Found in Translation: Combining Discourse Analysis with Computer Assisted Content Analysis

Abstract

Scholars have become increasingly aware of the benefits of multi-method research, through which the strengths of one method can offset the limits of another. Yet epistemological differences between interpretivists and researchers interested in quantitative methods and causal explanation have inhibited a potentially fruitful multi-method approach: combining discourse analysis and computer-assisted content analysis. The growing availability of digital text is creating new opportunities for combining these methods, so if scholars treat their epistemological assumptions as reconcilable and translatable epistemic wagers rather than incompatible commitments, there is much to be gained. Computer-assisted searches can quickly identify patterns in vast amounts of text and provide clues on which particular texts (and silences) merit a close reading and interpretation in context, and scholars versed in discourse analysis are adept at making such interpretations. Researchers from these two communities, who at present rarely cite one another’s work, have much to learn from each other, and much to gain by working together.