Qualitative Media Analysis

Digital media and information technologies provide challenges and opportunities for social scientists to examine historical and contemporary mediated cultural products and experiences. Qualitative Media Analysis (QMA) is an application of qualitative research methodology for the study of documents. A document is broadly defined as any symbolic or textual representation that is recordable and retrievable, including aural, video, and digital recordings, print, photographs, and visual images. Distinct from quantitative approaches of “content analysis” that treats enumerations as relevant findings, QMA utilizes an investigator's ethnographic immersion in selected documents to discern meanings and thematic emphases as a feature of the mediated contexts of use and interpretation. We outline QMA research designs and selected findings on print, visual, and digital media, including various phases of internet content, X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok. We conclude with a brief discussion of the importance (and prospects) of QMA in symbolic interactionist research drawing attention to issues concerning how some digital documents can add additional layers of complexity to QMA research projects.