Transcript No Slide Title

Video in Research
Introducing the video ethnography process
Sarah Pink
[email protected]
What will this presentation cover?
• Background to video in qualitative research
• Overview of theoretical and methodological issues
• Outline of the different methods used for the production of
visual data and examples of practice
• Analysis, storage and logging
• Representing and communicating visual research
About you...
• Who is doing purely academic research?
• Who is doing research which might have
policy implications?
• Who is doing research that might impact on
recommendations for new/changing
practice?
1. Introducing video research
From Visual Anthropology to Visual
Methods
Early scientific visual research
• Colonial photography and film - scientific
study of ‘the other’
http://www.nmafa.si.edu/exhibits/focus/colonial.html
• Early anthropological uses - e.g. the
Haddon project (Torres Straits Project)
http://www.isca.ox.ac.uk//haddon/seqtwo.html
Ethnographic film
• Scientific Film
• Observational Cinema
• The importance of reflexivity
2. Issues in Visual Research
Objectivity, subjectivity and
reflexivity
Art versus Science
• Can video/film research be objective? - isn’t
it inevitably subjective?
• Mead and Bateson’s debate sums this up
very well:
‘B: I’m talking about having control of a camera. You’re
talking about putting a dead camera on top of a bloody
tripod. It sees nothing’
http://www.oikos.org/forgod.htm
Objectivity or Subjectivity
• Mead argues that by leaving a camera filming on a
fixed tripod one can get an objective view of what
is ‘really’ happening
• Bateson argues that by following the subjects
around with a camera one can get a closer
understanding of what is really happening and that
this is inevitably subjective
Contemporary approaches
• When we use an observational method we are now
aware that it is inevitably selective and subjective
• Therefore we try to be aware of how selections are
made and to reflect on our own subjectivity
• This enables us to understand the nature and
meaning of the visual material we produce
Reflexivity
• Reflexivity is a key term for contemporary
qualitative researchers
• It is essential in video research: reflecting on the
way in which our video tapes were produced
provides us with vital information about what they
mean
• Reflexivity is not just about ‘researcher bias’ but
about analysing your own research practices and
relationships
Different levels of reflexivity
• Deep reflexivity can be achieved in video as the
video tapes record our research encounter as it
happened and allows us to reveal this to others
• Explanatory reflexivity is common in written
texts - it involves writing about the research
experience after the event
• These terms were coined by David MacDougall
(1998)
Collaboration and ethics
• It can be argued that all visual research is by
nature collaborative because we need the
collaboration of the people being videoed
• If it is not collaborative and overt then it might be
unethical
Visual Ethnography and Visual
Methods
Context: since the 1990s it has been accepted that
objectivity is impossible to achieve in written or
visual work, so the visual has once again become
an acceptable method of research and
representation across the social sciences that use
qualitative research
Since the late 1990s visual ethnographic
methods are increasing popular
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Visual Anthropology
Visual Sociology
Cultural Geography
Education research
Health research
Consumer research
In Applied as well as Academic contexts
Methods include
• Video research
• Photographic research
• Drawing and illustration
Why use video?
• There are ‘understandings that may be accessible
only through non-verbal means’ (MacDougall
1997: 292).
• This applies to communication and understanding
both during the research and when representing
the findings of that research to others
3. How is video used in
contemporary research
Observation, collaboration and
subject’s own images
1. Observational research
2. Collaborative Research
3. Subject/informant videos
4. Academic and social intervention projects
4. Video Observations
What can we learn from video
observations?
• We can create visual records of observed
behaviours and activities
• These might later be scrutinised by the researcher
(and/or viewed by the research participants)
• These representations might later be used for
purposes of reporting or as examples in training
packages
John Collier’s education research
• The first known use of film in applied education
research in the 1950s. Still a useful case study.
• Demonstrates how researchers can use film
(video) to visually record aspects of behavior and
later analyse these
Alaskan Eskimo Education
• Collier filmed teacher and student interaction and
behavior as an observer in a good number of
remote and urban Alaskan schools
• He did not work alone as a film researcher but
with a team of researchers who were using other
qualitative methods (it is important to combine
visual and other methods)
•Collier and his colleagues undertook a comparative
analysis, across the schools of factors such the physical
relationships between pupils and teachers, the materials that
decorated the walls of the classrooms and the body language
of the pupils and teachers.
