Author: jakepascoe
Harry Russell
What’s The Deal With Research?
Research is a pretty broad term, that everyone will be aware of, and will probably be able to define pretty easily. Their definitions however, are sure to be widely different depending on their studies. At University, we do what’s called ‘Scholarly Research’, and this means to research a topic systematically and objectively. We have the research the ‘real world’ rather than the personal, so our findings have to be proven by facts and studies rather than assumptions and guesses. Usually scholarly research is peer-reveiwed as well, so the papers and documents you would research would be published in a journal related to its field.
Communications and Media however is a very broad subject, so the research we conduct is not always scholarly. Some research can be drawn from social events, past or present, as well as philosophical and psychological papers as philosophy plays a big part in media research.
Berger defines scholarly research as a “more systematic, more objective, more careful, and more concerned about the correctness and truthfulness than everyday research,” (Berger 2014). There are procedural researching methods that you follow when conducting scholarly research, and after the initial research and analysis, you would gather more data. There are two types of research, Qualitative and Quantitive. Qualitative research refers to an individuals judgement, or their beliefs and interpretations of a situation, while Quantitive research is focused purely on statistical and mathematical facts.
In terms of media research, I believe a mixture of the two are important when conducting scholarly research, because no statement or research is truely valid without statistical evidence to prove a media theory. On the other hand however, some theory’s work best regarding peoples interpretations and feelings towards certain issues. So taking into account that the media is a tool for everyone to enjoy and use, we have to accept that certain demographics will view certain issues with a different perspective, and we can use Qualitative research to prove so.
This semester we’re asked to conduct our own research, and i’ve teamed up to research about the differences between someones online persona and their ‘real-life’ persona. To do this we’re researching past papers about the issues, and drawing from already conducted research. We hope to find some results regarding how people want to promote themselves and their lifestyle, and how this kind of conduct could link into depression. It’s also interesting to notice that while we’re researching why people lie about their lives online, it’s not popular to tell hard truths online.
Sources:
Berger, Arthur A. 2014, ‘What is research?’ in media and communication research methods: an introduction to qualitative and quantitative approaches, 3rd ed., SAGE, Los Angeles, pp. 13-32
l’étudiant Français
Interview: Amii Chouvin
I recently interviewed Amii Chouvin, a UOW student with an international background. She currently lives at Campus East down in Wollongong, but her mum lives up in Sydney, and her father over in France. I wanted to ask her a bit about her background, and about her life considering the distance between her parents.
Chloe Dicks
Chloe is a second year media students who is just beginning her studies as a journalism student. Reigning from a town in the middle of no-where named ‘Yamba’, she moved on campus in her first year, and loves the campus life. She loves hanging out with her friends and having a laugh, and you’ll always catch her with a coffee in hand or talking to friends.
Struggling through her allergies to studying, she somehow finds time in her busy life to get everything she needs done while working with the University itself toward, primarily around future students.
Blake Stanbridge
Blake is a second year Communications and Media student, who is just beginning his Journalism Major. Coming from a surfing family in Bulli with the beautiful beaches they have, you would expect him to be a big surfing enthusiast. That judgement couldn’t be any more wrong. Blake, an enthusiast for lack of physical activity, is a bubbly and exciting character, who always seems to brighten up the room with his personality. His unique humour and pop culture references come every few minutes, and unless you’re keeping up with the Kardashians, you’re sure to be left behind in his personal life.
The Wink
Photoshoot
Vox Pop: How Often Do You Procrastinate?
Procrastination is something that everyone is guilty of. No one really wants to do all their homework, so suddenly, almost everything becomes amazingly interesting. Who knew cleaning was so much fun! So I decided to go around and ask what everyone else at UOW thought about the topic, and what they like to do instead of that essay they have due tomorrow.
Turns out i’m not the only one that enjoys cleaning whenever I have an assignment due! Thanks heaps to everyone that helped out in front and behind the camera!
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