University Of Nottingham - The Use of Video With Young People

Sources of information

Active participants

Co-researchers

Lead researchers

The Use of Video With Young People

Who are we?

We are looking into the use of video with young people (that is people aged up to 25 years of age) in a range of projects, from research to community development.
We are interested in the different approaches to using video people are adopting in their work with young people.

This questionnaire has been designed for a wide range of people from researchers to volunteers working in all sorts of organisations and services.
There may be questions that are not relevant to you please indicate this on the questionnaire and move onto the next section.

This questionnaire is the starting point for our research, it will take about 25 minutes to complete. If you don’t finish it all in one go then you can save it and return to it later.
If we have contacted you by email we might send you a reminder email if you forget to complete it.

Our next step is to look in detail at a small selection of projects in more depth.
If you are interested in taking part in the next stage of our research please complete the contact details in the final section of this questionnaire

Who are you?

1.	Click on the following terms which most closely describes your role and then select one item from the pull down list that most accurately describes you.
	Researcher/Academic
	Practitioner/Professional
	Volunteer/Activist
2.	How long have you been working with young people?
3.	How long have you used video with young people?
Please slide the bar or press the horizontal line to indicate your answer.
4.	How would you rate your usage of video within your work?

a) I see myself as a...




Novice I have only used video on one or two occasions and am still exploring how best to incorporate it.	Competent Amateur I have now used video on enough occasions to be confident to include it in various projects	Expert I have used video extensively in a range of projects. I would be happy to advise others on how it can be incoprated into their projects

b) I have used video with young people in this many projects...




one project	two to five projects	Six to ten projects	Eleven to twenty projects	More than twenty

How have you used video in your projects with young people?

5.	Please click on one of the following statements and then select from the pull down the type of project that you have mainly work on with video and young people
	a)	Most of my work with video and young people has been about trying to change or improve something as part of a...
	b)	Most of my work with video and young people has been about finding out more about an issue as part of a...
	c)	Most of my work with video and young people has been a mix of changing things and finding out about issues as part of...

6.

How frequently have you used video in your projects with young people as...

		Never	Infrequently	More often than not	Most of the time
a)	I have used video as part of the initial planning of a project... (for example by creating a short film to show funders or participants)
b)	I have used video as a means of recruiting people to a project... (for example by showing them a video of a previous project)
c)	I have used video as a way of gaining access to an organisation... (for example by showing managers or gate keepers a video of a previous project)
d)	I have used video as a form of data collection/generation... (by collecting opinions from people or to record a conversation or social situation?)
e)	I have used video as part of the analysis of a project... (to help identify key themes, issues)
f)	I have used video as a means of reporting on the progress of a project to funders or stakeholders...
g)	I have used video as a way of presenting the outcomes from a project...
h)	I have used video as part of the evaluation of a project... (by watching it through and discussing it with young people or colleagues)

How do you generally work with young people when using video?

Below we have describe four general ways of working with young people when using video. Can you please indicate the frequency with which you work in one or other of these ways.

7.

You work with young people as...

		Never	Infrequently	More often than not	Most of the time
a)	Sources of information about what is happening. Your role is to collect their views and then present what they have said to other people
b)	Active participants who you like to get actively engage with an issue. You get them discussing anything that helps them think through an issue and talk about it with you. You then collect their views and present them to other people.
c)	Co-researchers who work alongside you on the project. They may be involved in everything from collecting information to presenting findings. You may provide then with training or just try and involve them in decisions about what you are doing, how to collect the data and how to present it.
d)	Lead researchers in which case the young people manage their own projects and your role is to support and help them. They will lead on designing and carrying out the work and in getting the outcomes across to other people.

How do you generally work with young people when using video? (cont)

8.

Please indicate below by moving the indicators what is your preferred or ideal way of working with young people and how you actually work with them in most cases.

a) Preferred...

b) Actual...

How do you generally work with young people when using video? (cont)

9.

How important are the following factors in determining your ACTUAL approach to working with young people when using video?

		Key Influence	Important	I keep it in mind	Not important	Not applicable
a)	Working in this way appeals to young people.
b)	Funders, or managers, appear to prefer this way of working and are unhappy about other approaches.
c)	Young people learn more working in this way.
d)	I have a strong personal commitment to this way of working.
e)	I have limited resources to do this kind of work
f)	Professional or ethical guidelines, standards or approved ways of working limit what I can do.
g)	This is the best way of getting things changed for the better
h)	My values make it difficult for me to work in any other way.
i)	Working in this way is the best way of getting young peoples to voice their views.
j)	I find it difficult to get young people to work on projects in other ways.

