The Innards of Research

This blog is a dissertation "Lego box," meaning that pretty much anything that I could use in a dissertation belongs in this. It is certainly not limited to the theory, methods, or topic at hand, but it serves as a repository for ideas and considerations. Certainly not everything in this blog will go into my dissertation, but between now and whenever the thing is due, it will make a great "storage facility" for stuff I don't want to forget. For a dissertation you need to have several things.

First, you need to have a theory with which to work. If you're building a theory, you need to have at least some theoretical support to provide assumptions upon which you base your research questions and hypotheses, and, ultimately, the methods you use to go about making knowledge. Perhaps you can use a model or a phenomenon previously observed. Regardless, you need some kind of a hunch that could explain your observations so that you can potentially disprove it. I won't get too far into it, but that's how science works: by disproving things.

I am currently in the literature review phase of my externship. My intention is to use a good portion of my externship work in my dissertation. It is therefore necessary to really dig in and make sure my bases are fully-covered. Entertainment theory, unfortunately, is more like a broad set of ideas, models, and assumptions than a clearcut theory. It draws from many mass media theories such as Uses and Gratifications, Selective Exposure, and Cultivation, as well as theories borrowed from psychology: You could also apply Diffusion of Innovations, Cognitive Dissonance, Framing, Agenda Setting and many others.

Second, you have to some means of collecting data. It may be an experiment, a survey, or some other manner of taking measurements, or it could be through talking to people to find out what they're thinking or doing. You also want to describe your method in such detail that somebody else could come along and replicate your work. Others may or may not come to the same conclusions from replicating your work, but you need to spend time writing about it so that replication is possible. You also want to acknowledge the limitations of your work. Acknowledging limitations opens the door for other people to later fill in the gaps and ultimately contribute to the process of building theory.

Third, you need all the support and guidance you can get. These are more like logistical requirements than a structural requirements, so I'm not going to go too deep into it -- at least today. But it certainly is worth mentioning. Before writing anything you should always consider the logistical issues, such as timeframe for research and Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval.

You probably need lots more than just these three things I've addressed, but it's late and I think these pretty much cover everything. Most of the Legos I come up with will fit nicely into one of these three areas. As time progresses, I will also begin to throw Legos out, or exclude them from plans for the final product, though they might remain in the blog.