Resources for multimodal data collection and analysis (for writers, teachers, and artists)

Image: Multimodal transcript from "Analyzing layering in textual design: A multimodal approach for examining cultural, linguistic, and social migrations in digital video" by Myrrh Domingo (2011)

Last week, I gave a workshop on multimodal analysis. I presented my data of subjects taking notes and writing essays in an online space as a case example, then attendees worked to identify modes in their media pieces as a start to developing an analysis methodology.

Thinking more broadly to the writing and composition process, I thought it may be useful for writers, writing teachers, and artists to know about the tools I have used to record the multimodal data and begin to analyze them. These can be used for looking more closely at our own composition process and those of our students. This is a broad topic of which many books and articles have been written, so please leave any questions in the comments, and I'll answer them as best I can.

Following are links to resources useful for multimodal data collection and analysis:

Software

1. Camtasia ($99 for Mac, $299 for Windows, from TechSmith):  Screen recording and video editing software
2. ELAN (Free, from Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics): “ELAN is a professional tool for the creation of complex annotations on video and audio resources.”
3. InqScribe ($39 for active students with coupon, from Inquirium): Transcription software for video and audio with ability to hotlink timestamps from transcription to source file
4. IShowU Studio ($79, Mac only, from ShinyWhiteBox)
   “Easy screen recording & editing on your Mac: that’s the core idea.”
5. Jing (Free, from TechSmith): Screencapture still images or screen record videos up to 5 minutes in length, saves as Flash file (.swf)
6. NVivo 10 (Prices vary with licensing): Qualitative data management software

Articles

1. Damiana Gibbons: “Rural Places Meet Media Literacy: Representing Truth and Self in Rural Social Space.” from Journal on Images and Culture of the VASA Project
2. Transcription Bank: Deborah Swinglehurst / MODE: Multimodal Methodologies
   from Swinglehurst, D., Roberts, C., & Greenhalgh, T. (2011). Opening up the “black box” of the electronic patient record: A linguistic ethnographic study in general practice. Communication and Medicine,  8 (1), 3-15.
3. Transcription Bank: Myrrh Domingo / MODE: Multimodal Methodologies
   from Domingo, M. (2011). Analyzing layering in textual design: a multimodal approach for examining cultural, linguistic, and social migrations in digital video. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 14: 3, 219-230.

Books

1. Syllabus: Notes from an Accidental Professor – Lynda Barry (2014)
2. The Routledge Handbook of Multimodal Analysis (paperback) – Carey Jewitt (Editor) (2009)