BCM 212: Research Reflection

As this was my first time doing research, I was unaware of what this experience would entail. I have learned that the process of research is incredibly time-consuming. A lot of preparation has to be done before research can be completed. You have to learn about previous research studies conducted similarly to what your aims are as well as the ethical standards for the type of research one is conducting.

To conduct a research survey, a large amount of preparation needs to be taken to create questions that are short enough for people to respond, but with enough content so that participants understand what is being asked. Participants are less likely to respond to a survey if it will take them more than five minutes, making the researcher needing to get the most out of the few questions they have to ask.

If I was to conduct another research survey I would put more time into my survey and research the background for questions to ensure that my questions are being fully utilized.

I only posed seven questions in my survey, with only two written responses, which I felt did not give me enough information to fully understand student issues with on-campus accommodations. I did this because I was scared that if I had to many write-in answers people would not take my survey. If I were to do it again, I would add one or two more open answer questions.

I would also add a focus group to my research. I left it out this time because I wanted the research to be completely anonymous, however, I feel that a focus group would have allowed me to better understand the responses I was receiving from my survey and broaden my research results.

Overall, I enjoyed my first experience with research and have learned quite a bit about how to improve my next research study.

CrossFit StarterPack

Starter packs are the ultimate way for outsiders to frame a subculture looking from the outside in, they pull from the most well-known stereotypes.

 

CrossFit is a subculture that gets stereotyped and framed in the media fairly often. When people within the CrossFit subculture now that this is what really happens in the CrossFit world:

Open Source Media

 

With the development of transmedia, media itself has opened itself up to the audience to become the storytellers. There is no longer a single person delivery the world news, everyone can tell anyone what the news it, and make up their own version of the news.

This has followed in the physicality of making hardware; such as 3D printing.

Anyone in the world who has access to a 3D printer can now print art:

 

Print prosthetics:

And print a gun:

 

 

With hardware platforms becoming so accessible to all people it allows for a wider range of ideologies to become represented.

Transmedia: Connecting to all people, everywhere

Transmedia is the new age of communication; it’s when one story is played out across multiple platforms and engages the audience in all ways. Almost all things that take place in today’s media is through transmedia. The royal wedding:

 

The royal wedding was streamed on youtube, live on @KensigntonPalace Instagram story, being live-tweeted by a large amount of the world, and being discussed on most social media platforms.

The purpose of using transmedia is to make us all more connected to each other. But does this connection actually succeeded in making people closer, or does it draw people out of the experience in order to participate in the transmedia world?

Some people think that it is a powerful use in storytelling:

http://athinklab.com/transmedia-storytelling/we-live-in-a-transmedia-world/

 

But I believe that overusing transmedia in everyday life, and big moments can take away from the experience.

 

 

Adaptions and Appropriations: Copyright

Copyright protects peoples ideas and thoughts and creations from being stolen from them and used without their permission. But it can also prevent creators from being inspired by someone’s ideas and using them to create something new. Most things that are created are inspired by something and will be a reflection of the thing it was inspired from. Shakespeare and Juliet was an adaptation of a poem by Arthur Brooke called The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Iuliet, written in 1562. There have been countless adaptations of Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet as well, from movies to books.

Though copyright is important in some respects, in a lot of others it hinders creativity and the ability to continue the evolution of a concept.

 

Meme Warefare

Meme warfare has become an important part of international policy; especially with who is currently residing in the white house

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/xyvwdk/meme-warfare

 

Memes are simply a way to frame an idea to a young generation without them realizing that they are being fed propaganda. Something that terrorist groups take advantage of, and have been doing a good job of implementing. Meanwhile, international governments, especially the united states, have been falling behind on the meme creation. It is important for federal agencies to begin to focus on this type of warfare as it is the most direct link to people.

Journalism is Today’s Twitter

Journalism used to be a one-to-many form of communication with the news anchor, newspaper writer, or radio speaker held all the power.

Today, journalism is anyone with access to the internet saying whatever they think is happening in the world; and if someone believes them, than it’s news.

