This blog calls you to think critically about some gaps you have
noticed in the literature you have read thus far. If you think back to
the student work we have read thus far, a major part of an inquiry based
research project involves locating gaps in the conversation. For
example, in the piece we read about Facebook disclosure, the author
noticed a gap in the literature in recognizing there weren't any
considerations for the Myers Brigs Type Indicator in research involving
social behavior. The researcher noticed that the Five Factor Model was
used exclusively, and she set out to occupy this gap by conducting her
own study to see how the MBTI might add something interesting to help
further understand Facebook disclosure.
At this point, you should be pretty well entrenched in your work, and it
is now time to think critically about what might be missing from the
conversation.
Your task for this blog is to deliver a very concise rendition of the
research conversation, and then indicate some gaps in the current
conversation. I'm sure there is a different angle you can look into that
has yet to be explored. Think of this blog posting as a prequel to your
literature review.
While reviewing my research about women in comic books, how they are being objectified and the impact that they have on the comic book culture, I have noticed a lack of research done on the externalization of males in comic books. While the differences of how men and women are portrayed in comic books is clear, there’s not much said on how the males are actually being portrayed. Some sources are briefly mentioning men but are not actually doing an extensive study them. Carolyn Cocca writes “The males are generally drawn facing front with a focus on their musculature” (411); however not once in her research, about female poses in comic books, does she look into how men are drawn. I think this should at least be considered a little more when thinking of a topic such as mine. As a fellow comic book reader I have seen some portrayals of men that could be considered controversial, characters such as Peter Parker (Spider-man) and Dick Grayson (the first Robin) are known to be drawn in poses that could be considered sexual or even submissive. In Nightwing #123 Fire Down Below, Nightwing (also Dick Grayson) is shown in a pose that that is common for women in comic books, a pose that defies physical possibility in order to show both of the favorable front and back aspects of the body. Even though males in comic books can also be shown is sexually objectifying poses, none of the works I am reading indicate this. It is not fair to say how controversial female characters are being drawn unless we look at both sides of the gender spectrum.
ReplyDeleteCocca, Carolyn1. "The ‘Broke Back Test’: A Quantitative And Qualitative Analysis Of Portrayals Of Women In Mainstream Superhero Comics, 1993–2013." Journal Of Graphic Novels & Comics 5.4 (2014): 411-428. Art Source. Web. 7 Feb. 2016.
Jones, Bruce. "Nightwing." Vol. 123. N.p.: DC, 2006. Print.
My research question is as follows: How does media produced by The Walt Disney Company, marketed towards children, influence a child’s idea of what their gender role is in society, and to what extent do children feel the need to meet these expectations, stereotypes, and roles? In the process of my research, I have come across an abundance of articles which have analyzed a variety of Disney Princess films in regard to their characterization of both male and female characters. These analyses are then used to condemn Disney for the multitude of gender stereotyping found within each of the films. With that being said, a lot of the readings that I have come across thus far have only focused on the behaviors and characteristics of the characters in the Disney Princess franchise and exclude other Disney movies. When I get further into writing my paper, I hope to be able to conduct my own analysis on a wider variety of Disney media. Another gap in the research I am conducting has been in regards to presenting the relationship between these films and their effects on children. Many of the articles I have discovered say something along the lines of “[this] study was not designed to explore the effect of viewing gendered stereotypes or egalitarian depictions on children.” (p.557) I’m hoping to close this gap by analyzing text primarily about the effects of gender stereotyping found within television programming on children, and then drawing connections between that information and the gender portrayals in Disney media.
ReplyDeleteEngland, Dawn Elizabeth, Lara Descartes, and Melissa A. Collier-Meek. "Gender Role Portrayal and the Disney Princesses." Sex Roles 64.7-8 (2011): 555-67. Web. 1 Feb. 2016
I started out with the question, “Does nature or nurture play a larger role in the development of intelligence?” After proposing this, I was made aware of the fact that this topic was far too broad for the timeframe of this project. I was essentially attempting to resolve a debate that professionals have been working on for centuries. So obviously I needed to make my question more specific, into something that I could actually provide an answer for. However, I had no clue how to accomplish that task. So I simply began to jump into the research, hoping, without much confidence, that a question I could use would present itself. At that time, I was not aware that what I was doing is referred to as “locating a gap.” I read a decent number of articles without much luck. I did eventually notice that these articles typically fit in one of two groups. The articles were either case studies that were attempting to prove nature over nurture or vice versa, controlled studies to try and prove one or the other, or analyses of the historical progression of the concept, usually containing an attempt at resolution towards the end. Reading all of these articles definitely managed to peak my interest in the subject, and also made me realize just how difficult my original question would have been to answer. I still did not have a solid, inquiry-based research question to answer. I decided to get another view of the subject by turning to popular sources. I had used a few popular sources when I was gathering general information to use in my proposal, so I decided to start there. I stumbled upon an article about nature vs. nurture that was titled, What Scientific Idea is Ready for Retirement? The author of the article was claiming that because nature vs. nurture was such a complex issue that doesn’t have a straightforward answer, psychologists and scientists should simply stop conducting research about it. I remember as I read this piece, I was thinking to myself, “No! Maybe no one has been able to answer the question, but the research is very useful and practical. I have already learned so much by researching it for myself, I think more people need to be exposed to this concept.” That was when I found my gap. I can use studies conducted by others paired with my own study to prove that the concept of nature and nurture holds many lessons to be learned as well as multiple modern-day implementations to be made. This gap ties together all of the articles I have been reading, and can very much be answered with a large body of evidence to support it.
