Costelloe-KuehnMemo17

** b. Study components **
(thanks Aalok, I borrowed heavily)

====__(i) Archival research, studying policy documents:__ I will conduct an extensive review of the literature in the fields of "mainstream" and "independent" media on environmental issues to understand the different historical and sociocultural forces that have structured it. I will study legal and policy documents such as the 1996 FCC Telecommunications Act, the 2003 decision to loosen ownership limits, and recent reversals of these decisions that have shaped the "media ecology" in the U.S. I am not yet familiar with the legal and policy documents that have similarly shaped India's media ecology and will undertake this research summer 2009. Through archival research, I will also examine historical trends in "independent" media, specifically focused on environmental issues. There are also a number of national and international organizations (NGOs, non-profits, etc.) that have historically enabled and constrained environmental media organizations (EMOs) by re-shaping discourses, policies and funding flows. My archival research will also seek to identify different concerns that arise around the "environmental movement," and perhaps more recently movements focused on media issues, in the United States and India. Newspaper and magazine clippings will also be important sources for identifying such issues.====

==== Another purpose for the literature review will be to study vast scholarly literature in media studies, STS, and cultural anthropology that can help illuminate the practices, imaginations, and strucutral contexts of EMOs. ====

==== (ii) Developing questions for ethnographic interviews: A key goal of this study is to understand the individual’s goals, motivations, and experiences relating to their work in EMOs. How do individuals inhabit the intersection of multiple histories, cultures, institutions, policies, and technologies in specific ways? I propose to conduct ethnographic interviews with EMO participants to understand how they describe their experiences of media production and environmental activism. ====

==== The success of ethnographic interviews depends on asking questions that elicit nuanced responses. To achieve this, I will spend a considerable amount of time developing a repertoire of questions that can be used in ethnographic interviews. While a key feature of ethnographic interviews is their open-endedness, well-crafted questions and concrete examples serve as reference points that can contribute significantly to a good interview. I will develop these questions over the summer and fall of 2009 while reading the relevant literature. ====

====I will examine the literature using a grounded theory approach (Glaser and Strauss 1970) that seeks to identify important vocabularies, themes, uncertainties and examples. In keeping with a grounded theory approach, my interview guide will continue to evolve as this study progresses. The interviewing will be organized to directly correlate with the primary aims of this study: //how// and //why// do EMO actors use new media to achieve their goals. The interview guide in the following section demonstrates the type of questions that I will engage during the interview. I will test the interview questions in ten pilot interviews over the summer and fall of 2009 and modify them subsequently based on that experience.====

__ 3. Ethnographic interviews with actors in EMOs __
==== I will conduct a minimum of 64 ethnographic interviews, about two hours in length, for this project. My primary interviewees will be media producers in EMOs based in the U.S. and India, but I will also interview people with a wide variety of expertise that collaborate with these EMOs. Additionally, in order to understand possible effects of the media circulated by EMOs, I will interview various "audiences." Interviews will be conducted face-to-face whenever possible, but I will also conduct interviews over the phone and with various "telepresence" technologies, such as Google Video Chat, especially for follow up interviews. ====

__ 4. Participant observation __
==== I will participate as a volunteer or intern with each of the four primary organizations that I will study: the JATAN Trust, the Deccan Development Society, the Yes Men and Greenpeace. My active participation with these EMOs will enable me to build close relationships, making them rich sites for ethnographic observation. Each site was specifically chosen as a key example that will contribute specific analytic purchase to my main research questions. I will also attend a number of workshops and conferences in India and the U.S. to gain broader insight into emerging trends of the converging media and environmental movements. ====

__5. Data analysis and interpretation__
==== Data analysis in this study will link the primary aims of the study to particular empirical themes in the media studies, STS and cultural anthropology literatures. Ethnographic analysis occurs as data collection progresses, in the manner conceptualized by Corbin and Strauss in terms of “grounded theory.” In some cases, these preliminary insights may be fed back into the practices of the organizations under investigation as exemplified by Tacchi et al. in their "ethnographic action research" methodology for evaluation of community media centers. My primary goals are to understand //why// and //how// different EMO actors mobilize new media technologies to build capacity for addressing complex and critical environmental issues. Interview transcripts and fieldnotes will be coded in order to speak to the various strands of empirical analysis that I want to pursue. ====

==== ***All interviews will be transcribed. The transcripts will be returned to the interviewee for editing and final approval. The approved transcripts will then be uploaded into ATLAS-ti, a qualitative data-analysis software package based on Juliet Corbin and Anselm Strauss’ conception of grounded theory (Strauss and Corbin 1990).** **I will use Atlas-ti to facilitate iterative development of codes in my data analysis. ATLAS-ti can also be used for electronically coding data, to pull out sections of data attached to a particular code, to draw out relationships and identify themes not previously recognized as significant, and to test interpretations as they emerge against new material.*** ==== ==== *(last paragraph a direct quote from Aalok's proposal... To bounce off of it: I don't think I will transcribe all interviews. I will record most interviews, listen through and make notes on time markings, and transcribe the most "relevant" sections. I'm not sure about returning transcripts to the interviewee for final editing and approval, although I think some rich data could be gathered in this process of negotiation and re-working. From the atlas-ti website: "break down your data through coding and build up conceptual frameworks in no time. It's really that easy" - i'm skeptical about the degree to which software can help me build interesting conceptual frameworks... maybe i should read the testimonials...). ====