I am doing a thematic analysis for my undergraduate Psychology degree in forensic psychology. I am analysing how newspaper articles report violent crimes in terms of how the victims and offenders are portrayed and how there are sex and race differences in the themes of reporting the crimes. I was aiming to do a certain time period of newspaper articles (e.g. 3 months worth) but now I have only covered Jan and there are already so many articles but some are small. How many articles are recommended for my thematic analysis? Thank you.
5 to 10 different articles will do. It is also good to consider the coverage and location of the newspapers in relation to the geographical scope of the study to ensure adequate diversity.
Moreover, data saturation must be considered, so until you sense that nothing more can be added to the data, then it could be that point.
Additionally, try to use a third source, unrelated to newspapers to "triangulate" your theme — that it is evident in another publication (s) also perhaps.
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It may be useful for coding purposes (categorically named themes) that you distinguish tone between newspapers? Perhaps that may be easier as you are also incorporating many publishers. Try to limit it to 2-3 publishers, 5 articles each? Table what you uncover.
It depends on the kind of analysis you want to carry out, how you want to explore themes, and whether or not you want to generalize. In the relevant literature, the suggestion is that you may need up to a minimum of 400, depending on your study design. See, Article Supporting thinking on sample sizes for thematic analyses: a...
Depending on what is the purpose of your research and what methods you use and what time frame you are interested in. If these are discourse analysis, then at least it is necessary to monitor the media for 2-4 months. if it is content analysis, then it is better to monitor it for six months to identify correlation or interconnection.
( 5 ) different articles enough to focus in your subject . take care to use the citation from different source .
I would only focus on data saturation - the point at which your analysis is showing no further themes to support with answering your research aim. As this is for an undergraduate, I would aim for at least 20 to start with and begin your analysis immediately. Try to ensure types of newspapers are included as this may also support with the analysis. Good luck!
5 to 10 different articles will do. It is also good to consider the coverage and location of the newspapers in relation to the geographical scope of the study to ensure adequate diversity.
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