I am still working on figuring out exactly the problem that I want to study for my thesis or project. I have thought about working on a professional project since I would have a tangible product to include on my resume.
One project that I have been thinking about would be developing a plan to improve the website for my wife's sister's business. She and her husband run a few skateboard shops in San Diego. They have a pretty well run brick and mortar business but their website could use some work and designing the site based on marketing, advertising, and CMC theory would be a resume building project.
As a Chickasaw, I am interested in investigating public relations or advertising issues in Native American tribes or nations. The Chickasaw Nation has multiple business enterprises. While the casino and gaming businesses are perhaps the best known, there are other ventures the tribe is involved in. CNI is a Chickasaw corporation that bids for government contract work, and Bank2, is a consumer and business bank wholly owned by the Chickasaw Nation. The Chickasaw Nation also owns and operates a radio station and even a fine chocolate retail operation. The "stockholders" in these operations are the Chickasaw people who then see the "profits" from these businesses in the form of expanded health care, housing assistance, care for elders, educational initiatives, historical and cultural preservation efforts and jobs for both native and non-native people. I first became interested in these issues in college when I spent a summer in Washington D.C.; first as an intern for former Sen. Don Nickles as a Morris K. Udall scholar then as a staff intern in the office of the Ambassador to the Chickasaw Nation.
However, I have am also interested in academic areas of study in advertising and the internet. From reviewing some of the available literature it seems like the field is wide open. User-created advertising, like the ipod Touch ad for Apple that was originally created by an 18 year old kid in Great Britain, would be a nearly unimaginable phenomenon in the pre-internet era. Advergaming, interactive activities online, social network promotions are just a few of the broad areas of interest that someone studying advertising could research.
I took Dr. Yoon's Non-Traditional Media class last semester. One of the best things about that class was the number of guest speakers from the advertising field. Almost all of the advertising professionals said that most of the people in the field knew that the internet was a different place and a different way to do business but that there wasn't yet a consensus on how the internet was different. In a lot of cases, the speakers weren't 100% exactly how people were going to get paid for providing content but everyone knew that not setting up content on the web wasn't an option.
I am going to start working for the RISE project next week as a research assistant. I wanted to work on this project in the hopes of becoming a more confident researcher. I think some of my worry about a final project or thesis is making sure I know what I'm doing. This project is studying minority students in engineering, math and science. The research group conducted a ton of interviews a couple of years ago and is now in the process of evaluating the mountains of data they collected from the interviews. The project is now using some qualitative software to sort and categorize the data and some mixed methods work to make some larger connections about how these students adapt, survive and thrive on campus as students.
Friday, February 29, 2008
My (Current) Research Topic
Taylor Newcomb
Basically, Bernays' work deals with how public relations officials (or propagandists) can affect the way people think and how they can be influenced by organizations and governments. Coombs' can fit into that by using Bernays' basic concept and using it's guidelines to influence the way people think about a certain crisis. As Bernays noted, "Modern propaganda is a consistent enduring effort to create or shape events to influence the relations of the public to an enterprise, idea or group."
I have recently become interested in how organizations and individuals deal with crises. This is an off shoot of my intense interest in such (some may think) morbid interest in airplane crashes, boat sinkings, train derailments, and general engineering disasters. What drives my interests in these events is how those involved investigate the events and then relay what they have found to the public. If I could, I would love an internship with the communications department of the NTSB because it would give me a front line understanding of how they investigate the disasters and then communicate with the public.
In the aftermath of a disaster, communicating with the public is very important and should be handled just right. For the ways to screw up such a communication, one just has to see how the local, state, and federal governments communicated with the public in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. That situation could have probably been handled much better. However, I would prefer a more specific view of situations and how organizations and the NTSB responded, such as after a plane crash.
When the NTSB communicates with the public over the course of their investigation, how do they do it? Do they follow such guidelines as Coombs and express mortification at the event then explain what they have found? Or is it very dry and not very public friendly?
That as it is, is my current research topic. The NTSB is not a specific aim of my research, it is just a great example and a government organization that interests me immensely. I could also look at the specific companies involved with the disasters. However, this all (as everything does) depends on where I get an internship and what possibilities it presents.
Developing my research topic has been the toughest thing of all. I have so many ideas, but finding the best one is the biggest problem. I am interested in studying how media delivers, frames and in general handles missing person’s cases. I have recently begun to find a way to do this, perhaps by doing a case study or a compare and contrast of cases http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/PublicHomeServlet?LanguageCountry=en_US. Or by perhaps studying the Amber Alert system and how the media figures into all of it.
I originally became interested in this topic about 2 ½ years ago. I believe it started in my media ethics class, at least for myself. In the class before that (not sure which one), one of my classmates did a paper on the overabundance of missing person’s cases in the media that fall into the category of what can be called, “the pretty missing white girl syndrome” http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_7711.shtml.
It wasn’t until I heard Cassondra’s presentation that I even realized a problem like this existed. I began to ask her a lot of questions about the topic and decided to follow-up on it during the ethics class. After that, it became my obsession/passion. As a parent, I can’t imagine that any one person could be more important than another. Much of my research and realizations came during the heaviest media coverage of the Natalee Holloway disappearance http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natalee_Holloway.
