(In)fertility, the media & me (2018) [single-component output with contextualising information]
- Submitting institution
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Bath Spa University
- Unit of assessment
- 34 - Communication, Cultural and Media Studies, Library and Information Management
- Output identifier
- 3440
- Type
- Q - Digital or visual media
- Publisher
- -
- Month
- -
- Year
- 2018
- URL
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https://doi.org/10.17870/bathspa.c.4788708
- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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1
- Research group(s)
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-
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- ‘(In)Fertility, the Media & Me’ is a documentary co-produced by Levy and Farrar,
growing out of Feasey’s monograph, ‘Infertility and Non-Traditional Family Building’
(2019). A single-component output, the documentary adopts reflexive practice-based
research methods (Sullivan, 2009; McNamara, 2011). It deals with three interrelated
research trajectories: one, how documentary filmmaking can develop new ways of
engaging with academic themes; two, the role of participatory ethnographic methods
in this process; and three, what these aforementioned approaches reveal about the
chosen subject matter of representations of (in)fertility in the media. Contextual
information in this collection comprises video diaries with participants and other
audience responses, as well as documentation of the output’s public screenings.
Methodologically, the participatory ethnographic methods employed in the making of
the documentary offer new ways of opening up the research process, aiming to
counter the inevitable compression necessitated in academic writing. The collection
evidences participants’ changed perceptions of how (in)fertility is represented in the
media, incorporating participant video diaries and filmed audience feedback as part
of the creative research process. Filmmaking emerged as a way of diffusing the role
of the researcher in the production of knowledge (Pacini-Ketchabaw et al., 2016).
The significance of this participatory ethnographic method to arts and humanities
research more broadly lies in its ability to subvert the traditional question and answer
format of research interviews or focus groups, which have been shown to privilege
the researcher over the participants (Jackson, 2015), and instead create a research
environment based on reciprocal learning between researcher and participant.
The documentary was disseminated through screenings at the Fertility Fest (2018),
an (in)fertility arts festival. Audience feedback highlighted the documentary’s
potential to support public and cross-sector education about the subject of (in)fertility
and the media, specifically highlighting the disconnect between media statistics
regarding IVF treatment outcomes and wider social perceptions.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -
