“The Camera Rolls”

Abstract

This article draws on one citizen’s efforts to document daily life in his neighborhood. The authors describe the potential benefits of third-party video—videos that people who are not social scientists have recorded and preserved—to social science research. Excerpts from a collection of police-citizen interactions illustrate key points likely to confront researchers who use third-party video. The authors address two important questions: How might the presence of a video camera affect the unfolding of interactions that are recorded in third-party videos? and How might the perspective of the videographer influence the production and preservation of these records and, in turn, what influence might this standpoint have on our analysis of the data? The authors argue that, given the ubiquity of handheld video recording devices, social scientists should develop systematic approaches to using video created by others as both a cultural record and as data.