Page - 85 - in Coaching im digitalen Wandel

Through the eye of the camera 85 Pramling Samuelsson, Hellström and Jenholt Nolbris (2014) state: »Skype allows face-to-face communication at a distance« (op. cit., p. 1018). A critical debate whether video-mediated and face-to-face can be used synonymously could help clarify terms and both the researchers’ and the clients’ frames of reference. Eye contact and self-perception in video-mediated communication Two aspects of video-mediated communication are relevant to the purpose of the current study: the role of eye contact and the effect of seeing one’s own image during the interaction. Bohannon, Herbert, Pelz and Rantanen (2013), Grayson and Monk (2013) as well as Jaklič, Solina and Šajn (2017) affirm the impor- tance of mutual gaze for interpersonal communication and investigate the chal- lenges of making eye contact in video conferencing where the camera is usually mounted above the screen. In her review of studies focusing on eye contact in video-communication, Bohannon et al. (2013) summarises that »research indi- cates that video-conferencing has an impact on verbal and non-verbal commu- nication, also affecting social constructs such as trust and impression formation« (op. cit., p. 184). Also, self-image concerns were found to be prevalent amongst users of video-conferencing tools (de Vasconselos Filho, Inkpen, & Czerwinski, 2009; Brubaker, Venolia, & Tang, 2012; Hassell & Cotton, 2017), especially in tools like Skype, where one’s own video feed cannot be hidden. Methodology and research design The study takes a qualitative approach and a constructivist epistemological stance, assuming that »truth and meaning do not exist in some external world but are created by the subject’s interactions with the world« (Gray, 2014, p. 20). Consequently, an interpretative theoretical view is adopted and a methodology chosen that is firmly rooted in the principle of phenomenology, namely Inter- pretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) as developed by Smith from the late 1990s (Smith, 1995; Smith, Jarman, & Osborn, 1999; Smith, 2004; Smith, Flowers, & Larkin, 2009). Three fundamentals of IPA are relevant to the purpose of this study: it adheres to the phenomenological position originally developed by Husserl, insofar as »it is concerned with an individual’s personal perception or account of an object or event as opposed to an attempt to produce an objective statement of the object or event itself« (Smith et al., 1999, p. 218). Secondly, »IPA … recognises the central role for the analyst in making sense of that personal experience«, cap- Open-Access-Publikation im Sinne der CC-Lizenz BY-NC-ND 4.0