RECORDING SOCIAL-LIFE - REFLEXIVITY AND VIDEO METHODOLOGY

The degree to which researcher generated visual records (for example v ideo texts) may be used to collect valid information about the social world is subject to considerable academic debate (cf. Feld and William s, 1975; Gottdiener, 1979 and Grimshaw, 1982). On the one hand the met hod is assumed, by implication, to have limited impact on the data, th e taped image being treated as a replica of the unrecorded event (Vihm an and Greenlee, 1987; Vuchinich, 1986). On the other, it is suggested that the video camera has a uniquely distorting effect on the researc hed phenomenon (Gottdiener, 1979: p. 61; Heider, 1976: p. 49). Researc h participants, it is argued, demonstrate a reactive effect to the vid eo process such that data is meaningful only if special precautions ar e taken to validate it. Strategies suggested include a covert approach to the data collection itself (cf. Eibl-Eibesfeldt and Haass, 1974; G ottdiener, 1979; Albrecht, 1985) or the application of triangulative t echniques such as respondent validation (Gottdiener, 1979; Albrecht, 1 985 and Arborelius and Timpka, 1990). In this paper we suggest that bo th these views are problematic. The insistence of one on marginalising the role of the research process and the other on attempting to separ ate the process from the research data is at the expense of exploring the degree to which the process helps socially and interactionally pro duce the data. As we demonstrate, the activity of data collection is c onstitutive of the very interaction which is then subsequently availab le for investigation. A reflexive analysis of this relationship is the refore essential. Video generated data is an ideal resource in as far as it can provide a faithful record of the process as an aspect of the naturally occurring interaction which comprises the research topic.