Blog 5

1) Progress report - How many interviews did you do so far? And/or how many materials (i.e. media texts) did you research, and how did you research on the texts – textual analysis, genre study, etc.?

In my project, I am now starting the in-depth interview of my research and everything goes smoothly. I have already interview 5 teenagers (3 male and 3female) who use this network platform to express their wishes and aspirations. They are aged between 19-25 years old. I have totally asked for 10 questions which mainly about:

1. To what extend you would publish the online political speech?

2. To what extend you would publish the political comments in the online more than reality?

3. What are the reasons that Hong Kong teenagers are politically apathetic and not keen on political activities?

4. To what extent will encourage you participate in any political activities or actual parade?

In order to give them a more specific comments to make and inspire their thinking , I have given them some information and news about the actual political and participate in online. A preliminary textual analysis has already started, I have some of the concept and building up the framework of my research. 

2) Preliminary findings – What do you discover up till now? (For example, what are the commonalities amongst the texts/interviews?) How do your findings help you answer your research question? 

After the interview, I discovered that teenagers are inseparable from Facebook and Youtube and other social media. More popular social media, including blog, podcast, Wikipedia, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, forums etc. The rise of social media, the online speech started to affect public opinion. All respondents believe that social media can let everyone use their spare time to monitor the government, put forward their demands and organize action. Although there is often occur network public trial and cyberbullying phenomenon in the online world, all respondents agree that social media force to cohesion opinions, monitoring government policies which helps to promote social movements. It has a very significant effect.

Some of them view that publish the online political speech does not mean that will not participate in social movements. Social media facilitate meetings and activities of youth organizations, giving them another platform to express their views while receiving social and political information to gain insight into the process of political and social law. Since the network statement do not need to identify themselves, teenagers can publish their thoughts, the move both have advantages and disadvantages, immature young people are more vulnerable to herding effects and they often fail to fully understand the truth of the incident. I reversed myself on the view of teenagers are usually apathetic to politics. They are not politically apathetic, they are even more eager to participate in politics than adults. It is only the difference between younger and older people on expressing of political views.

Blog 4

In my research project, my research topic is "Why Hong Kong teenagers keen on cyberspace of political discussion greater than the actual? ". I will focus on how Hong Kong teenagers spend their time to discuss something about political. It is now representing the urgent and the issues of concern in Hong Kong, this research question can be more able to bring out our perception of teenagers online statement and the actual level of political participation. I would like to identify some of the key concepts that are relevant to my research.

The rapid development of computer technology to make the web has become an important platform for international communication. In modern society, people around the world are available to exchanges and cooperation through the web tool. This type of network media conducted the participatory interaction which gradually led to a global culture. Many scholars called this culture to participatory culture. Many educators regard the participatory culture seen as a way of learning and ways of expression.

Participatory culture focus on relationship building and identity. Internet broke the time and geographical constraints so that modern interactive more convenient and frequent. The traditional networks has brought great uncertainty to the interpersonal relationships which lack of basic trust and efficiency. New media made up for deficiencies of the traditional network to virtual community and real relationships chain. It enhance the individual exchanges and interaction in the virtual and the real world.

Network of political participation as a way to new forms of political participation. Through the participatory culture, people express their wishes and aspirations of this new platform through the network, thus affecting the manner and behavior of political decision-making. We can thus know the extent of people participate in political of online and the actual.

The concept of convergence culture which proposed by Henry Jenkins, convergence can be described as we are entering an era where media will be everywhere, we will use a variety of media with respect to each other. The combination within a single piece of new media and old media, the media work come together in different media product or technology. Media integration is leading us towards a digital renaissance, a period of transition and transformation which will affect every aspect of our lives. Media convergence is making human dependent on the media. Integration of media products or technology means that, when we do not leave our home, we can also achieve our dreams at the touch of a button. This concept is relevant to explain the phenomenon of people dependent on network.

