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Can a research film be considered a stand‐alone academic publication? An assessment of the film Climate Change, Voices of the Vulnerable: The Fishers' Plight
Author(s) -
Baptiste April Karen
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
area
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.958
H-Index - 82
eISSN - 1475-4762
pISSN - 0004-0894
DOI - 10.1111/area.12194
Subject(s) - representation (politics) , thematic analysis , sampling frame , presentation (obstetrics) , climate change , process (computing) , perception , sociology , public relations , social science , data science , political science , psychology , qualitative research , computer science , medicine , ecology , politics , population , biology , law , radiology , demography , neuroscience , operating system
While widely used as a form of data collection, the use of film as a stand‐alone medium for the dissemination of research has not been fully realized in the social sciences. The hesitation on the part of many scholars to produce video is based on the lack of criteria for what constitutes a research‐film. Each academic publication has underlying research‐reporting characteristics. If these characteristics are evident then the medium of dissemination should not matter. This article argues that a research‐film can serve as an academic publication because it reflects the reporting of research that contributes to new knowledge or theories in a particular discipline(s). Taking a reflective approach, this article uses the film Climate Change, Voices of the Vulnerable: The Fishers' Plight, which advances knowledge in the fields of Environmental Studies and Geography, to critically assess the research‐reporting characteristics of research films. The film, based on fishers' perceptions to climate change in Trinidad and Tobago, meets some of the characteristics of research‐reporting through the representation of the theoretical framework and demographic sample data, a clear representation of the findings and analysis through thematic transition slides, and presentation of a conclusion. However it falls short through a lack of systematic representation of the sampling process and a well‐grounded theoretical frame with cited studies. The findings suggest that research‐films can stand‐alone as an output for academic research‐reporting as the short‐falls can be easily remedied in order to satisfy the characteristics of research‐reporting. The article concludes by raising the opportunities and challenges for social researchers who use this method for disseminating academic research, including the lack of outlets to provide peer‐reviews of research‐films in the published literature.