Research Diary 1

Just as much as Media and Culture influence society, it is also strongly influenced by society, in other words, they are socially driven. Also, Both Media and Culture are in constant need of updating due to the many changes and evolutions. But with these many changes, there also comes the need to validate information that due to the overload of information we are able to access these days and this is where academic researches comes in. Academic researchers have rather strict requirement of reliability and validity, and give rise for seemingly mundane ideas to show how much potential they have and can be used to the fullest extent.

For Quantitative research the strengths are that data can be analysed quickly and easily and can be used to generalize the population. Also, it is anonymous for any sensitive issues making participants more willing to speak their mind without the desire to hide their true opinions. On the other, the weaknesses are that it is not cost efficient to print questionnaires while participation cannot be observed and confirmed when using online surveys. Moreover, more participants needed to answer questionnaires while answers are limited to very general responses.

For Qualitative research the strengths are in-depth, personal and detailed data that can be obtained in a naturalistic environment with less participants needed. While the weaknesses are the smaller sampling size which leads to difficulty in obtaining solid statistic as the findings cannot be generalized and there is a high chance of biases occurring.

My tentative research topic is “The use and occupation of imagined space in the table top Role-play game subculture of ‘dungeons and dragons’ in Hong Kong” and the ways that the role-play subcultural identities are influenced with the imagined space in the game.

I believe this research will yield interesting results as the role play game Dungeons and Dragons is not one of the more popular online game like DOTA or League of Legends, with exquisite graphics and characters readily designed for immediate use. The players are forced to use their collective imagination as the game master tells the story and build their own characters with different races, languages and skills and form a party in which they are made to go on an adventure either finding treasure or killing monsters while working effectively as a team.

For this research I believe that a suitable research method would be qualitative instead of quantitative as the game of “dungeons and dragons” is not very widely spread throughout Hong Kong. I plan on getting in touch with any dungeons and dragons community that I may be able to find in Hong Kong and sit in on game sessions as my field observation/ ethnography on a weekly basis as well as conduct informal interviews with the participants of the role play.

Student name: Harina Rachel Anne Aristan.