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* Social researchers have depended on verbatim transcripts of audio-recorded interviews in order to apply rigorous and systematic analyses. With software programs such as NVivo8, transcription is no longer a necessity.
* This paper describes NVivo8 audio-coding for open-ended interviews, based on the narrative-ethnographic study of an outpatient clinic.
* While thematic narrative analysis was the approach applied to the interviews, the process described and issues raised are relevant to any form of analysis undertaken using programs similar to NVivo8.
* The use of this technology raises questions about the epistemological and sensorial differences between visual and audio interpretation and analysis.
The semi-structured or unstructured open-ended interview is a seminal method in qualitative social research. In many research fields, the interview offers access to individuals' own interpretations, perceptions, experiences and practices. Transcripts, the verbatim write-up of audiorecorded interviews, are a respected and in many ways fetishised form of data, in part because they lend themselves to systematic contentcoding and analysis.
However, voluminous transcripts are produced as something of a 'kneejerk' response to data creation, with most of the material they contain left to gather dust in the researcher's drawer. Furthermore, transcription is a laborious process and it is increasingly common that transcriber and analyst (and sometimes even the interviewer) are different people (Mishler 1984). Producing a transcript can be seen as the first step in the analytical process, assuming that the researcher and transcriber are the same person. When they are not, at the very least the researcher should check transcripts against audio recordings to correct any transcription errors, which is a lengthy process in itself.
Here we demonstrate how one can work directly with audio data throughout the analytical process; i.e. without using a written transcription. Above all, this Update calls for critical reflection on the centrality of transcripts and the relationship between mode of engagement with data and analytical thought about them.
The Project
NVivo8 is a qualitative data-analysis software program released in 2008 that enables the coding and analysis of text, image, audio and video data. The specific features of NVivo and how to use them have been discussed elsewhere (Auld et al 2007; Bringer et al 2006). However, the ability to directly code audio data is a new feature of NVivo8...