Misunderstanding of the techniques

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process in detail and to include direct quotations from the interviews. Thesis “Y” is a PhD dissertation and in this thesis, how the validity and reliability of qualitative research should be assessed is discussed in detail. Thesis “I” is also a PhD dissertation written in Education field.

“In qualitative research the principle of the flexibility of the researcher is an important gain regarding the validity. ... Reporting the gathered data in detail and the researcher explaining how they reached to the results are among the important criteria for validity in a qualitative study.”-Y, Business Administration

“Also, for the sake of the study’s validity, direct quotations from the views of [participants], which the codes and categories are comprised of, are given.”-I, Education

It can be said that in qualitative research, there is a need for validating and this is mostly done by referring to expert opinions or having more than one coder. For quantitative content analysis, it is common to use more than one coder and measures such as inter-coder reliability. For qualitative content analysis, it is also acceptable for a researcher to consult their interview questions, coding process etc., however, there is not a need for a different coder for coding process to validate the one that has already been done by the researcher of the study.

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video calling because even if it is not the best solution, at least there is a chance to see the impressions of the interviewee. But, with e-mail, even this is not possible. The valuable relationship between the interviewer and the interviewee is the most powerful when the procedure is done face-to-face. Thesis “N” is a Master’s thesis about refugees, and “D” is a Master’s thesis written in Education field, whereas “AH”

and “AL” are both PhD dissertations written in Anthropology and in defense studies, respectively.

“Three of the interviews have been conducted personally and two interviews via video calling. Each of the interviews lasted between 60-90 minutes and all the data from interviews have been afterwards transcribed.”-N, Media and Communication

“Three options are offered to teachers to participate in the interview. First option is responding interview questions sent in writing. The second option is to conduct the interview by video chat via internet on a scheduled day and time. The third option is to conduct the interview via a communication app through internet. All of the teachers preferred the first option and chose to respond in writing.”-D, Education

“I had a short close ended interview with five experienced woman practicioners. … Both questionnaire and participant responses were electronic.

I emailed the questionnaire on the [date] and received the responses on the [date].”-AH, Anthropology

“With guidance of experts, opinions and suggestions are shared via e-mail with environmental security expert working in [institution name] in the USA between [dates].”-AL, Defense

Internet is now a major part of the human life in most of the world, therefore, it was inevitable for it not to find its way into social sciences. Thacker and Dayton (2008) argues that Internet is able to richen the qualitative research in terms of interview technique. They also state that internet-based interviews have both advantages and disadvantages. The advantage of it is that it is more economic in terms

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of cost and time. However, if the interview is conducted via a media such as e-mail, this could cause the data to be less in depth and immediate than face to face interviews (Thacker & Dayton, 2008). During face to face interviews, the researcher has the opportunity to probe the answers the participants give. Also, they have the advantage of reading the participant’s body language, observing their gestures and the like.

Without this interaction, an important part of the data is missed, and the relationship between the interviewer and the interviewee becomes static.

It is seen that in some theses, characteristics of methods in use can get confused. “A” is a Master’s thesis which focuses on material usage in Education, “G”

is a PhD dissertation about language learning, and “AG” is also a PhD dissertation about employees.

“Research’s study group is comprised of three people in total which one artist-art educator from … Departist-artment of Art, one artist-artist-artist-art educator from … Department of Visual Arts, one artist-art educator from … Department of Art.”-A, Education

“In the study, four participants were randomly selected to take part in the interview process, which is the second step to gather a detailed and more specific data and ensure the data gathered from the questionnaires. Individual interviews were conducted and took five to ten minute sessions in the researcher’s office.”-G, Education

“Second phase is the data collection phase and interviews are held with 19 people. … The interviews of the study lasted approximately 15 minutes …”-AG, Business Administration

It is seen that methods are not being conducted as they should be. While conducting qualitative interviews, in order to deepen the understanding of a phenomenon, usually, the sessions should be much longer than five or ten minutes to reach to a meaning. Similarly, in qualitative research, random sampling is not used as a sampling technique. The example of “A” is controversial, as three interviews seem

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few even for a qualitative research, though if these interviews provided enough information to reach saturation about the data, then this number is more than enough.

To shift the focus to the subject of this study, it is seen that 19 of the theses mentioned and explained the definition and features of content analysis, and from this number, 13 of them mentioned the definition and features of qualitative content analysis. Only in 6 theses, both content and qualitative content analysis are described.

In 7 theses, it is conveyed that content analysis is used or should be used as a quantitative technique. Even though these theses claim to be qualitative, the reason quantitative content analysis is used is caused by a misunderstanding. “T” is a Master’s thesis written in an Education field, “AL” is a PhD dissertation and “AD” is a Master’s thesis written in Journalism and is about the approach of the press.

“Content analysis, as a systematic and objective analysis method, is to describe and quantify the incidents.”-T, Education

“Content analysis is the process of acquiring quantitative data from analyzing a written or verbal text and after, reaching to concepts and relationships using these data.”-AL, Defense

“The purpose in content analysis method is to determine and count the frequencies of certain characteristics or categories in any text.”-AD, Journalism

Content analysis was a quantitative technique at first, however, after its extensive use in 1940s and 1950s, its qualitative counterpart started to be discussed.

Even Berelson mentioned it in his book. It is thought that this misunderstanding is unacceptable as qualitative content analysis has a considerable history for its use.