Video-in-Interaction: “Talking Heads” and the Multimodal Organization of Mobile and Skype Video Calls

In this article, we report a study of the uses of mobile video telephony based on the collection and analysis of naturally occurring mobile and Skype video exchanges, with a focus on camera motions. We provide evidence for a set of phenomena characteristic of the organization of “video-in-interaction”: (a) mobile and Skype video calls are patterned, often alternating between a “talking heads” arrangement, in which both participants are on-screen and facing the camera, and moments in which they are producing various shots of their environment in line with their current interactional purposes; (b) openings occur almost always in the talking heads arrangement; (c) the video images on either side are produced and expected to be scrutinized with respect to their relevance to the ongoing interaction; (d) the talking heads arrangement is oriented to a default mode of interaction, with the implication that when there is nothing else relevant to show, the participants should show themselves on-screen; (e) in multiparty interactions, the party who is handling the video communication apparatus has an obligation to put other speakers on-screen when they talk, and the video callers orient to their appearance on-screen as making a distinctive participation status relevant. We show how these phenomena all derive from an orientation toward a single maxim, “put the face of the current speaker on-screen,” which plays a foundational role in the organization of video-in-interaction and its articulation with that of talk-in-interaction.