Comments

Torbjörn Axelsson

8 November 2013

Theme 1: Theory of science

http://dm2572-toax.blogspot.se/2013/11/theme-1-theory-of-science.html?showComment=1387495285737

Hi Torbjörn!

You have a fluent and informative text where you have taken good key points from Rusells text. I liked how you wrote about proposition and statement of fact. In my opinion the difference between them is the value of truth that is given, where statement of fact is more reliable in sense of truth.

Hannah Fahd

21 November 2013

Theme 2: Critical media studies

http://hannah-fahd.blogspot.se/2013/11/reflection-theme-2-critical-media.html

Interesting to read you blog post especially the part about individualism. I totally agree with you on this one, where the definition of individualism is very vague. Many people see individualism as being outside of the group but as you mentioned it, this is not necessarily true. You will always be a part of a group, which makes it impossible to be alone. You are part of a family, a country, a society or even a community.

Maria Strömbäck

21 November 2013

Theme 2: Critical media studies

http://mariastromback.blogspot.se/2013/11/critical-media-studies-post-reflections.html?showComment=1387491126521

Hi Maria!

I liked that you brought up the example about what art is. On the seminar, Leif told that things are often accepted as an art when it is shown in a gallery or something similar. This made me ask the same question you did. What is art? And how can it be defined? As you say why can’t a graffiti painting be a form of art? But if everyone defines art in his or her way, wouldn’t everything be considered art? I feel like the definition is really hard to set. It is an unclear concept, which can be interpreted in different ways.

Deborah Lindberg

27 November 2013

Theme 3: Research and Theory

http://deborahtom.blogspot.se/2013/11/theme-3-research-and-theory.html?showComment=1387497569235

Hi Deborah!

I liked how you described the benefits of using qualitative methods in form of interviews in the paper you selected. It would also be interesting to see what the limitations were. I know that interviews can take a lot of time (prepare, transcript etc.). And it is shown that people tend to be more careful on what they say on interviews especially if the questions are ethical questions. Do you think that they gave honest answers during the interview?

Ingrid Larsson

Theme 3: Research and theory

27 November 2013

http://ingriddm2572.blogspot.se/2013/11/theme-3-post-reflections.html?showComment=1387498383910

You summarize what theory is in a very concrete and easy way, and I feel that it is enough to make the point. But I would like to add that theory can theory doesn’t always answer the question why. It explains an idea or a phenomenon to get a greater understanding of it. But it does not necessarily mean that it gives a answer to the question why.

Filip Erlandsson

28 November 2013

Theme 4: Quantitative research

http://filip-erlandsson-dm2572.blogspot.se/2013/11/theme-4-quantitative-research-prior.html?showComment=1387493976129

Hi Filip!

You have chosen a very interesting quantitative paper, which made me curious to read. The survey was sent out to 194 people where only 56 of them where male. In my opinion this can be a disadvantage though the genders are not equally represented. If the aim of the study is to see how people act in relationships, shouldn’t they choose participants who are in a relationship? 91 of the participants where single people. Maybe there knowledge from previous relationships was interesting? Many questions here. But it was good written blog text where you summarize the study in a very short and informative way.

Cim Nordling

29 November 2013

Theme 4: Quantitative research

http://dm2572tmm-cim.blogspot.se/2013/11/theme-4-quantitative-research.html?showComment=1387495891071

I have chosen the same article as you in the earlier theme and I really wanted someone else to chose this one so I could see what their thoughts was. When I read you paper I got the feeling that we have noticed the same limitations. One of them was the risk of misunderstanding the question, which can affect the result. Another one is that the survey was only sent to Facebook users in Australia, which gives a narrow picture on the use of Facebook.

Julia Zabavina

12 December 2013

Theme 5: Design research

http://zabavinaj.blogspot.se/2013/12/theme-5-post-reflection.html?showComment=1387496892241

I liked that you got a different approach to the concept of design research. You believe that it is important to create products that will respond to human need because they will be useless otherwise. But is a product useless if it doesn’t serve a human. Or the opposite, Is a product always useful if it respond to a human need. And how can we define what human needs are.

