Costelloe-KuehnMemo11

MEMO: ANNOTATIONS

=a) Slater, Don, Jo A. Tacchi, and Peter A. Lewis. 2002. Ethnographic Monitoring and Evaluation of Community Multimedia Centres: A Study of Kothkale Community Radio Internet Project, Sri Lanka.=

1. What three quotes capture the critical import of the text?
 * This report presents the findings of pilot research to explore new methodological approaches to monitoring and evaluating community multi-media centres (CMCs) in the context of development and poverty reduction.
 * The research responded to an urgent need for richer and deeper knowledge of the socio-cultural processes in which community media projects seek to intervene.
 * The research project had two specific objectives: • to evaluate Kothmale Community Radio Internet Project (KCRIP), Sri Lanka, focusing particularly on the conjuncture of new and old media; • to develop and pilot a new approach to evaluation research.
 * It is an evaluation of a specific community multi-media center and an evaluation of an evaluation strategy (ethnographic action research).

2. What is the main argument of the text? Practical:
 * This report makes the case that a broad-based qualitative research approach – ‘ethnographic action research’ – can provide a reliable foundation for assessing CMC operations, for diagnosing issues and opportunities, and for recommending strategies and solutions.
 * KCRIP should be given more "autonomy."

3. Describe at least three ways that the main argument is supported.

4. Describe the main literatures that the text draws on and contributes to.

5. Explain how the argument and evidence in the text supports, challenges or otherwise relates to the argument or narrative that you imagine developing.
 * The text is very empirically-based and is oriented as a policy piece.
 * It does not seem to explore any "big questions" or contribute very much conceptually or theoretically. It's main contribution is methodological.
 * If I were to do a more policy-focused, evaluation-type approach, this study would be a very good model. Some of the authors have also produced a "Handbook of Ethnographic Action Research" with some good methodological tips. I like the idea of creating a "research culture" that distributes the ethnographic authority, to some degree, among the "subjects." For this kind of work, it also makes sense to map out the "media ecology" in which the CMC operates.

6. List of at least three details or examples from the text that you can use to support the argument or narrative that you are developing.
 * The DJs that hold the station together are extremely dedicated. What drives them to volunteer so many hours and so much of their relatively scarce resources to this project? A sense of community and meaning? A sense of doing something good for their neighbors? Attraction to sexy technology?

=b) Fortun, Kim. 2001. //Advocacy after Bhopal : environmentalism, disaster, new global orders//. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.=

1. What three quotes capture the critical import of the text?

2. What is the main argument of the text?
 * Received notions of "advocacy" are unsettled by ethnographic analysis of their actual practices and strategies.
 * "Bhopal" is understood by different enunciatory communities very differently, ranging from a 5 minute event involving a single disgruntled employee to an instance that only makes sense in the context of new global orders, grossly uneven distributions of risk and reward and access to information, etc.

3. Describe at least three ways that the main argument is supported.
 * conceptual/theoretical contribution: enunciatory communities.

4. Describe the main literatures that the text draws on and contributes to.
 * Double binds
 * ethnography/advocacy
 * community
 * globalization

5. Explain how the argument and evidence in the text supports, challenges or otherwise relates to the argument or narrative that you imagine developing.
 * Ethnographic approach: how do advocates make sense of their world through writing practices? How can we better understand the ways in which they orient themselves in discursive space by analyzing their writing? I could employ a similar approach by focusing on media production.
 * Combination of ethnography and advocacy.

6. List of at least three details or examples from the text that you can use to support the argument or narrative that you are developing.

=c) Anderson, Benedict. 1991. //Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism// . London: Verso.=

1. What three quotes capture the critical import of the text?

2. What is the main argument of the text?
 * Shared imaginaries of "nation" are largely produced through the collective consumption of media. When people that do not interact face to face read the same newspaper, for example, they feel unified.

3. Describe at least three ways that the main argument is supported.

4. Describe the main literatures that the text draws on and contributes to.
 * Community
 * Nation
 * Anthropology

5. Explain how the argument and evidence in the text supports, challenges or otherwise relates to the argument or narrative that you imagine developing.
 * What other communities could be imagined and created through the collective consumption //and production// of alternative media?

6. List of at least three details or examples from the text that you can use to support the argument or narrative that you are developing.