Virtual Ethnographies Revisited

The last three months of the research process will be the virtual ethnography research method. I will talk to ten students from each of the universities based on the interview pool or if there is attrition in the pool, a new group of students from those who took the survey...

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Surveys Revised

The first method that will be used for this triangulation study will be a survey designed to look at the overall superstructure that defines this online social network. This survey will be designed to observe the individual habits of first-year students with regards to their Facebook usage and the individual's...

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Context of My Research for the IR9.0 Colloquium

The purpose of this proposal is to describe the focus of my dissertation, which will be observing incoming traditional first-year students to Midwestern universities, whose hometowns are small towns and see how those first-year students use Facebook as a coping mechanism. The paper will begin with an in-depth discussion of...

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Theory, Sort of…

A majority of the analysis will come under the theoretical framework already laid out by Jenkins and Rheingold. Henry Jenkins has been a tremendous influence on my work for the past couple of years. "Convergence Culture" is a strong theoretical work and an exemplar of praxis in the field. Jenkins...

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My Research…

After reviewing the literature associated with this field of study, it suggested to me to look at online social networks from the online-offline dynamic. The online-offline dynamic is defined as the ability of an online social network to develop and maintain relationships and transfer those relationships to the real world...

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Coping for First-Year Students on Facebook

I decided to look beyond the fanastic events that can cause users of Facebook to create at deeper level of connection. After finishing my simple analysis of the Virginia Tech shooting, I decided to look at another event that would cause a great deal of stress to students, their first...

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