Andreas Sylvan

19 December 2013

Theme 6: Qualitative and case study research

http://dm2572sylvan.blogspot.se/2013/12/post-theme-6-qualitative-and-case-study.html

Hi Andreas!

I agree with you about the things you wrote about focus groups. I have also been in a lot of different focus groups but never did one myself. It can be as you say a negative side of focus groups such as all participants cannot be equally active. I feel that the person who will moderate the discussion should be aware of these factors and control the discussion discreetly. I also liked you example with coca-cola company which shows how focus groups can be useful in marketing strategy’s and in academic perspective.

Ekaterina Karpukhina

13 December 2013

Theme 6: Qualitative and case study research

http://ekaterina-karpukhina.blogspot.se/2013/12/theme-6-qualitative-and-case-study.html?showComment=1387492893223

Hi Ekaterina!

You have a well-written blog post with good explanations of the methods. It was interesting to read about the benefits and limitations. You have a short and informative case part about case study. I felt like it was difficult to disrobe a case study but I feel like you have done a good job on that. I feel that the best part with a case study is as you put it, “close to the real situation”. This in my opinion gives a better understanding of the phenomenon that is being studied. You get a better insight on the situation.

Reflection 6: Qualitative and case study research

We had two seminars this week, where we discussed two different topics. The topic for the Monday seminar was about qualitative methods. I choose a study where they used a focus group because

I had never done any studies with focus groups but I have been a part of focus groups in different studies. I sometimes felt like the people who moderated the discussion on the focus groups was in a hurry or had the result in their mind. Therefore the most interesting part for me was to see, what a researcher needs to have in mind when dealing with a focus group.

In the seminar group we talked about how you need to approach the people in the focus group to get the most honest answers and how to deal for example with youths. On my selected paper, they discussed about how important it was to not act as an authority. By acting as a non-investigating person, you make the people in the focus groups more relaxed.

The topic for the Wednesday seminar was case studies and how we could define them. Even though I had knowledge about different methods, I never really understood what a case study was. The seminar really gave me a better insight about what a case study was. People in the seminar groups had different forms of case studies, which showed how broad of an area a case study could be used on. Another advantage with case study is that you use numerous sources of data, which can help covering different aspects. I now feel that a case study can definitely be a form I can use on my future thesis. It would be interesting to study a phenomenon, person or an event more deeply to understand the core factors.

This is the last blog post we will do so I would like to write a short note about the course. I thought that the course in general was really good and gave a better understanding of different methods. The knowledge from this course will definitely help me on my future thesis. 

Theme 6: Qualitative and case study research

I choose the paper, “Us teenagers’ perceptions and awareness of digital technology: a focus group approach” by Heather L. Hundley and Leonard Shyles. It is published in the New Media & Society journal with an impact factor of 1.824 and a 5-year impact factor of 2.2298. The research paper investigates teenagers’ perception of digital devices and their awareness of the functions they provide in their lives.

1. The research paper is using a qualitative method in form of a focus group. To investigate teenagers’ use of digital devices a focus group with 80 middle- and high school teenagers is created.

Focus group is a research method in which a group of people are asked simultaneously about the phenomenon or issue that is being examined. The questions can be about their attitudes, thoughts or knowledge about the issue. An advantage with focus groups is that you get a better chance to interact with the participants and turn the discussion to your benefits. A disadvantage of using focus group can be that it can be more time consuming due to the transcription of the group interview or discussion.

2. The main methodological problem of the study is that the findings where not as broad and generalized as quantitative survey research. A problem that can occur in a focus group whit youths or kids can be that they can feel embarrassed. The researchers, Hundley and Shyles thought about this and therefore tried to create a more relaxed and comfortable setting. They also tried not to act as authorities and encouraged the students to help them educate on various digital dames and social network sites. 

