Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Post 8: Final Paper Outline

For this posting, identify a topic you would like to focus on for your final paper. Provide the main research question(s) you are going to investigate. Outline the sections of the paper and explain which theory will guide your paper. Then, find two articles or books that seem relevant to your topic and give their complete citation.

If anyone is interested in a final project—either individual or group project—please let me know. Your posting can describe the scope of the project and the main research question you are planning on studying.

More details about final paper/ project will come in class. Good luck!

18 comments:

Etse Sikanku said...

The topic for my final paper will be: Online media and shaping the news agenda among the Ghanaian public.

My main research questions will be:

1. Where do you mostly get you news?

2. What kind of news items do you often read?

3. Are you influenced to read the top stories more than the rest of the news items?

An outline of the various sections of the paper is:

· Introduction

· Brief historical background

· Aim

· Theory and Literature review

· Methodology

· Findings and Discussion

· Conclusions

· References

The theory that I’ll be using is Agenda Setting. Generally the agenda setting theory refers to the ability of the media to shape public opinion. According to McQuail Agenda setting is “a process of media influence (intended or unintended) by which the relevant importance of news events, issues or personages in the public mind are affected by the order of presentation (or relative salience) in news reports.” Through agenda setting the media are able to influence what the public should be thinking about. The media in various ways often have what they consider their top issues and they have various ways of presenting them so that this is what the public thinks about.

Also, the relevant articles related to the topic are:

Tewksbury, D. (2005). The seeds of Audience Fragmentation: Specialization in the use of online news sites. Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media. Vol.49, Issue 3 p332 (17).


Dutta-Bergman, M. (2004). Complementarity in consumption of news types across traditional and new media. Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media.Vol 48, Issue 1 p41 (20).

Etse Sikanku said...

The online news media in Ghana is a new phenomenon. Whiles newspapers have been largely successful in shaping the news agenda among the public, no one is sure if the internet is doing same.

It will be interesting to find out how much the internet or online media is shaping the news agenda in such an emerging democracy. I intend to use by far the most widely accessed internet website in Ghana www.ghanaweb.com as well as other news websites such as myjoyonline.com to find out if indeed this website is shaping public thought.

Reader comments, feedbacks and perhaps blogs will be used to examine this.

tammy said...

For my final paper topic, I would like to explore the use of the internet as an innovation in spreading information and diffusing environmental topics to the general public. I will use Diffusion Theory.

Research questions:

How effective is the internet for use in spreading environmental information?
What factors will make the internet more effective in this area?
Does the two-step flow model proposed by Rogers (mass media-information phase, interpersonal-decision phase) work when the internet is used in environmental issues diffusion?

Outline:

I. Introduction
II. Literature review
III. Analysis of present use of internet
IV. Discussion of the future of environmental issues with relation to internet
V. Suggestions for environmental groups to effectively use the internet
VI. Conclusion

Articles:

Pinterits, Andreas, Horst Treiblmaier, and Irene Pollach. (June 14, 2006) ‘Environmental Websites: an Empirical Investigation of Functionality and Accessibility.’ International Journal of Technology, Policy and Management. 6.1 : 103.

Zavestoski, Stephen, Stuart Shulman, and David Schlosberg. (July 2006) ‘Democracy and the Environment on the Internet: Electronic Citizen Participation in Regulatory Rulemaking’, Science, Technology, & Human Values. 31.4 : 383(26)

titun said...

For my final paper I would like to research more on the Technology and Privacy issues, where I will cover the identity theft and how crooks are becoming savvy with technology to out smart the system and people.

At this point I am not sure if I would like to continue working on the technology and Privacy issues, or work on “Technology and Fashion” where I like to explore the different media we have used over the years to configure fashion from a global point.

Any suggestions????

Cyclone said...

My final topic will be the influence of facebook and online social networking on our offline social relationships.

Research Questions:
1) What are the traditional motives and means of social interaction?

2) How is the use of facebook similar and different to these methods?

3) What are some results of the interplay between new and traditional methods of interaction?

I am particularly interested in critical theorists like Baurdillard, and notions of "the simulacrum is true." If peoples' virtual selves become acceptable substitutes for their offline selves, it has deleterious consequences for conventional political interaction.

Sources:
Arendt, H. (1958). The Human Condition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Baudrillard, J. (1988). Simulacra and Simulations. In Mark Poster (ed), Selected Writings,
pp.164-184. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Erin said...

I would like to look at the use of social networking sites as a campaign tool by candidates in the 2008 presidential election for my final paper. I'm not exactly sure which theory I will be using, but right now I am leaning towards Affiliation, (the idea that more people, specifically a younger, hard-to-reach demographic, are becoming involved in the campaign/voting because these sites make them feel more a part of the democratic process).

