Case study of a live project:
analysing multi-stream video data
using Transana 2.42
Dr Sarah L. Bulloch
University of Southampton
30 November 2012
Overview of presentation
• My background
• Background to project
• Overview of research process
- setting out aims and getting to know my data
- structuring the project
- phase 1 of analysis
- iterative phases of analysis
- drawing conclusions
- disseminating my findings
• Lessons learnt if I were to do it again
My background
• New to analysis of video data and to CAQDAS
• Specialism in quantitative data analysis
• Support structures – QUIC colleagues but also
wider Transana user community and
developers
• Context is important in shaping your analysis–
be aware of it.
Background to project
QUIC aim: to further explore technological and
methodological developments in qualitative software
- audiovisual data
- geographical data
- integration of quantitative and qualitative data
Broad analysis aim of exemplar project: to examine
particularities of remote interaction and implications
these have for the use of Access Grid technology in ‘real
life ’contexts’
What is Access Grid?
• Real-time networked
video teleconferencing
application
• Multiple cameras,
projectors, microphones
• Multiple ‘nodes’ can be
linked
• Desktops projected to
multiple sites
Overview of exemplar project
• Access Grid (AG) technology and interaction.
• Pioneered in relation to field research by N. Fielding and
M. Macintyre, 'Access Grid Nodes in Field Research' ,
Sociological Research Online, 11(2), 2006.
• Communication: verbal & non-verbal.
• Current focus: AG mediated interaction in ‘real life’
context
• Exemplar data: business meeting, 2 AG nodes, AGcaptured data AND additional video footage.
Overview of Research Process: Aims
and getting to know my data
• Developing aims through a mix of inductive vs.
deductive processes
• General aim -> exploring data -> refined aims > phase 1 of analysis -> aims further refined
• Exploring data in vs. outside Transana – a mix
• Decision of key comparisons affect structure
of Transana database
Research questions
• General aim: particularities of interaction via
Access Grid technology in a business meeting
• Does the AG setting affect exchange between
participants? If so, in what ways?
• To what extent do the technical aspects (audio &
visual setup) of the AG feature within the
meeting?
• What are the implications of using AG-captured
data for secondary analysis?
Structuring the project and my research process
• 01:50:46 of AG captured video – captures the meeting
from 9 angles (audiovisual data)
• Standalone cameras.
• Step 1: importing data into Transana and
synchronisation
• Step 2: verbatim transcription of meeting and getting to
know data
• Step 3: choosing unit of analysis and clip creation
• Step 4: action transcript and descriptive sequences of
meeting
• Step 5: deductive code creation
• Step 6: further familiarisation with data and inductive
code creation and annotation
• Step 7: interrogating the data for answers to the
research questions
Step 1: your general aim and its implications for
structuring the audiovisual data: what are your key
comparisons?
Your general aim and its implications for
structuring the audiovisual data: what are
your key comparisons?
Using transcripts and creating codes: a linked
process in Transana
-> Guiding research question: Does the AG setting
affect exchange between participants? If so, in what
ways?
• Multiple transcripts allow for textual representations of
verbal and non-verbal exchange. e.g. action transcript
(movement, posture, gaze)
• Flexibility in clip production in relation to what
constitutes ‘an exchange’ e.g. Segments of a few
minutes, speaker turns, segments of a few seconds.
This project: speaker turns.
• Coding for non-verbal content of audio-visual data highlights silence, interruptions etc.
• Visual representation of speaker turns over time.
Coding for nature
of transition of
exchanges:
interruptions
Reviewing coded
clips
In-project annotations (reflections on Data Quality)
Drawing conclusions
• Interrogating the data for answers to the
research questions
• Various tools to draw together analyses
- clip searches for keywords (demo)
- episode reports show a list of textual data
associated with searched clips, including a
summary that provides numerical data on
number of clips coded
- Key word report – keywords over time
Search for clips with
non-verbal reference
to visual set up
Episode report – filtered by keyword
(interruptions)
Key Word Report of exchanges: by Node,
meeting section and verbal interruptions
AG Node 1
AG Node 2
Verbal interruptions
Meeting section: Intro
Meeting section: Middle
Meeting section: Start
Disseminating findings
• Visual dissemination vs. textual
dissemination
• Using data extracts as evidence vs. macro
data generated from analysis
• Ethical issues – reproduction of words vs.
reproduction of images
• Publishing practices in social sciences
• The challenge of rendering the visual into
text form
Lessons learnt
• Support networks – talk to others about
their projects
• Get to know what the software will let you
do and what it won’t
• Clip creation takes longer than I thought
• Iterative analysis means lots of work
• Recording your thoughts throughout the
analysis helps you to be reflexive about
what you brought to the analysis
• Ethics of using images/video for