Research Team Proposal #1

Research Team Proposal #1


Overall Goal:
The overall goal of the Research Team is to find ideas and sources about pop culture specifically useful towards the Gender and Pop Culture blog project, and classmate’s individual blog topics.
All materials found are to be sorted into two categories:
(1) Objects of analysis
(2) Analytical pieces.
Objects of analysis are defined as a form of pop culture which the reader analyses oneself, while analytical pieces are works in which the writer has analyzed a form of pop culture.

Specific Tasks to Complete:
Research will take place within the following mediums:
· Newspapers:
o i.e. New York Times, USA Today
o Emphasis on blogs, podcasts, as well as published articles
· Television:
o i.e. programs on MTV, E!, Style Network, in addition to programs such as The View and Entertainment Tonight.
· Websites:
o i.e. blogs
o see attached list of examples
· Library Resources
o i.e. periodicals located on the second floor of the TCNJ library
· Public Information Sources / National Organizations and Non-Profit News Sources
o National Public Radio, PBS
o National Coalition Against Censorship

Time Frame for Completion
Each group member will be assigned to one of the above tasks (two members will equally split responsibilities of the Television task) and report findings twice weekly to the writer. The writer will compile all members’ reports and e-mail a Reports should

· Week 1 Due Dates:

o Tuesday, February 27 – find minimum of two new sources of information. E-mail these along with a brief description to Darling. Descriptions should be aimed to help classmates distinguish whether or not the source would be useful to them. NOTE: All materials found are to be sorted into two categories: (1) objects of analysis and (2) analytical pieces.

o Thursday, February 28 – E-mail classmates consolidated list of new sources from February 27 (Darling only).

o Friday, March 1 – Find minimum of two new sources. E-mail your results with a brief description to Darling.

o Sunday, March 3 - E-mail classmates consolidated list of new sources from March 1st (Darling only).

· Week 2 Due Dates:

o Tuesday, March 5 - Find minimum of two new sources. E-mail your results with a brief description to Darling.

o Thursday, March 7 - E-mail classmates consolidated list of new sources from March 5th (Darling only).

o Friday, March 8 - Find minimum of two new sources. E-mail your results with a brief description to Darling.

o Sunday, March 10 - E-mail classmates consolidated list of new sources from March 8th (Darling only).

o Sunday March 10 – Innovator Report: Brief report of new research mediums which we have not yet discovered. New mediums will be integrated into the remaining half of the project. E-mail report to all Research Group members (Elizabeth only)

o

· Week 3 Due Dates: Since this is the week of Spring Break and members may not have access to a computer, assignments will be consolidated. If you do not have computer access all week, please be considerate to Darling and the rest of the class and e-mail your results prior to leaving for spring break festivities.

o Wednesday, March 14 - Find minimum of four new sources. E-mail your results with a brief description to Darling.

o Friday, March 16 - E-mail classmates consolidated list of new sources from March 14th (Darling only).

Description of Specific Tasks per Member
· Newspapers –Spencer H
o Available online for free, but are archived after a few weeks- basically only current information is available.
o Analyze 2 or 3 major newspapers: New York Times, USA Today, and possibly a California based newspaper. Check them frequently for updates
o If it seems like there is not enough information, more national newspapers can be researched, or even international papers
o Explore nontraditional newspaper sources: The Onion, National Enquirer, etc.

· Television / Video – Lauren P, Elizabeth S
o Pay attention to commercials and advertising within television – both blatant and hidden (i.e. strategically placed Pepsi can in a sitcom)
o current event pop-culture-type references in any genre of television such as:
§ “E”– channel 52
§ VH1 – 65
§ MTV – 71
§ MTV 2
§ BET – 43
§ Style –70
§ Comedy Central – 78 (Colbert and Daily show)
§ news on CBS, NBC, FOX, ABC, MSNBC, CNN
§ “Entertainment Tonight”
§ Late night television – Letterman, Leno, Conan, etc.
o Look at the TV schedule for the day or for upcoming days, and either a) make note of what shows you want to watch yourself, and take notes and/or b) make a post and notify classmates which shows you think would be good to use to analyze pop culture.
§ When looking up TV schedules pay attention to the program details to get a better idea about what each episode is about. Try using this website: www.Meevee.com
o Obligations can be split in different ways. Either one member will concentrate on television, while the other will concentrate on websites of the television networks (www.mtv.com) AND online video sources, such as www.youtube.com OR one member can concentrate on television on certain specified days while the other member will concentrate on the rest of the days of the week.

· Websites – Darling C
o Search the web for new sources
o Starting points:
§ http://blogs.usatoday.com/popcandy/ - USA Today pop culture blog
§ http://www.thecoolhunter.net/
§ http://technorati.com/ - blog search engine
§ http://www.wired.com/support/blogs.html
§ http://www.ncac.org/home.cfm
§ http://feministblogs.org/
§ http://www.popmatters.com/
§ http://carpetbagger.blogs.nytimes.com/ - New York Times blog
§ http://www.nytimes.com/pages/arts/index.html - New York Times reviews
§ http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/?track=leftnav-entertainment – LA Times, also has a blog section
§ http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast/podcast_directory.php - National Public Radio podcasts

· Library Resources – Katelyn R
o Visit 2nd floor of library to search through current periodicals
§ Possibly putting periodicals on reserve for the rest of the class. (I’m not sure if students are allowed to do this)
o Use library’s website for online sources: LGBT , Film studies , Music , Library Search

· Public Information Sources / National Organizations and Non-Profit News Sources – Amanda D
o Concentrate on sources published by non-profit organizations
o Possibly search government published articles if it would be useful to any classmates blog topics