•These visible aspects of behavior and interaction showed
them how and why different social and cultural approaches
to teaching did and did not work in Alaska
•For more examples of Collier’s visual research see an online exhibition at:
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/VAR/collier/collier.html
Video observation in
contemporary business research
• The Everyday Lives consultancy
http://www.edlglobal.net/index.html
What can we learn from this type of research?
• Visual detail of the visible material contexts people live in
• About people’s everyday routines and activities and the
social relationships they involve
• About the choices and decisions they make during the
course of the day
• About how they use their homes and the objects that form
part of their everyday lives
• This must be qualified by a reflexive approach
Fixed camera to record behavior in
the home
• The Mead and Bateson debate showed us the
limits of placing a fixed camera to record
continuously
• This approach can produce useful footage as long
as we understand the role the camera will play in
the research process
Open University programme
about the home
• Analysis of footage shot by a continuous
fixed camera in a family to understand how
gender roles are played out within one
family
• View video clip
5. Collaborative Research
2 main ways to develop collaborations
• Working with an informant or a group of
participants over a long period of time (parallel
with long term participant observation)
• Developing a structured collaboration with one or
a group of participants in which all are working
towards the completion of the research task within
a circumscribed short term time frame (parallel
with an in-depth interview)
Long term video ethnography
• Might combine video recording with other
methods - e.g. interviews, analysis of visual
culture and other materials etc
• Has parallels with ethnographic filmmaking - the
idea that the filmmaker immerses him/herself in
the culture for an extended period
What sort of video materials does
this method produce?
• Example of an ethnographic video that was
based on long term participant observation:
• Domov by Rosie Read
Advantages
• Long term fieldwork can allow you to video
record a wide range of events and activities and to
develop close relationships with the video subjects
• The data you produce will be connected with other
data sources
• The visual recordings can be analysed in relation
to your own continuous observations and
experience of the social context you are studying they are not simply ‘one off’observations
The video interview
• Will be based on a short term and structured
encounter with the participant
• Might be combined with a tape recorded interview
and the collection of relevant visual and other
materials lent to the researcher by the participant
• Multiple or repeat video interviews might take
place
Example: the video tour method
• A study of gender identity, housework and home
decoration
• An applied project that has also been written up as
a academic book
The process
• Participants were first interviewed and tape
recorded
• The video tour then commenced: they were asked
to show me around their homes discussing each
room and the objects in it as we progressed
through the house
The limits of this approach
• We do not learn from our own long term observations but
learn about our informant’s own representations of their
homes and their experiences in them
• We are therefore analysing videos that are representations
of representations
• This means we need to reflexively analyse the research
context and the relationships we develop with informants
as much as the content of the tapes
Advantages of this approach
• Researchers can cover a number of informants and their
experiences in a shorter period of time
• The most suitable method for researching and comparing
indviduals’ experiences of intimate places like home, or
learning contexts requiring minimal disturbance
• This approach is collaborative and not observational so it
allows us to hear the ‘voices’ of research subjects
• It generates an intimate context in which to produce
knowledge that is uniquely visual and cannot be expressed
in spoken or written words
Analysing video tours
• View example from the OU film - Paula’s
story
6. Informant-produced video
Video diaries
• A popular genre on TV now - began in the early
1990s
• Also increasingly established as method in social
science research
Chalfen and Rich - VIA
• Rich M, Lamola S, Gordon J, Chalfen R. (2000)‘Video
Intervention/Prevention Assessment: a patient-centered
methodology for understanding the adolescent illness
experience’. Journal of Adolescent Health. 27(3):155-165.
