Expanding protest event analysis through videos

Abstract

The increasing availability of digital video material has led to its widespread use in the social sciences, especially in research adopting processual and relational approaches. However, methodological reflection has not developed at the same pace. In this article, we propose ways to extend classical protest event analysis using videos of contentious events. Our novel method, video-enhanced protest event analysis (vPEA), expands protest event research on two frontiers. First, researchers can use vPEA extractively, contributing to source triangulation and increasing the validity of written sources. Second, it can be used reconstructively, expanding the range of information available by capturing emotional atmosphere, choreography, and processes and dynamics more generally. The article provides a step-by-step guide through the vPEA process, which we illustrate using a secondary analysis of existing research and original material on Covid-related protests in Germany and Italy.