2020/12/08 by Anri Smit, Leslie Swartz, Jason Bantjes +3
Social Sciences · #Focus Groups and Qualitative Methods #Participatory Visual Research Methods #Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics
paper · doi:10.1177/1049732320976556
openalex publication_date 2020/12/08 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
Qualitative researchers are increasingly making use of multiple media to collect data within a single study. Such approaches may have the potential to generate rich insights; however, there are also potential methodological challenges in simultaneously analyzing data from multiple media. Using three case studies from our work with women who had recurrent breast cancer in South Africa, we explore four challenges of using multiple media to collect data: (a) how to understand the repetition of themes (or lack thereof) across multiple media; (b) whether or not data collected from multiple media over a protracted period should be read as longitudinal data reflecting a dynamic process; (c) what impact using multiple media has on the participant-researcher relationship; and (d) how the medium may shape the data obtained. We propose that the value of using multiple methods lies in the opportunity they provide to understand how participants engage with the different media.