Module 6: understanding, applying diversity, narrative analySis [week 11]
Competency VI: To demonstrate an understanding of alternative points of view, diverse world views and/or epistemologies.
Competency VII: To apply an understanding of narrative analysis as an approach to research methodology and analysis.
Competency VII: To apply an understanding of narrative analysis as an approach to research methodology and analysis.
WEEK 11 (11/9/2015 - 11/15/2015)
Essential question(s): Where does our schema of the world come from? What myopia is built into the perspectives that we use? What information sources do we use and how do they shape our perspectives? What patterns emerge regarding their use? What do these patterns say about how we perceive the world? How can we use action research to better understand the media and information sources we use? How can we use rudimentary narrative analysis, in this case the constant comparative method, to deconstruct and analyze our findings?
Objectives:
Overview
What does the phrase "The seasons of man" mean to a woman living at the equator?
In other words, while we all see the world differently, we often unknowingly adopt perspectives that assume everyone sees the world as we do. As doctoral students, you are charged with understanding the diversity of viewpoints that populate the world. The diversity arises due to a number of issues including gender, ethnicity, life experience and the personal filters we adopt over the years. It is important that we understand that each of us has filters, based on who we are, what we experience and how we interact with the world. We need to identify our filters so we can better recognize what we are filtering out, and the diversity we are excluding.
Our tendency to limit our perspective is exacerbated by the fact that now we have social media that allow us to set preferences regarding the media sources we use. We can see just the newscasts, downloads, blogs that we want to consume. Our thinking then reverberates within those confines. The result is what Eli Parser called living in a filter bubble. Thus, the need to see our filters is paramount.
To put it another way: Everything created by us contains our bias. Earlier we looked at the bias of others, notably those who create web materials. In this week's activity we look at ourselves. As researchers, we want to know what our biases are. We may not be able to eliminate them, but understanding them enables us to factor them into the perspectives we develop and the evaluations we make. In summary, considerations of diversity in terms of understanding bias are two fold:
Watch a life changing video: the invisible gorilla
Watch the invisible gorilla. It is only a minute and half long, and should convince you of a particular kind of bias: selective attention. It is a remarkable piece of work.
A bit of McLuhan
If you take courses from me, you will hear a good deal about McLuhan. I had the great fortune of listening to him hold forth at the University of Toronto all those years ago. His figure-ground theory is at the heart of why we tend to develop myopic perspectives of the world and limit diversity of viewpoint in our own lives.
To McLuhan, we live in a figure-ground world. Ground is the environment in which we are immersed to such a degree that we don't notice it. Yet, ground massages and influences our perceptions and activities to a great degree. We are shaped by the mere interaction with our communities in terms of the languages we speak, the habits we adopt, the perspectives we develop. All of this happens at ground level, where we are not focusing our attention.
As McLuhan liked to observe, our information mediascape is our ground, the way water is ground to fish. We are immersed in it, yet it's invisible to us. Figures, on the other hand, are those things and events that come to the conscious mind. They are the things we notice, the spikes above the noise. The area of study that addresses this and other related concepts is often referred to as "media ecology."
To see media clearly we must raise the media we use to "figure." One way to do this is with an activity like the one you are going to engage in: developing a media/information source inventory. Information sources include friends, news casts, email, web pop-ups - anything at all. Don't forget: friends qualify as information sources. You want to know about all of the information sources that feed your perspectives.
Read about the constant comparative method
You will be using one form of narrative analysis to analyze your results called "the constant comparative method," developed by Glaser and Strauss (1967) and Lincoln and Guba (1985). This methodology is summarized very succinctly in Maykut and Morehouse's Beginning Qualitative Research: A Philosophical and Practical Guide (1996). Please go to Google Books and read pages 126-127, and look at the chart on 135. This will give you the basic idea. In addition, I have prepared a "A very simplified version of the constant comparative method" which appears a bit later this page.
What is important to understand in this kind of data collection is that it belongs to a larger school of methodology called grounded theory. This school of thought says that researchers develop their variables after they collect your data. This is 180 degrees opposed to traditional research, in which researchers define variables and then go look for them. In grounded, narrative analysis you let the data speak to you. From the data you discern the categories of meaning.
Assignment
You will conduct another short personal action research project, this time focused on your media consumption. You will note the many sources you use to build your schema of the world, and then deconstruct that to see what it says about your world view and how your employ diversity in your perspective using the constant comparative method, detailed below. Let's consider this assignment in terms of the research process:
To complete the assignment, please do the following:
A very simplified version of the constant comparative method looks like this:
Assignment posting particulars
Where to post: In our Moodle Conference, Week 11.
What to post: Create a short essay about your results using the standard essay format we have been addressing this semester. As noted above, feel free to forgo specifics and focus on methodology if you find that the data you collect is too personal.
Due date to post your results: Thursday, November 12, 2015.
