Grounded Theory as a Methodology and Method of Analyzing Visual Communication

Abstract

My contribution focuses on grounded theory methodology (GTM) as a methodology and method of analyzing visual communication. In addition to existing GTM concepts, which link the topic of visibility to actor-related practices, the question of how GTM can be used for a sociological hermeneutics of visually designed objects in the widest sense (things, bodies, pictures, etc.) is discussed. Present understanding of the subject identifies the social complexity of objects as a central reference point of methodological and methodic change of perspective towards a GTM of visual communication (GTMVK). In my examination of the terms practice and structure I discuss to what extent a wider and more systematic inclusion of sociological structural descriptions in the methodological framework of GT and its research practice is indispensable if it wants to accommodate the complexity of its data.