CREATING A RESEARCH DOSSIER TO GATHER, CODE, AND ANALYZE DATA FOR THIS PROJECT

USING EVERNOTE

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WHAT IS A RESEARCH DOSSIER?

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➤ A dossier is a container that holds all of research data and analysis notes.

A Research Dossier can be set up as documents in file folders or in a digital workspace.

PURPOSE OF A RESEARCH DOSSIER1. To help you work efficiently.

2. To make your research methodology and data visible to others.

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HOW YOU WILL CONDUCT RESEARCH FOR THIS PROJECT➤ In this project, you will be gathering the communication

that surrounds a crisis event for a business or organization as it unfolds over time.

➤ Next, you will analyze that data to determine the nature of the conversation.

➤ You will not be taking a position on whether the business or organization was to blame, but focusing on explaining this conversation that takes place.

➤ You will be using Evernote for your research dossier.

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WHAT IS EVERNOTE?

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➤ Evernote is a digital notebook and workspace.

➤ You will use it for this project by creating a notebook to hold excerpts from sources and your analysis notes.

➤ If you have never used Evernote before, it's easy to learn.

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Sign up for the FREE version.

DOWNLOAD THE APP AND SIGN IN TO ACCESS YOUR WORKSPACE FROM ANY DEVICE.

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OR SIGN IN FROM A WEB BROWSER.

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GO TO GETTING STARTED

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If you have trouble finding it in the app, go to your account information and click on customer service.

GO THROUGH THE EVERNOTE QUICK START GUIDE.

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DOWNLOAD THE WEB CLIPPER.

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GO THROUGH THE WEB CLIPPER QUICK START GUIDE.

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YOU WILL NEED TO:➤ Create a notebook in Evernote, and title it Research Dossier.

➤ Next, begin gathering data by clipping excerpts from sources into the note feature in Evernote.

➤ Title your notes, compose analysis comments, and generate citations.

➤ Work in a logical order by following the decision you made about the framework (see slidedoc 1) you will use.

➤ Establish a naming convention for titles, so your titles are consistent and can be easily found.

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USE THE CHRONOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK➤ One frame you need is chronological, so look for articles that contain

timelines to help you find responses to the crisis event as it unfolds over time.

➤ Use the timeline to help you search by date for other sources about the crisis communication .

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USE THE SCHOLARLY FRAMEWORK➤ The other framework you need is scholarly, so use the scholarly article(s)

you decided to use as a model for your approach to analyze the crisis communication (see slidedoc 1).

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Here are examples of sources that represent Phase 1: Denial in the Paula Deene crisis communication (a scholarly framework choice from the Varma article in bblearn).

YOU WILL NEED TO GATHER EXCERPTS FROM:➤ The brand's response to the crisis event such as news releases, media

interviews, apology videos etc.

➤ Journalists reporting on the event and communication surrounding it found in popular sources such as news and magazine websites (consider both serious journalism as well as tabloids).

➤ Editorial type responses found in blogs, fan, and/or advocacy sites.

➤ Depending on the nature of the event, you may need to gather government responses at the state and/or national level.

➤ Samples of reader responses to the above.

➤ As you gather excerpts consider all forms of communication – text, images, videos, podcasts etc.

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TIPS FOR ANALYZING WHAT YOU CLIP➤ You will need to make analysis comments in your notes. The comments

should reflect your analysis of the source material you are clipping.

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Here is an example of analysis comments.

Deene's YouTube first apology video was clipped (an image of the first frame of the video) into a Note in Evernote.

Notice the title of the note, citation, and analysis comments.

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Here's what clipped excerpts from sources will look like in Evernote. This screenshot was taken from the Expanded Card View in Evernote.

USE A CITATION GENERATOR

Use a citation generator as you clip and insert the citation into the note.

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CODING YOUR DATAWhen you are finished gathering data into your dossier notebook in Evernote, you will need to code it using Grounded Theory.

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ABOUT GROUNDED THEORY

➤ Grounded theory is a method that allows you to inductively analyze what the data means.

➤ Specifically, it means you look at your data and derive themes, categorize them into patterns you notice, and quantify.

➤ So, what’s the point?

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DISCOVERY & EXPLANATION

➤ What you discover should explain something that is significant about the nature of the comment conversations.

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YOU WILL BE CODING ONLY READER COMMENTS➤ Identify themes in the reader response comments

you gathered in the dossier.

➤ Next, create a table in a Word document file and shorten the theme with a label.

➤ Then count the number of responses per label.

➤ See next slide for an example.

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Here are 83 comments gathered from an article in an online magazine site about food network star Paula Deene's crisis.

The number of labels derived from the theme is four.

The highlighted themes are an example of how these comments fit under one label "N Word Double Standard."

After you have identified the labels, you will need to count the total number of comments for each label and graphically represent this data (see next slide for an example).

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Remember to label (figure 1 etc.) and caption your graphics.

Figure 1: Comments made in response to Huffington Post article

REMEMBER TO POST THE TABLE TO YOUR DOSSIER

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Just drag and drop your Word file into the Notebook you created.

WHEN READY TO SUBMIT FOR EVALUATION➤ Share the dossier using the share feature in

Evernote to enter your instructor's email.

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AFTER YOU HAVE A COMPLETED DOSSIER, YOU ARE READY TO WRITE THE WHITE PAPER

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