Assignment 1: Doing Documentary Research about Print Community Newspapers using NVivo

Due: October 20 by 10:30am
Submission: Submit report AND NVivo file via Canvas: use the Assignments link on the left side of the screen
Report Length: 1500 words maximum plus citations of course readings

In this assignment you will collect and analyze documentary materials about print community newspapers in British Colombia.

In order to complete this assignment, you will need to access the NVIVO software. NVivo is not available for download by undergraduate students, so you will need to set aside time to visit a lab on campus. You can find out where to access NVIVO by visiting this page:

https://www.lib.sfu.ca/about/branches-depts/rc/research/software/nvivo

In addition to working with NVivo, you will also need to produce a written assignment that answers the questions listed throughout these instructions. As you answer these questions, please make reference to the course readings. Use proper citation and bibliography formatting in your report. Submit both your written work and your NVivo project file to your TA via Canvas for grading.

1) Getting Started

a) Gather the following documents, which are all available on the Internet. These are the documentary artifacts that you will use as a starting point for your research. Normally you would start a project by locating key documentary materials, but for the purposes of this assignment, we are giving you a head start.

? The Newspapers Canada Community Newspaper Snapshot 2016, Full Report (PDF)
? The Newspapers Canada Community Newspaper Snapshot 2016, Fact Sheet
? A map of the GVRD.
? An article about the 2014 deal between Glacier Media Group and Black Press.
? The MetroVancouver Board Strategic Plan 2015-2018

Pro Tip: NVivo does not work very well with HTML (web page) files. PDFs work much better. If you are downloading a newspaper article, it is best to save it as a PDF. Alternatively, you can also import your documents using NCapture, which is an NVivo extension in Google?s Chrome Web Browser. If you are using Chrome to surf the internet, and if it has the NCapture Extension at the top right of the screen, then you can automatically capture websites for import into NVivo. Go to the webpage you want to capture, and click the NCapture button. It looks like this: . A dialogue window will pop up. Make your selections and click capture. Now open N-Vivo and, with the Discourse Analysis folder selected, go to the data tab. Click NCapture. A new window will appear with a list of your captured websites. Now you can import your news articles.

b) Open the NVivo desktop application and Start a New Project (File->New Project). Enter your name and student number in the ?save as? field. Decide where you will save your file. (I put mine on my desktop, but you could also save it on a thumb drive or in the cloud.) You can also give your project a title by filling in the title field. Now hit ?create?.

Note that NVivo is a desktop application, not a cloud-based application. So you need to save your work. Do this regularly, and create backups as well, so that you don?t lose your work.

c) Create a folder for your documentary research materials under
Sources->Internals (which is at the top of the left side menu bar). Right click on internals and select ?New Folder?. Label this folder ?Documentary Research?.

d) Now its time to import your five documentary research artifacts. With the Documentary Research folder selected, click the data tab near the top of the screen. NVivo obliges you to import documents by file type. So, for example, to import a PDF, select Data->PDF. To import a picture, select Data->Picture. Locate your document and click ?import.? Give the document a name and hit ?done?.

Note that NVivo will import the artifact into the file that you currently have selected on the left side menu bar. If you import something into the wrong spot, just drag and drop it to the right place.

Select the Documentary Research folder that you created under Internals. You can now open and read your documents right in Nvivo by double clicking on the title of the document in the file list.

You can close the document again by closing the tab (in Windows) or closing the items in the Open Items list, which is at the bottom left of your screen (on Mac).

Question 1: Where did the documents come from? Are these reliable sources? Why or why not?