For my research, I am now starting the in-depth interview of my research and everything goes smoothly. I am going to have the in-depth interviews with 15 Hong Kong teenagers who are around 16-25 year old to investigate the extent of their participation in the online communities. There are around 15-20 questions for each respondent which is hoping accurately to know their views on the cyberspace. Teenagers are usually apathetic to politics, it is a minority group of the relatively proactive and stand up to parade while the number of online statement exactly the opposite. I am hoping I can investigate this doubt and uncertainty through the interview.


Student name: Yip Tsz Yau

Student number: 10641720

Blog 3

What is the refined research question that you are setting out to answer? (Please be specific in your research topic)

In my research project, I would like to explore the topic of online communities and change my research question to "Why Hong Kong teenagers keen on cyberspace of political discussion greater than the actual? ". I will focus on how Hong Kong teenagers spend their time to discuss something about political. Since it is now representing the urgent and the issues of concern in Hong Kong, this research question can be more able to bring out our perception of teenagers online statement and the actual level of political participation.


The following research questions may lead me to have a clearer research direction which guiding me to have a better interviews.

1. How much time that Hong Kong teenagers may spend on using internet?

2. To what extend Hong Kong teenagers would publish the online political speech?

3. To what extend Hong Kong teenagers would publish the political comments in the online more than reality?

4. Are there any positive and negative effects when Hong Kong teenagers keen on online of political discussion greater than the actual?


How does this develop themes and debates explored within the lectures of this module?

Technology has changed our mode of communication, the interaction of the real world get along with the virtual world. In recent years, our society tends to render text and pay attention to public opinion. Plus a variety of new media appears, members of the public to express their views in different channels. Many people will direct upload the articles such as views on social issues with current events or images to the Internet, as a citizen reporter participation and involvement in the community. In modern society, the popularity of smart phones make images replace words become a more common share mode.

Hong Kong teenagers watch news through multi-channel internet into a new mainstream. It is common that teenagers understand the emerging social issues and situation through social media while Facebook became the main way. Teenagers are having citizenship and having their own views on social issues. They pay attention to the importance of the credibility of the media and political stance. Most of them believe contacting with media can help to promote civic awareness since they would pass the news though differnet group. Teenagers are usually apathetic to politics, it is a minority group of the relatively proactive and stand up to parade while the number of online statement exactly the opposite. Will these network culture in the end bring positive or negative impact to the teenagers? How would this imagined communities make a difference for young people?


What critical methodologies are you going to use? How are you going to produce the evidence you’ll need to answer your research question?

1) In-depth interviews with 15 Hong Kong teenagers who are around 16-25 year old to investigate the extent of their participation in the online communities.

2) There are around 15-20 questions for the respondents which is hoping accurately to know their views on the cyberspace.


Now you should have some references in mind. If so, please put down a short reference list at the end of this blog so that you have a better plan of what articles that you are go to read for the project.

Yonghwan Kim a & Hsuan-Ting Chen. (2016). Social media and online political participation: The mediating role of exposure to cross-cutting and like-minded perspectives. Cross Mark.

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Hsuan_Ting_Chen/publication/281446499_Social_media_and_online_political_participation_The_mediating_role_of_exposure_to_cross-cutting_and_like-minded_perspectives/links/55e7f09f08ae3e12184217c8.pdf


Artical from RTHK

http://rthk.hk/mediadigest/20130114_76_122945.html

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Name: Yip Tsz Yau, Grace

Student Number: 10641720

Research Project: Statement of Intent

Research Project: Statement of Intent

Research question:

In my research project, I would like to explore the topic of online communities. The research question would be "Why Hong Kong teenagers keen on cyberspace greater than the actual? ". 

Introduction:
Technology has changed our mode of communication, the interaction of the real world get along with the virtual world. Because of the anonymity of online world and virtualization , network user can easily let down their guard. Cyber communities, change the way people of live and distance. Different community-based organizations which link up by large organization from each small organization. Group discussions can now instantly linked together to generate greater interaction. It is completely change the mode of social organization since teenagers begin to shuttle in different groups who emphasis on autonomy, transparency and openness, be accepted from the community.

