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March 2008

My updated proposal for my final in T&P II

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After sleeping on it and waking up to some good points made by a reader, I have reevaluated my proposal (which is due as a part of my midterm today) to narrow down the focus and make it more doable within the amount of time I have both in the semester as well as in real life to get it done.

Midterm question:
Write on your proposal for a term project utilizing theories and experience.

My Answer:
Theoretically I intend to take a structuralism approach to symbolic/interpretative anthropology to uncover the underlying structure of how people view the Internet in politically symbolic terms. Also, to understand how people give meaning to the cyber-political world around them as well as how they then express this meaning through their own cultural symbols within online communities. To do this I propose to do a short quantitative and qualitative study investigating how people view the Internet in politically symbolic terms, what meaning they give those terms, and how they use those terms within the online communities they participate in.

Proposal for Thought and Praxis II

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This is my proposal for my final presentation of Thought and Praxis II in my Applied Anthropology Masters program at University of North Texas:

I propose to find out whether or not the Internet has an influence on voters through access to information on new sites such as CNN, Fox News, BBC, NYTimes Online, Salon etc as well as access to other voters in public communities such as YouTube, Twitter, Digg, Livejournal, MySpace and Facebook etc. I will also seek to establish a demographic and socioeconomic status of those that feel the Internet is an influencer versus those who do not find it to be so. For those that do not find it to be so, I will seek to find what predominate media forms influence them and why they do not utilize the Internet for this information. Theoretically I intend to take a structuralism approach to symbolic/interpretative anthropology to uncover the underlying structure of how people view the Internet in politically symbolic terms. Also, to understand how people give meaning to the cyber-political world around them as well as how they then express this meaning through their own cultural symbols within these online communities.

Now let’s see if I can pull it off! No better day to start than today – being the Texas Primaries!

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