About 2 months after Natalee disappeared, a young, pregnant Philadelphia mother went missing. Her name was LaToyia Figueroa; she was 5 months pregnant with, I believe a 6 or 7-year-old daughter. She was of African and Hispanic descent. Her case actually paralleled much of the Laci Peterson case( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laci_Peterson ), but LaToyia was not granted the same type of coverage.
In order to graduate with my bachelor’s, I had to do what could be called a “mini-thesis.” I chose to do a content analysis of Nancy Grace since this “monster of a woman” (sorry, I have very strong opinions of her) claims to be an advocate for missing people. She also claims that she makes sure to cover “other” people http://www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/2005/07/01/06 (see her comments towards the end of the interview). Anyhow, Cassondra and I teamed up and presented what we found which was that in over 70% of Nancy Grace’s stories regarding missing persons were of white women and that much of her information was inaccurate.
I realize that Nancy Grace is not the end-all of anything, but it was enough to open my eyes to bigger implications in the media field. Race and culture are things we always talk about, but race and culture are not always things we concentrate on properly in the media. Much of my current research is involved in framing and media portrayals of blacks as criminals (http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ufh&AN=16668573&site=ehost-live) and (http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ufh&AN=24904743&site=ehost-live) are just a couple of examples of research that I have found useful so far.
As far as the theories I have looked at regarding my topic, I have used agenda-setting theory, framing, cultural studies and gatekeeping.
I originally became interested in this topic about 2 ½ years ago. I believe it started in my media ethics class, at least for myself. In the class before that (not sure which one), one of my classmates did a paper on the overabundance of missing person’s cases in the media that fall into the category of what can be called, “the pretty missing white girl syndrome” http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_7711.shtml.
It wasn’t until I heard Cassondra’s presentation that I even realized a problem like this existed. I began to ask her a lot of questions about the topic and decided to follow-up on it during the ethics class. After that, it became my obsession/passion. As a parent, I can’t imagine that any one person could be more important than another. Much of my research and realizations came during the heaviest media coverage of the Natalee Holloway disappearance http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natalee_Holloway.
About 2 months after Natalee disappeared, a young, pregnant Philadelphia mother went missing. Her name was LaToyia Figueroa; she was 5 months pregnant with, I believe a 6 or 7-year-old daughter. She was of African and Hispanic descent. Her case actually paralleled much of the Laci Peterson case( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laci_Peterson ), but LaToyia was not granted the same type of coverage.
In order to graduate with my bachelor’s, I had to do what could be called a “mini-thesis.” I chose to do a content analysis of Nancy Grace since this “monster of a woman” (sorry, I have very strong opinions of her) claims to be an advocate for missing people. She also claims that she makes sure to cover “other” people http://www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/2005/07/01/06 (see her comments towards the end of the interview). Anyhow, Cassondra and I teamed up and presented what we found which was that in over 70% of Nancy Grace’s stories regarding missing persons were of white women and that much of her information was inaccurate.
I realize that Nancy Grace is not the end-all of anything, but it was enough to open my eyes to bigger implications in the media field. Race and culture are things we always talk about, but race and culture are not always things we concentrate on properly in the media. Much of my current research is involved in framing and media portrayals of blacks as criminals (http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ufh&AN=16668573&site=ehost-live) and (http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ufh&AN=24904743&site=ehost-live) are just a couple of examples of research that I have found useful so far.
As far as the theories I have looked at regarding my topic, I have used agenda-setting theory, framing, cultural studies and gatekeeping.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
My Research Topic...This Week
-My Research Topic...This Week by Deb Wallevand
What does it mean to develop a research topic? Well, it would mean the world to me! In fact, it has almost been seven days since I came up with my latest research topic. I think this one is really going to stick. I would like to work with the OU athletic department and SoonerVision, http://www.soonersports.com/school-bio/sooner-vision.html, in developing a recruitment video or a video that highlights the success of OU women athletes.
As far back as I can remember I have always been very passionate about sports and sports broadcasting. Most children dreamed about being in the Olympics, while I dreamed about covering the Olympics. The movie A League Of Their Own had a profound effect on me as a ten year old and I became very interested in the history of the All-American Professional Girls Baseball League, http://aagpbl.org/. That movie was probably the root of my interest in women's sports. During my undergrad I researched the effects of Title IX, http://www.titleix.info/ . Now at the graduate level my studies have focused on media coverage and the language used to describe women athletes and women's sports.
I have not really scratched the surface as far as my current research topic is concerned, but I would like to begin reading the research about sports highlights, sports psychology, feminist sports psychology, and sports recruitment. I'm curious how this new research fits in with my interest in women's sports. Additionally, I'm excited to combine this research with videography and editing techniques.
I think what really gets me excited about this new research topic is the fact that my master's project could help me land a job after school. I feel I would have a few paths to follow including working with a university in-house production studio such as SoonerVision, , a cable sports channel like ESPN, http://espn.go.com/, or a non-profit organization such as the Women's Sports Foundation http://www.womenssportsfoundation.org or Girls Are Champions http://www.girlsarechampions.org/. This web video about the WSF is a good example of what I would like to do because it includes sports, video and promotes women's athletics. I want my work to educate and inspire and not just entertain. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhE9M5i-KZc
So far this process of determining a research topic has been pretty frustrating because every other week it seems like I'm changing my mind. It feels like I'm a six-year old who wants to be a doctor, the president, and an astronaut. However, I do think I'm on the right track finally. I guess the key word is "develop" a research topic. I will continue to read articles and hopefully fine-tune a topic that I'm passionate about.
