Video Mediated Interaction in Public Healthcare and International Corporations

Video meetings have the potential to connect people instantly across physical boundaries. However, there is a long way to go before the full potential of these meetings is realised. So far, manufacturing companies and research projects have focused on developing hardware and software for video meetings. Little attention has been paid to studying how people interact via, and with, the technology in order to explore the challenges and best practices of interacting as human bodies when meeting virtually.

This research project uses video meetings as a gateway to explore the nature and role of human institutional cooperation by means of communication technology (ICT), and the impact on conditions for human interaction. The project transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries between linguistics, sociology, anthropology and communication, and professional and technology studies.

The project explores two key settings: professionals meeting lay people and professionals meeting other professionals. Two sub-projects are conducted:

Subproject 1 investigates public healthcare interaction by means of video documentation of professional-lay interaction in two Danish municipalities, in collaboration with KMD.

Subproject 2 analyses business-meeting interaction in collaboration with Mærsk Line. As its material it uses our huge CIRCD video library of face-to-face and video meetings, interviews and focus groups from a range of companies, institutions and NGPs. A pilot study of face-to-face and video meetings in Denmark and India took place in 2013.

Researchers

Mie Femø Nielsen
Brian Due
Gitte Gravengaard
Juni Arnfas
Bergur Rønne Moberg