Eisnhardt, K. M. (1989). Building Theories from case study research. Academy of management review, 14(4), 532-550.

1. Case study is a method that aims to provide in depth knowledge of the research and is often used in qualitative researches. It focuses on a phenomenon that is often difficult to distinguish from the phenomenon’s context. Often it examines a specific thing, which can consist of an individual, event, a group or an association. A case study can be examining, explanatory or descriptive.

2. The second paper I chose is, “Human resource management and cultural diversity: a case study in Mozambique” by Kurt Sartious, Andres Merino and Carmichael. It is published in the international journal of human resource management with an impact factor of 1.04.

The strength of the paper is that they have a good focus on the issue that they are investigating, human resource management (HRM) programs. And it is good that they used a mixed methodology to collect data. A weakness of the paper is that it examines a specific location rather then a general view.

Reflection 5: Design research

This week theme was about design research with two different texts. We also had two lectures with the authors of the texts, Haibo Li and Ylva Fernaeus. I couldn’t attend to the lectures, due to sickness, which was unfortunately. But I read what the others have been writing about the lectures to have a better understanding of the topic, I also got information from some course mates.

The lecture with Haibo Li seemed to be a lecture you don’t want to miss. As I understood, it was mainly about how to come up with an idea and develop it and make it real in the best possible way. By conducting a good research paper the research gets a chance to make money of the idea and even get a little bit fame. This sounds really interesting and is a different approach to design research from what I expected. I though the lectures would be more about the texts we have been reading.

I learned a little bit more about the design research concept but did not feel that I got the deeper understanding as I did with the other themes, maybe because I couldn’t attend to the lectures. But the theme design research, made me realize the importance of defining a problem. When a problem is correctly defined, the solution will be easier to see. 

Theme 5: Design research

This weeks text “Comics, Robots, Fashion and Programming: outlining the concept of actDresses” by Ylva Fernaeus and Mattias Jacobsson was about concepts on how to design psychical language for controlling robotic products. The authors explore theories of semiotics in two different fields of comics and fashion. The concept, actDresses is defined and presents three cases of how the concept can be used for controlling, programming and predicting the behaviour of robotic systems.

It was interesting to read about the different cases on how it could be used. The first one was about the electronic pet “pleo” where you could change the outfit of the pet depending on which mood you wanted it to be in. The second one was a behaviour pin collection for Glowbo and the third one was, comic signs for a vacuum robot.

In general I find the topic on Human computer interaction (HCI) very interesting and important. We live in a society where technology is essential in our lives. It is beneficial to see the interaction between humans and technology. There are different artefacts that are being used, and it was interesting to see the interaction with robotic artefacts.

Question for the lesson: When is design research good to use?

The second text we read this week was. “Turn your mobile into the ball: Rendering live football game using vibration”, by Haibo Li and his colleagues. The paper presents a new method rendering live football game on phones using vibration.

Prototype

A prototype in a research is used to demonstrate an idea or collect data for the phenomenon that is being examined. The use of prototypes makes the idea or the concept more concrete by providing a deeper understanding of the idea. It is also good to use a prototype to see the improvements that needs to be done and you can do this in an early stage.

References:

Fernaeus, Y. & Jacobsson, M (2009). Comics, Robots, fashion and Programming: outlining the concept of actDresses. Proceedings of the 3^rd International Conference on Tangible and Embedded Interaction. New York: ACM.

Rehman, S., Sun, J., Liu, L., & Li, H. (2008). Turn your mobile into the ball: Rendering live football game using vibration. IEE Transactions on Multimedia, 10 (6), 1022-1033.

Reflection 4: Quantitative research

This week’s theme on quantitative methods made me reflect on how a quantitative research paper is structured and how to choose the most accurate method for the research your doing.