http://www.viaproject.org/VIAMethod.pdf
VIA (Video Intervention/Prevention
Assessment)
• A method developed by Chalfen and Rich to work
with the sufferers of chronic Asthma
• A medical research project using methods
originating in visual anthropology
Advantages of this methodology include:
• Ability to find out about aspects of people’s lives that they
might not think to mention in spoken interviews
• The tapes can be viewed in interview contexts with the
informants to elicit further data
• The tapes can be used to represent informants’ experiences
to relevant others and can later be used in teaching and
training (with correct permissions and consent of course)
7. Analysing, logging, storing
and sharing
Working with digital video
Working with digital video
Digital video is recommended - the
importance of this will become especially
clear once you reach the post-fieldwork
stage
• Digitalisation can be very costly after the
event
• Working with digital materials brings a wide
spectrum of advantages
CAQDAS (Computer assisted
Qualitative Data Analysis Software)
E.g.:
• NUD*ST
• Atlas- ti
• Others…
How useful is CAQDAS?
• Recent versions of CAQDAS allow you to store
and log video within their systems
• Might be useful for organising and logging large
amounts of video data
• The same advice for any user of this software
stands - only use it if you potential benefits from
the software outweigh the time you will spend
setting it up
Other methods of archiving
digital video data
• Set up your own archive using Quick-time pro and
your own logging system
• Use logging systems that come with video editing
software
Sharing digital video data
• Share clips with your informants- e-mail then clips
for feedback and comment - do e-mail interviews
focusing on these clips
• Share digital video clips with your research team cut relevant clips and e-mail to your research team
or post them to your discussion board or intranet
• Involve other colleagues in your research process send them clips and other research materials to
comment on
8. Representing Video Research
Reporting, Arguing, Advocacy,
Training…
Digital video materials allow us to:
• Combine audio visual and written data
(knowledge) in our reports
• Create different texts for different audiences
• Make the most of different media (documentary
video, hypermedia, printed documents with video
stills in them)
Documentary video:
An edited documentary video for
• TV
• academic audiences
• a public awareness campaign,
• use within an organization
Video clips
Used:
• with a conference paper
• as part of a presentation
• to accompany reports
Hypermedia
Advantages of using hypermedia:
• Can combine audio-visual and written knowledge
• Can combine theoretical and ethnographic
knowledge
• Makes video more meaningful in a reporting
context as it is combined with written words
• Can share work on-line
Examples of hypermedia ethnography
• On-line reporting of project progress (academic
Ruby, Commercial Lovejoy & Steele)
• CD project representing a range of work (Coover)
• CD ROM development for different audiences
project (my own CD projects)
• Chalfen and Rich - their informants’ research
video was used in training CDs
On-line reports: Jay Ruby’s work
• The Maintaining Diversity Project in Oak Park, USA
• The first web site: using Flash Software - ambitious and
complex http://www.viscom.or.kr/
• The current web site on-line reports and images
http://astro.ocis.temple.edu/~ruby/opp/
• Using video on-line needs technological expertise
Coover’s Cultures in Webs
• A CD ROM project produced by a documentary artist with
anthropological interests working with multimedia.
• Combines moving and still images and words
• Web sample available at
http://home.uchicago.edu/~rcoover/CIWWeb/CIWWeb.html
Video Tour CDs
• Gender at Home - academic CD project
and a commercial series
9. Useful sites and references
Books & articles cited
Collier, J. Jnr. (1973) Alaskan Eskimo Education, New York: Holt, Rinehart and
Winston
MacDougall, D. (1997) 'The visual in anthropology' in M. Banks and H. Morphy
(eds) Rethinking Visual Anthropology London: New Haven Press
MacDougall, D. (1998) Transcultural Cinema, Princetown University Press
Pink, S. et al eds (2004) Working Images, London: Routledge
Pink, S. (2001) Doing Visual Ethnography, London: Sage
Rich M, Lamola S, Gordon J, Chalfen R. (2000)‘Video Intervention/Prevention
Assessment: a patient-centered methodology for understanding the adolescent
illness experience’. Journal of Adolescent Health. 27(3):155-165.
http://www.viaproject.org/VIAMethod.pdf
Useful links
• Working Images
• Visualising Ethnography
10. Summing up
• Historically connected to the search for objectivity
• Now accepted as a subjective and reflexive form of
qualitative data production
• Video methods: observation; collaboration; informants’
videos
• Combine with other methods
• Use digital forms of storage and analysis and share data
• Options for representation: documentary; report clips;
hypermedia