Front Page of the Daily Prophet

First – I loved the introduction to the Education Policy and Analysis Archives. The requirement of a video summary for published work is fantastic! What a great way to make the research accessible to a wider audience. I look forward to investigating the site further. Also, I had no idea TCR required something similar. It’s a good sign that digital tools and multiple means of representation are becoming more prevalent.

I’m really glad to be entering the discussion of digital tools for representing findings. I’ve been mulling over several things the past few weeks, kind of an itchy scratchy idea in the back of my mind that I’m looking forward to finally sharing as the readings have helped to bring these ideas more to the forefront of my thoughts.

I really began thinking about how powerful presenting a story via multiple media can actually be and how difficult this is to do in a fluid manner. I’ve seen people attempt to incorporate media into presentations, but sometimes it feels piecemeal or clunky. While there is great promise for things like blogs, websites, video ethnographies etc. I don’t think the traditional academic journal article will completely diminish – but it might become technologically enhanced (beyond a companion piece like the ones from EPAA or TRC). I am sure we will find ways to incorporate technology.

I stumbled across one of the most seamless examples of what this might look like in journalism from a March 9^th article in the New York Times Online by Dan Barry titled “The ‘Boys’ in the Bunkhouse”. At first glance it seems like a traditional piece of investigative journalism to include stunning images. However, the images didn’t seem quite right, then I realized that many of them were moving (almost like they were taken from the pages of the Daily Prophet). The Times had incorporated Vines throughout the article and several of these images linked to more in-depth video clips. While this isn’t academic qualitative research the presentation proved powerful and gut wrenching, the images and video just made it more so without pandering. 

As journals begin the migration to online platforms I believe this type of media integration will emerge and prove a powerful extension of thick description associated with high quality qualitative research. However, there are constraints, many related to participant protection. Also, I question the new set of skills researchers will require to render video that when taken out of context is capable of capturing the emotion or symbolism for the average reader/viewer.

But I can’t deny the importance of video analysis in both interpreting and presenting the data. I was fortunate to see Barbara Rogoff speak last week regarding her work on “Learning through Pitching In.” I found her discussion both interesting and her descriptions effective, however when she showed examples of students learning and working together I was struck by just how significant her observations were. The videos captured participant interaction with researchers in a way that neither the most detailed written descriptions via field notes nor an audio transcript would ever be capable of capturing. (The two most powerful examples of the significance of video and nonverbal communication begin around 44:50 and 1:02:00.)