182mccriticalmediamethods-blog

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Researching the digital

The readings for this week was very informative as they both talk about digital ethnography. The first reading that I choose to write about was called “Social media ethnography: the digital researcher in a messy web” by John Postill and Sarah Pink. This reading was very interesting as they both talk about “The ways in which social media are constituted as a research site are contingent on the methodologies and practical methods. The two main methods used to date are web content analysis of large data sets drawn from microblogging and other social media sites and social network analysis.” (Postill & Pink, 2012:3) This can suggest to me that social media in itself is a research method that can be used within a research project, as it you can collect a data from them that relates to your research project. However, as I read on it said “social media practices cannot be defined as phenomena that take place exclusively online” (Postill & Pink, 2012:3) as the concern was “with internet-related ethnography, rather than internet ethnography.” (Postill & Pink, 2012:3) This can show me that when doing researcher, I should focus on internet relate ethnography than internet ethnography itself as there could be some limitations to actually doing internet ethnography. 

Another interesting thing I found from this reading was Postill and Pink start to talk about “a new form of thread sociality has evolved that both resembles and differs from that of web forums,”(Postill & Pink, 2012:9) called “hashtag sociality.”(Postill & Pink, 2012:9) This was very surprising as I never would have thought that hashtags would be used within a research project as a way to gather research, I found this to be intriguing as I use hashtags in my everyday life just for entertainment purposes.  

I liked the way that Postill and Pink added “hashtags are not only part of online culture, they are defining a new era of communication on the Web and IRL.” (Postill & Pink, 2012:10) Therefore, from this I gathered that hashtags can help researchers collect a large amount of data by searching a single word into any social media site, this I found to be very simple as it seems easy to collect data from the digital. 

Bibliography

Postill, J and Pink, S. (2012) “Social Media Ethnography: The Digital Researcher in a Messy Web” Media International Australia Vol 145, Issue 1, pp. 123 - 134. 

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Researching the visual

The reading for this week was called “Making photographs as part of a research project: Photo-elicitation, photo-documentation and other uses of photos” by G. Rose was very engaging as it grabbed by attention as it was about the visual methodology that can be done in research.  the reading focuses on three different visual methods such as “photo-documentation, photo-elicitation and photo-essays.” (Rose, 2007: 298) These methodologies before the reading I had ever heard of as I wasn’t that interested before this reading in these three methodologies, but after reading this chapter I was more interested within these methodologies.

The visual method that I liked the most was photo-elicitation, this is “based on the simple idea of inserting a photograph into a research interview. While the photo inserted into a research interview can be one taken by the researcher, or indeed an image found elsewhere, most photo-elicitation studies ask research participants to take some photos and it is their photos that are then discussed in the photo-elicitation interview.” (Rose,2007:304) This grabbed by attentions as this method seems very simple and easy to complete, as a result the methodology was one that stood out for me whereas the other method wasn’t as exciting to me.

The other two methods weren’t exciting to me because the reading focused more on the photo-elicitation method out of all the three. However, the other method that was also quite intriguing was the methodology of photo-essay. “A photo-essay is a combination of writing with photographs.” (Rose, 2007: 317) This was attention-grabbing as it used a photo to tell a story in a sense through the writing. “The writing can range from extended captions to book-length studies, and the photographs are at least as important as the text in the impact the photo-essay has.” (Rose, 2007: 317) This can suggest that the words used to describe a photo can often tell a story in that it gives the photographs a meaning even if it is very obvious within the photographs as I believe that a photo can tell a thousand words.

Bibliography 

Rose, G. (2007). "Making photographs as part of a research project: Photo-elicitation, photo-documentation and other uses of photos." Visual Methodologies. London, Sage Publishers. 

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Researching people

The reading on ‘The Great Interview: 25 Strategies for Studying People in Bed’ by Joseph C. Hermanowicz, was very interesting as I was engaged from the start. Hermanowicz says that interviews are “among the most basic and fundamental of methods” and “if executed well, brings us arguably closer than many other methods to an intimate understanding of people and their social worlds.” (Hermanowicz, 2002:480) This suggesting that interviews often get participants to be more open with the interviewee through various different ways.

