Researchers can use visual arts or images that already exist
as a mean of developing a research topic especially about social life.
As a pervasive social product visual art is a significant source of information about the social world, including cultural aspects of social life; economic and political structures; identity issues at the global, national, group and individual levels; and many other issues. Given the vast range of social phenomena to which art can be used with respect to diverse identity issues, which includes the cultural, representational, economic, and political dimensions of identity. (Leavy 2009)
<Example 1 - Video>
How images in the media shape our view of Muslims
In this video, the research claimed how negatively the images of Muslims were exposed in the media after 9/11.The images became the grounds for the war even though there are still the real lives of Muslims existing that we didn't see. "The American people should be made ware of the trend toward monopolization of the great public information vehicles and the concentration of more and more power over public opinion in fewer and fewer hands." - Spiro Agnew
Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9g0OC9DEFJM
<Example 2 - Articles>
| Caught Napping: Images of Surveillance, Discipline and Punishment on the Body of the Schoolchild by Margolis, Eric and Fram, Sheila The authors' research is concerned with the use of visual imagery as data to examine schools and schooling. In attempting to develop knowledge further by incorporating the visual in educational research, they draw on a hybrid mix of disciplines including sociology, ethnography, history and the humanities. In this article, the authors discuss images of three lessons that the body is subjected to as essential elements of schooling: surveillance, discipline and punishment.
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| More than Memories: Studying Home Movies and the Families Who Made Them Unfairly viewed as poorly made and unwatchable, home movies actually constitute a wide variety of events and images that make them an invaluable and largely unexplored resource for scholars and researchers. The images captured in home movies--first birthdays, parades, vacations, family gatherings, etc.--were originally made by family members to preserve memories of joyous events. In this article, the author talks about Home Movie Day, an annual event held in cities across the world that is considered as the best way to begin exploring the riches offered by home movies.
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