BU Research Blog

Hi colleagues,

For the last two and a half years, we have been running regular research seminars in the Faculty of Media and Communication. These are 60 min research seminars focussed on the process of doing research – particularly research methods but also including publishing, writing, time management etc. The idea here is that the speaker takes us through the anatomy of the project focussing particularly on the data collection and method – the challenges, the successes, and the failures. For the audience, we walk away with a practical application of a method we may not be familiar with or may not have applied in this way before.

Due to the pandemic, we have moved all of the upcoming seminars online. The benefit of this is that we are now not restricted by the size of the room, and so we can invite colleagues from across the university to attend. The schedule until the end of June is below, with links to each seminar that takes you to MS Teams – note you do not need to be in a particular Team for this link to work.

All you need to do is click on the corresponding link when the seminar is scheduled (and mute yourself while the speaker is presenting!).

If you would like to give a talk on an aspect of method or research process, then drop us a line

Dan Jackson and Sae Oshima, FMC

Thurs 30th April

2:00-3:00PM

Link to recording: https://web.microsoftstream.com/video/837954ed-65f0-4c77-806f-1bea96c544dd

Dr Roman Gerodimos (FMC)

Visual Content Analysis – A flexible framework for the systematic analysis of images

In this workshop Roman will share a working method for the content analysis of images based on his recent projects. While content analysis of text is well-established in media, social and political studies, many researchers are reluctant to engage in visual analysis and there is no systematic framework for the coding of images.

The presentation will include a demonstration of specific examples of coding sheets/manuals and ways of analysing and interpreting visual data.

Are you interested in the analysis of images? Have you thought of including images in your primary research? Are you already in the midst of collecting, coding or analysing images? Do you have previous experience and lessons to share with others? If so, this session might be of value to you.

There will be some time for individual work, so by all means do bring your laptop and any project(s) that you’re currently working on.

Tues 5th May

2:00-3:00PM

MS TEAMS meeting invite here

Dr Xin Zhao (FMC)

Doing a justice-related survey in China

I will introduce the survey I used in my ongoing research on the indirect impact of digital media use on online collective political action via the social identity model of collective action. It is conducted in the context of China’s air pollution. The research aims to clarify the mediating role of the element of justice in the model between media use and collective action. I will share with you how I: 1) design what survey questions to be included, 2) phrase the survey questions due to the limitations of Chinese-language survey platforms and China’s socio-cultural environment, 3) collect, analyse, and report the data. Moreover, the designing of some variables is exploratory due to the facts that 1) the patterns of digital media use in China are quite unique and 2) patterns of online collective political action are far from established. I would love to hear your opinions as well.

Tues 12th May

2:00-3:00PM

MS TEAMS meeting invite here

Prof Julian McDougall (FMC)

Visual Methods: Doing Text 

In this workshop I will share my experiences using visual methods with research participants to ‘curate’ the role of media texts in reflections on identity, politics and personal narrative. The specific project I’ll talk about, ‘Comrades and Curators’, was funded by the Bill Douglas Museum in Exeter. The visual literacy fieldwork intervention I will describe involved three museum curators and a film academics’ network  ‘mapping’ their mediated identities and curational practices with a particular focus on personal and professional transformations.  The method is transferable to any research which explores the interplay of personal experience and public identity (for example, education) and, in other projects, I have done this remotely, by asking participants to send me photos of their maps, so I think it could be ‘pandemic friendly’, if that’s a thing.

Thurs 21st May

2:00-3:00PM

MS TEAMS meeting invite here

Dr Andrea Jarman (FMC)

The Invention of ‘Legal Archaeology’

In this Workshop, I will  examine the political and scholarly context of the historical method of ‘Legal Archaeology’ and its development into a ‘methodology’ of legal research.   The paper will  discuss the scholarly and ideological background to the method, which was influenced by scholars such as  EP Thompson and JAG Griffith, and its importance for growth of law-in-context scholarship.  It will argue that the emergence of ‘legal archaeology’ as a methodology is founded upon two coinciding developments — the digitisation of legal archives and the new requirement both in the US and UK for legal scholars to have PhDs.

The paper will explore, and seek discussion with the participants about, the potential pitfalls for scholarship of legal archival material being readily, yet still selectively, available.

Tues 26th May 

2:00-3:00PM

MS TEAMS meeting invite here

Dr Birte Asmuß (Associate Professor, Department of Management, Aarhus University, Denmark)

Analysing emotional displays in interaction

This presentation builds upon work that I conducted together with my colleague Johanna Ruusuvuori (a professor in social psychology at the University of Tampere, Finland), on the importance of emotional displays at work. In this seminar, I will show how we used the method of conversation analysis to investigate vocal and non-vocal affective displays as a prerequisite for accomplishing work-related actions – in the context of employee complaints during performance appraisal interviews. I will then discuss the role of affective displays as managing social relational aspects of institutional interaction, as well as some methodological problems related to the analysis of emotions in interaction.

Tues 2nd June

2:00-3:00PM

MS TEAMS meeting invite here

Dr Alina Dolea (FMC)

Critical Discourse Analysis

During this seminar I will apply CDA to a corpus of focus groups data to investigate how Romanian migrants in the UK construct their identity, social status and country images. I will focus on the strategies to construct representation of us (ingroups) versus them (outgroups).

This is part of a paper that I am working on “Diaspora Diplomacy in a transnational social field: constructing identities, social status and country images” (working title). This paper aims to explore how migrants construct their identity and social status in the country of settlement in relation to their image of the country of origin. It draws on seven focus groups with Romanian migrants in the UK between 2018 and 2019.

Tues 9th June

2:00-3:00PM

MS TEAMS meeting invite here

Dr Sae Oshima (FMC)

Transcribing: the conversation analytic approach

The practice of transcription is a key process of conversation analytic research. Here, we capture not only “what” is said but also details of “how” something is said, e.g. the precise beginning/ending of turns, speaker overlap, pause duration, as well as other vocal features such as breath and laughter. In this session I’ll go over key conventions for transcribing vocal conduct, and then briefly share how I transcribe visible behaviour such as gaze, gesture, facial expression and body posture. The fidelity and level of detail of conversational transcripts may vary, depending on your research needs, but I hope the session will provide a space for you to enhance your observational skills and reflect on your own use of transcriptions.

Tues 16th June

2:00-3:00PM

MS TEAMS meeting invite here

Dr Kenneth Kang (FMC)

Switching around the Constants and Variables in Analysis

This research seminar proposes an innovative switch to the way we position constants and variables when analysing our object of study. Normally, analysis indicates the problem as a given (constant), and then searches for a variety of possible solutions for the same problem. Though this schema is useful for documenting actualized solutions to a given problem, it nevertheless tells us very little about the dynamic property of a particular solution, i.e. how a solution actually works – which is of analytical use in its own right. As an innovative way forward, this seminar suggests that when things fall short, perhaps it is more rewarding not to look for variable solutions to problems, but to temporarily ask instead, which variable problems do constant solutions function to solve? From this perspective, an entirely new dimension of complexity comes into play because analysis no longer situates itself with some kind of equilibrium model or normative orientation. Rather, we enter a problem-oriented mode of analysis which aligns itself with a much more empirical or heuristic quality, and with that, to an opening of cutting-edge multidisciplinary research.

To illustrate the analytical value of this conceptual exercise, this research seminar will employ case studies ranging from romantic love, to international environmental law, and to the risk management of Covid-19.

Tues 30th June

2:00-3:00PM

MS TEAMS meeting here

Alexandra Alberda & Dr Anna Feigenbaum (FMC)

Research illustration & design-led Knowledge Exchange 

Abstract TBC