Hong Kong teenagers frequently visit forums which were created some unique culture and created some new slang, such as Golden culture. From the perspective of teenagers, the establishment of the cyberspace and frequent interactions can form a common cultural identity and self-confidence while most teenagers consider to experience information from a user's point would be stronger. Will these network culture in the end bring positive or negative impact to the teenagers? How would this imagined communities make a difference for young people? These are the purpose of the research.

Methods to be used:
Qualitative research method would be appropriate for my research topic. By participating, we can get the feel of being a member of particular social context, which can fully understand from their action. Using observation and in-depth interviews to get the first hand information. For my research, I will have an indepth interviews with 15 Hong Kong teenagers who are around 16-25 year old to investigate the extent of their participation in the online communities. There are around 15-20 questions for the respondents which is hoping accurately to know their views on the cyberspace.

Here are some draft questions:

1. How much time will you spend on internet per day?
2. What social networking sites that you often use?
3. Do you often speak and express your ideas on the cyber space?
4. Do you think there will be the positive and negative effects when you often use of network to communicate?
5. Do you consider yourself have the same character in the online world and the reality?

Student number: 10641720
Name: Yip Tsz Yau , Grace

Research Diary 1

Media and culture are closely related to our daily lives. Our understanding of the media and culture, feelings, values are different. In the context of cultural studies, not text only, but also includes film, photography, fashion or hair and all meaningful cultural products. Similarly, the "culture" concept has also been expanded. For us, it also includes all activities and everyday meaning. How media affect culture and how culture affect media? Therefore, based on the biased of our personal experience and what the experts say , we need to have the academic research on culture and media. 

Quantitative research and quantitative research are the research methods that we usually use in research. Quantitative research means the use of statistical, mathematical or computational techniques and other methods to carry out social phenomena. The main scope of the study is including what the fact is, the reliability and validity of issues, opinions, behavior, awareness and rationality of people. This research method conclusion can be inferred that the overall market situation, and through statistical analysis can identify the main cause of impact, the findings can be used as basis for the decision. It is useful for studying large number of people or subjects. The research findings can be generalized with random samples. Also, The research results are relatively independent of researcher. The researcher's design can eliminate the influence of many variables. 

There are some weaknesses of quantitative research. Quantitative research fails to distinguish people and social institutions from the world of nature. Research process is time-consuming, cannot quickly get the final result, the content cannot be changed during the study, and the project costs are relatively high. The measurement process posses and artificial sense of precision and accuracy. 

Qualitative research aims a better understanding of human behavior, and why. It is mainly investigating the reasons and methods of human decision-making, not just what decisions that people make, when and where only.This research method can be more deeper, using multi-angle and multi-channel to explore motivation of people. The researcher can study dynamic processes. It provides in- depth or individual case information. Data are usually collected in naturalistic settings. The time required for the project is short and it is most suitable for exploratory research. Although the qualitative analysis is more rough, but it is suitable when there is insufficient data. 

There are some weaknesses of qualitative research. Qualitative research generally takes more time to collect and analyze the data. The result are more easily influence by the researcher's personal biases. It can not be inferred overall and difficult to set a conclusion the market. Also, the knowledge produced might not generalized to other people or other settings. 

In my research project, I prefer to choose the topic of online communities. Many people in the online space, the actual level of participation is higher than in the family, school and public policy areas. This trend has been maintained for a period of time, even it is a rising phenomenon. Using online communication, will the interpersonal communication strengthen or weaken our physical interaction? I found that it is the most attractive topic that I interested in. 

Qualitative research method would be appropriate for my research topic. Using observation and in-depth interviews to get the first hand information. Advantages of observation not only observe the reasons for action of the observer, attitude, action decisions. By participating, we can get the feel of being a member of particular social context, which can fully understand from the action. Then, using the inductive method, gradually transformed from concrete to abstract, as well as the formation of theory.

Student Name: Yip Tsz Yau, Grace