Ok here we go i hope its up to your standards
still working on the intro
[Have you ever wondered why you do your hair like that? Have you ever wondered why you wear those certain clothes? Have you ever wondered why you want that body? Have you ever wondered why you think the way you do?]
Good morning/afternoon Delany College staff. Today I will be talking to you about my proposal on my Personal Interest Project which is the main element of uniqueness of the Society and Culture course. A Personal Interest Project or PIP is a focus topic of my choosing which correlates with the Society and Culture HSC course. The PIP requires primary and secondary research to justify the hypothesis of the focus topic. It is essential that the focus topic relates to several of the Society and Culture concepts which are Culture, Persons, Environment, Time, Power, Authority, Gender and Technology. A cross culture comparison is also a vital component of the PIP as it gives a perspective other then your own on the focus topic.
So it
's term 4 and the Society and Culture preliminary course has just finished and
you're ready to start on your PIP but there’s only one problem, you don’t know what to choose. Before even thinking about the PIP
, you must figure out a general area of interest. The general area of interest that I have chosen on my PIP is the media. The media affects every individual in every society. The media includes television, magazines, newspaper, radio and the increasingly growing internet. Through my general area of interest
, I am going to study the influences the media has on socialisation. Socialisation is the process by which individuals learn to adopt behaviour patterns in their societies. From this I came up with the topic sentence of “Social Norms Manufactured by the Media”.
Now we're up to the “why?” factor. Why would I choose the chosen topic you say
. Well there are specific aims and goals which I hope to achieve at the completion of my Personal Interest Project. My first goal would be completing my PIP, but in all seriousness I would want to advance to become a social and cultural literate person. To become a social and cultural literate person is not an easy task as you must endeavour to empathise with many diverse individuals who are of different culture, age, gender, location or experience and be familiar with your personal and cultural identity. Another aim I have is to uncover truths about media practice and discover how and why they perpetuate certain images to construct social norms.
My topic statement “Social Norms Manufactured by the Media” relates to several of the Society and Culture concepts. These include:
o Technology. Technology refers to the tools that makes tasks easier and improves the aptitude of persons in performing those tasks. This relates to my PIP due to the fact that as technology increases,
more people are exposed to the media. Since media is around us and communicates information to us on a daily basis, more information sticks to us and social norms are formed.
Social Norms are the rules for how people should act in a given group or society. Any behaviour that is outside these norms is considered abnormal. Through the increase in technology, the media is now capable to implement these social norms in any shape or form.
o Power. Power is the influence someone or something has which brings others to do something which they wouldn’t normally do. The media is one of the greatest source of power as it is every where you look
, ranging from the television and newspapers to billboards and the internet. The media someway or another influences us to purchase products or do things which we wouldn’t even consider on doing.
There are many other concepts in which my topic relates to but Technology and Power are the main concepts which I can associate with “Social Norms Manufactured by the Media”.
My cross-cultural component of my PIP will include first hand experience as I will be visiting Lebanon. For my cross-cultural comparison I will be investigating the media exposure in both Australia and Lebanon and how it influences socialisation. Through the cross-cultural comparison, one of the two selected countries would be more exposed to the media and its influences on socialisation then the other, which then I would make a clear distinction and comparison of both countries.
To be able to do all of what I have stated previously I must conduct primary research using methodologies which are appropriate for my study. The first methodology that I am going to employ to conduct my research will be a Questionnaire. There are many positive aspects of using a questionnaire as it provides both quantitative and qualitative research. It also can provide information to a vast group in a short period time. However there are also negative aspects to it as it is very time consuming to analyse a large amount of questionnaires also due to personal opinion some may include bias of some sort. Content analysis will also be used as the media comes in many different shapes. Content Analysis involves reading, watching or listening to specific material that will assist me in my topic of “Social Norms Manufactured by the Media”. With content analysis there is an enormous variety of texts to choose from and most likely the text that will be chosen would be enjoyable to read, watch or listen to. Though content analysis is very complex as it requires you to systematically process what you’re examining to interpret it correctly.
Lastly I will use covert and overt observation. Covert observation is the practice of observing people in secret and an advantage to this is that you will be able to see how people act in their natural state; on the other hand it would be quite unethical. Overt Observation is the practice of people observing people while they are aware of this which would be ethical however people tend to act artificial which is a great downfall.
After completing the primary research through these methodologies I must now discover secondary research which would help justify my hypothesis. There are many resources which I am going to use
for my secondary research. I am going to start off with the Internet as it can start researching the fundamentals of my focus topic. The internet has an extensive assortment of information which would be valuable for my PIP. In seconds I will be able to find
information which would assist me in validating my theory about the influences of the media on socialisation but the reliability of the majority of the sources on the internet are pooras I could get information from anyone who owns a computer.
Newspapers will also be useful to my secondary research as I must follow up what is going around the world in contemporary society to create an accurate PIP but
newspapers unfortunately aren’t completely truthful and the bias which some newspapers may include might make some elements of my PIP imprecise. Documentaries of the media and its power to influence socialisation are also good for my secondary research as they had to investigate the matter however there would be a sense of bias towards the media.
Finally would be the use of Books specifically the books from the State Library which would be extremely vital for my study. Books are quite frankly the most reliable source for secondary research as they have been intensively reviewed before they are published to confirm they are correct.
These are the fundamentals of a Personal Interest Project but now it is time to talk about my progress on my PIP. As soon as we were given time to think about our general area of interest and topic for the PIP nothing clicked to me. I could not think of anything to do which was really straining me. After several changes of the topic I thought that, if I’m going to do this for a year I’m going to do something that I genuinely love. Then I came up with the question of “How the media influences socialisation” which then turned into the topic statement of “Social Norms Manufactured by the Media”. At the beginning of the PIP my progress was horrible as I found it completely difficult to choose a topic and stick with it. After finally choosing a topic I feel that my progress has vastly improved as I am nearly finished completing my introduction to my PIP. As soon as I chose this topic there has been an
endless zeal to finish my PIP as there are so many things to write about “Social Norms Manufactured by the Media”