What does it mean to develop a research topic? Well, it would mean the world to me! In fact, it has almost been seven days since I came up with my latest research topic. I think this one is really going to stick. I would like to work with the OU athletic department and SoonerVision, http://www.soonersports.com/school-bio/sooner-vision.html, in developing a recruitment video or a video that highlights the success of OU women athletes.
As far back as I can remember I have always been very passionate about sports and sports broadcasting. Most children dreamed about being in the Olympics, while I dreamed about covering the Olympics. The movie A League Of Their Own had a profound effect on me as a ten year old and I became very interested in the history of the All-American Professional Girls Baseball League, http://aagpbl.org/. That movie was probably the root of my interest in women's sports. During my undergrad I researched the effects of Title IX, http://www.titleix.info/ . Now at the graduate level my studies have focused on media coverage and the language used to describe women athletes and women's sports.
I have not really scratched the surface as far as my current research topic is concerned, but I would like to begin reading the research about sports highlights, sports psychology, feminist sports psychology, and sports recruitment. I'm curious how this new research fits in with my interest in women's sports. Additionally, I'm excited to combine this research with videography and editing techniques.
I think what really gets me excited about this new research topic is the fact that my master's project could help me land a job after school. I feel I would have a few paths to follow including working with a university in-house production studio such as SoonerVision, , a cable sports channel like ESPN, http://espn.go.com/, or a non-profit organization such as the Women's Sports Foundation http://www.womenssportsfoundation.org or Girls Are Champions http://www.girlsarechampions.org/. This web video about the WSF is a good example of what I would like to do because it includes sports, video and promotes women's athletics. I want my work to educate and inspire and not just entertain. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhE9M5i-KZc
So far this process of determining a research topic has been pretty frustrating because every other week it seems like I'm changing my mind. It feels like I'm a six-year old who wants to be a doctor, the president, and an astronaut. However, I do think I'm on the right track finally. I guess the key word is "develop" a research topic. I will continue to read articles and hopefully fine-tune a topic that I'm passionate about.
Developing a research topic
For me, determining the topic of my research has been a simple thing to do. Since I heard a story by a coworker nearly seven years ago, I have been convinced that I wanted to learn more about the effects journalists experience as a result of covering traumatic events.
The story came from my friend, Ann DeFrange, a columnist at The Oklahoman. She told me about how about a month after she was one of the first reporters to arrive on the scene of the April 19, 1995 Oklahoma City bombing she started to cry when the newsroom received a care package from a newspaper in Rockford, Ill. DeFrange said the experience was so moving to her because she thought finally someone really understood what the reporters were experiencing.
She also told me about the events of the month and how they affected her and her coworkers. They spent weeks at the office with little time off, even for sleep. They ate in the newspaper’s dining commons or in the newsroom, and showered in the fitness center locker room while relationships with family and friends and their physical and mental health fell apart.
DeFrange said she thought the work conditions were the most traumatic thing the journalists experienced, although she admitted that the reporters “over achieved,” going beyond what editors and supervisors asked them to do. DeFrange knew people who were in the bombing, but they were not family members. She owed them nothing, but she and her colleagues did what they thought the journalism code required them to do – they pretended not be affected, not to grieve, and did the job.
I worked in the newsroom and saw how these same reporters responded to the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks on the World Trade Center. It was an amazing array of emotions that I didn’t then fully understand. I saw many of them seep back into a depression that had been lingering under the surface while others became angry about New York stealing their title for “worst terrorist attack.” I didn’t fully understand the emotions or comments at the time, although I recognized some of them from my initial research into journalists suffering from trauma.
I began studying trauma through a Victims in the Media course at the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond. I took the course as part of my emphasis in journalism during my education master’s work. The course was sponsored by the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, which is the primary resource for information on the topic. Through my studies I discovered that one of my editors at The Oklahoman, Joe Hight, is extremely involved in the Dart Center and actually helped UCO obtain the grant to teach the class. He has become a wonderful resource for me in my quest for knowledge on the topic.
It was in the same class that I was introduced to the textbook Covering Violence by William Cote and Roger Simpson (2006). The book provides a foundation for thinking about covering violence and how it affects those who are covered and the reporters covering it. Reading the textbook helped me identify three main researchers in the field: William Cote’, Roger Simpson and Frank Ochberg. From continuing to read works by those scholars and cross-referencing their reference pages I have found a variety of scholarly works on the topic. I also have identified a variety of articles in Quill, the Society of Professional Journalists’ magazine, that have been useful in identifying scholars in the field.
My biggest concern at this point is not what I’m going to study but how I’m going to study it. I previously believed that I had identified a worthy research topic in simply discovering if journalists could become victims of trauma based on the stories they cover. However, since I identified this topic there have been a variety of professional and scholarly works that have presented it as fact. Now I am faced with trying to take a topic I am passionate about and determine what the real questions are that must be asked.
The story came from my friend, Ann DeFrange, a columnist at The Oklahoman. She told me about how about a month after she was one of the first reporters to arrive on the scene of the April 19, 1995 Oklahoma City bombing she started to cry when the newsroom received a care package from a newspaper in Rockford, Ill. DeFrange said the experience was so moving to her because she thought finally someone really understood what the reporters were experiencing.