Due date to post a comment about one of your colleague's essays: Sunday, November 15, 2015.
A note about conducting a personal media bias inventory. We tend to think of media bias as something done to us. The reality is that it is something we all practice, as consumers and producers of media. What seems to us like common sense or normal life is simply well practiced bias that have become habits. This is as true for our media consumption habits as it is for habits related to eating and social interaction. The goal of this activity is to understand your own media bias. You will observe yourself as a media consumer and then draw conclusions about the personal filter you use when you choose media resources.
Moodle discussion:
Meta-perspective, self-assessment
Provide a minimum one paragraph self-assessment/reflection. This should focus on what you learned and what you think your strengths and challenges are in terms of the content of this module. Please send this just directly to me.
Citations
Glaser, B. and Strauss, A. (1967). The Discovery of Grounded Theory. Chicago, IL: Aldine.
Lincoln, Y.S. and Guba, E.G. (1985). Naturalistic Inquiry, Beverly Hills, CA. Sage
Maykut, P. and Morehouse, R. (1996). Beginning Qualitative Research- A Philosophical and Practical Guide. London: Falmer Press.
Images
Photo title: System
Photo by: https://pixabay.com/en/system-network-news-connection-954972/
Location: https://pixabay.com/en/system-network-news-connection-954972/
Attribution: CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Essential question(s): Where does our schema of the world come from? What myopia is built into the perspectives that we use? What information sources do we use and how do they shape our perspectives? What patterns emerge regarding their use? What do these patterns say about how we perceive the world? How can we use action research to better understand the media and information sources we use? How can we use rudimentary narrative analysis, in this case the constant comparative method, to deconstruct and analyze our findings?
Objectives:
- Students will engage in a short personal action research project in which they collect and deconstruct their own information sources for the purposes of discerning bias in their information consumption.
- Students will complete the media inventory provided for the purposes of conducting a media/information inventory.
- Students will use a basic form of narrative collection and analysis called the constant comparative method to analyze their findings.
- Students will post an analysis of their findings, and discuss their findings with colleagues.
Overview
What does the phrase "The seasons of man" mean to a woman living at the equator?
In other words, while we all see the world differently, we often unknowingly adopt perspectives that assume everyone sees the world as we do. As doctoral students, you are charged with understanding the diversity of viewpoints that populate the world. The diversity arises due to a number of issues including gender, ethnicity, life experience and the personal filters we adopt over the years. It is important that we understand that each of us has filters, based on who we are, what we experience and how we interact with the world. We need to identify our filters so we can better recognize what we are filtering out, and the diversity we are excluding.
Our tendency to limit our perspective is exacerbated by the fact that now we have social media that allow us to set preferences regarding the media sources we use. We can see just the newscasts, downloads, blogs that we want to consume. Our thinking then reverberates within those confines. The result is what Eli Parser called living in a filter bubble. Thus, the need to see our filters is paramount.
To put it another way: Everything created by us contains our bias. Earlier we looked at the bias of others, notably those who create web materials. In this week's activity we look at ourselves. As researchers, we want to know what our biases are. We may not be able to eliminate them, but understanding them enables us to factor them into the perspectives we develop and the evaluations we make. In summary, considerations of diversity in terms of understanding bias are two fold:
- Seeing our own biases, which may prevent us from recognizing diverse perspectives.
- Actively seeking out diverse perspectives, to counteract the tendency to assume that everyone views the world as we, and our community, view it.
Watch a life changing video: the invisible gorilla
Watch the invisible gorilla. It is only a minute and half long, and should convince you of a particular kind of bias: selective attention. It is a remarkable piece of work.
A bit of McLuhan
If you take courses from me, you will hear a good deal about McLuhan. I had the great fortune of listening to him hold forth at the University of Toronto all those years ago. His figure-ground theory is at the heart of why we tend to develop myopic perspectives of the world and limit diversity of viewpoint in our own lives.
To McLuhan, we live in a figure-ground world. Ground is the environment in which we are immersed to such a degree that we don't notice it. Yet, ground massages and influences our perceptions and activities to a great degree. We are shaped by the mere interaction with our communities in terms of the languages we speak, the habits we adopt, the perspectives we develop. All of this happens at ground level, where we are not focusing our attention.
As McLuhan liked to observe, our information mediascape is our ground, the way water is ground to fish. We are immersed in it, yet it's invisible to us. Figures, on the other hand, are those things and events that come to the conscious mind. They are the things we notice, the spikes above the noise. The area of study that addresses this and other related concepts is often referred to as "media ecology."
To see media clearly we must raise the media we use to "figure." One way to do this is with an activity like the one you are going to engage in: developing a media/information source inventory. Information sources include friends, news casts, email, web pop-ups - anything at all. Don't forget: friends qualify as information sources. You want to know about all of the information sources that feed your perspectives.
