What are you working on? What are you going to work on?

[av2010]

All this talk of applications, deadlines, waiting, and decisions I think can be exhausting.  Since we are communication people and are passionate about what we do and research, why not share it with each other, and potentially have some meaningful conversations!  So take a minute away from the panic and anxiety and share either what you are currently working on in your research, or what you are excited to work on in your future program.  I'll start:

Currently, I am working on two studies-both in somewhat of the same area. 
The first is an extension of some research I did earlier this year regarding sexting in adult romantic relationships.  I was unhappy with the way that sexting literature primarily focused on adolescents and the dangers associated with it, and questioned if in an adult relationship it could be beneficial.  I did some quantitative research measuring frequency and expectancy against relationship and sexual satisfaction, however, I did not find any significant results.  I postulate that there may be an additional mediating variable that lies in the motivators for sexting that could explain this result, or serve as an additional variable impacting this relationship.  So, I'm going to be conducting some qualitative in-depth interviews to try and narrow down what those additional considerations might be.  I postulated a couple of explanation, but definitely open to hearing ideas to pose for questions for the interviews.

The second study I am working on involves looking at the messages college students receive on online dating sites and direct messaging on social media sites, and comparing the level of sexual content received in these messages to what we would expect in a F2F interaction, as well as individual's responses/attitudes towards receiving these messages.  Again, always open to feedback and ideas!

I am only teaching 3 courses this semester and so the way that my schedule falls I have quite a bit of free days that are not occupied by teaching.  I expect to have some free time to really look into these two areas and get some research generated, hopefully to submit to NCA or another conference.

 

[heyDW]

Great idea! Your research sounds very interesting, especially the F2F messages. I bet there will be some interesting results.

I'm currently writing a book chapter with a couple faculty members at the university where I adjunct. We're doing a visual analysis of the new Black Panther comics written by Ta Nehisi Coates and illustrated by Brian Stelfreeze. 

I'm hoping to do disability rhetoric wherever I end up, especially regarding ableism (esp the erasure of cognitive and developmental disabilities) in the neurodiversity movement, social justice movements, and political rhetoric-- how capitalism is inherently ableist and maligns people who can't/won't be productive in terms of $$$$. 

PUMPED

[GreenEyedTrombonist]

This is awesome! 

I've participated in a few studies over the past 1.5 years (I'm in a terminal M.A. right now-last semester starts tomorrow), but highlights are:

I was a student researcher in a community leadership study where we learned about differences in different types of leaders (including if there are any) and what different leaders could learn from each other to be more effective in their communities. We're currently planning 2-3 articles based on this research and, other than edits, 2 of the articles are ready to go.  

I was also a student researcher on an autonomous vehicle and parking project in partnership with Nissan Research Center of Silicon Valley. Our teams analyzed how people use parking in 4 different ways (I was part of the historical team) and how the landscape of parking is likely to change when 10% of all vehicles are autonomous. We produced videos as part of this project and are planning to showcase them at a conference this spring. I'd also like to get an article out about this research, but it's not my priority.

The last big research project I've worked on is my own graduate project. For about a year I've been working with an online community and 2 entertainment companies to understand how online communities form, are maintained, and the business practices that can help or hinder them. The community I've been working with, in particular, is firmly entrenched in geek culture, but made philanthropy one of their central values (raised over $300k for charity in 2015, for example). I wanted to understand how they made philanthropy and altruism central values so that the information could be used by other organizations interested in the same. I'm working on my final report right now and have 2 presentations planned for a conference this spring, 2-3 other conferences where I'd like to present this research, and will be working on articles for publication over summer.  

[av2010]

Wow awesome stuff already being said to be happening!

[DBear]

@av2010 I'd love to give you feedback - such a pertinent and interesting topic - but I have NO love life lol

As for me, I'm not really working on anything scholarly at the moment, though I would like to polish up a portion of my MA thesis and a term paper I wrote last semester in the next couple of months. My MA thesis was on a play called "Twilight: Los Angeles 1992" which is a documentary-drama on the L.A. riots in 1992. l look at the playwright's attempt to write an alternative narrative to mainstream media portrayals of race relations in LA. I used a part of this as my writing sample and just re-read it and found a handful of typos ARGH

The paper I really want to work on is the term paper which is on performing girlhood in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I was a huge fan of the show way back when and there are so many different ways to analyze the series and its fandom (which @GreenEyedTrombonist may know about as well). I need a bit more research on the feminist critique end of it. 

For my phd, I'd like to look at how people use online platforms to create their own identities and communities when existing classifications of who people are can't really explain who you are. Mostly interested in diaspora/ race/ citizenship

 

[GreenEyedTrombonist]

Yes @DBear! I absolutely love Buffy the Vampire Slayer Have you read the Buffy book in the Pop Culture and Philosophy series?