She also told me about the events of the month and how they affected her and her coworkers. They spent weeks at the office with little time off, even for sleep. They ate in the newspaper’s dining commons or in the newsroom, and showered in the fitness center locker room while relationships with family and friends and their physical and mental health fell apart.
DeFrange said she thought the work conditions were the most traumatic thing the journalists experienced, although she admitted that the reporters “over achieved,” going beyond what editors and supervisors asked them to do. DeFrange knew people who were in the bombing, but they were not family members. She owed them nothing, but she and her colleagues did what they thought the journalism code required them to do – they pretended not be affected, not to grieve, and did the job.
I worked in the newsroom and saw how these same reporters responded to the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks on the World Trade Center. It was an amazing array of emotions that I didn’t then fully understand. I saw many of them seep back into a depression that had been lingering under the surface while others became angry about New York stealing their title for “worst terrorist attack.” I didn’t fully understand the emotions or comments at the time, although I recognized some of them from my initial research into journalists suffering from trauma.
I began studying trauma through a Victims in the Media course at the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond. I took the course as part of my emphasis in journalism during my education master’s work. The course was sponsored by the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, which is the primary resource for information on the topic. Through my studies I discovered that one of my editors at The Oklahoman, Joe Hight, is extremely involved in the Dart Center and actually helped UCO obtain the grant to teach the class. He has become a wonderful resource for me in my quest for knowledge on the topic.
It was in the same class that I was introduced to the textbook Covering Violence by William Cote and Roger Simpson (2006). The book provides a foundation for thinking about covering violence and how it affects those who are covered and the reporters covering it. Reading the textbook helped me identify three main researchers in the field: William Cote’, Roger Simpson and Frank Ochberg. From continuing to read works by those scholars and cross-referencing their reference pages I have found a variety of scholarly works on the topic. I also have identified a variety of articles in Quill, the Society of Professional Journalists’ magazine, that have been useful in identifying scholars in the field.
My biggest concern at this point is not what I’m going to study but how I’m going to study it. I previously believed that I had identified a worthy research topic in simply discovering if journalists could become victims of trauma based on the stories they cover. However, since I identified this topic there have been a variety of professional and scholarly works that have presented it as fact. Now I am faced with trying to take a topic I am passionate about and determine what the real questions are that must be asked.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Research Topic Creation
For graduate students, choosing a research topic (as most have noticed) becomes one of the most important endeavors while working towards the completion of a degree. Most students, like me, are interested in a variety of often unrelated topics. Since I come from a background in international relations, if you had asked me four semesters ago what my interests were, I would have responded with an answer attempting to connect American advertising in Latin America and how it could influence U.S. foreign relations. A complex issue, but probably not best suited for graduate level research. Now that I am more familiar with the various strategies available to improve a company's brand image, I have narrowed my focus to sponsorship as a form of strategic communication.
I have read in previous posts that some students feel like they are behind in choosing a research topic. To those feeling a bit stressed, I can tell you that I didn't have any idea of what I was going to study until last semester when I finally took Dr. Gade's Research Methods and Dr. Taylor's Conceptual Issues. For whatever reason, I couldn't get into the two courses in my first year at Gaylord (new improved website). Last semester offered me the opportunity to explore theories and research topics to which I could relate. Now that I have an area of study in which I am interested, I am working to catch up so I can finish by next fall.
I'm still at a loss for why I didn't recognize sponsorship as an effective communication medium earlier in my studies. I ran competitively during my undergraduate years and have always been closely tied to the running community. Sponsorships provide runners with almost every opportunity they have in the sport. For instance, local races (5ks/10ks) on up to elite marathons (London, Chicago, Boston) are made possible through various sponsors. The sponsors can vary in size and involvement with the events. Family owned businesses enjoy becoming a part of the races and may provide services while companies like Bank of America may choose to give monetary funds. In both cases, the race benefits from the companies' contributions, the participants enjoy a higher profile event, and the sponsors improve their brand image.
I first started paying closer attention to sponsorships after becoming more involved with the Oklahoma running community. I currently work at a locally owned specialty running store that hosts the Brookhaven Run. The race proceeds help fund the cross country teams at Norman North and Norman High. Much of the race's success hinges on the participation of local businesses through their sponsorships.
It is my goal to design a research project that explores how local businesses can benefit from their event sponsorships of community events (e.g. road races). I am more interested in the sponsors' perceptions and how the business thinks it benefits from their involvement with local activities. Since it is difficult to measure exactly how sponsorship effects sales, I believe it is more pertinent to study how managers and owners feel their sponsorship is beneficial to the business. The sponsor/event relationship will continue if managers perceive their efforts in a race make difference for all parties involved.
I have read in previous posts that some students feel like they are behind in choosing a research topic. To those feeling a bit stressed, I can tell you that I didn't have any idea of what I was going to study until last semester when I finally took Dr. Gade's Research Methods and Dr. Taylor's Conceptual Issues. For whatever reason, I couldn't get into the two courses in my first year at Gaylord (new improved website). Last semester offered me the opportunity to explore theories and research topics to which I could relate. Now that I have an area of study in which I am interested, I am working to catch up so I can finish by next fall.