The seminars helped us to better understand the structure and the importance of different methods. The first seminar on Monday was focused on the quantitative method, where we got the chance to discuses our papers in smaller groups. Everyone told about the method that was used in their paper. Online surveys in form of questionnaires were used in every paper, which was really interesting to see. We also discussed about the different factors of the result and the correlation between them. Later we did a flow chart of the method we choose in our group.

The second seminar on Wednesday with Olle Bälter, were both about quantitative- and qualitative methods. The main focus here was to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of respective method. I usually don’t pay so much attention on the disadvantages of the methods but saw how important it can be.  A more accurate and suitable method can be chosen, by knowing the advantages and disadvantages of the method. Another interesting thing that Bälter discussed was the structure of questionnaires. He told that you could make different mistakes when designing a questionnaire. One difficult point was that a question could be interpreted in different ways, so it is important to have more distinct questions. Also if you are going to do an online survey, it is always good to test it before you send it out to avoid technical problems.

I’ve always been in contact with different forms of quantitative and qualitative methods, through my school years. I thought that I had a good knowledge about the methods but was positively surprised on how much deeper understanding I got through the course. I believe that this knowledge will help me on my future studies to write a more academic paper.

Theme 4: Quantitative research

For this week theme, I choose the same journal as the previously week, “Computer in Human Behavior”. The article that I chose is, “The use of interactive media among today’s youth: Results of a survey” by Antonie Van den Beemt, Sanne Akkerman, Robert-Jan Simons.

The presented study investigates the existence of patterns among youths use of interactive media. The researchers use a quantitative method in form of an online survey. 178 Dutch students between the ages 10 to 23 participated in the online survey. The survey consisted of 23 questions regarding how often they used interactive tools with answer categories of a five –point scale from “never” to “every day”. The survey also contained different predetermined sentences, which allowed the user to answer in form of how much they agreed. The collected data showed diversity in the use of interactive media applications. They divided the data in four different categories according to the behavior of the participations, to indicate the diversity in the interactive media use.  

By using a survey you collect huge amount of data about the specific interest area. The quantitative method allows you to specify and narrow down the answers you like to examine. A main problem with the quantitative method is that it doesn’t answer the question why. Using the survey the researcher only gets answers to, how and when the participants use the interactive media. In the result you can read that the boys played twice as much games as girls. But it doesn’t explain why it is so, which would be necessary for a deeper understanding of the phenomenon.

The text, “Physical Activity, stress, and self-reported Upper respiratory tract infection”, presented a study that examined the correlation between physical activity and stress factor and how they effected the human immune system. The questionnaire was sent to women and men, aged 20-60 year living in middle-sized region in Sweden. The data from the study was presented on a very structured way. The discussion was interesting to read and especially the part about the differences between men and women regarding the relation between stress and psychical activity.

1. Quantitative methods allow you to systematically collect empirical and useful data, summarize it and analyze the result based on the hypothesis. It is beneficial on studies that require larger quantity of data for more accuracy. Though it can be hard to examine the deeper understanding of the object in the study. There is a risk that the study may be too impersonal.

2. Qualitative methods are primarily used to get a deeper understanding of the target audience. The social reality and the data collection are simultaneously being analyzed to capture the people aspect for a further study. Because of its specific nature, the result of the study can differ if it is done in different time, context or focus group.

References

Fondell,E., Lagerros, Y.T., Sundberg, C.J., Lekander, M., Bälter, O., Rothman, K., & Bälter, K. (2010). Physical activity, stress, and self-reported upper respiratory tract infection. Medecine and science in sports and exercise, 43(2), pages: 272-279. 

Van den Beemt.A, Akkerman.S, Simons.R.J (2010), The use of interactive media among today’s youth: Results of a survey ). Computer in Human Behavior, Volume 26, Issue 5, pages: 1158-1165. Available at: http://www.sciencedirect.com.focus.lib.kth.se/science/article/pii/S0747563210000622  

Reflection 3: Research and theory

This week theme was, Theory of science, so the main focus was on theory. What is theory? What is not theory? It was very hard to define what it is, and in many cases it is easier to define what theory is not. When we examined the text “What is theory”, we focused more on what theory is not, rather then what it was.

