The construction of qualitative and quantitative data using discourse analysis as a research technique

Abstract

This article establishes that discourse analysis (DA) can be characterized as an analytical technique suitable for the construction and processing of data. To do this, first, it establishes the comparison between DA and content analysis (CA) and it exposes basic concepts of DA as an analytical technique. Next, with the aim of showing the methodological flexibility of this tool, the paper develops an analytical model of the argumentative relationship of news reports, showing that DA allows the construction of both qualitative and quantitative data. For the construction of qualitative data, it proposes the tasks of tagging-desegregation-reaggregation of argumentative components. For the construction of quantitative data, it propounds the design of data matrices and systems of data matrices. In this way, the article tries to prove that DA is a sufficiently sophisticated analytical technique that can be used as part of both qualitative and quantitative strategies oriented to the study of discourse.