The Gay Games: The Play of Sexuality, Sport - Victoria University ...

Traditional content analysis has concentrated on the frequency for which an
item has presented as a measure of objectivity, or it has constmed the meaning
of a text as being clearly presented in what it directiy says. This is thought to
be naive and inadequate, for an understanding of the social conditions of the
text's production as well as an exploration of the connections between its
individual elements and the use of any stylised conventions within the
document are essential for a more holistic understanding of a documentary
source. As historian Joan Scott observes, assessing the quality and
significance of a document is a "theoretically informed and value - relevant
process". "^^
From this analysis a rich picture of each Gay Games and the development of
the intemational Gay Games movement itself could be woven together. Gaps
in the story could be identified for further follow-up, inconsistencies could be
cross checked with other materials and research methods, including oral
histories.^^
Oral History Interviews
Historians have used oral history methods since the 1940s as a way of understandmg
history through the eyes of 'the people'. Hence it is derived from the personal and
subjective experiences of individuals, the ways that they create, make sense of, and
give meaning to their lives and the events, organisations and communities they are
^* Joan. W. Scott,' The Evidence of Experience', in H. Abelove, M. Bamdale and D. Halperin
(eds) The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader (London: Routledge, 1993), p. 147.
^^ Allan Kellehear, The Unobtrusive Researcher. A Guide To Methods (St Leonards, NSW:
Allen and Unwin, 1993), pp. 62-63.
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