[av2010]

@DBear @GreenEyedTrombonist I teach an introduction to communication course and every semester I actually start the semester by showing a clip from Buffy that is a reflection of loss of a communication medium and how people react, and then use it as a launch for a class discussion.  I'll actually be presenting the activity at the Eastern Communication Association conference in Boston in March.  LOVE Buffy!

[DBear]

5 minutes ago, av2010 said:

@DBear @GreenEyedTrombonist I teach an introduction to communication course and every semester I actually start the semester by showing a clip from Buffy that is a reflection of loss of a communication medium and how people react, and then use it as a launch for a class discussion.  I'll actually be presenting the activity at the Eastern Communication Association conference in Boston in March.  LOVE Buffy!

Is that the episode where the creepy dudes in suits steal everyone's voices?  We should start a Buffy thread! I'm not sure which book you're referring to, @GreenEyedTrombonist so most likely the answer is no I'll need to change that. I was so surprised at how many scholarly papers from diverse fields have been written about Buffy. I even came across one that discussed the fan+scholar combination. 

@av2010 any basic texts you use in that class that I may read for fun? BA and MA not in Communication makes me nervous that I have a huge gaping whole in my basic knowledge

[GreenEyedTrombonist]

I'd like to second what @DBear asked @av2010. I love looking at Buffy and other fandoms from an academic perspective, but my background is anthropology so I'd like to buff up my communication knowledge.  

Also, DBear, Hush is an amazing episode! My favorite is School Hard though. 

[av2010]

@DBear @GreenEyedTrombonist

Yes, that is the episode I use haha!  

In terms of texts, I use basic introductory theory textbooks, they're good, but I'm not sure that that's what you're looking for?  They provide good overview of the discipline and some of the major theories within each of the subdisciplines they cover.  Happy to share the titles if you're interested.

[DBear]

@GreenEyedTrombonist - Hush is one of my favorites, after  years of watching it, Buffy stopped being scary but that episode freaked me out.. lol

@av2010 I also used a clip of Hush in the presentation I did for my grad seminar. I showed a bit of that and a bit of "Once More with Feeling" as contrast. I'd love to be in your class! And those are exactly the kinds of books I'm looking for! I was reading the introduction to a book that a few of my POIs put edited and published last year and realized there were a bunch of names of scholars from the field that I didn't recognize - so freaked out just a little bit. 

 

[av2010]

@DBear   Then the two that I would recommend would be:

Introduction to Human Communication by Beauchamp & Baran.  This book is new, it was just available one year ago.  Things I like about it: it was written by one of my mentors haha.  Second, it lays things out really clearly and uses very relevant and modern examples, plus it addresses media literacy, social media, and health comm which some basic theory books leave out.  My students at the undergraduate level like how easy of a read it is.  

The other book I'd recommend is Theories of Human Communication by Littlejohn & Foss..this one is little more sophisticated in that we used it during grad school, very good theoretical explanation of the field. 

[DBear]

@av2010 Thank you so much! I will definitely take a look at these! WOOT!

[ejpril88]

Ok... I just read this and have two things to say:

1) Why didn't I look outside of our main thread earlier? I was unaware you guys are having interesting discussions elsewhere

2) I am completely freaked out because I come from Serbia where there is zero research at BA and MA level (sigh), so I have never done anything like this. The point of education in our country is memorizing definitions that someone else wrote 50 years ago and then repeating them on the exam. Critical thinking hardly exists. I am worried that I won't be able to keep up with other PhD students because of this. Of course, I will do my best to work as hard as I can during PhD, but I feel that I will never be able to compensate. I actually have no idea how to do a research and my biggest concern is will I be able to understand how things function

I was so excited while reading about the things you're doing. Everything sounds so interesting! I can't wait to start. In my SOP I listed that I would like to research LGBT representation in the media of East and West. I have two very close gay friends who inspired me to start thinking about this and also while working as a journalist in Serbia I noticed that media in Eastern Europe treat LGBT horribly, compared to US.   

[heyDW]

@ejpril88 don't worry! If a program accepts you, it means they want you there and believe you can do it. Most PhD programs, I assume, will have a particular way they want things done and will break us down and build us back up in the first semester. If you're prepared to read a lot and ask questions, you will be just fine.

[ejpril88]

That's what I'm hoping for - that someone will explain in detail how they want the research done (and everything else ). Any news on your husband's application status? Wasn't it supposed to change in 24 hours? 

[heyDW]

It's changed but waiting for the decision to be posted. He's doing better than me about it, haha.