Looking at and looking back: visualization in mobile research

Murray, Lesley. (2009). Qualitative research, 9(4), 469–488.

Murray defined contemporary social world is mobile (not only in the corporeal sense, but also in the increasing speed and flow of information) and the movement of images is central to the mobility; thus social world is becoming more visual through visual media such as video, the Internet, and mobile phones. Within this context, Murray seeks mobile, visual methodologies responding to mobile social world.

The mobility of the video camera is on her focus. She argued that its capability of contextualizing in time and space makes video a key tool of exploration within a mobile and visual methodology. Secondly, the possibility of repetitiveness in watching a sequence of action broadens a range of viewers, encompassing the researcher, participants, and beyond. Third, its capability to allow an exploration of non-verbal communication and a way of distinct knowledge creation.

A particular use of video is video diary, or self-filming. (This ‘self-filming’, which Pink (Doing visual ethnography) traces back to Sol Worth and John Adam’s ‘Navajo Film themselves’ made in 1966, gives participants the opportunity to represent themselves in time and space--Murray wrote)

As to video as a mobility methodology, Murray argued:

"The use of video methods in particular allows the moment to moment contextualization both
socio-culturally and spatially. Video is itself mobile, facilitating reflections on a sequence of events that can be negotiated into a narrative as part of a collaborative process between the researcher and participant." (p. 484)