We read different articles from different journals and discussed them in the seminar groups. It was interesting to see that everyone had different articles but the majority hade similar journals. But no one had the same journal as me, which I felt was a little bit unfortunate because I really wanted to discuss the journal. But the good part was that, we picked the journal and article that I had chosen, to present in the bigger group. The journal was "Computer in human Behavior" and the article was “Who uses Facebook? An investigation into the relationship between the Big Five, shyness, narcissism, loneliness and Facebook usage” written by Tracii Ryan and Sophia Xenos. 

Besides choosing an article, we also needed to examine what kind of theory that was used in the paper. This was discussed in the second seminar, where everyone explained which theory was used in their paper.

This big challenge of this week was for me to find an accurate journal and an article that was related to media technology and had an impact factor of 1.0 or above. I also wanted it to be something that I was interested in. After hours of searching I finally found something that filled the criteria.

This week theme was so far the most giving in the sense of future studies. It made me think about theory in a new perspective. I feel like I got a deeper understanding on what it is and how it can be used.

Theme 3: Research and theory

Journal

I selected the journal, “Computer in Human Behaviour, which is a scholarly journal aiming to examine the use of computers from a more psychological perspective. The journal focuses on human interaction with computers, with a focus on human behaviour. The journal has an impact factor of 2.067 and the 5-year impact factor is 2.489.

The research paper

The research paper that I have chosen is, “Who uses Facebook? An investigation into the relationship between the Big Five, shyness, narcissism, loneliness and Facebook usage” written by Tracii Ryan and Sophia Xenos. The aim of the study is to investigate how different personalities influences usage and non-usage of Facebook and the differences between a user and non-user. According to the research, the social network satisfies the users in different ways depending on their characteristics. Facebook users were more extraverted and narcissistic compered to non-users. People who didn’t use Facebook were more conscientious and lonely than people who did.

Reference:

Journal: Computer in Human Behaviour

Volume 27, Issue 5, September 2011, Pages 1658-1664

Link:

http://www.sciencedirect.com.focus.lib.kth.se/science/article/pii/S0747563211000379

1. Theory can be explained in various ways depending on which field or circumstances it is being used. Theory can be used to explain an idea or phenomenon to get a greater understanding of it.

Sutton I.R and Barry M argues in the text “What theory is not” that it’s easier to describe what theory is rather what it is. They give example of what theory is not: references, data, list and variables or constructs, diagram and hypotheses.

2. It was a research paper where they analysed data from participants. The paper can be categorized as, Analysis (according to table 2 by Gregor), since they are only describing and analysing the data.

3. The benefits with an analysis type are that you answer the question what is. Which is very useful when you are working with a field with very little previous knowledge on. But the limitation is that you don’t get to see how the development will be and how the future will be.

Reflection 2: Critical media studies

Reading the text I found the concept with mass media very interesting and the way they approached the idea. Even though the text is old, you could associate it with modern society. When I read other peoples blog posts, I noticed that many had the same idea about mass media, but in the same time had a different interpretation. I really wanted to discuses the topic with other people to hear about their opinions, so the seminar vas a good opportunity. The discussion went very well and we end up talking about individualism. What is individualism? Does the modern media make us more of individuals? Is this good or bad? And I saw that many people hade different ideas about what individualism could be. You always belong to a group, which makes it impossible to be alone. You are part of a family and you are part of a society.

Another topic that we discussed was the definition of high art. It was really difficult to agree on what high art was. The authors had a cultural elite background, which made them express a very one-sided view on what art is considered to be. Leif Dahlberg told us that the common definition on what art considers being, is things you find in an art gallery. This can in my opinion be problematic due everyone has a different opinion on what art can be. What is considered to be art in an art gallery maybe is not the same for me or vice versa. The definition of art can also differ in different cultures. In some cultures nudity can be accepted as an art form while some other culture sees it as pornographic content. I didn’t feel that we could put a definition on what art could be, but it was really fun to discuss what other define art as.