Read about the constant comparative method
You will be using one form of narrative analysis to analyze your results called "the constant comparative method," developed by Glaser and Strauss (1967) and Lincoln and Guba (1985). This methodology is summarized very succinctly in Maykut and Morehouse's Beginning Qualitative Research: A Philosophical and Practical Guide (1996). Please go to Google Books and read pages 126-127, and look at the chart on 135. This will give you the basic idea. In addition, I have prepared a "A very simplified version of the constant comparative method" which appears a bit later this page.
What is important to understand in this kind of data collection is that it belongs to a larger school of methodology called grounded theory. This school of thought says that researchers develop their variables after they collect your data. This is 180 degrees opposed to traditional research, in which researchers define variables and then go look for them. In grounded, narrative analysis you let the data speak to you. From the data you discern the categories of meaning.
Assignment
You will conduct another short personal action research project, this time focused on your media consumption. You will note the many sources you use to build your schema of the world, and then deconstruct that to see what it says about your world view and how your employ diversity in your perspective using the constant comparative method, detailed below. Let's consider this assignment in terms of the research process:
- Research question(s): What are my information and media sources, and what biases do they indicate in my perspective?
- Literature review: Largely, we are skipping this due to time. However you do need to read the literature by Maykut and Morehouse cited above.
- Methodology. Take notes about each information source you use during one day. If you want to get sophisticated, then you might note when you turn off the source, indicating you are bored or displeased. I suggest making notes on your smart phone, or on a pad of paper. Reflecting about your actions several times during the day to make sure you haven't missed anything. We tend to use information sources unconsciously. It takes an effort to see them, or in McLuhan's terms, to raise them from ground to figure.
- Presentation of results. Using the constant comparative method, described below, what did you find out about your media consumption patterns?
- Analysis. From the objective perspective of a media psychologist, what do your information consumption patterns say about your perspective and your approach to diversity? What is missing from that perspective? Based on your media consumption patterns, how might you be identified as a niche or demographic?
To complete the assignment, please do the following:
- Download, read, complete Conducting a personal media bias inventory. This is a brief exercise that will help you understand your own media bias. Just download the activity handout and follow the directions. In a sentence, you identify your information sources and then deduce and infer from those sources the biases in your perspective.
- Don't post the results if you don't want to. They can be personal. But do discuss what you realized as a result of this activity as part of this week's discussion.
- Create an essay about your research. Again, if your results are too personal for some reason, then feel free to create your essay from the point of view of the process, and a general accounting of results. Your essay should be 2-3 pages, in standard essay format.
A very simplified version of the constant comparative method looks like this:
- Collect your text, in your case the notes you take about the media sources you use.
- Comb through the data several times, each time looking for a broad categories of data. In this research project you might find data that is "liberal" or "conservative;" "news" or "entertainment;" "scientific" or "emotional." You are free to define the categories. Your categories will depend on what you see and, of course, how you view the world. You are done when no more categories emerge.
- Code the data according to the categories you have identified. This allows you to see more clearly what you have discerned. If your data is in a Word file, you might highlight sections with different colors. If on paper, use colored markers to indicate different categories.
- Now, as an objective social scientist, analyze what the data is telling you.
Assignment posting particulars
Where to post: In our Moodle Conference, Week 11.
What to post: Create a short essay about your results using the standard essay format we have been addressing this semester. As noted above, feel free to forgo specifics and focus on methodology if you find that the data you collect is too personal.
Due date to post your results: Thursday, November 12, 2015.
Due date to post a comment about one of your colleague's essays: Sunday, November 15, 2015.
A note about conducting a personal media bias inventory. We tend to think of media bias as something done to us. The reality is that it is something we all practice, as consumers and producers of media. What seems to us like common sense or normal life is simply well practiced bias that have become habits. This is as true for our media consumption habits as it is for habits related to eating and social interaction. The goal of this activity is to understand your own media bias. You will observe yourself as a media consumer and then draw conclusions about the personal filter you use when you choose media resources.
Moodle discussion:
- What did you realize about the nature of diversity from this exercise?
- What did you discover about your own biases, and how they impact your approach to diversity, that you would care to share?
- How do the results of the exercise impact your work as a media psychologist?
Meta-perspective, self-assessment
Provide a minimum one paragraph self-assessment/reflection. This should focus on what you learned and what you think your strengths and challenges are in terms of the content of this module. Please send this just directly to me.
Citations
Glaser, B. and Strauss, A. (1967). The Discovery of Grounded Theory. Chicago, IL: Aldine.
Lincoln, Y.S. and Guba, E.G. (1985). Naturalistic Inquiry, Beverly Hills, CA. Sage
Maykut, P. and Morehouse, R. (1996). Beginning Qualitative Research- A Philosophical and Practical Guide. London: Falmer Press.
Images
Photo title: System
Photo by: https://pixabay.com/en/system-network-news-connection-954972/
Location: https://pixabay.com/en/system-network-news-connection-954972/
Attribution: CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication