Archival research is a research method which makes use of publicly ready documents and records as the main source of data. It involves the analysis of data from present archives and public records, including genealogical archives, census, and economic and political surveys (Marshall & Rossman, 1995). These sources are used by the researches as first hand data or for primary analyses. They also serve as baseline and comparative data in studies using other research methods (Marshall & Rossman, 1995). This research method enables the researcher to study people from the ancient days, including their attitudes and behavior even when these have transpired long ago (Geiger & Moore, 2011).
Archival research is often used to investigate historic events, to obtain a comprehensive picture of an event, and address issues which change over time (such as comparing the suicide rates during historic times as compared to now) (Marshall & Rossman, 1995). Archival data have multiple sources. In using archival data for primary research analyses, the following factors must be highly considered: the systematic collection of data; the completeness of the archive/s; and the data accessibility (Li, 2000). The first two factors are crucial because they show the type of data sample which the archives represent. The last factor is also important because this is related to the length of time and the research efforts needed to be able to utilize the data (Li, 2000).
Archival data are composed of primary sources which fall into two categories: the public and the private archival data. Public data are data which are collected by several government agencies and academic institutions. These are all available to the public for the purpose of educational research. Meanwhile, the private data may include (but are not limited to) the following: past data collected by another group of researchers for other research purpose/s, data collected by another agency for assessment or research purposes, a researcher’s own data collected for a previous study (Li, 2000).
Usually, in mass communications, content analysis is used in audience research (Babbie, 2005). In here, the primary purpose of this type of research method is to make links between causes and effect/s. For instance, it studies the content of the program and its effects on the size of the audience. Content analysis consists of six major stages. These include the selection of the content for analysis, the units of content, the coding of the content, the actual coding of the content, evaluation (i.e. c and weighing), obtaining generalizations, etc. (Babbie, 2005).
References:
Babbie, E. (2005). Thousand Oaks, CA: Thompson Learning Inc.
Geiger, T. & Moore, N. (March 10, 2011). What is Archival Research? University of Manchester. Retrieved on 18 December 2012 from, .
Li, Tze-chung. (2000). Social Science reference Sources: A Practical Guide. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
Marshall, C. & Rossman, G. (1995). Designing Qualitative Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