2) Classifying Documents

NVivo allows you to sort your documents into different piles, which is useful when you are working with a large volume of materials. Give this a try: classify your documents according to whether they are primary or secondary sources.

a) Create your classifications. Click on ?Source Classifications? under Classifications on the left side bar. Right click in the large white space mid-screen to produce a drop-down menu. Click ?New Classification? and name it ?Primary.? Repeat this again to create a classification called ?Secondary?.

b) Click on your ?Documentary Research? folder. Take an initial look at your documents. Think about where they came from, and what they each aim to do. Decide whether they are primary our secondary sources. Once you have decided how to classify each document, right click on the document?s name in the file list to make a dropdown menu appear. Scroll to the very bottom and select
classification->primary/secondary.

c) You can now return to the source classifications files, and your documents will be sorted into primary and secondary sources. If you were working with a large number of different kinds of artifacts, you could use NVivo to sort them into ?piles? so that they would be easier to manage.

Question 2: Explain why you chose to classify each document as either primary or secondary.

3) Annotations

Use NVivo?s annotation feature to get familiar with your documents.

a) Open the Documentary Research folder once again and double click on the titles of the documents to view them. As you read each document, observe the following:

? Key actors and institutions in BC
? Information about wealth or profit in BC
? Evidence of cultural or discursive power in BC
? Evidence of political or decision-making power in BC

b) Make ?annotations? (notes) about your key observations. To make an annotation, highlight a chunk of text, and then right click on it to make a dropdown menu appear. Select ?New Annotation? and then write your notes into the text field that appears. The annotated text will now stay highlighted.

To review the annotations you made in a single document, open that document and click the ?Annotations? button on the right hand side of the screen. (It has a little speech bubble icon next to it.)

To see a giant list of all of the annotations you made in all of the documents, click on ?Annotations? under ?Collections? on the left hand side menu bar. Now you can look over your notes and reflect of what you?ve learned from reading the various documents.

What about annotations of images? To annotate an image, first click the edit button on the right side of the screen to allow changes to the photograph. Drag your cursor over the area of the photo that you want to comment on. Now click the plus (+) sign at the bottom right of the screen. A field will appear where you can enter your annotation.

Question 3: Comment on the authenticity, credibility, and representativeness of the documents. Are these ?good? sources? How so? Why or why not?

Question 4: Reflect on the totality of your annotations about all 5 documents. What are your main observations about power structures surrounding print community newspapers in British Colombia?

4) Cases

Finally, use what you?ve learned to identify some cases that you can analyze in future research. Cases are clearly identifiable actors, institutions or locations that serve as sites for different types of activities.

Think about the analysis you did in part 3. Based on that work, pick ONE type of case, and then make a list of all the different instances of that case. For example, if you pick Cities as your case, then Vancouver, Burnaby and Richmond might be instances of that case. If Media Conglomerates is your case, then you might select Black Press and Glacier Media Group as instances of that case. I recommend you limit yourself to 2 instances of each case. It is very important to pick something that your source material provides information about.

a) Click on ?Cases? under ?Nodes?. (Note, it is very important that you do NOT select ?Case Classifications? ? that?s for something else.) Right click in the big white space mid-screen to make a drop-down menu appear. Select ?New Top Level Case?. Enter the name of your case (e.g. Glacier Media Group). Repeat this operation for each of your cases (e.g. Black Press). And so on until you have listed all your cases.

b) Go back to your Documentary Research Files again. Read through your files one more time. This time as you read, highlight any text that provides information about each of your cases. For example, if you are gathering information about Black Press, then highlight key facts about Black Press each time that you see them in the text. Right click on highlighted sections of text to produce a drop-down menu, but this time, select ?Code Selection? -> ?At Existing Nodes or Cases?. A new menu box will appear. Check off the ?Cases? box on the left hand side, and then check off the relevant case. The selected text will now be saved as part of the selected case.

What you are doing is gathering together background material about each of your cases. When you are finished, select ?Cases? under ?Nodes? on the left hand menu bar. When you open a case, you will find all the details you found about that case gathered together in one place. This is a great way to organize research when you are working with several different documents.

Question 5: Reflect on the data that you gathered about your two cases. What did you learn about each of them?

Question 6: Reflect on your answers to questions 3 and 4. How does the authenticity, credibility, representativeness and meaning of your source documents affect the quality of your answer to Question 5?

Save your report as a PDF. Upload your report AND your NVivo File to Canvas.