My main questions are directed at the people in charge of the candidate's sites, and the people who visit them.

Campaigns:
- Why do you have a presence on this site and what do you hope to achieve (advertising, support, etc.)?
- How important do you consider these social networking site profiles to be in your campaign?
- What sort of reaction have you had from constituents?

Profile Visitors or "Friends":
- Why do you visit this site (information, support, curiosity, etc.)?
- Are you registered to vote?
- Will you vote in the upcoming primaries, election or both?
- How many candidate "friends" do you have?

My paper will be outlined as follows:
- Introduction
- Background of Internet use in previous campaigns/explain current use
- Present questions/introduce theory
- Methodology
- Results
- Conclusions
- Notes (References)

Relevant articles are:

Kann, Mark E., Jeff Berry, Connor Grant and Phil Zager. (2007). The Internet and youth political participation. First Monday, 12(8).

Shannon, Meg McGinty. (2007). Shaking Hands, Kissing Babies, and... Blogging?: The Internet and technology seek to influence politics as usual. Communications of the ACM, 50(9).

Xiaomin Qian said...

The topic for my final paper is "Agenda setting and internet: the impact of online bulletin boards on tradition media, a case study of Miss Lotus phenomenon". (Miss Lotus was an ordinary person before she became famous. At the beginning, a student of Tsinghua University put her pictures on the campus BBS. After many other BBS reproducting her pictures, she became a hot topic on line. Then, traditional media interviewed her, commercial activities invited her. Now, she has a blog, an online store and even planning to record a CD. She is well known in China now. Many people try to mimic her. There were Miss Beauty, Bus Lady, Red hierarch and etc. However, they were all not succeed as Miss Lotus.)

My main research questions are:
1)What contributes are made by internet to the phenomenon of Miss Lotus?
2)why did she succeed? Why not others?

I will use agenda setting theory to guide my research.

Here are outlines for each section:
~Abstract

~Introduction
1)Internet is widely used in China nowadays. It caused some unique phenomena that never happened before.
2)Literature review of internet agenda setting.
3)Describe Miss Lotus phenomenon. Compare influence of internet and tradition media in this case.

~Findings
1)Internet played what kind of role in this case.
2)Other unique characteristics she has to make her succeed.

~Conclusion

~References

So far, I found some related articles.
Media in China:consumption, content and crisis/ edited by Stephanie Hemelryk Donald, Micheal Keane and Yin Hong

Richard Burkholder,Internet Use: Behind "The Great firewall of China, Gallup poll of China, February 1, 2005 http://www.gallup.com/poll/14776/Internet-Use-Behind-The-Great-Firewall-China.aspx

Routledge Curzon, Who Is Setting the Chinese Agenda? The Impact of Online Chatrooms on Party Presses in China. Asia.com:Asia encounters the Internet pp.143-158 (2003)

Xiaomin Qian said...

Titun, I am more interested in technologies and privacy issue. I think it's easier to find literature review for this topic.

Andrea said...

For my final paper, I'll continue to investigate the use of new media by the pro-ED online subculture. My thesis is focused quite a bit so far on personal interviews and discussion of media and body image.

For this paper, I'd like add to what I've done so far with some analysis of the content seen in a handful of my blogging participants. I'll continue to use the theory of the spiral of silence.

Some key questions I'd like to answer are:

RQ1: To what extent do pro-ED individuals feel silenced by the taboo of being too thin in American culture? Is this what prompted their creation of a blog? Does their blog reflect this theory?

RQ2: To what extent do pro-ED individuals see their blogging as helpful and/or hurtful? What is their level of awareness of the negative effects of eating disorders in comparison to their continued habits of disordered eating?

Outline for research:

-Introduction
-Lit. Review
-Methodology (content analysis)
-Findings (4 blogs)
-Conclusion

Nardi, B. A., Schiano, D. J., & Gumbrecht, M. (2004). Blogging as social activity, or, would you let 900 million people read your diary? Paper presented at the Association for Computing Machinery Conference, Chicago, IL.

Stern, S. R. (1999). Adolescent girls’ expression on Web home pages: Spirited, somber and self-conscious sites. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 5(4), 22-41.

Andrea said...

Titun, I think research on technology and fashion could be awesome. I have never read anything combining those two ideas, it's so innovative. You have such an expertise in the fashion area with your academic exposure in the design school that I think the paper should really incorporate your two passions.

