In a culture that is so heavily saturated with social media, political speeches and various news outlets, it is crucial to develop an understanding of how such stories work. This is where the field of narrative analysis becomes essential, an analysis type that seeks to examine not only what is being said, but why and how it is being said in specific ways. Digging deeper helps to reveal further layers of intent, meaning and influence present beneath the surface.
This guide explores how to do narrative analysis, breaking down the key components and techniques that are used. Whether focusing on media framing, political messaging or social media trends, such an approach is invaluable for gaining insight into how public behavior and perception can be shaped by narrative, and identified by narrative analysis software.
Any instance of narrative analysis begins with selecting the correct material. This can be anything from a political speech to trending X trend to a viral video or a long form article. The ‘right’ content will be rich, and will commonly involve a form of persuasion or strategic framing.
Questions to consider:
• Is the content attempting to influence, shift opinion or persuade?
• Does it rely on emotionally charged language?
• Can any clear protagonists and/or antagonists be identified?
These are the first vital stages in any good narrative qualitative research.
Once appropriate content has been selected, it is then necessary to break it down into a set of narrative components. Both non-fiction and news stories will often follow a similar pattern.
Seek out the following narrative blocks:
How is the scene being set? And what kind of context is being provided?
What is the issue or problem that is being raised?
Is the problem being resolved, or has it been unresolved within the story?
Who mentioned has been placed in the roles of victim, hero, savior, threat etc.?
Being able to understand these unique elements is one of the most crucial steps in narrative analysis. You aren’t just seeking a summar, you are seeking to identify how the deliberate structure influences audience interpretation. Mastering these foundational steps of narrative narrative analysis will reveal how a chosen story is intended to be consumed and understood.
Language is very rarely completely neutral, and the job of narrative qualitative research is to uncover how a choice of words can reveal agenda, bias and motive.
Key areas of focus include:
Language that is designed to elicit responses such as sympathy, anger, hope, fear and more.
Language that works to make even the most abstract ideas more persuasive.
Who is being held responsible for a problem, and who is being shown as powerful and credible?
Any phrases or themes being noticeably repeated will serve as reinforcement devices.
A key question in these narrative analysis steps is what emotional response is this particular narrative trying to produce? Linguistic scrutiny at the highest levels means that qualitative narrative analysis is the most successful research method for grasping an understanding of ideological content.
One singular story might not reveal very much, but multiple stories grouped together which echo similar themes and structure can reveal more. When comparing a number of different stories, you can start to recognize core narratives and strategic themes.
Elements to look for:
• Recurring character roles, such as a political figure that is constantly being framed as a savior or a victim.
• Consistent language across stories, such as repeating a three or four word slogan across several platforms.
• A near identical story structure across multiple different sources.
When identified, these types of patterns point towards coordination and thematic alignment, especially within the field of politics. Such detection is central in good narrative qualitative research, as it regards thematic repetition and qualitative data over pure volume.
Whilst manual analysis can be extremely time consuming, the technology offered by Osavul can provide the tools needed for strong and efficient success.
In terms of narrative analysis vs thematic analysis, the powerful narrative analysis technology that Osavul offers allows users to:
• Track how narratives are spread across any language and platform across a period of time.
• Automatically detect themes and phrases that are being repeated at scale.
• Create a map of influence networks to help understand how certain ideas are being seeded and spread.
For the purpose of conducting narrative analysis qualitative research, Osavul stands apart for its ability to process and broaden the scope of what is possible to be examined. Identifying core narratives in a real time manner can give analysts a much needed edge.
It is important to note that listing character roles and themes is just the beginning of a much longer process. The true strength of narrative qualitative research is in its powers of interpretation.
Deeper questions include:
• Why has a particular story been structured in a particular way?
• Who stands to benefit from this framing?
• How does the intended narrative fit into the dynamics of the broader social, cultural and political landscape?
An understanding of human experience is vital in this regard, as stories only work when they can tap into hopes, fears and identities. The best examples of narrative analysis qualitative research are those that do more than just deconstruct a story, also explaining how it is resonating and what it is telling you about a particular audience or environment.
Further questions that need to be asked:
• Is the identified narrative proactive or reactive?
• Is it attempting to simplify complex issues? If so, why?
• Is there anything being left out of the story, and if so, what does the omission suggest?
Ultimately, learning how to do narrative analysis is a process of learning how to see stories rather than just reading them. It is a matter of how they are constructed and how they are influencing public understanding.
The key steps of narrative analysis involve selecting your material, breaking down the structure, examining the language, spotting any patterns and core narratives across sources and interpreting the context.
For all of the above, using a tool like Osavul can take narrative qualitative research to the next level, making the question of how to do narrative analysis a user friendly and achievable one.
