|
|
|
|
Syllabus Research Methods Assign 1 Assign 2 Assign 3 480: Pop Culture : Research Methods There are various methods that can be used in the study of popular culture. This handout only deals with a couple and is not designed as the definitive source; I provide to get you to think about a series of issues and things to take into account. There are books in the library that I’ve put on reserve that might assist you further. 1. Figuring out what you want to understand by the end of the project. The method you choose is related to what you want to find out. In this course I emphasize fieldwork methods – that is direct or primary research versus the reviewing of other people’s research (secondary research). The key issue is to figure out what it is you are trying to understand and then figuring out what method will best help you do this. To start you should brainstorm about what you believe you understand about the topic you’re studying. For instance, why do you think people engage in this practice? What meanings do you suppose people attribute to it? How do you think participants in the practice think it is part of their identity? Why do participants think it’s "fun," "exciting," "cool?" What about the practice is fun, etc. Why might people think this – that is, what do you think it could say about their lives (or the larger social structure in which we live) that people find this fun? If you can generate these ideas your on your way to constructing the kinds of things you want to explore, you’ve started to develop, perhaps, questions you want the ask either in interviews or surveys. As you will note from my feedback on your proposals, you need to become very aware of your own ideas so you can make sure they are not precluding ideas that others may have about why they participate in the popular culture form you are studying. So, start with brainstorming. 2. Picking a method or combination of methods. There are a variety of methods you can choose from. This list does not include a whole set of other options because in this course I do require you engage in primary research. I have outlined below the various methods most conducive to the topics you’ll be exploring. 1) Interviewing 2) Surveying 1. Direct with people 2. Internet chat rooms 3) Participant Observation 4) Content AnalysisEach method has its strengths and weaknesses. Interviewing is really good for exploring the meanings, values, activities that people have and engage in. You get to ask questions and push people past simplistic answers. It’s a very effective form of research. The weaknesses can arise if you talk with too few people, or you don’t push them to really answer questions. Surveys allow you to cover more people in less time. These are advantages to surveys. A weakness of surveys is that if the questions aren’t crafted well you get answers that don’t really tell you anything of substance. Also, getting surveys returned can sometimes be difficult, unless you have people fill them out on the spot. Participant Observation, or just observation, should be an important part of each person’s project. Observation allows you to closely watch and record the various facets of the practice. That is, while observing you are attentive to who is present, what they are wearing, how they move their bodies, how they interact (if they do), how they avoid interacting if that’s what they do, and so on. This provides you with DETAIL so you can provide a rich picture for the reader. Some of us in the class may not know much about your topic, so you have to paint a picture of what is done, who is doing it. Enter us into this topic; this process is called "thick description" (Clifford Geertz) and is important. Content Analysis is, like it sounds, analyzing the content of text. Text can refer to things like printed material, lyrics, clothing, body language etc. The idea here is that social practices can be understood as "symbols" designed to be read by others. Now, the tricky thing here is this. I do not want your, and yours alone, textual read of anything. We can all tell others what we think. If you want to engage in more extensive content analysis then you have to include people who participate in the popular practice in the content analysis. For instance, rather than telling me what you think something means, ask a number of other people to analyze images, lyrics, show content, etc. This is a necessary component of content analysis; it comes out of research that assumes that consumers aren’t passive – instead they take a "text" or symbol (product) and do all sorts of things with it that we can imagine. For instance, they may do a "counter-reading" that we didn’t anticipate. 3. Developing a Plan Based on what you want to know, and what methods you choose to explore your topic, you should come up with a plan. I encourage you to talk with me about this, or you may come up with a plan that is too huge for you to actually undertake. Within two weeks from now (so by October 24th) I want to see a written plan from you. That is, how are you doing your research, how are you accessing people, what is your questionnaire or interview design? These things need to be fleshed out or you will end up wallowing around not doing anything until the last minute, at which point you will freak out (I’ve seen it, it’s not pretty!). If you are starting your research right away then I need to see something quickly. The point is to help you focus, ask questions that will get you the quality of answer you are looking for, and so on. |
|