One thing I liked about the reading is that it is very informative in the sense it gives some very great tips on interviewing individuals. The first one that stood out to me was the first strategy to converse as apparently, it is “The number one characteristic of a great interview” (Hermanowicz, 2002:482) which I find hard to believe but it was very explanatory. As “Great conversation is the quality that should guide one’s approach to interviewing”. (Hermanowicz, 2002:482) From this I learnt that interviews should be done in a way that the participant can have a conversation with the interviewer so that they feel more comfortable sharing their information for the research.

Another strategy I found quite interesting is wording questions clearly so that “the interviewer who is verbose on the one hand or truncated on the other is confusing. On the part of the interviewee, such confusion can create uncertainty, ill-confidence, and even annoyance.” (Hermanowicz, 2002:484) This suggesting that unclear questions can cause a misunderstanding between the interviewer and the interviewee. Therefore, I found this very fascinating as if I ever did an interview questions being unclear wouldn’t have been a problem as I wouldn’t have personally thought of this having a big impact on the result on the interview itself. However, that is not the case as asking an unclear question can affect the interview itself.

Overall I found this reading very interesting as it had me engaged from the start as it was very clear.

Bibliography 

Hermanowicz, J.C.(2002) “The Great Interview: 25 Strategies for Studying People in Bed” Qualitative Sociology 25: 479. 

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Researching space

The reading for this week was about researching space, the reading was from P. Saukko on ‘Analysing Reality and Space’. This week the reading I found to be very dull and boring despite the methodology of space sounding very fascinating. However, even though I find the reading uninteresting there were some interesting stuff I found within the reading. The first thing I found interesting is the start of the chapter with “the relationship between cultural studies and ‘political economy’, which refers to usually leftist, macro-analysis of economy, has traditionally been torn one.” (Saukko, 2003:155) This grabbed my attention because politics has a big impact on the way that we as people see various different things as this has a huge impact on the way they think.

Another thing that I found interesting was the reference to Castell’s trilogy which “argues that the global space has increasingly been split into the ‘space of flows’ (or the sphere of the net) and the ‘space of places’ (or the sphere of the shelf). The net refers to material time-sharing activities that are no longer bound to the particular place, such as electronically mediated communication and financial transactions as well as the quickly moving global, managerial elite.” (Saukko, 2003: 163)  This suggests that the space doesn’t only refer to the space itself but also the way the space can be impacted by other factors such as the economy that contribute towards a certain space.

The last thing I found interesting is the “notion of ‘Thridspace’” by “Edward Soja” whom “argues ‘space’ has three dimensions,” (Saukko, 2003: 164) first space, second space and the third space. From the reading, I gathered that the third space is the most important and interesting space there is, as the third space “aims to undo the oppositional nature of realism and social constructionism and to understand space as both-real-and-imagined.” (Saukko, 2003:165) This suggested that the third space is important as this is what researching space is really about. Therefore, from the reading I was able to find out about the three dimensions of space as said by Soja. 

Bibliography. 

Saukko, P. (2003) Doing Research in Cultural Studies: An Introduction to Classical and New Methodological Approaches. SAGE. 

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Researching media discourse analysis

The reading for this week was by Rosalind Gill about discourse analysis, the chapter was very engaging as discourse analysis was something I has never heard of before I read this reading on discourse analysis. From the reading, I learnt that “discourse analysis is the name given to a variety of different approaches to the study of texts,” and “that these perspectives share is a rejection of the realist notion that language is simply a neutral means of reflecting or describing the world.” (Gill, 2000:172) From this I learned that discourse analysis is about studying the words that re used within a text and how it can have an impact on the world itself.

I also found interesting is that discourse analysis’s origins are very different than the other methodologies, as it is “sometimes called social constructionism, constructivism or simply constructionism,” (Gill,2000:173) This can suggest that there isn’t a “single agreed definition of these terms.” (Gill,2000:173) This can show that this methodology of discourse analysis has a lot of history behind it as there is many different origins and meanings of those origins that hasn’t been agreed to just one of them. Another thing that intrigued me was “there are probably at least 57 varieties of discourse analysis,” (Gill,2000:173) this gives me a sense that this methodology has various different ways that you can perform discourse analysis.

