The content analysis of visual sources as a method of the sport related social movements’ research

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THE CONTENT ANALYSIS OF VISUAL SOURCES AS A METHOD
OF THE SPORT RELATED SOCIAL MOVEMENTS' RESEARCH

Svetlana Baranova (Kyiv)

The article deals with the specifics of the content analysis of visual sources usage in the sport related social movements study as one of the significant and flexible method in sociological analysis, taking into account both the active development of the subject and the limited research resources. The application of this method allows to make solid conclusions about the activities and communicative practices which are presented in this type of social movements in different contexts, especially in conditions of dynamic social and political changes, as well as disclose the heuristic and predictive capability of sociology, overcoming some of the methodological contradictions, which is specifically important for comparative studies.

Keywords: content analysis, visual sources, the "new social movements", sport related social movements.

Initial conditions. The current stage of the society's development demonstrates the activation of the large amount of social movements. They are represented by a wide variety of multiple manifestations of their activity, its specific nature, extent and forms.

Based on an understanding of the new model of collective behavior and the importance of networking group identity according to new societal space, in the 80's of XX century many social scientists drew their attention to the "new social movements". First of all, the key issues in this context was referred to the question of war and peace, the respect of the rules of civil society, the protection of human rights, environmental problems etc. These social movements were seen as collective actors of social changes [3, p.186].

These category of social movements also includes the sport related social movements, appearance, collective actions and group identity of which are substantiated through a particular kind of sport (but not a sport itself) or sport events. In this condition, the sport itself moves from the central plane in people's activity to a relatively stable platform for the disclosure of self-organizing potential that reflects in particular forms of protest, civil rights protection, volunteering, leisure and other examples of social activity.

Setting objectives. In the sociological analysis practice, the emergence of a new research object and the corresponding environment for its development led to a number of methodological problems which were brought up. That is why the main goal of this article is to present for consideration the content analysis of visual sources as a one of the significant and flexible method of the sport related social movements' research.

Analysis of recent research and publications. The methodology of the visual sources analysis is presented in Ukrainian sociology, namely the works of such scholars as N. Kostenko, I. Chudovskaya, M. Yakovlev, as well as in foreign social science (M. Ball, M. Banks, H. Becker, P. Bourdieu, D. Harper, S. Pink, G. Rose, P. Sztompka). Despite this, the analysis and interpretation of visual sources still remain peripherals of the modern scientific research.

General material. There is no clear system of techniques and methods for the study of the sport related social movements, especially in the context of comparative researches. The researchers use different methodology for gathering collection and analysis of data, what generally complicates the procedure of comparison. Conclusions tend to be descriptive and strictly related to specific aspects, such as, for example, a level of aggression and violence around sport. Thus, the results can be reduced to presenting statistics of attendance sport events or rating and ranging phenomenons in sport related subculture. This situation tends to be possible through the prism of several factors, among them are the following.

Firstly, the characteristics of the objective of research. The sport related social movements are presented by the large variety of vectors of collective actions which are determined through different interests. Moreover, in the process of the intense social changes in Ukraine in the last several years, the active development of the object of research is taking place. The sport related social movements acquire the characteristics of collective actors on the arena of social changes. According to the relevant society state, different kinds and forms of movements, their scope and intensity of reorganization, level of radicalism of participants, sociologists are forced to adapt their methodological strategies. There is also the problem of access to respondents who can be representatives of the closed communities, such as, for example, sport "Ultras" of hooligans, where there is a thin line between functional and disfunctional, between human rights and illegal actions.

Secondly, the limited resources. A detailed study of the behavior and relations between the members of the sport related social movements often involves active participation in different sorts of activity and inclusion in sport related subculture or the processing a large number of documents, especially if we are talking about the cross-cultural analysis. Such researches are complicated by the low mobility of researchers and the limited access to some materials.

Thirdly, most of the data and recourses are presented by not sociologists. The problematic of the sport related social movements is disclosed in masterpieces of journalists, writers, government employees in the field of sports and people who are interested in sport events and sport related subculture. Fourthly, the lack of methodological coherence due to the low communicative activity of researchers. This kind of specification and localization of the results, their focusing on national peculiarities weakens analytical and comparative capabilities of the sociological study of sport related social movements.

