LS221 Midterm: LS 221 FINAL REVIEW
4 Apr 2017
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Document Summary
Virtual outputs and the internet as objects of analysis. Explores other sources of data including letters, diaries, autobiographies, newspaper, television shows, websites, and photographs known as documents . A document is any data source that can be read and was not produced specifically for the purpose of social research. They are important because they are unobtrusive and non-reactive. The fact that the subjects don"t know they are being studied removes a common threat to the validity. Scott (1990) distinguished between personal and official documents and within the latter group, between private and state documents. Representativeness: evidence typical of what it is supposed to represent. Diaries (written accounts for oneself) and letters (written to communicate with others) are often used by historians but receive less attention from social researchers. Used with life history/biographical method diaries, letters and autobiographies can be either primary sources of data or sources such as life story interviews.
