Ray- Dee- O-ACTive

As I started to think about radio as a form of qualitative research, I saw several similarities to that of blogs. Radio has had a long history of being a public speaking ground for the community to participate in, just like blogs are today. They are also both very accessible for the public listen in. This chapter started to make me wonder what we can consider qualitative in radio. Most radio today is not controlled by the people as mush as by the sponsors. It is not community controlled or community influenced, it commercialized and factory made. Internet radio stations have become a little different then the traditional FM radio that I grew up with. The big problem I see with radio in qualitative research today, is that there are too many restrictions to allow the medium to truly function as a method of qualitative research. Restrictions don't allow for the spontaneous, sometimes crude truths to be documented, instead they may be edited. I guess it is still look at as radio is too powerful of a weapon for change that it cannot allow the community complete access. Talk radio does allow some methods of change through talk radio but even these channels are sponsor and/or politically controlled and edited. I can see how art could be used as a form of artistic expression, but I am afraid it is too much of a form of propaganda or government controlled art.... EEEKKK! That is scary to think about.

ZAHHHEEEENNNN!

I thought about my final project during this chapter about zines. I thought it would be neat to have various students create a zine about the clique that they belong to at school. Use the process of making zines to help me, the researcher, gather more information, about these various cliques. The only problem is getting them to do it. Some cliques would be difficult to get to participate. But if they did... oooh wee... the information they provide could be shared with other students to maybe help them see and understand their interests.

I got a blogger and I need to get ot out!.

"Human subjects research overseeing committees are only now beginning to come to grips with the thorny issue of whether blogs should be considered public "published" documents- and so exempt from ethical review-or "private spaces," and therefore subject to various protections(Bell, 2005)

I found this statement in Chapter 26 to stick out to me the most throughout the reading. I thought if we use the blog site as a method of collecting data, as well as presenting it, it could potentially pose problems for both the researcher and the participant. Thinking back to our visit with the IRB, I can see a huge need to make sure the participants are not identified. This could be very difficult if the participant needs to provide an email address in order to sign onto the blog. That email address needs to be kept very personal in case anyone was to try to follow or harass the participant due to what information they may have provided in the blog.

On a more positive note, I love the use of blogs as a meeting place for followers to share their thoughts, ideas, and stories about certain subjects. Take for example my other blog, "Memorial to Ellen', which was a blog I set up so people that knew my mother could share personal memories about her when she was alive. These stories can then be shared with other family and friends, as most importantly my nieces and nephews that were either to young or were not born to know anything about her. I found as I would read other peoples entries, that I was learning more about my mom then I have ever thought I would. My favorites were the stories my aunts or my moms sister would share. Some stories were funny, some sad, and some just made you really miss her. I found the blogging was a awesome method for all of those people that knew my mom to come together and share.

Video as Research

Video Data...
Recording the events that occurred in a particular place and time.
Place is represented by the background. How does the background interact with the subject matter?
Time... Motion... Video deals with motion or movement of the subject matter with it's environment as well as the environment with its subject matter.
Video documents the truth behind what can tend to be overlooked, but it is important as the researcher we are careful in the editing process.

Today I watched one of Janice Rahn's video documentaries called, B-Girls: Women in Hip Hop. Her documentary captures the influence women have on hip hop culture by looking at various different mediums such as breaking (dance),scratching (music), and graffiti(visual arts). In the concept of video as a medium for qualitative research, I can see how video can help one not misinterpret information. That most of the raw material of the event is present in a video. "Nuances of place, facial expressions, voice, and other characteristics of the interesting people who drove this research" are all included. Video holds good creditability for qualitative research as long as the editing process doesn't remove too much of the truth behind the research. Although the researcher should be conscious of their interpretation of the research and how they want that research to be presented. I also learned that video helps the audience deal with their own misinterpretations, by presenting a more truthful portrait of the people being documented.