Moreover, the importance of the content analysis of visual sources as a method of the sport related social movements' research is increasing because of the actualization of visualization in social communications, symbolization of social practices within social movements, enhancing the role of visual channels in transmission of information in order to attract and retain the attention of the audience.

The analysis of visual sources as a research technique essentially develops within different sciences. Its unique interdisciplinary characteristics in modern science have its advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand, the analysis of visual sources can come up with theoretical and methodological foundations of various scientific disciplines. On the other hand, the analysis of visual sources is not structured and not systematic. Even within the realm of sociological research methods of visual information analysis do not constitute a separate group methods [2, p. 107].

In contemporary publications devoted to the study of visual sources and information, there is no clear outline of procedures for visual information analysis. Most of the time, the authors briefly review what visual sources and with what purpose they use them in their scientific woks, but a technological aspect is not emphasized enough. Sociologists make special focus on theoretical approaches to interpreting visual information, avoiding detailed presentation of techniques. Consequently the weakness of visual sources analysis is the lack of a structured representation of methods and logic of its proceeding with reference to the theoretical and methodological foundations of studying visuals as a whole [8, p. 10].

So, what does a content analysis constitute as a sociological method and what features of its application to visual sources and information sources are relevant for studying sport related social movements?

J. Mannheim and R. Rich consider content analysis as a systematic numerical processing, evaluation and interpretation of the form and content of the information source. According to the authors' opinion, content analysis provides a series of methods with the assistance of which scientists can generalize one or another forms of behavior and relations between different types of actors [5, p. 11].

For further understanding the concept of content analysis and specificity of its' implementation it is worthwhile to use the following definition: content analysis is a "qualitative and quantitative method for studying documents which is characterized by the objectivity of the conclusions and the strict procedure and which implies the quantitative text processing with further interpretation of the results. The subject of the content analysis can be phenomenons in social reality that are manifested or otherwise concealed in documents as well as internal functioning patterns of the researched object"[4, p. 44].

Thus, the first thing to think about when considering sociological content analysis of visual materials regarding to sport related social movements is a differentiation of quantitative and qualitative traditions. In the case of quantitative methods, the research follows a deductive logic of verification the hypotheses to refute or confirm a theory in conditions of the removal of researcher from the subject of the study. In case of qualitative methods, which include, for example, interpretive analysis of visual sources, the emphasis is put on the application of the logic of understanding. It is less structured and in contrast with quantitative methods the experience of the researcher is included into the process of studying [8, p. 12].

In the sociological research of such dynamic objective as sport related social movements it is more justified the usage of a combination of qualitative and quantitative strategy in content analysis. As for quantification, it is important when we are dealing with a large number of objects. In a situation of a small number of objects sociologist needs to focus on the qualitative aspect of content analysis, a purport of categories, their presence or absence.

From this stand point, specifically should be considered particular features of visual sources as such. There will be no exaggeration to claim that the large number of researchers does not trust visual materials as a primary source of sociological information. They are more likely to work with the statistic data to which quantitative methods can be properly applied. This situation reflects in certain state of sociological discourse that demonstrates the emergence of "quantophrenny" which Pitirim Sorokin called a "disease" that takes many forms and occurs in every field of sociology[7]. But in the context of the growing popularity of the usage of qualitative and qualitative-quantitative methodologies in sociological researches, the focus of social scientists starts to displace to visual sources as well.

Photography, motion picture, video and other visualized objects are completely self-sufficient visual sources that require the same source-criticism and appropriate methodological tools. Visual documents are significant not only by their fixed visual images but by encoded and decoded information, the semantic load that is presented and revealed through these images. The complex examination, extraction and processing of the date from such visual sources in the sport related social movement study allows not only supplement scientific knowledge about the state of this particular object, but also literally "visualize" the objective.

Visual documents as masterpieces of the Fine Art can be analyzed in three ways:

1. as document of past ages that allows to draw conclusions about certain aspects of social life or details of everyday routine;

2. as documentation of Fine Arts in case when the art itself becomes an objective of the research;

3. as a "human document", which means that a document provides an opportunity to form an conceptual idea about personality of the author of the document [1, p. 298].