Working With Video and Young People

In this section we want you to reflect on the main issues you face in working with video and young people.
We have broken down a project into six stages, set out below, although we recognise that projects rarely fit into such a neat sequence and that some of these stages will not be relevant to you because of the work you do.
We want you to select just two of these areas, those that have proved the most difficult or problematic.
Click on one of the boxes below to go the first set of questions you will then be re-directed to the next set of questions. You will be asked to respond to the questions using the following scale.

A = Absent		I’ve never found this a problem or issue
B = Bit of a problem		at times this had caused me some concern but normally has not affected what I do in a project
C = Critical issue		which I keep in mind because it has caused me problems before but I have now learnt how to dealt with it in practice.
D = Deal breaker		this issue is of such concern to me that I avoid doing work where it is likely to arise because I’m not sure how to solve it in practice.
NA		Not applicable in my work

We want you to select just two of these areas, those that have proved the most difficult or problematic.
Click on one of the boxes below to go the first set of questions you will then be re-directed to the next set of questions.

If you are not sure which sections you wish to complete you can click on them and read through the questions before choosing.

Recruitment/access/entry

		Absent	Bit of a problem	Critical issue	Deal breaker	NA
a)	Getting a particular group of young people involved because they were concerned about being videoed.
b)	Getting consent to film young people discussing controversial or sensitive issues
c)	Gaining young people access to private spaces in order to film
d)	Finding people prepared to be filmed by young people
e)	Using video materials which have been collected for other purposes such as family or CCTV video
f)	Getting a representative group of young people involved
g)	Getting informed consent for young people to take part in a project
h)	(optional) Can you tell us why you have chosen this area as the most problematic?
(If you want to discuss this issue in more detail when you have finished the questionnaire look at the "On-line Journal Task" on the web site where you have the chance to listen to us discussing some of the methodological issues we have faced in our own work and you can make your own journal entry.)

Negotiation of research foci and outcomes.

		Absent	Bit of a problem	Critical issue	Deal breaker	NA
a)	Getting other people to accept that young people should be involved in determining the focus and outcomes of the project.
b)	Supporting young people to take on the responsibility of choosing a focus.
c)	Preventing others from determining or over influencing what young people look at.
d)	Getting young people to believe that they have something important and valid to say about an issue.
e)	Getting young people to recognise that their ‘ordinary lives’ and views could be worth documenting.
f)	Dealing with young people's unrealistic expectations about the look of their video and getting them to focus on putting their views across.
g)	Getting others to see the production of a video by young people as a key outcome from a project
h)	(optional) Can you tell us why you have chosen this area as the most problematic?
(If you want to discuss this issue in more detail when you have finished the questionnaire look at the "On-line Journal Task" on the web site where you have the chance to listen to us discussing some of the methodological issues we have faced in our own work and you can make your own journal entry.)

Managing relationships with young people and others.

		Absent	Bit of a problem	Critical issue	Deal breaker	NA
a)	Getting the contributions of young people to be valued by other young people, adults or professionals.
b)	Getting young people to understand at the beginning of a project the kinds of demands it will place on them.
c)	Dealing with the group dynamics amongst young people.
d)	Ensuring certain young peoples’ views do not dominate in the group or project.
e)	Maintaining young peoples’ involvement throughout the whole process of video making and editing.
f)	Ensuring young people maintain their ownership of the project.
g)	Getting young people to recognise the need to take on the board the basic ethical and legal issues around using video.
h)	Mediating between young people and adults.
i)	(optional) Can you tell us why you have chosen this area as the most problematic?
(If you want to discuss this issue in more detail when you have finished the questionnaire look at the "On-line Journal Task" on the web site where you have the chance to listen to us discussing some of the methodological issues we have faced in our own work and you can make your own journal entry.)

Capturing young peoples’ views on video

		Absent	Bit of a problem	Critical issue	Deal breaker	NA
a)	Getting young people to be aware of inappropriate or dangerous disclosures on video
b)	Keeping a balance between supporting young to make a video and ensuring it still represents their views and is their voice
c)	Balancing the desire to allow young people creative and technical input with the need to make a credible 'programme' for funders or the intended audience.
d)	Getting young people to engage critically with the key issues that their work touches on.
e)	Thematically analysing the video material in a way which encapsulates young peoples' experience.
f)	Giving young people editorial control over any end product.
g)	Dealing with the presence of a video camera that can cause young people to act out or exaggerate their views
h)	Young people uncritically expressing the views of adults and others and failing to find their own voice funded projects
i)	(optional) Can you tell us why you have chosen this area as the most problematic?
(If you want to discuss this issue in more detail when you have finished the questionnaire look at the "On-line Journal Task" on the web site where you have the chance to listen to us discussing some of the methodological issues we have faced in our own work and you can make your own journal entry.)