Another thing that fascinated me was “a discourse analysis is a careful, close reading that moves between texts and context to examine the content, organisation and functions of discourse.” (Gill,2000:188) This showed that discourse analysis is very simple to complete therefore it seems that this methodology will be very straightforward to perform. Additionally, I was able to learn the steps in discourse analysis which I found quite interesting as it seemed easy and simple to follow with each step by step numbered so that you don’t get confused when you do the discourse analysis. As a result, discourse analysis to me at the moment seems like the simplest methodology to use.

Bibliography

Gill, R. (2000) “Discourse Analysis” in: Bauer, Martin W. and Gaskell, George, (eds.) Qualitative Researching. 

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Researching culture

The reading for this week was about the chapter on “what is ethnography?” this wasn’t one of the most engaging pieces that I have read but there were some things within the reading that I found quite interesting.

The start of the chapter was very interesting as it stated ethnography is one of the main approaches that is used within social research, this was very informative as before the reading I didn’t know what ethnography was or what it was used for. 

One interesting thing I found was that the term ethnography origins ‘lie in nineteenth-century Western anthropology, where an ethnography was a descriptive account of a community or culture, usually one located outside the West. At that time ethnography was contrasted with, and was usually seen as complementary to, ethnology, which referred to the historical and comparative analysis of non-western societies and cultures.” I found this very informative as this was something I didn’t know before.

From the reading, I was able to discover how to actually perform this research method of ethnography, as stated within the reading “ethnography usually involves the researcher participating, overtly or covertly, in people’s daily lives for an extended period of time”, through observation of “what happens, what is said and asking questions through informal or formal interviews”. This I found quite useful as this can also be done subconsciously as we often do it without actually having an agenda to what has been observed. But as this is a research method there would be a more of an awareness that we are doing to collect data as part as the research being conducted. As a result of this, I will be able to apply all of the information found within this reading to the behind the scenes video.

Additionally, I had learnt that “we cannot avoid relying on common-sense knowledge nor, often, can we avoid having an effect on the social phenomena we study. In other words, there is no way in which we can escape the social world in order to study it. Fortunately, though, this is not necessary from the realist point of view”. This suggesting that despite not being able to conduct ethnography without using our common-sense it can help with making the end results more realistic.

Overall, from the reading I was able to learn about ethnography and what it actually is.

Bibliography 

Hammersley, M. and Atkinson, P. (1995.) “What is ethnography?” in Ethnography: Principles in Practice, Routledge. 

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‘What is Research?’

The reading on the chapter for “what is research?” was very informative as it made me aware that we are doing research in our everyday lives as we are always looking for answers, which we do subconsciously. For example, searching google about local viewing time for the cinema which can lead you to do research about the film that you are going to watch.  

Whilst reading this chapter I found out that there was a difference between every day research and scholarly research, which I found to be very informative as I have previously done some scholarly research but not on such a wide scale as many would have done. Scholarly research is more about the intensive research into a more well planned out project, that requires evidence from interviews and focus groups etc. I liked that scholarly research is more theory based which can be helpful as there will be written evidence to back up the data that is found in the research. Another thing that I found interesting is that scholarly research is more systematic whereas everyday research is done in a more casual manner.

Another thing I found interesting was Friedrich Nietzsche whom ‘believed that everything boils down to interpretation.’ This was something that intrigued me as it suggested that the facts we think we know is ‘only a perspective on things’. This can link to the whole idea of research as once we have collected data, it is up to the researcher to give their own perspective on the data, there the facts we know if aren’t facts but just the way that individual has interpreted and analysed the researcher. This is very interesting to see as a researcher often has a bias within their own research that they have conducted which can affect their data and the way they perceive the data that they have collected.

Overall, this reading on ‘what is research?’ was very interesting because I found out more about research that I didn’t know before reading this chapter especially about facts not actually being facts but something that someone has perceived by the research that has been conducted.

Bibliography: 

Berger, A. (2014) ‘What is research?’, in Media and communication research methods : an introduction to qualitative and quantitative approaches, 3rd ed., SAGE, Los Angeles, pp. 11-27