You know so much about being a technological innovator yourself, that writing from that viewpoint and applying it to your other passion of style and fashion would be really interesting and well written. I say do it! You might just be the first to write academically on this topic, and I say the wider the breadth of communication technology research the better!

Mel said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Mel said...

Tammy - I would be very interested to see how your paper turns out. I'm also very interested in diffusion theory.

Scott Schrage -- Program Assistant said...

I'm actually a little unsure as to the final direction of my paper, but I am strongly considering turning my class presentation on technological and media convergence into the final paper. If I choose to pursue this route, I will likely focus on the following lines of thought:

* What sorts of effects is the continuing convergence of media (and associated technologies) having on the way we ingest and interpret it?

* How does the current media diet compare to that of the pre-convergence era?

* Which areas of the media are ripe for further integration of multiple technologies in the future?

My paper will likely be organized as follows:

I. Introduction
II. Literature Review
III. Examination of the pre-convergence era
IV. Analysis of technological innovations that led to convergence
V. Methodology
VI. Results
VII. Discussion
VIII. Conclusion

There are several theories that might well guide my paper, particularly Technological Determinism vs. Cultural Materialism.

I've been searching for a few articles with which to work, but haven't found anything solid yet. I should have something tangible in the next few days.

Mel said...

For my final paper, I will be elaborating on my presentation topic Virtual Responsibility in Online Communities: Exploring Accountability in Virtual Worlds.

Logically it seems best to use technological determinism vs. cultural materialism for my theory.

I haven't quite pinpointed my research questions yet, but that's a matter of whittling all the information down into a few focused questions.

Article 1:
MacKinnon, Richard (1997), Virtual Rape, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, Network and Netplay Volume 2, Issue 4

Powers, Thomas M., (2003), Real Wrongs in Virtual Communities, Ethics and Information Technology, pp 191-198

Mel said...

My sections will include:

Introduction
Background
Lit Review
Methodology
Findings
conclusion

Eva said...

For my final paper, I would like to concentrate on cyberculture, and narrow down in the aspect of self. It is a lot of related to human-computer reaction, but more focus on understanding of self and others. I consider the Internet as a magnifier which reflect and enlarge the human nature and then our society. And the root of all the effects, which growing and exuberating out of our expectations because of the widespread and swift speed of Internet, is the nature of human being. Gregory J.E. Rawlins named his book “Slaves of the machine: the quickening of computer technology”. I pretty much don’t like the word “slaves”, but part of it is true. I myself and lots of friends are exactly the examples. However, I don’t want to be controlled over by it, I wanna strike back, I wanna control my time.

But the boundaries of cyberculture are difficult to define, the term is used flexibly, I should try to find out the closer and complete meaning of it at first. Or I will consider communication and cyberculture. Is there cybercommunication? Also I want to understand some new definitions which related to it, as civilization, digitalism and infosphere.

Moreover, since we realize some problems of cyberspace, such as information overwhelming or information explosion, wallowing in the webgame etc, how can we help ourselves out? I hope I could find one way which works to me at least. Maybe this part is related to self-manage in cyberspace and individual communication to cyberspace.

In the third part, I think about mainly in the cultural things and the future of cyberculture. Things will change and change dramatically because of the strong power of Internet. Though the development of technology may be unexpectable, culture is different. What will happen under the circumstance national and international?

Now I got aspiration from the books:
“The emerging cyberculture: literacy, paradign, and paradox”, edited by Stephanie B. Gibson, Ollie O. Oviedo; “Living with cyberspace: technology & society in the 21st century” edited by John Armitage and Joanne Roberts; “Information technology : impact on the way of life : a selection of papers from the EEC Conference on the Information Society held in Dublin, Ireland, 18-20 November 1981” Liam Bannon, Ursula Barry and Olav Holst, editors ; organized by National Board for Science and Technology, Ireland and Commission of the European Communities, FAST Programme. I found there are some interesting chapters, but I haven’t read through them.

Daniela Dimitrova said...

Please note:
Thursday's class will meet at 2 p.m. in front of the C-4, which is located in Black Engineering Building.
It should be a nice demo!

titun said...

In this information age, advances in technology have allowed commercial
transactions to be conducted with greater ease and efficiency. In particular, online transactions, which require an exchange of personal data among consumers, businesses, and financial institutions. Allowing strangers to acquire personal identifying information easily and readily. Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in society today.
For my final paper, I like to elaborate on my presentation topic in depth:
This is a tentative outline of what my paper will have:
-Introduction
- Theories & Literature review
- Methodology
- Findings and Discussion
- Conclusion
- References
There are several research papers and journals I have been going through, but haven’t found anything significant yet. I still have some more readings to do, and should come up with my fav’s in a few days