Analyzing networks in communication: a mixed methods study of a political debate

Jan A. Fuhse ()
Additional contact information
Jan A. Fuhse: Chemnitz University of Technology

Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, 2023, vol. 57, issue 2, No 10, 1207-1230

Abstract: Abstract How can we detect and analyze network ties in non-reactive communication data? Previous network research mostly relies on the mere occurrence of events between actors (e.g., e-mails, citations). The paper proposes combining qualitative interpretation of communication and formal quantitative analysis. Conversation analysis and interactional sociolinguistics give us methods to qualitatively discern how actors are related in communication (relational meaning). This can be typified into kinds of relational events like “attack” or “support”. Types of social relationships (“alliance” or “conflict”) are characterized by specific combinations of relational events. These methods are used exemplarily to analyze a televised political debate between six party representatives in Germany. Three prominent types of relational events are identified qualitatively: interruptions that are supportive or adversarial, and accounts of action. Hierarchical cluster analysis shows these relational events to fall into four types of relations (alliance, all-out attack, moderate attack, ignore).

Keywords: Communication; Conversation analysis; Interactional sociolinguistics; Meaning; Mixed methods; Social network (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11135-022-01394-w Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:qualqt:v:57:y:2023:i:2:d:10.1007_s11135-022-01394-w

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/11135

DOI: 10.1007/s11135-022-01394-w

Access Statistics for this article

Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology is currently edited by Vittorio Capecchi

More articles in Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().