Animation and Research Communication

by Janet Salmons, PhD Research Community Manager for Sage Methodspace

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How can we share research findings and recommendations in ways that reach scholars, practitioners, and the general public?

Animation is one form of visual communication and digital storytelling that can enhance academic writing. To learn more, explore these open-access journal articles about animation and research communication.

Archibald, M., Ambagtsheer, R., Lawless, M. T., Thompson, M. O., Shultz, T., Chehade, M. J., Whiteway, L., Sheppard, A., Plaza, M. P., & Kitson, A. L. (2021). Co-Designing Evidence-Based Videos in Health Care: A Case Exemplar of Developing Creative Knowledge Translation “Evidence-Experience” Resources. International Journal of Qualitative Methods. https://doi.org/10.1177/16094069211019623

Abstract. Well-designed evidence-based resources that reflect participant experiences and priorities are imperative for informed consumer health decision-making and to combat the pervasive health misinformation existing today. Qualitative research data can inform the development of such resources, but the process of reconciling qualitative research data with other sources of evidence through co-design processes is not well described in the literature. In response to the need for such evidence-based materials and corresponding methodological guidance, we co-designed a series of video resources through transdisciplinary and community partnership. In this manuscript, we provide methodological insight into the process of collaborative co-design to improve the utilization of qualitative research evidence into evidence-based resources for the public. Following from a large qualitative research study, we engaged in a collaborative and creative co-design process involving a multi-stakeholder advisory group guided by Boyd’s co-design framework. We explicate this process, drawing from a case exemplar of transdisciplinary frailty research. We utilized thematic qualitative data to co-produce: (i) an animation, (ii) a documentary-style video, (iii) a video vignette with key messages embedded in narratives of older adults, and (iv) a key-message video delivered by academic health researchers and clinicians.

Bates, C., Moles, K., & Kroese, L. M. (2023). Animating sociology. The Sociological Review, 71(5), 976-991. https://doi.org/10.1177/00380261231156688

Abstract. This article outlines the collaborative process of making a watercolour animation drawn from research with women who swim wild in rivers, lakes and seas. Discussing graphic storytelling in sociology, anthropology and related disciplines, we share our experiences of creative collaboration, describing in detail the practical process of making a research-led animation to share with the wider swimming community and situating the project within a larger discussion of graphic and public ethnography, live methods and the possibilities of representation. The article contributes to the ways we can make methods lively and shows how we can both literally and metaphorically animate sociology.

Bradford, L. E. A., & Bharadwaj, L. A. (2015). Whiteboard animation for knowledge mobilization: a test case from the Slave River and Delta, Canada. International Journal of Circumpolar Health, 74(1), 28780. doi:10.3402/ijch.v74.28780 (Open access version here.)

Abstract. To present the co-creation of a whiteboard animation video, an enhanced e-storytelling technique for relaying traditional knowledge interview results as narratives. We present a design for translating interview results into a script and accompanying series of figures, followed by technical steps to create a whiteboard animation product. Our project used content analysis and researcher triangulation, followed by a collaborative process to develop an animated video to disseminate research findings. A 13-minute long whiteboard animation video was produced from a research study about changing environments in northern Canadian communities and was distributed to local people. Three challenging issues in the video creation process including communication issues, technical difficulties and contextual debate were resolved among the supporting agencies and researchers.

Callus, P. (2012). Reading Animation through the Eyes of Anthropology: A Case Study of sub-Saharan African Animation. Animation, 7(2), 113–130. https://doi.org/10.1177/1746847712439281 (Open access version here.)

Abstract. This article aims to present an argument for why anthropology could provide animation studies with a new set of critical models that move away from the dominant paradigms that currently circulate in Western academic discourse. The author discusses how these models can be drawn upon when reading animation and she utilizes supporting examples of sub-Saharan animations to promote the benefits of an interdisciplinary approach to reading animation. This approach is bidirectional, flowing from anthropology to animation studies and the reverse. Where this article shows how animation theory stands to gain from anthropology, it will also illustrate how one can include animation in the visual anthropologist’s methodology.

Cook, M., Cowan, M., & Curtis, S. (2023). Useful Animation: Iconography, Infrastructure and Impact. Animation, 18(3), 196-226. https://doi.org/10.1177/17468477231207613

Abstract. This article defines and explores the history of ‘useful animation’. Animation has found frequent application as a powerful practical and conceptual tool in professional fields requiring a versatile instrument for a variety of representational needs, from science and medicine to education and advertising. Today, forms of useful animation populate our television news, social media and urban environments in ways that are no less consequential for their having become second nature. But how did we get here? This tradition is distinct from entertainment or art and its investigation requires a revision of existing animation history, prompting new research questions and methodologies. This article presents such a framework for further work in this field. In doing so, it has three main aims. First, the authors establish the intellectual context and consider the historiographic implications of prior research in this area. Second, they ask three key theoretical research questions that can guide the investigation of the history of useful animation: How did useful animation build upon existing graphic traditions? What were the professional and institutional contexts for useful animation and how did these develop? and What impact did animation have on professional fields and their understanding of the world? Finally, the authors present three case studies from the first decades of film history that illustrate how these questions can be answered, and they suggest methods and research resources available to scholars of useful animation. These address Jean Comandon’s public health films in post-WWI France, animated maps made by the Austro-German Institut für Kulturforschung in the inter-war period and the animated film Unemployment and Money made in Britain illustrating Michael Polanyi’s economic theories in the 1930s. This article provides a basis for future research into this topic.

