ABSTRACT MARTIN, KELLY NORRIS. Visual
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ABSTRACT MARTIN, KELLY NORRIS. Visual Research: Introducing a Schema for Methodologies and Contexts. (Under the direction of Victoria J. Gallagher.) Studying the visual has become tremendously important to many disciplines because images express a range of human experience sometimes ambiguously articulated in verbal discourse, namely, “spatially oriented, nonlinear, multidimensional, and dynamic” human experiences (Foss, 2005, p. 143). In fact, the power of the image to plainly communicate occurs not “in spite of language’s absence but also frequently because of language’s absence” (Ott & Dickinson, 2009, p. 392). Presently, the challenge for visual research is that scholars investigate images from varied disciplines with separate and distinctive methods with little discussion or exchange across fields. Furthermore, more disciplines are requiring students to take courses in visual communication and more professors are being hired to teach those courses. However, these visual communication professors have nowhere to go (in the United States) in order to become prepared to teach and conduct research in visual communication. They enroll in programs in journalism and mass communication, linguistics, sociology, social psychology, anthropology, and so on. Then, they either adapt what they learn from these fields to the field of visual communication or they teach themselves about the methods, theories, and literature of visual communication. This project focused on comparing and contrasting the strengths and limitations of various visual research methods in order to demonstrate the breadth of the methods and how they inform one another. The goals of this project were to introduce 1) four primary methodological approaches to visual research: visual rhetoric, visual studies visual communication and design-making, 2) a visual organizational schema that textually and graphically maps the hierarchical relationships of numerous strategies/perspectives and techniques of visual research methods 3) a presentation of the possibilities afforded by the use of different and combined methods. Without intellectual exchange between these schools of research (or at least an awareness and good understanding of other approaches) it is more difficult for researchers to build off the findings from other fields or approach a research challenge in a novel way. As Burke articulates, researchers should approach methods so that they “encompass a broad range of terms and possess a scope substantial enough to incorporate the maximum number of possible explanations for human action.” This project also suggests that visual researchers should engage in visual making, creating their own visual artifacts and thus strengthening how they interpret and communicate their research findings and professional projects. Visual Research: Introducing a Schema for Methodologies and Contexts by Kelly Norris Martin A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty of North Carolina State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Communication, Rhetoric, and Digital Media Raleigh, North Carolina 2011 APPROVED BY: ____________________________ ___________________________ Victoria J. Gallagher Carolyn R. Miller Chair of Advisory Committee ____________________________ ___________________________ Melissa A. Johnson Meredith Davis DEDICATION To Mike Though unexpected, I’m so thankful I found my true love and best friend in the middle of the North Carolina wilderness. ii BIOGRAPHY Kelly Norris Martin is a scholar of visual research whose primary interests include visual communication, visual research methods, design and digital media. Her dissertation compares and contrasts the strengths and limitations of various visual research methods in order to demonstrate the breadth of the methods and how they inform one another. Within this research project she is working to develop a visual organizational schema that textually and graphically maps the hierarchical relationships of numerous strategies/perspectives and techniques of visual research methods. Prior to attending North Carolina State University, where she received her Master of Science in Communication and then enrolled in the Communication, Rhetoric and Digital Media program, she attended John Carroll University where she received her Bachelor of Arts in English and Music through the honors and cross registration program. Before attending graduate school, Kelly worked for The Coastland Times, Dare County Public Relations and founded ripCurrent magazine on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. In addition to her work in visual research methods, she has worked with Drs. Gallagher and Ma on developing a theory of visual wellbeing and with Dr. Melissa Johnson on a theory of digital credibility with a focus on public relations blogs. Kelly has also conducted communication across the curriculum research with Dr. Deanna Dannels examining the communication practices of design critiques. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank all those who have directly and indirectly helped me complete this dissertation. Mike and Garrett deserve the most thanks because of their remarkable understanding, love and support. Without Mike it is likely I never would have entered a doctoral program let alone completed the writing of a dissertation. I am a very lucky person to also have had my brother Doug move to North Carolina and be there for me when I needed help or to remind me how to have a good time (especially if this meant a trip to the Waffle House). I also thank Doug’s wife Ashleen because she is always ready to celebrate victories (often with funfetti), provide opinions, find survey participants, help me with bookstore questions and watch Garrett. I thank Mom and Dad for their wonderful support and for letting me come to them with any and all questions and problems. I will always be grateful to my mom for brightening my days with phone calls and creative care packages and my dad’s willingness to offer advice and help with projects (even taking photographs of statues). All my family has been very understanding and supportive of my education and I would like to thank Grandma Hasenflue, the Bacons, the Cottrells, the Martins, the Toneys and the other fellow “out-laws” for their prayers, letters and love. When I think about my experiences at North Carolina State University, I will remember most fondly the faculty who helped me in so many different ways and treated me like a colleague. I thank my committee chair Dr. Victoria Gallagher for being a wonderful teacher and uplifting presence, for guiding me toward the Communication, Rhetoric and Digital Media program, for being such a dedicated advisor and student advocate, for our iv inspiring field trips and for holding Garrett in her office. Other students who have had her as a committee chair agree, Dr. Gallagher has a talent for recognizing the individual needs of each of her students and helps them develop a much stronger research project in a timely manner. I also thank Dr. Deanna Dannels who was the first person at NC State to tell me I should consider earning a Ph.D., who first taught me how to be a researcher and a teacher, who has been so hospitable to my family and who always offers professional and personal support at any time. I would also like to thank Dr. Melissa Johnson for being such a devoted teacher and for allowing me the privilege of working with her on various exciting research projects. Dr. Carolyn Miller and Dr. Meredith Davis, along with Dr. Gallagher and Dr. Johnson (who I have already mentioned), made up a wonderful committee that helped me greatly improve this dissertation and acted as tremendous academic role models. I thank them for all their hard work, energy, suggestions and feedback. Other professors who deserve a special note of thanks include Dr. David Berube, for giving me a variety of research opportunities and for being so caring and generous to Mike and Garrett; Dr. Bill Jordan, for his SPSS expertise, kindness and incredible patience; Dr. Steve Wiley, who has been a helpful program director and was an engaging professor to work for as a teaching assistant; Dr. Susan Miller-Cochran, for her fantastic teaching and advice and Dr. Jeremy Packer and Dr. Ken Zagacki, for their understanding and flexibility regarding maternity-related concerns. I would also like to thank my friends including Kelly Murdoch-Kitt for her creative design-related suggestions and tutorials; Dr. Amy Housley Gaffney (PDA) for answering so many academic-related questions, teaching me her crafty ways and for watching Garrett v (“The Beast”); Nick Temple for his help with the avatar project and friendship throughout all six years of graduate school; all the CRDM students, especially Dr. Anna Turnage, Kathy Oswald (“don’t fight it”), Shayne Pepper (“Donna!”) and Dawn Shepherd for their support and enthusiasm and Michael Dougherty for his friendship and laughter. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES.................................................................................................................xiii LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................... xiv CHAPTER ONE ....................................................................................................................... 1 The State of Visual Research................................................................................................ 1 Approaches to Visual Research ...........................................................................................