New Emerging Technologies in Qualitative Research

According to Mayan (2009) being a qualitative researcher means to "enjoy living and learning with people to collectively make sense of our world. Qualitative research is not only done with people, it is also accomplished through people…" (p. 12). By virtue of its various definitions, qualitative research involves a great deal of human communication. Communication has a major role in all aspects of qualitative research from planning to execution. While many new qualitative research technologies have evolved over the past few decades, the most critical and influential ones are those related to communication technologies. As there is limited data about the use of communication technologies in qualitative research, the purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the new emerging technologies in qualitative research. We provide descriptions of the evolving technologies and highlight the importance of qualitative researchers being up to date with these developments.