As documentary evidence of the particular events and phenomenons, such kind of visual sources as photography and video chronicles are extremely valuable materials and needed source of information in the study of sport related social movements in their dynamics, especially from the perspective of symbolic interaction among their members. Thus it is very important to outline the main characteristics of visual sources that are used in this type of sociological researches.

Firstly, visual sources disclose social facts in a form of specific static or dynamic visual images. The direct attachment of information to a bearer at the moment of action is the one of the main features of the prior majority of visual sources. These documents vividly reflect the specificity of time-and-space conditions. They are also a kind of artifacts themselves and the information or massages that are coded in them requires semantic reading and comprehension. Therefore, they are mostly not inferior to other informative documentary sources. Secondly, one of main features of visual sources is that they specify verbal context of the social reality contours in general and in particular of day-to-day life. Thirdly, in terms of information and visualization worldwide visual information forms a mass and affordable source of the predocumented data. The current level of technological development and high productive communicational practices, wide-spread social networks and virtual interactions facilitate the dissemination of ideas in the form of fixed in space visual massages. Fourthly, the appearance of a visual document is primarily a creative process. It also helps to reveal an additional hidden content, views and opinions of the author. Fifthly, visual sources open to sociologists another perspective way of understanding the past, enriching the researchers' experience. Analysis of these documents is a kind of social remembering and recalling. Sixthly, visual sources can acquire the status of historical documents and even historical monuments. Seventhly, while working with visual sources scientist must always consider the context. Despite the relevant autonomy only in context the essence and the main purpose of the document can be disclosed, as well as the foundations for decoding visual information can be laid.

As for the image as a way to transmit informational message about one or another aspect of the existence of sport related social movements, here comes the need to emphasize several points that will define a method of processing a document.

1. The technology of creation. There are several categories of fixing an image of the moment of social reality: painting and graphics, sculpturing, filming, photographing, creating electronic or digital image, set designing, performing, etc. It is important that all these techniques, albeit to varying degrees, allow multiple reproducing the image and the source.

2. The localization of the image, a place of its' presentation. The location can be an available media space, public space, "exclusive" space (museum, stage, theater, etc.) and private space. Localization determines not only the accessibility of the image, but also the nature of perception.

3. The function of the image. Images can be presented through artistic (expressive, aesthetic, etc), informational, documentary, commercial, advertising, propagandistic functions. These functions can be differently combined [6, p. 26].

The main results. Generally the application of content analysis to the visual sources, which provide information about sport related social movements, must consider a number of aspects. It is important to look through following positions.

1. The work with visual sources, first of all, is a work with images. Therefore, we must take into account their specific characteristics such as content, form, size, color, and so on. This factor is directly connected to the specificity of procedures of encoding and decoding information.

2. Visual source can be a synthesis of image and text. In this case content analysis focuses not only on visual, but on textual information interpretation.

3. In such analysis the important role is played by social and physical space and time context. This brings both to understanding the meaning and purpose of creation of the document, as well as the specifics of the deployment of sport related social movements.

4. The visual sources' appearance is a product of creativity. The messages are refracted through the prism of author's own subjectivity that needs to be taken into account.

5. The nature (artistic or documentary) of the sources plays an important role in the interpretation of data. The input of both is defined from the stand point of the main goals of the research.

6. In content analysis of video materials special attention should be paid to the presented expert reviews, especially it is relevant for a documentary videos. Their analysis contributes to a broader understanding of the nature of the object and social stereotypes associated with it.

So, considering the specificity of visual sources and preliminary comments on the method of content analysis application sociologist can disclose the following characteristics of sport related social movements: types, forms and nature of collective behavior; main features of its own representation in comparison with existing artificially created images of the participants; organizational and selforganizational potential; the specific corporate culture; communications and interactions between both members of the movement, and between movement and the social environment; the range of social problems which are actualized through the process of the social movement development, forms of control, expert evaluation of the effectiveness of the particular sport related social movements.

Thus, a combination of quantitative and qualitative strategies in content analysis of visual sources makes it possible to make solid conclusions about the activities and communicational practices of representatives of sport related social movement from different angles and in different contexts. Also, this method creates the basis for cross-cultural comparative studies, especially in conditions of the limited resource base and low mobility of researchers. All that stimulates the disclosure of the heuristic and prognostic potential of sociological science.

References

content analysis social movement

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