In overall I feel it was good to get a chance to discuss the texts we hade read and hear other people express there views. I really look forward to the next seminar, to discuss and reflect on different topics.

Theme 2: Critical media studies

1. Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno describe enlightenment as a way of thinking whit no place for the unknown. Mythology and magic is believed to be a result of human fear. With enlightenment human gets liberated from the fear and becomes masters of nature through knowledge of science. According to the authors enlightenment tries to explain nature in order to master it, which makes it a form of myth. By denial of it’s basis enlightenment becomes blind to the connection it has with the mythology.

2. Adorno & Horkheimer argues that mythology is a different form of knowledge that was practiced by people before enlightenment. Myths are not based on definite knowledge and are more of a blind belief. They tend to disenchant a false representation of the world to suppress our fears of the unknown.

3.The book was written a long time ago so the concept of “old” and “new” can differ in modern time. But the main point of their idea of old media is how you can sense the creativity and the originality of the work. It represents a fine art, which according to the authors, new media misses. In new media the main idea is business, which TV and radio is used as the main tool.

4. Culture industry is defined through its focus on the media and mass marketing. The same content of entertainment is distributed to the people. This breaks the unique individual person and makes them standardized consumers. “Films and radio no longer need to present themselves as art. The truth that they are nothing but business is used as an ideology to legitimize the trash the intentionally produce.” (Adorno & Horkheimer) The cultural products that had a meaning lose their touch, affecting the individual.

5. By combining the culture industry with mass media you get the concept mass deception. In some level it is believed that, people are fooled to believe that the advertised artifacts are necessary for their happiness. I understand mass deception as a form of force that tries to control people.

6.  Culture industry and mass deception is two terms that I found interesting. Because it feels like we can relate the terms to modern time. It would be interesting to see the development of mass media.  

Reflection 1: Theory of Science

This week theme was Theory of Science, which also was the first theme of the course. We read “The Problems of Philosophy” by Bernard Russell, who mentioned notions and ideas that I didn’t thought about before.

The most interesting part from the reading in my opinion was, the credibility of a statement. How can we know if a statement that is true or not? I think this is a thought that we can apply in modern time. We live in a society where we always are exposed to information in different forms. How can if the knowledge we have about the information is true or not. Russell argues that you can believe that the knowledge you have on specific information is true but you can never be certain that it is actually true.

It is really a disappointment that we couldn’t have any seminar this week. I would really like to discuses this within a group, to hear what others think about it, beside their blog posts.

Theme 1: Theory of science

1. Russell introduces the notion sense data when he describes human perception of psychical objects. He mean that our perception of the object is related to our sensations such as color, sounds, smells etc. This can differ from person to person, though it is depending on personal experience.  Even if a group of people look at the same object the outcome of what they see will differ in shape, color etc. Their knowledge and experience from before, the angle they stand from and many other aspects will have an important role in their perception of the object. Everyone has a unique perception of what an object is and how they define it and how they distinguish it from other objects.

2. Proposition is explanation of an idea or an object based on the persons own beliefs about the thing, where the statement can either be right or false.

Statement of fact is according to Russell a statement that is more reliable. The reliability of the statement can be measured by number of people that considers the statement valid, but it does not necessarily make the statement correct.

The difference between them is the value of truth that is given them, where statement of fact is more reliable in sense of truth.

3. According to Russell there are two ways of description, ambiguous and definite description.  An ambiguous description will be in the form of  “a so and so” such as “a man” while a definite description will give us “the so and so” which will be “the man with the iron mask”. This provides a better understanding of the object instead of having a general view.

4.How can we know if a statement is true or false? Russell explains that it is difficult to know if a statement is true or false. You can believe that the knowledge you have on specific information is true but you can never be certain that it is actually true.