The Digital Cultures Research Centre is delighted to welcome Nicole Matthews (Macquarie University, Sydney) for a special Wednesday afternoon talk - open to all - at the Pervasive Media Studio.

Digital life story narratives are often seen as a way of empowering socially marginalized people, offering an opportunity for the wider community to hear the voices of self-advocates, and a chance for those telling their stories to develop media literacy and production skills. Increasingly valued by broadcasters, museums and libraries these narratives are frequently represented as a powerful way of sharing hidden histories.  

The talk will analyse some of the ethical, political and methodological dilemmas that have made researchers and practitioners reluctant to read “across” the rich and relatively unexplored source of qualitative data constituted by large numbers of participant produced digital stories.

How do we navigate these difficult waters? Matthews will examine the strategies used in research with large archives of life stories, and consider debates over secondary analysis of qualitative data in sociology.

Since this talk emerges from a wider book project on the way that digital life narratives might be listened to by policy makers and professionals in the health and disability field, it will end with a brief investigation of the way two British websites and one Australian have deployed large archives of digital stories:

In the UK: Patient Voices and Health Talk Online

In Australia: 1,000 Voices