Transcribing Data

Hammersley:

I found the discussion of whether data is obtained naturally from the environment or obtained with researchers’ interpretation is quite interesting to me. I am making connection with our prior readings that were about whether technology sets a distance between researchers and data. Foudantioanlism assumes that data is “grown” organically from the environment, with Hammersley’s words, that data is "given" to researchers. In this case, data is “protected” from any "pollution" from the environment. However, no matter in which disciplines, data was used to make inferences. In research report, researchers need to "polish" their data to make it accessible to readers. This means researchers cannot present their raw data. Data needs to be refined or produced. This connects to Hammersley’s later points of construction of transcript rather than reproducing transcript. Transcribers will impose their interpretation of cultural aspects on the data they would transcribe. Transcribers will also transcribe according to their understandings of what the person might be meaning.

However, hammersley mentioned later in the article that neither givenness nor construction captures the complexity of transcribing. Transcriptions need them both. The interdependent relationship between givenness and construction is that construction is relied on givenness. This notion is not hard to understand. Researchers were exposed to raw data first.  Even strictly transcribing is a combination of givenness and constructional. 

As an extension of the notion of strictly transcriptions and descriptions, Hammersley pointed out that they’re also interrelated. For research report, researcher interpret meanings from strict transcriptions and make descriptions.  

This notion makes good connection to technology sets a distance between researchers and data. With the intervention of technology, researchers cannot access to the raw data. Although they would construct new meanings of raw data, they had access to raw data with self-transcribing. However, with technology's processing of raw data, they were fed with data that is post-constructed. 

Markle, West & Rich:

They described that showing transcripts and making conversational analysis are not enough for conveying the atmosphere in real settings, especially participants’ emotions. However, they referred new technological tools that called VITAL, which allows researchers to insert video excerpts in to research report. In this way, readers and researchers could “watch” the video rather than read secondary data produced by researchers. Therefore, by the end, Markle and his co-authors pointed out the importance of having the original data attached with original file, which gave others researchers’ opportunities to assess the analysis. However, this raises the problem of protecting participants’ identities.   

Plus, they also brought up the issue that transcribing is never a neutral activity. Transcribers must have brought their understandings to the activity. Therefore, connecting with Hammersley, there should be a continuum that is with one end being givenness and the other being construction, and data transcribing in the middle.