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ReplyDeleteWhile researching about concussions, its effects on football players, and the management and education of concussions themselves, many of the articles have seemed to spit out the same information. Large portions of the articles and journals I have been reading have been a bout CTE, and what physicians and doctors need to do to treat and help prevent concussions. I have noticed that many of the articles put the focus on clinicians, physicians, or team doctors rather than the players themselves. Not much research, at least from what I have read, has been done on the actual concussed players themselves. Shouldn’t the players get more of a say? After all, it is their brains these researchers are so intrigued about. I think it would be not only beneficial, but also respectful to talk to former players about their personal experiences playing football and dealing with concussions. Maybe ask players what was going through their heads during action when the received a potential concussion. Did they want to be taken care of or go back in the game? Did the coaches and training staff handle their situation properly? I think getting quantitative data on football players and their experiences would ad a different element to the research. As a former concussed football player myself, I believe researchers could gather very useful information from the people actually affected themselves. I figured that I could potentially use this for quantitative data for my own research. I could survey and interview previous players and gather tangible data from people have experienced concussions.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first began researching my topic of motivation, it started out too broad and generic. As I made the topic of discussion more concise and specific, I noticed that while researching something was missing from what I've been reading. While many of the scholars point out that motivation is within everyone and how it affects us in our daily lives, they don't point out how relative the subject is. Everyone has motivation, yes, but everyone's motivation is to a different degree. My motivation to do something can be and is usually quite different than someone else. Motivation is defined in its simplest of terms as the desire to do something, and while many of us have those desires to do things, they are all to various extant. For success, it is also viewed relatively as well depending on the individuals idea of what success is. I could create an interview of sorts and question people on what their definition of success is and what level of motivation do they use to achieve such success.
ReplyDeleteResearching my topic about the inequality of women in policing was fairly simple, seeing as there is an abundance of academic and popular articles on this specific subject matter. However, during my research, I noticed a reoccurring gap with in this discourse community. While this subject is particularly about women, men play a huge role too because, it is their male counterparts that women are being compared to. However, very rarely did researchers tap into, and understand the other side of their arguments. In regards to the researchers who conducted face-to-face interviews, there was a great unequal representation of men and women in their research and, for those who did research based on analyzing text, they to fail to mention the role men play and why the treatment of men and women may be different. Again, this topic focuses on women, and how they are treated unfairly but, if its men who are segregating themselves from women, it would be beneficial for the researchers (and their research) to understand the contributing factors to the problem they want to solve (why women are treated significantly different). This gap in the argument has persuaded me to ask, instead of how are women being treated in policing, what is it that is contributing to the continuing inequality today?
ReplyDeleteWhile researching my topic on animal testing and the idea of whether the ethics involved are improving or not, I have gained a lot of knowledge about the subject. I have read other texts centered around the subject and from different viewpoints. When I first began researching the topic, I had focused in on cosmetic companies alone that test on animal subjects. As I did more and more research, I can now see that not only is animal testing an issue in the cosmetic industry, but also in a number of other fields as well. I feel it would be slightly ignorant for me to only consider that this practice only takes place in the process of creating cosmetics. I have also absorbed new strategies that are being introduced as alternatives, which is mainly what I needed in order to be successful in this project. Overall, there has been such a tug-of-war between the science behind animal testing and the idea of animal rights. After reviewing and analyzing a number of scholarly articles and journals, I’ve developed a gap in all of the research. That is, do moral values and ethics outweigh the scientific satisfactory that comes along with testing on animal subjects and producing safe products for consumers?
ReplyDeleteWhile researching the evolution of attachment in romantic relationships and the development through the grow in technology, a lot of questions I asked myself seemed to be answered with research. But there were a few gaps in research on the alternative ways to view my question. I looked for research involving detachment, and what characteristics relate to the processing of growing apart from love and the intensity of attachment dulling, and not many had researched the angle in ways to prevent it. In fact, at this point I have only found one article with solid reliability on approaches from attachment and detachment. When I began to gain a solid grasp on the understanding of romantic attachment and started looking deeper into the affects technological advancements have had on our attachment, it was obvious the gap from understanding how frequently we keep in contact in so many different ways. It was shown that in previous generations phone calls from home at the end of the day were strongest forms of communication, but they development of technology has developed into the ability to almost “Keep tabs” on others, and I am hoping to find how that has affected the attachment stability in romantic love, but as of right now, there seems to be a gap on the understanding of whether the availability of knowing where someone is at all times can be viewed as unstable, or how it can be used.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading some articles about music and why people listen to music, I thought about what do individuals look for in listening to music. How does someone chooses what genre do they like to listen to? After reading articles that talk about how personality and how it relates to the music preferences that individuals have. Most of the articles uses the five factor model that puts different genres of music into groups that later helps identify what category an individual falls into based off their preference. There is an article that talks about people’s music preferences can change as the age. After conducting the study the researchers concluded that the music preference would change and be different from adolescents and adults due to the lack of peer pressure that adults would face. It is easier for teens to fall into pressure to listen to other music just to fit in with friends where adults wont have a hard time of falling to peer pressure of listening to music they are not interested in hearing. Then I began thinking about if the gender of individuals can affect what type of music they would mostly likely be listening? I want to focus my research on does the music preferences and personality changes our moods and does gender have an effect on it?
