professional

communication disciplines; these are historical research and action research

(Chapter 12).

Chapter 20, on mixed methods research, is new. It is self-evident that the

emphasis and focus of this book are on qualitative research – particularly as an

autonomous research methodology. But we are also cognisant of its value within

a multiple methods research design, i.e. one that includes quantitative methods. For

this reason, we note the different roles and debates associated with the use of mixed

methods and the position of qualitative research as both a methodology and a

method within a mixed methods approach.

In terms of the different methods of data collection, we have paid greater attention

to documentary materials (Chapter 17), including written, visual and multi-media.

This chapter includes a brief mention of semiotics as a method of analysing visual

data. The chapter also outlines projective and elicitation techniques. In addition to

the extant chapter on a generic approach to analysing qualitative data (Chapter

18), we have introduced into each of the chapters in Part II a separate section on

the specific analytical techniques that are applied within the discrete research

approaches.

There are many people who have offered their support, ideas and contributions

to this text. We thank you all: Anne Surma, Catherine Archer, Elysha Hickey, Jo

Fawkes, John Oliver, Kate Fitch, Kate Price, Katharina Wolf, Kathy Durkin, Kelly

Gardiner, Kristin Demetrious, Lauren Magid, Nick Hookway, Nilam McGrath (née

Ashra), Paul Elmer, Pete Simmons, Richard Scase, Stuart Mills, Terry McGowan

and Veronica Lawrance.

Christine Daymon and Immy Holloway

Perth, Western Australia and Bournemouth, England

January 2010

Preface xi

Part I

Getting started