9/7/2021

Photovoice

NGUYEN DUC HOA CUONG/ MBA. MSC.

HANOI UNIVERSITY

What is photovoice?

 A participatory action research method that uses participant-generated

photographs to stimulate critical reflection and engage the public to
advocate for actions and changes.
 Participants use their photographs to facilitate reflective discussions, are
involved in analyzing their narratives and influence the conclusions to
report.
 In a forum, exhibition or on an online platform, the participants can engage
with the public including policy-makers and decision-makers on issues
captured in the photographs.

1
 9/7/2021

What is needed?

 Camera(s). The number of camera required would depend on how many

people will be photographing and the extent to which the camera(s) can be
shared among all the photographers. Simple point-and-shoot digital or phone
cameras will be sufficient. Digital and phone cameras have the advantage of
letting photographers to review and delete photographs.
 A way to share photographs during group discussions and forum. Photographs
can be printed in-house with a photograph printer or at a print shop. If there
are more photographs than there is time to discuss them, it may be necessary
to ask the participants to select a subset of photographs. Researchers can
also share photographs by projecting them on a screen or internet, including
social media platforms.
 Locations or a platform for group discussions and public forums. Depending
on whether any of the discussions and public forums will be done face-to-face
or through the World Wide Web, a physical meeting location or an online
platform would be necessary to support discussions and to engage the public.

What is needed?

 A voice-recording device. This would depend on whether the discussions need

to be recorded.
 Notebooks. Researchers may want to take notes in addition to voice recording
during discussions. Narratives and discussions would need to be stored in a
form that can be analyzed and shared to further stimulate critical reflection and
shape a discourse.
 Handout. It may help photographers to remember the photograph topics by
giving them a hardcopy of the topics. For those who are unfamiliar with using
digital or phone camera(s), it may also be helpful to give them a handout of
the basic instructions for how to operate and maintain such camera.
 Qualitative data analysis application. Analysis of the narratives and
discussions can be either done manually or using a qualitative data analysis
application such as NVivo and Atlas ti.

2
 9/7/2021

What is needed?

 Time. Time to get to the photographing locations and to experience the

research topics – for the participants to take photographs. There should also
be enough time budgeted to allow sufficient opportunities for participants to
discuss the photographs and to come to their own conclusions and actions to
take.
 Researchers. The researchers are playing the role of facilitators for
discussions and learning, and advocates of changes. Therefore, they should
be able to create trust and a comfortable platform for participants to discuss
openly. They should be comfortable with sharing power with participants on
data analysis, formulation of conclusion and actions, and even selection of
research topics.
 Participants. They may be randomly or purposively sampled individuals;
however, they need to understand what participatory action research means
and that are comfortable with playing an advocacy role.

3
 9/7/2021