The design and presentation of materials

		Absent	Bit of a problem	Critical issue	Deal breaker	NA
a)	Dealing with young peoples’ differences about how they wish their video to affect or influence their audience
d)	Balancing young people’s desire to express their views forcefully and in their own language with making their work more acceptable and accessible to those who have little experience with working directly with young people.
c)	Getting agreement for who is going to speak on behalf of the project, to whom, and where.
d)	Balancing young peoples' desire to express their views forcefully and in their own language with making their work more acceptable and accessible to those who have little experience with working directly with young people.
e)	Giving young people control over where presentations take place and how they are run.
f)	Getting adults or professionals to take what young people produce seriously
g)	Getting young people sufficient experience of different video formats so that they can make an informed choice over how their work is presented.
h)	(optional) Can you tell us why you have chosen this area as the most problematic?
(If you want to discuss this issue in more detail when you have finished the questionnaire look at the "On-line Journal Task" on the web site where you have the chance to listen to us discussing some of the methodological issues we have faced in our own work and you can make your own journal entry.)

The evaluation of the project and its impact.

		Absent	Bit of a problem	Critical issue	Deal breaker	NA
a)	Meeting funders’ criteria for success and the often very different ones used by young people
b)	Acquiring satisfactory evidence for the impact of a video on its audience
c)	Assessing the impact of a project on young peoples behaviour and thinking
d)	Getting young people to realistically assess your work or the team you work with
e)	Having honest discussions with young people during the project about how it is going
f)	Being caught between the expectations and hopes of young people and the responses of adults and others to their work
g)	Getting young people to be open and honest with each other about their work on the project
h)	(optional) Can you tell us why you have chosen this area as the most problematic?
(If you want to discuss this issue in more detail when you have finished the questionnaire look at the "On-line Journal Task" on the web site where you have the chance to listen to us discussing some of the methodological issues we have faced in our own work and you can make your own journal entry.)

Ethics in Practice

In the previous sections we have touched on a number of ethical issues about working with young people when using video.
In this section we would like to get an overview of the ethical issues you have faced by getting your responses to some general questions.

Please indicate where you would place yourself by moving this marker along the following dimensions.

12.

Generally does working with young people present radically different ethical challenges from working with adults?




No real differences	Depends on young people and context	Radically different

a) (Optional) If you indicate there are radically different issues please list the main ones below.

13.

Does the use of video with young people present radically different ethical challenges?




No real differences	Depends on young people and context	Radically different

a) (Optional) If you indicate there are radically different issues please list these below

14.

How do you handle the views young people express when you work with them ?




Studied neutrality	Educator role, engaging critically with young people's viewpoint and context but not necessarily promoting them	Advocate of young people’s viewpoint

a) (Optional) List the main ethical issues you have faced because of the stance you have adopted?

15.

To what extent do you work within formal ethical or professional guidelines or operate within a personal ethical framework negotiated with young people in each project




Operate within set guidelines e.g. British Educational Research Association , or institutional guides	Negotiate within set guidelines with young people in each project	Operate within a personal ethical framework negotiated with young people in each project

a) (Optional) If you negotiate your own ethical approach to video in which areas are young peoples’ views as to what is acceptable or unacceptable most likely to differ from your own?

Ethics in Practice (cont)

16.

When using video with young people what have you found to be the most useful sources of support when dealing with any ethical issues that have arisen in a project.

	Unhelpful	Of some help but not on video	Generally helpful but only at times with video	Very helpful particularly with video
a) Reflecting on my own experience of working with young people is...
b) Discussion with colleagues are...
c) Discussion with young people are...
d) Guidance from managers or mentors within your organisation are...
e) Training on ethical issues or professional guidelines has been...

17.

Do the ethical guidelines or professional standards and frameworks you operate within deal explicitly with the use of

	Yes	No	NA	Don't Know
a) Visual Imagery
b) Video

18.

Can you indicate below the extent to which the ethical guidelines or professional standards and frameworks you operate within affect the likelihood of using video with young people.




Effectively prevent you from carrying out certain forms of video projects	Make it extremely difficult compared to other ways of working	No impact	Indicate that video is an appropriate tool if handled correctly	Highlight its potential in giving young people a voice

Next Step

We are looking for individuals and teams who would be interested in taking further part in this research.
If you would be happy to be contacted by a member of the project team to discuss this please provide us with you contact details below.

Address

EMail

Telephone number

(0ptional) in terms of helping us to select a good range of projects for the next phase could you give us a few details of most recent project with young people using video

Project title (if there is/was one)

Background of young people

Age range of young people

Main aim

Duration

Was it funded, yes/no

Yes No

If yes by whom?

What were the main outcomes/products?

	Yes	Title/URL
Report
Videos/DVD
Websites