مقایسهٔ روش‌ها

	تحلیل بصری	تحلیل اسناد	قوم‌نگاری
حوزه	کیفی	پژوهش کیفی	کیفی
خانواده	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
سال پیدایش	Formalized in social sciences from the 1980s–2000s	1920	c. 1922 (Malinowski's Argonauts of the Western Pacific)
پدیدآور	Roots in art history and semiotics (Panofsky, Barthes); social science applications developed by Gillian Rose and Marcus Banks	Max Weber and Karl Mannheim	Bronisław Malinowski (modern ethnography); rooted in 19th-century anthropology
نوع	Qualitative research approach	Method	Qualitative fieldwork tradition
منبع بنیادین	Rose, G. (2016). Visual Methodologies: An Introduction to Researching with Visual Materials (4th ed.). Sage. ISBN: 978-1473943056	Scott, J. (1990). A Matter of Record: Documentary Sources in Social Research. Polity Press. ISBN: 978-0745608419	Hammersley, M. & Atkinson, P. (2019). Ethnography: Principles in Practice (4th ed.). Routledge. ISBN: 978-1138504462
نام‌های دیگر	visual research methods, image analysis, visual inquiry, visual data analysis	documentary analysis, textual analysis, content analysis of documents, archival research	Etnografi, participant observation, fieldwork, ethnographic research
مرتبط	6	4	5
خلاصه	Visual analysis is a qualitative research approach that systematically examines visual materials — such as photographs, films, artworks, advertisements, and diagrams — to understand how meaning is produced, communicated, and interpreted. Drawing on traditions from art history, semiotics, and social science, it treats visual objects as data that carry social, cultural, and ideological significance. Multiple frameworks exist, from formal compositional analysis to discourse-based and audience-reception approaches.	Document analysis is a systematic qualitative research method for examining written, visual, or audiovisual sources—such as policy documents, historical records, organizational records, media reports, emails, social media posts, photographs, or videos—to extract meaning, identify patterns, and understand social phenomena. Developed by Weber and Mannheim in early 20th-century sociology, the method bridges historical research, content analysis, and textual interpretation. Document analysis is used across disciplines to understand organizational change, policy evolution, media representation, historical events, and cultural meaning. Documents provide evidence of what organizations, institutions, or societies value, decide, and communicate, often revealing contradictions between policy and practice.	Ethnography is a qualitative research tradition in which a researcher immerses themselves in a social group or community over an extended period — typically three to six months or longer — to study its culture, values, and behaviours in their natural setting. Originating in social and cultural anthropology, and consolidated as a rigorous method by Bronisław Malinowski in the early twentieth century, ethnography produces rich, contextualised accounts of how people live, work, and make meaning together.