Liddle, D. (2016). Emerging Guidelines for Communicating with Animation in Mobile User Interfaces. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the 34th ACM International Conference on the Design of Communication, Silver Spring, MD, USA. https://doi.org/10.1145/2987592.2987614 (Open access version here.)

Abstract. Whenever a user performs a task or communicates via their computer or device, they are guided by visual cues to interact successfully with the interface. This human-computer interaction is, therefore, mediated by the communication established between designer and user through the texts, graphic elements, and animations that make up the visual design of the interface. Animation is an element of visual language of the graphical elements of an interface. This study aims to establish the functions of animation. We reviewed the literature and discussed the shortcomings identified in the existing taxonomies of functional animation. We then proposed an updated classification, partly inspired by the functions presented in Jakobson’s communication model. Based on a content analysis of the design guidelines from the leading mobile phone developers and comparing these sources, we propose the following list of categories: Identifying, Structural, Guide, Feedback, Didactic, Esthetic, and Emotive. This new taxonomy aims to contribute to the theoretical frameworks used in visual communication when studying interface design. It will be useful, for example, to help detect, classify, and assess the appropriateness of animations based on the functions they provide to an interface.

Miltner, K. M., & Highfield, T. (2017). Never Gonna GIF You Up: Analyzing the Cultural Significance of the Animated GIF. Social Media + Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305117725223

Abstract. The animated Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) is a digital file format with a long history within internet cultures and digital content. Emblematic of the early Web, the GIF fell from favor in the late 1990s before experiencing a resurgence that has seen the format become ubiquitous within digital communication. While the GIF has certain technical affordances that make it highly versatile, this is not the sole reason for its ubiquity. Instead, GIFs have become a key communication tool in contemporary digital cultures thanks to a combination of their features, constraints, and affordances. GIFs are polysemic, largely because they are isolated snippets of larger texts. This, combined with their endless, looping repetition, allows them to relay multiple levels of meaning in a single GIF. This symbolic complexity makes them an ideal tool for enhancing two core aspects of digital communication: the performance of affect and the demonstration of cultural knowledge. The combined impact of these capabilities imbues the GIF with resistant potential, but it has also made it ripe for commodification. In this article, we outline and articulate the GIF’s features and affordances, investigate their implications, and discuss their broader significance for digital culture and communication.

Miner, J. D. (2021). Experiments in Hybrid Documentary and Indigenous Model Animation. Animation, 16(1-2), 6-20. https://doi.org/10.1177/17468477211025664

Abstract. Nonfiction has proved to be a long-term strategy of Native/First Nations filmmakers and, as this documentary tradition moves across contemporary mediums, one corner of its experimental aesthetics has focalized around animation. This article explores hybrid documentary approaches in Indigenous model animation across techniques and styles, namely digitally-supplemented stop-motion and game-based machinima. It begins by examining three principal characteristics of Indigenous animated documentaries: (1) they engage with the politics of documentary in the context of Indigenous and settler-colonial history; (2) they use animation to record stories and express ideas not authorized by the settler archive; and (3) they communicate via embedded Indigenous aesthetics and cultural protocols. A material analysis of Indigenous animation then accounts for how three Native artists centre re-mediation and re-embodiment in their work. These artists adapt new techniques in animation to documentary as a process of decolonization, precipitating a distinct hybrid aesthetics that travels across forms to question the veracity of settler documentary. Each reconstructs histories of settler colonialism – which has always chosen to record and authorize as ‘history’ some images and narratives and not others – with model animation practices and new media platforms. Indigenous animation expresses slippages between nonfiction and fiction by creating imagined documents, which strike at the legitimacy of settler institutions.

Rose, C., & Flynn, C. (2018). Animating social work research findings: A case study of research dissemination to benefit marginalized young people. Visual Communication, 17(1), 25-46. (Open access version here.)

Abstract. Findings in social work research are often disseminated in a manner that excludes the subjects of that research. In the SHINE for Kids – MyLifeNow research collaboration between a social work researcher, a communication design researcher and communication design students, research findings were animated in a variety of styles for distribution by the charitable organization. SHINE for Kids is a non-profit organization that assists and advocates for children with parents in prison. Transcripts of social work interviews with the children were modified into screenplays to be animated by communication design students. The animated documentary has advantages over the expository documentary mode, including protecting the identity of the subject and creating an affective video that constitutes a dual-process model of entertainment providing for a more socially connected pleasure.

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Look for “animation: an interdisciplinary journal” in your academic library!

Animation is increasingly pervasive and implemented in many ways in many disciplines. Animation: an interdisciplinary journal provides the first cohesive, international peer-reviewed publishing platform for animation that unites contributions from a wide range of research agendas and creative practice.

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