 

 

News and journalism no longer exist on an elevated plane, with single organizations and people delivering the way that entire bodies of people perceive a single topic. News has now become regulated by the entire public, allowing people to speak out when journalistic evidence is being contrived or misused. But this also means more people have platforms to say whatever they want and call it news, generating more clutter within journalism.

http://scalar.usc.edu/works/cultures-of-social-media/journalism

 

Fake News

The internet has given every person with a computer, tablet, smartphone, or any other smart device, the ability to be a journalist. Any person can put information on the internet claiming it to be real. And any person can read that information, believe it, and have it alter the way they perceive the world. Media is no longer filtered through newsrooms and handed out to the public by a select number of journalists and producers from news corporations.

 

News can be thought of by anyone, created by anyone, produced by anyone, and put into the public sphere by anyone; lending itself to the creation of fake news.

This has altered the flow of information in all aspects of our society and can cause all people to believe ideas that go against the facts. But it also always anyone to dispute anything in the media as fake news. The existence of fake news itself casts an automatic shred of doubt across all media, all news outlets, and the whole internet.

What is Craft?

Back in the day, craft was creating a tangible object — like a wooden chair — with human hands. If you wanted to sell that chair you could only do so to someone standing directly in front of you.

                                           

Today, in the post-industrial age, craft can pertain to almost anything on the internet and doesn’t always have to include a finished product. People can add or take away from something that is in the process of being ‘crafted’, and they can do so being thousands of miles away from the original crafter. With the digital age blurring the lines and turning craft into a new process, it opens the door for more people to become craftsman.

 

BCM 212: Topic Proposal

The Impact Living In University Accommodation Has On Student Wellbeing

All students who live in university accommodation are moving away from home, most of them for the first time. Their new home environment and the resources, or lack of resources, it has for its residents will directly affect the students’ wellbeing residing in the accommodation.

Among domestic students moving away from home are international students, moving to a new country for university. Both international students (Australian Government of Higher Education) and first-generation domestic students struggle with the lack of family involvement in the transition from home life to university life.

In Australia university life, the amount of students residing in university accommodation has risen (Coates). Meaning more students wellbeing are becoming increasingly linked with universities and both their academic services as well as their residential services. These services can be the key for students to transition from their home life to university life; as well as maintaining positive student receive wellbeing throughout their time living in campus accommodations.

           ‘”High levels of student attrition may be viewed as a waste of institutional resources, particularly in a climate of limited financial, and other, resources in many institutions. Unhappy initial experiences for students and high levels of attrition can damage the reputations of individual institutions. (Brooke, Fergie)”

The maintenance of residential student wellbeing not only benefits the students themselves but elevates the universities status within the community as well. However, this does not mean all universities are ensuring that student residents are being provided with productive, up to date, wellbeing services. Or that student residences are taking advantage of them.

It is important to ensure that students living in university accommodation, and paying for services from the university, are receiving the necessary aid to cultivate a positive university experience–with the rise of mental illness (Brooke, Fergie) it has become increasingly necessary for universities to ensure that their residential students are being nurtured.

---

 

Researching the effects of student wellbeing within the University of Wollongong (UOW) accommodation community will show what services UOW provides its residents if such services are being taken advantage of, and if so; how are UOW services affecting student residents’ wellbeing.

Focusing on residential students separates the student body and focuses solely on university services available through accommodation services. This eliminates research on services available through other parts of university and services available to students residing off-campus–narrowing the population of the research and facilitating the time frame of the study: 8 weeks.

The population being studied will be focused across all seven of UOW on-campus accommodation residences. With each residence being quoted to have 24/7 wellbeing care. The aim of this research will be to understand what the wellbeing care consists of, if it differs between accommodations, and how students from each UOW accommodation responds to and engages with the wellbeing care offered.

At the conclusion of the study it should be known what the well-being status is of UOW students living on campus; and the correlation between their wellbeing status with the services provided to them through on-campus accommodations.

---

Australian Government Department of Education and Training 2015, International Student Survey 2014: Overview Report

Brook, H & Fergie, D (eds) 2014, Universities in Transition: Foregrounding Social Contexts of Knowledge in the First Year Experience, Univeristiy of Adelaide, South Australia, AU.

Coates, Hamish & Edwards, Daniel, 2009, ‘Engaging College Communities: The impact of residential colleges in Australian higher education’, Australian Council for Educational Research, vol 4, pp 1-15.