Accessing distant voices: Audio media, narrative analysis, and the unlived self in qualitative inquiry

Audio media offer a rich source of first-person narrative data, especially where access is constrained by conflict or distance. We reflect on developing an approach for using audio media in research on identity during conflict trauma in Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan. We describe our deliberations on search and inclusion criteria, our richness score for sampling, interpreter voiceovers for inclusion of non-English speakers, and the ethics of analysing public narration. We make two distinct contributions: a methodological account of how systematic procedures can access audio media as data, and an analytical extension of Bamberg's positioning analysis to a fourth level, the lived versus unlived self, which we arrived at through this work but could apply to narrative data of any kind. We propose that the approach offers researchers flexibility while staying accountable for the choices made and the care owed to the narrators.