Archive for November 24th, 2006
The Fix is in…
So the switch to TAMS is nearly complete…meaning that i’ve re-converted the few hundred pages of data from the original HTML/Web Archive to RTFD documents so that i can now code images and hyperlinks.
Why?
Well, as i was coding (and talking to Wei helped), i realized that .txt files were missing a lot of information that was specific to the web. i’ve been half-assedly looking for articles on sociolinguistic discourse analysis (SDA) of CMC or websites and one thing i can argue for sure: most SDA of CMC strips the web features away from the analysis of text. i completely understand why; if you’re looking at forum postings or chat interfaces, you should be focusing on the interactions between participants.
Because i’m arguing for a community’s presence on the web, however, i need to make note of the features of the web that are incorporated in that community’s presentation of self. For example, if i’m arguing that many of my blogs represent black identity, i have to simulataneously discuss features of weblogs and features of weblogs that promote black identity, capisce? i can’t say “this hyperlink offers a context for understanding black identity as expressed in this online space” without mentioning why there’s a weblog in the first place.
it’s not like i didn’t know this in the first place…but my excuse is that i was hamstrung (i’ll shamefacedly admit) by the lack of CAQDAS software for the Mac. I paid for a license to HyperResearch because they said they could analyze multimedia. stupid me…$370 gone. HR can analyze multimedia…just not in the ways i need it to.
so TAMS…i’m using TAMS alongside DTPro’s feature of converting Web Archives to RTFD documents. RTFD documents are formatted exactly like webpages (which is not the best solution), but they DO include hyperlinks and images. therefore, these can be included in my analysis – even if it’s just “see – here’s a contextual element expanding/expounding upon the author’s words”. For images, i plan to double code as Image and as one of my ID codes. For hyperlinks, i’m going to code the text of the link (a href=”" for those watching at home) and then input the actual URL as an annotation to the code. not sure if i’m going to double code…that could be a whole HEAP of trouble…we’ll see
UPDATE: i’m glad i chose this approach…as i was converting webarchives, i realized that for many of the sites that i coded as “Black” i had to access linked profiles (re: Blogger) in order to ascertain identity. so i will be double coding, after all.
*sigh* January, anyone?
