I’M BAAACK!

So it time to start getting into the meat and really start exploring what this blog is going to cover.

First things first, we must figure out how to define digital humanities research. Breaking this down into component parts may be a bit cliche but its probably best place to start from.

So after a quick look at webster the definitions we get are as follows:

Digital - “of or relating to information that is stored in the form of the numbers 0 and 1”

Humanities - “the branches of learning (as philosophy, arts, or languages) that investigate human constructs and concerns as opposed to natural processes (as in physics or chemistry) and social relations (as in anthropology or economics)”

Research - “careful study that is done to find and report new knowledge about something”

So a very basic and highly simplified understanding of this leads us to believing that digital humanities research is the the study of a bunch of 1’s and 0’s that tell us about our society and life as humans. Long story short that isn’t very helpful but it may lead us to where we want to go. Delving deeper we could infer that digital humaities research looks at the interaction between people and the digital world we live in and how people use digital media to express themselves, whether it be through written articles, videos, twitch streams, podcasts, or even a blog such as this. By using a more loose definition of research we can gather that digital humanities “research” is both the process of generating digital media and receiving it in whatever form of the above that it may take. Furthering this idea that the sharing of our digital interactions constitutes research is this blog. By comparing this blog to a more traditional method of research, we can make parallels to an academic journal reporting on their findings about a topic where I am the researcher and you are my audience. It is my goal to convey my findings to you which would make this blog similar to the discussions and conclusion sections of a formal report and thus be a contribution to your research. However, as far as experimentation things tend to get a bit more blurry where this blog is also my experiment where it is my goal to gain a greater understanding of digital humanities research by discussing it with you (Thus the informal tone I have chosen to use).

In short digital humanities research is the process of creating and study of user created digital media for the purpose of broadening your knowledge of a subject.

Join us next week for more exciting info on DIGITAL HUMANITIES!!!

References: “Digital, Definition of Digital by Merriam-Webster” Merriam-Webster, 6 Sept. 2016, http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/digital

“Humanities, Definition of Humanities by Merriam-Webster” Merriam-Webster, 6 Sept. 2016, http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/humanities

“Research, Definition of Research by Merriam-Webster” Merriam-Webster, 6 Sept. 2016, http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/research