Emma's 1st Blog Post

  1. Which research methods do you most want to learn? According to Wikipedia, the four main types of research methods are quantitative, qualitative, correlation/regression analysis, and meta-analysis. Out of those four, my favorite method of research is qualitative. It can be the most difficult approach to research because not only do you need to gather data, but also understand the why. I think in today’s society, we are not ignortant to mass media and persuasive advertisements that worked in decades past. It is our responsibility to understand the consumer and the best way to do that is through qualitative research.
  2. What topics in digital humanities research interest you? While I am still in the process of understanding what digital humanities research is, my current interpritation leads me towards social media. As the Social Media Intern for Undergraduate Admissions here at Illinois Tech, it is something I think about 24/7. As I mentioned before, my love for qualitative research drives me to learn more about social media patterns. It’s not just an analysis of how many likes or retweets, but why was this post successful over another and what are the guidelines to a “successful” post. There’s so much to learn and I’m only just starting.
  3. Which digital literacies do you most want to master? If I had to pick one from the list in our syllabus, it would be appropriation. The definition given is “the ability to meaningfully sample and remix media content”. This makes me think of two things: 1) cultural appropriation that has been brought to light in our PC society and 2) memes. Now the first one is obvious due to the name, but when I think about remixing media content, I think about a good, “phresh” meme. Now I don’t want to master memes (even though that would be awesome), but looking at the life cycle of a meme and how they come about is an aspect of appropriation that I would like to know more about.
Written on August 29, 2016 by Emma Zachocki