Art as a pathway to impact: Understanding the affective experience of public engagement with film

Abstract

The need for social as well as academic impact in social science research is now well established. Art is increasingly being explored as a means of generating social impact, most commonly as a way to engage publics with research findings, but to date with little exploration of the process of engagement itself. In this study, we set out to explore the power of art to engage the public. We do this by examining the 'affective' experience of engagement through a qualitative investigation using one-to-one interviews and a modified visual matrix exercise. In this article we report on the findings from our analysis of the affective experience of watching a film series, and through this discuss the use of film to communicate research findings and value of a novel qualitative psychosocial methodology for exploring the process of public engagement.

New impulses from international development for more comprehensive and balanced public engagement evaluation

“…exhibitions or film projects), and evaluating participatory research (e.g. community-based research partnerships) [34,35].…”

A qualitative examination of affect and ideology within mass media interventions to increase HIV testing with gay men garnered from a systematic review

“…In relation to the future intervention development, or the commissioning of similar interventions, our analysis suggests that particular attention should be paid to critically reflecting on this reliance upon a single set of cultural signifiers. Furthermore, intervention development and commissioning briefs should marry the insight of the distal determinants of behaviour with those concerned with the more proximal determinants (Langdridge et al, 2019;McDaid et al, 2019) in order to maximize the possibility of effecting behavioural change.…”

“…The study by Flowers, McDaid et al (2013) bridges these two stances somewhat albeit still primarily with a pornographic aesthetic and has proven successful. Given the known value of identification and transportation as a means for engagement (and persuasion) (Baudry, 1970(Baudry, /2011Green & Brock, 2000;Metz, 1977Metz, /1982, particularly with powerful narratives (Igartua & Barrios, 2012;Igartua & Casanova, 2016;Langdridge, Gabb & Lawson, 2019;Murphy, Frank, Chatterjee & Baezconde-Garbanati, 2013), it is rather surprising how rarely identification with characters and transportation through narrative seeking to look after the health and well-being of themselves and/or their partner/s is deployed in such interventions. That is, the studies drawing on a porno-chic aesthetic are highly individualistic in nature, with little consideration of the relational (and caring) context of the potential audience for the intervention or indeed the relational transmission of STIs such as HIV.…”

“…Finally, it is important to reflect on the novel method used here, its strengths and weaknesses, the limitations of the study and any lessons learned. This study, like the previous study using this method (Langdridge et al, 2019), is innovative in how it highlights hitherto relatively unexamined, and undertheorized, elements within public health interventions. It provides valuable new information to help inform future intervention development and testing.…”

The case for creative, visual and multimodal methods in operationalising concepts in research design: An examination of storyboarding trust stories

“…69–70). Different visual media offer different strengths, whether conveying information or evoking emotional responses, reproducing the visible world or conveying ideas in a more expressive form (Langdridge et al, 2019; Pauwels, 2015). Further, the process of production is fruitful, as stepping beyond habitual ways of working can inspire a fresh perspective (Eisner, 2008; Jacobsen et al, 2014):A shift in methodology can bring tremendous insight and relief .…”