Qualitative Research in Communication Studies: Characteristics, Objects and Techniques

Abstract

A snapshot of communication research in Spain that uses qualitative methods as the dominant methodological
perspective is presented. We conduct a content analysis to study the characteristics, objects and techniques that
predominate in a census of 1,025 scientific productions from 2007 to 2018, which includes doctoral theses, projects
and articles published in scientific journals. In the indexed publications, there is a certain lack of qualitative articles,
despite the importance they have in doctoral theses and research projects. These researches use or triangulate
qualitative methods, but not all techniques are used equally. Communication studies frequently resort to discourse
analysis and in-depth interviews, but the presence of observations and discussion groups is minimal. The objects of
study are also varied, although audiovisual formats prevail over journalistic formats and there is a growing interest in
digital media and formats. Finally, at the author level, the results reveal parity, although the gender gap in the highest
level studies is worrying.