Analyzing multimedia data: exploring the dimensions of context in ICT for development research

Abstract

It is argued that ICT-for-development interventions should be seen as a dynamic and hybrid network of actors, artefacts, communities, and institutions embedded within the context. Comprehensive understanding of contextual nuances in ICT4D research is thus, an important determinant of quality of research. Scholars have emphasized that qualitative research is opportune in uncovering unique insights and comprehension in a poorly understood and hitherto unexplored arena such as ICT4D interventions in developing countries. While ‘data’ in most of the qualitative research refers to ‘words or textual data’, the advancements in the mobile technology, especially incorporation of compact cameras in the mobile phones, and increasing penetration of mobile phones allow researchers to easily capture multimedia data in their field study. We posit that multimedia data, having multiple dimensions as compared to textual data, enhance the capability of the researchers to understand and explore a specific dimension of qualitative research, namely the contextual dimension, enabling the researcher to undertake a more valid or rigorous investigation of the phenomenon as embedded in the context. By explicating the process of analysis of multimedia data- video recordings of doctor-patient interaction over telemedicine, the authors emphasize that multimedia data analysis can considerably enhance the quality of research in the ICTD domain. In doing so, this paper addresses two important issues related to the methodological issues in qualitative analysis of multimedia data: (1) when and why should the researcher consider collecting multimedia data as opposed to textual data and (2) how should the researcher proceed in analyzing the multimedia data.