In the past week I have started to form a solid foundation for what I want to focus on and research. The main issue this week was jumping to conclusions based on unubsitianted assumptions. I was way too focused on if reality tv shows were formulaic and was unable to see that this could be a possible conclusion to my research.
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Realizing my errors.
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Over the course of a group discussion with the class I realized what I really needed to focus on was what makes a reality tv show successful. What makes a viewer want to continually tune into a reality tv program? What aspects of reality tv appeal to views? What turns them off? What is the relationship between viewership and longevity of a reality tv show? Basically, I want to explore something involving the relationship between viewership and the success of a show.
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| Finally getting somewhere. |
Over the next week, I need to narrow my focus a bit more. Currently, I want to focus on prefilmed competition based reality tv elimination shows (I still need to find a formal term for these types of shows) to limit the scope. Additionally, I am going to look specifically at reality tv shows within the 2000s. I may have to look into the late 90s, but most shows started in the early 2000s, when reality tv started to takeoff and become a part of the mainstream media. My goal with this topic is to see if reality tv can show what we as humans value and what the success of certain reality tv shows say about what we are appealed to. My specific goal for this week is to get my topic compact and completely narrowed.
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| Trying to narrow my topic. |
To find sources moving forward I'm going to use JSTOR and EBSCO like every other AP Research Student, but I'm also going to focus on film and television journals looking for articles about the longevity of programs and how viewers react to certain programs. As I sort through these articles upon articles, I am going to try to focus on finding a gap in the research, a gap that I can fill with my own research. This gap will help me further refine my topic and point me towards the question that this my research on this gap can answer. Hopefully, everything aligns and I am able to formulate a a refined research topic that is narrow in focus and unique.
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| When someone asks what my refined topic is. |
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Catherine, I don't know if you know this, but I'm OBSESSED with LC. I think she's beauty, perfect, grace, style encapsulated in one divine creature. I ALSO like how your gifs 1) make your posts more engaging and 2) are reality TV themed. You are killing it with this whole blog thing.
ReplyDeleteSecond, I was really happy with the level of specificity and focus we got to by the end of our discussion on Friday. I don't think it's reasonable to say that you'd have everything 100% figured out, so don't worry about that. I think your focus is solid for this stage of the game.
I want to see a little bit more of a strategy/plan for compiling sources, as I think it can become overwhelming, causing you to lose organization and purpose, if you don't have a clear approach.
I am really glad to see that our class discussion helped you narrow your topic down, or at least get to a better start when researching. I am so excited to see the progression of your research because I think it will be very insightful.
ReplyDeleteHow do you plan on choosing a show? Are there any that you are leaning to? Why? I think this will be one of the most important foundations to your research (no pressure), so I am excited to hear about this process.
Also how is your preliminary research going so far? Are you finding relevant sources? Hopefully we can talk more about this tomorrow, but it seems like you have a great start to your research!
Likin the memes.
ReplyDeleteBecause your topic isn't conventional, I would also recommend entertainment websites like Entertainment Today or entertainment sections on websites like Yahoo or MSN as additional source material. This way you can look at a particularly poignant scenes of the shows you decide upon and see what popular culture/entertainment media thinks about it, which may reflect the popular sentiment about the show. Since these attitudes toward shows reflect the attitudes of the audience, by citing these articles. You can then also analyze these articles with more credible sources about popular sentiment. This would help contextualize your research.
Additionally, to choose a show, you probably want to focus on shows that existed in the same period of time and compare them within the timeframe, which will help you filter the shows. Unless if you were set on Survivor and the Mole. Even then, I think that comparing the two during a similar timeframe would make your research seem a lot more systematic.
Anyways, keep up the good work.
Yes, I think some less scholarly sources could be useful, but as sprinkles on the cake of your research, not the cake itself or even the icing. I hope that analogy makes sense.
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