I'm still at a loss for why I didn't recognize sponsorship as an effective communication medium earlier in my studies. I ran competitively during my undergraduate years and have always been closely tied to the running community. Sponsorships provide runners with almost every opportunity they have in the sport. For instance, local races (5ks/10ks) on up to elite marathons (London, Chicago, Boston) are made possible through various sponsors. The sponsors can vary in size and involvement with the events. Family owned businesses enjoy becoming a part of the races and may provide services while companies like Bank of America may choose to give monetary funds. In both cases, the race benefits from the companies' contributions, the participants enjoy a higher profile event, and the sponsors improve their brand image.
I first started paying closer attention to sponsorships after becoming more involved with the Oklahoma running community. I currently work at a locally owned specialty running store that hosts the Brookhaven Run. The race proceeds help fund the cross country teams at Norman North and Norman High. Much of the race's success hinges on the participation of local businesses through their sponsorships.
It is my goal to design a research project that explores how local businesses can benefit from their event sponsorships of community events (e.g. road races). I am more interested in the sponsors' perceptions and how the business thinks it benefits from their involvement with local activities. Since it is difficult to measure exactly how sponsorship effects sales, I believe it is more pertinent to study how managers and owners feel their sponsorship is beneficial to the business. The sponsor/event relationship will continue if managers perceive their efforts in a race make difference for all parties involved.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Developing My Research Topic
Developing My Research Topic
Developing my research topic seems to be an on going process that has only just begun. Though this is only my second semester in graduate school, I feel great pressure to select my project topic. I often feel that I am behind because I have not made my final decision.
Of course I have no problem thinking of topics that interest me. Last semester I devoted all of my research to the cognitive effects of sexualized images in the media on preadolescent girls. Two prominent research groups on this topic are Sands and Wardle (2003) and Harrison and Hefner (2006). I find this topic very interesting (and sad). Sometimes as students of media and media practioners, I think that we forget or underestimate the power the media actually has over the mindset of the consumers. While this topic is very interesting to me, I don’t see it as my final project topic. I am also very interested in cohesive branding of companies or brands. I find it very interesting to watch new businesses come to town and either do phenomenal (eg- Rusty’s) because of a branded and focused image, or flop (does anybody remember the brief life of Dairy Boy on Lindsey Street?) because of the lack of focus on creating a distinct image. Starbucks and Panera are prime examples of the success a company can have by simply having a good quality product and creating a distinct image for the entire look and feel of the business. This is why people are still flooding into these businesses ready and willing to pay four dollars for a cup of coffee and eight dollars for a sandwich (myself included). Yet another topic that I am interested in is event sponsorship and brand partnership, which are two very different things but both involve two separate entities coming together to promote a product. I am interested in why some partnerships are golden (eg- American Idol and Itunes) and some are destined to fail (eg- Vera Wang and Kohl’s). Both of these examples are purely my opinion, only time will tell whether or not I am correct. I would like to know more about what the variables of good partnerships and sponsorships are and what the key signs that the partnership will fail are.
While all of these topics interest me, I am looking forward to doing a professional project that will help me gain experience in the professional realm. Like I said in my earlier post, my undergraduate degree was in advertising and I am extremely interested in working for a non-profit organization , so I am trying not to stay solely focused on advertising. I want to broaden my knowledge of public relations so that I can have more to offer a non-profit agency.
While I often feel that I am behind because I have not nailed down my research topic, I also find it hard to finalize a topic for an applied project. It seems to me that if a project is meant to be implemented by a company or agency, it is quite hard to have a topic finalized until you have established a relationship with the company or agency that you want to use your project. To me, until I know what the company wants or needs I won’t have a finalized topic.
Developing my research topic seems to be an on going process that has only just begun. Though this is only my second semester in graduate school, I feel great pressure to select my project topic. I often feel that I am behind because I have not made my final decision.
Of course I have no problem thinking of topics that interest me. Last semester I devoted all of my research to the cognitive effects of sexualized images in the media on preadolescent girls. Two prominent research groups on this topic are Sands and Wardle (2003) and Harrison and Hefner (2006). I find this topic very interesting (and sad). Sometimes as students of media and media practioners, I think that we forget or underestimate the power the media actually has over the mindset of the consumers. While this topic is very interesting to me, I don’t see it as my final project topic. I am also very interested in cohesive branding of companies or brands. I find it very interesting to watch new businesses come to town and either do phenomenal (eg- Rusty’s) because of a branded and focused image, or flop (does anybody remember the brief life of Dairy Boy on Lindsey Street?) because of the lack of focus on creating a distinct image. Starbucks and Panera are prime examples of the success a company can have by simply having a good quality product and creating a distinct image for the entire look and feel of the business. This is why people are still flooding into these businesses ready and willing to pay four dollars for a cup of coffee and eight dollars for a sandwich (myself included). Yet another topic that I am interested in is event sponsorship and brand partnership, which are two very different things but both involve two separate entities coming together to promote a product. I am interested in why some partnerships are golden (eg- American Idol and Itunes) and some are destined to fail (eg- Vera Wang and Kohl’s). Both of these examples are purely my opinion, only time will tell whether or not I am correct. I would like to know more about what the variables of good partnerships and sponsorships are and what the key signs that the partnership will fail are.
While all of these topics interest me, I am looking forward to doing a professional project that will help me gain experience in the professional realm. Like I said in my earlier post, my undergraduate degree was in advertising and I am extremely interested in working for a non-profit organization , so I am trying not to stay solely focused on advertising. I want to broaden my knowledge of public relations so that I can have more to offer a non-profit agency.
While I often feel that I am behind because I have not nailed down my research topic, I also find it hard to finalize a topic for an applied project. It seems to me that if a project is meant to be implemented by a company or agency, it is quite hard to have a topic finalized until you have established a relationship with the company or agency that you want to use your project. To me, until I know what the company wants or needs I won’t have a finalized topic.
Friday, February 22, 2008
Discovering Research and My Topics
Discovering Research and My Topics
Leslie Cermak
Before I came to graduate school, I was completely ignorant about all one must accomplish in order to earn a masters degree. No one in my family had ever been to college before, let alone graduate school, so I walked into the conceptual issues course without any idea of what I wanted to study or even what research meant to this field. To me, “research” was what scientists did in a laboratory, not something I ever thought I would do after teaching English as a second language.
However, in the short time I’ve been here, I have come to realize exactly how important research is to every discipline, and as I read about various theories, I have learned that not all research requires chemistry goggles or laboratory coats.
Although I still have difficulty seeing myself as a researcher, I have enjoyed reading about all of the different theories including normative theories (including the theory of social responsibility) but as discussed in my previous post, I was unsure of a topic that I actually wanted to focus on. I have often grown frustrated during talks with Dr. Gade about my lack of ideas for a thesis, but he would then laugh and tell me that I had just come up with at least four different research questions...unfortunately, I could never figure out what they were.
I have, however, figured out along the way a few things that help to develop a research topic. First, one has to be interested in it. As we have heard in this seminar class and from other professors, it is important to really like what we will study because we will become absorbed in it. I never thought I had come up with a research idea because I had never been completely interested in any of the topics I had discussed. It wasn’t until I took Dr. Craig’s ethics class and read Ron Smith’s Groping for Ethics in Journalism that I began asking more questions than the assigned readings provided.
This leads me to the second element necessary to develop a research topic: questioning what is missing from previous readings. It’s not that the books or articles I had read weren’t thorough, they just didn’t address my specific thoughts. I also found during that class that I was often looking for supplemental material including that on the Poynter Institute’s Web site to see how journalism ethics was taught elsewhere in the classrooms. By observing my classmates, I began to wonder where their preconceptions about the media’s responsibilities came from. Although they all had similar thoughts about the media, they were not that far along into their degrees or the ethics class to seemingly develop such similar viewpoints.
Similarly, through ethics class, I also became interested in how similar or dissimilar today’s press system is to that in social responsibility theory. Although scholars have contended that the press is currently more concerned about presenting issues to the public so they can become more involved in democracy, much research still shows that coverage of political campaigns, for example, is still centered on the race itself and not the issues. Likewise, more space in the paper and newscasts seems reserved for the newest turn in Britney Spears’ life than Kosovo being recognized as a separate nation.
This led me to wonder how those in the field may conceptualize social responsibility differently from the scholars that study and define it. One resource that has been particularly helpful to me throughout this entire process beginning with research methods has been a site constructed by a professor at Michigan State University. It explains issues about forming a graduate committee as well as writing an actual research proposal.
Leslie Cermak
Before I came to graduate school, I was completely ignorant about all one must accomplish in order to earn a masters degree. No one in my family had ever been to college before, let alone graduate school, so I walked into the conceptual issues course without any idea of what I wanted to study or even what research meant to this field. To me, “research” was what scientists did in a laboratory, not something I ever thought I would do after teaching English as a second language.
However, in the short time I’ve been here, I have come to realize exactly how important research is to every discipline, and as I read about various theories, I have learned that not all research requires chemistry goggles or laboratory coats.
Although I still have difficulty seeing myself as a researcher, I have enjoyed reading about all of the different theories including normative theories (including the theory of social responsibility) but as discussed in my previous post, I was unsure of a topic that I actually wanted to focus on. I have often grown frustrated during talks with Dr. Gade about my lack of ideas for a thesis, but he would then laugh and tell me that I had just come up with at least four different research questions...unfortunately, I could never figure out what they were.
I have, however, figured out along the way a few things that help to develop a research topic. First, one has to be interested in it. As we have heard in this seminar class and from other professors, it is important to really like what we will study because we will become absorbed in it. I never thought I had come up with a research idea because I had never been completely interested in any of the topics I had discussed. It wasn’t until I took Dr. Craig’s ethics class and read Ron Smith’s Groping for Ethics in Journalism that I began asking more questions than the assigned readings provided.
This leads me to the second element necessary to develop a research topic: questioning what is missing from previous readings. It’s not that the books or articles I had read weren’t thorough, they just didn’t address my specific thoughts. I also found during that class that I was often looking for supplemental material including that on the Poynter Institute’s Web site to see how journalism ethics was taught elsewhere in the classrooms. By observing my classmates, I began to wonder where their preconceptions about the media’s responsibilities came from. Although they all had similar thoughts about the media, they were not that far along into their degrees or the ethics class to seemingly develop such similar viewpoints.
Similarly, through ethics class, I also became interested in how similar or dissimilar today’s press system is to that in social responsibility theory. Although scholars have contended that the press is currently more concerned about presenting issues to the public so they can become more involved in democracy, much research still shows that coverage of political campaigns, for example, is still centered on the race itself and not the issues. Likewise, more space in the paper and newscasts seems reserved for the newest turn in Britney Spears’ life than Kosovo being recognized as a separate nation.
This led me to wonder how those in the field may conceptualize social responsibility differently from the scholars that study and define it. One resource that has been particularly helpful to me throughout this entire process beginning with research methods has been a site constructed by a professor at Michigan State University. It explains issues about forming a graduate committee as well as writing an actual research proposal.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Jaimie's Post!
Jaimie's Post!
Quite frankly, my research topics have blossomed from my interests (or actually strong aversion to certain things), cultural background, and my future professional aspirations.
As I think I’ve mentioned in class and in my last post, I absolutely loathe BET and most of what it represents. http://www.bet.com It is my personal opinion that they don’t do enough to uplift and enlighten the African American community. I have come to hate all the “rump shaking” videos and the continuous stream of music content. I have to give them credit for a portion of their Sunday and daily early morning line-up, however. They do make a conscious effort to show several hours of religious content via morning preachers and Christian music videos on Sunday. Yet, over the years, Uncut (the three a.m. showing of videos that can’t be shown because of FCC decency regulations), http://www.fcc.gov/eb/oip/ , and the other programs that bombard viewers with images of women in tiny clothes have become degrading to women. Yet, BET seems to endorse these images because they allow them to be perpetuated on their network. Furthermore, the advertisements in between segments showcase many women of different ethnicities practically naked attempting to get viewers to call and chat on date lines and with fortune tellers. AND… their show hosts represent the slums of black culture… I dare not elaborate. It’s interesting to me that they don’t have wholesome companies like Pillsbury, Johnson & Johnson, or even automobile manufactures vying to push their products on the BET network. I wonder why????
Anyway, needless to say, as an African American woman striving to be a media professional, it saddens me to see such a prominent “symbol” of African American society go to waste. Lately, their content has moved slightly away from 24 hour videos and now to silly, trivial and even MORE non-educational shows. I wonder does their parent company VIACOM (http://www.viacom.com/ourbrands/medianetworks/betnetworks/Pages/default.aspx) have anything at all to do with the new and “improved” content????? Please notice, that their blurb on BET does not say anything positive about black culture… it just mentions that it broadcasts black culture to consumers across the globe. I will hang my head in shame now!
Thus, all my venting above had led to my major research interests. I want to look at how African Americans are portrayed on television (newshttp://www.yaaams.org/editorials/articles/localnews.php). This website was created and is maintained by young African Americans, like myself, who abhor the way some media outlets portray black culture.
In my opinion, the best way to develop a research topic is to start with a topic that you are passionate about and can read an endless amount of research (as Dr. Carstarphen mentioned). I am examining theories in gatekeeping (http://www.tcw.utwente.nl/theorieenoverzicht/Theory%20clusters/Media,%20Culture%20and%20Society/gatekeeping.doc/) and framing (http://www.tcw.utwente.nl/theorieenoverzicht/Theory%20clusters/Communication%20Processes/Framing/) to help show holes in these theories as they relate to African American media portrayals.
Additionally, this is my first time developing a research topic so, I’ve used this site to help me! (http://ciips.ee.uwa.edu.au/pub/HowToWriteAThesis.pdf) Maybe it will be of some assistance to you all too!
Quite frankly, my research topics have blossomed from my interests (or actually strong aversion to certain things), cultural background, and my future professional aspirations.
As I think I’ve mentioned in class and in my last post, I absolutely loathe BET and most of what it represents. http://www.bet.com It is my personal opinion that they don’t do enough to uplift and enlighten the African American community. I have come to hate all the “rump shaking” videos and the continuous stream of music content. I have to give them credit for a portion of their Sunday and daily early morning line-up, however. They do make a conscious effort to show several hours of religious content via morning preachers and Christian music videos on Sunday. Yet, over the years, Uncut (the three a.m. showing of videos that can’t be shown because of FCC decency regulations), http://www.fcc.gov/eb/oip/ , and the other programs that bombard viewers with images of women in tiny clothes have become degrading to women. Yet, BET seems to endorse these images because they allow them to be perpetuated on their network. Furthermore, the advertisements in between segments showcase many women of different ethnicities practically naked attempting to get viewers to call and chat on date lines and with fortune tellers. AND… their show hosts represent the slums of black culture… I dare not elaborate. It’s interesting to me that they don’t have wholesome companies like Pillsbury, Johnson & Johnson, or even automobile manufactures vying to push their products on the BET network. I wonder why????
Anyway, needless to say, as an African American woman striving to be a media professional, it saddens me to see such a prominent “symbol” of African American society go to waste. Lately, their content has moved slightly away from 24 hour videos and now to silly, trivial and even MORE non-educational shows. I wonder does their parent company VIACOM (http://www.viacom.com/ourbrands/medianetworks/betnetworks/Pages/default.aspx) have anything at all to do with the new and “improved” content????? Please notice, that their blurb on BET does not say anything positive about black culture… it just mentions that it broadcasts black culture to consumers across the globe. I will hang my head in shame now!
