Qualitative Analysis of Online News Media Articles to Explore the Mobilization of Megaproject Narratives

Abstract

Megaprojects combine multiple external stakeholders, and a common narrative is essential to drive the project among often conflicting objectives. The research project considers the single in-depth qualitative case study of the High Speed Two (HS2) megaproject in the UK to explore how narratives are mobilized through narrative instruments and processes. Since the focus is on narratives, 113 online news articles on the megaproject are systematically studied. A qualitative analysis using open codes and axial codes is employed to understand the narrative instruments and processes. The “talk the walk” strategy to improve the rigor in qualitative research is described. The use of power quotes and proof quotes to reduce the word count while not compromising on the trustworthiness of qualitative research is explained. Finally, the case offers guidelines on the use of online naturalistic data such as digital news media data to explore project management practice in the 21st century.