ReplyDeleteMy research is based on the question, " To what extent does the Deaf community face challenges regarding jobs and social standing, throughout communities?" Based on the factor of what challenges people from the Deaf community face when it comes to being accepted in the hearing community. Throughout my research I came across many articles that go over and analyze the topic of where Deaf people stand in regards to jobs and socially. One of the article's that I read explains that there are two perspectives of the hearing and Deaf worlds, personal-centered and language-centered feelings. For the research I found it interesting to see the two perspectives explained, the stigma that is placed against Deaf people and what this does in a work environment. How the interaction between both and how they associate within all settings, in the workplace the hearing colleagues found it to be relentless to consistently include those who were Deaf. But the gap that I located after reviewing the research was that exact thing, how are people from the Deaf community being included in everyday life in the hearing world. That's the gap that I found within the research, there is not much that says how hearing people are including them. And in what way are they being involved in what is happening in settings like that of the workplace.
ReplyDeleteMy research question is “What factors have caused the popularity of baseball to decrease. In the article “The Hit Man from Washington”: Place, Marketable Deviance, and Major League Baseball, Jennifer Domino Rudolph makes a lot of good points. She points out steroid scandals, high player salaries, and high ticket prices as reasons why the popularity of baseball has decreased. In another article, called An Examination of the Effects of the Recent Economic Crisis on Major League Baseball Attendance Demand, the authors state, “Widespread unemployment and reduced incomes mean tighter budget constraints causing consumers to alter their spending patterns.” While these are all very good reasons for the decline in the popularity of professional baseball, none of them explain the decline of the game overall. There has not only been a decrease in popularity at the professional level, but also at other levels as well. According to the Sports Business Research Network, the overall participation of people in baseball dropped from 16.3 million in 1999 to 11.5 million in 2009. While I’m sure the popularity of Major League Baseball has an effect on the overall popularity of the game, I think there are other reasons why people are choosing other sports over baseball.
ReplyDeleteWhile doing my research about performance enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball I found that a lot of the articles were very similar. Most of the articles would talk about how PED’s increased popularity in Major League Baseball because of the increased offensive production that steroids caused. While diving deeper into my research I found a very interesting article that talked about why Major League Baseball should not have implemented the steroid policy. The article talks about how having a steroid policy decreased revenue because of the decreased offensive production. I think that there are some gaps in this article because there could have been other factors that caused revenue to decrease. Another gap I found in my research is that many sources were saying that baseball lost its popularity due to the steroid policy. There could be many other factors than just that, for example people could have started to watch more of other sports such as football. Maybe fans have just lost interest in America’s pastime. I have also found that a lot of the articles just talk about how performance enhancing drugs have affected the game of baseball not necessarily the fans. I know that the fans have been affected dramatically by PED’s because now you never know if a player is actually “legit” or not.
ReplyDeleteMy research paper will revolve around the meaning of a “First-Generation Student”, which for many may seem as a “non complicated” group of words but is it really as easy to comprehend as many make it seem to be. A research done by Tanjula Petty from the Alabama State University states “ many first-generation students also bear the unfortunate title of low-income due to the fact that their parents are not college graduates and their earning potential is minimal” (Petty 134). Now, for many this may seem true, but a recent discussion with my ENC 1102 professor opened a completely new door to the actual meaning of a first generation student. Being able to relate to each other, both my professor and I are the first to attend college, but we both grew up with comfortable and stable environment, and not low and crippled as many of the articles I’ve read descript it as. Although every has their own opinions, and point of views, a clear definition of the word “first-generation” may create bias responses through out my essay. Through more analysis, and collection of data, I will find the"average" definition of a first-generation student and will set the definite meaning for my essay.
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ReplyDeleteWhile researching my topic "how does framing a questions changes the response of an individual", i have noticed that in most of my sources the author is extending the focus of eye testimony and other factors that has an effect on the response rather than just focusing on the language itself. One of my sources focuses on how bilingualism has an effect on eye witness testimony and other researchers tied culture and stereotypes to it. My original focus was to also include how advertisement might tie a string to my research question as well and so far, none of my scholarly source have mentioned the influence of changing/ framing a word might changes a customers/viewers perception for good or bad cause. That has been the gaps between most of my sources but other than that all of my sources tie to similar studies and one focus.
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