Thus, all my venting above had led to my major research interests. I want to look at how African Americans are portrayed on television (newshttp://www.yaaams.org/editorials/articles/localnews.php). This website was created and is maintained by young African Americans, like myself, who abhor the way some media outlets portray black culture.
In my opinion, the best way to develop a research topic is to start with a topic that you are passionate about and can read an endless amount of research (as Dr. Carstarphen mentioned). I am examining theories in gatekeeping (http://www.tcw.utwente.nl/theorieenoverzicht/Theory%20clusters/Media,%20Culture%20and%20Society/gatekeeping.doc/) and framing (http://www.tcw.utwente.nl/theorieenoverzicht/Theory%20clusters/Communication%20Processes/Framing/) to help show holes in these theories as they relate to African American media portrayals.
Additionally, this is my first time developing a research topic so, I’ve used this site to help me! (http://ciips.ee.uwa.edu.au/pub/HowToWriteAThesis.pdf) Maybe it will be of some assistance to you all too!
Monday, February 11, 2008
Women, Sports & PR
Women, Sports & PR
By Amber Theinert
Developing a research topic is no easy feat. I’ve found that my topic has changed so many times, I cannot even remember wear I started. I think it had something to do with politics, but I was bored quickly of that. Then I went on this non-profit kick, but realized that was also not very much fun, especially since I work for a non-profit and am involved in that everyday. I realized my topic must be something I can stand to be around ALL the time, something I really enjoy. Thinking back to my Sports PR course, taught by Kenny Mossman, I realized this was an area I could really have some passion about. Plus, the world of sports public relations is almost completely void of any really great scholarly research. Since I want an area where I feel as if my professional project could really make a difference, this seems like a great fit.
While in class, Mossman informed me that the field of sports information directing struggles for diversity, especially among women. Upon further investigation of the literature, I found an article titled “Women in the Male Dominated World of Sports Information Directing: Only the Strong Survive” that reaffirmed what I was told. This led me to believe that there would be public relations campaigns in place to recruit women to this field; however I could not find one (at least at this time). I visited the College Sports Information Directors Association (CoSIDA) and could find no evidence of such a campaign. The Women’s Sports Foundation pushes women to pursue jobs within athletics, but it almost seems like an afterthought on the website. In fact, they merely provide links to sports job websites, but do not have a place for recruiters to post in order to actively seek out a woman as an employee.
After some research, I’ve decided to build a public relations campaign that actively seeks to place women in jobs within collegiate athletics departments. This research will need to be expanded beyond the world of sports, and my literature review will include topics such as employee recruiting, what works with recruiting and research of other public relations campaigns that are in place to recruit women. I’ve still not determined what my primary research will be, and if anyone has any ideas, I’d love to hear them.
Since professional projects must be published in some way, I am hoping to reach out to CoSida, the Women’s Sports Foundation or another non-profit organization and provide my findings for their use. I think the ability for women to search such positions should be free of charge, no charge for membership as some websites do, http://www.wiscnetwork.com/, and this seems like something a non-profit would be interested in. I would also not be opposed to customizing such a campaign to a specific school, if there was interest. I will most likely need to take whatever research proposal I create for this class to one of these organizations so I might be able to tailor the campaign to whoever chooses to publish it for me.
By Amber Theinert
Developing a research topic is no easy feat. I’ve found that my topic has changed so many times, I cannot even remember wear I started. I think it had something to do with politics, but I was bored quickly of that. Then I went on this non-profit kick, but realized that was also not very much fun, especially since I work for a non-profit and am involved in that everyday. I realized my topic must be something I can stand to be around ALL the time, something I really enjoy. Thinking back to my Sports PR course, taught by Kenny Mossman, I realized this was an area I could really have some passion about. Plus, the world of sports public relations is almost completely void of any really great scholarly research. Since I want an area where I feel as if my professional project could really make a difference, this seems like a great fit.
While in class, Mossman informed me that the field of sports information directing struggles for diversity, especially among women. Upon further investigation of the literature, I found an article titled “Women in the Male Dominated World of Sports Information Directing: Only the Strong Survive” that reaffirmed what I was told. This led me to believe that there would be public relations campaigns in place to recruit women to this field; however I could not find one (at least at this time). I visited the College Sports Information Directors Association (CoSIDA) and could find no evidence of such a campaign. The Women’s Sports Foundation pushes women to pursue jobs within athletics, but it almost seems like an afterthought on the website. In fact, they merely provide links to sports job websites, but do not have a place for recruiters to post in order to actively seek out a woman as an employee.
After some research, I’ve decided to build a public relations campaign that actively seeks to place women in jobs within collegiate athletics departments. This research will need to be expanded beyond the world of sports, and my literature review will include topics such as employee recruiting, what works with recruiting and research of other public relations campaigns that are in place to recruit women. I’ve still not determined what my primary research will be, and if anyone has any ideas, I’d love to hear them.
Since professional projects must be published in some way, I am hoping to reach out to CoSida, the Women’s Sports Foundation or another non-profit organization and provide my findings for their use. I think the ability for women to search such positions should be free of charge, no charge for membership as some websites do, http://www.wiscnetwork.com/, and this seems like something a non-profit would be interested in. I would also not be opposed to customizing such a campaign to a specific school, if there was interest. I will most likely need to take whatever research proposal I create for this class to one of these organizations so I might be able to tailor the campaign to whoever chooses to publish it for me.
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