Atlas.ti Coding Software Log in

Here's the coding software we chose at work that I'm experimenting with at work. Here are some instructions to log in on the macs.

Atlas.ti Abridged How to:
1. Press the power button, while simultaneously holding down the ‘option’ button on the keyboard.
2. Chose the HD Icon
3. Let windows open, chose the gameslab account, the password is gt173
4. Windows will finish opening, Atlas.ti is under ‘Programs’, ‘Scientific Software’, Atlas.ti_6.

Updated Research Proposal - V7

“Exergames and Female Representations: Implications for Adolescent Females”
Research Proposal

Introduction
Video games represent prominent cultural media influencing daily lives with more and more youth and adults playing games regularly. More than 53 percent of adults, age 18 and above play video games, and about one fifth of those play every day. About 97 percent of American teens play video games (PIP, 2009). Similar to traditional media forms such as television, magazines and newspapers, video games are not neutral products or communication means. They portray social mores and ideals inherent in their given societies, making them ideal test beds to investigate cultural representations and societal reproductions.
Much work has been done on the social and cultural representations and impacts of those representations through traditional media (Hall, 1997; Byrd-Bredbenner, 2003). More recently, researchers have investigated the cultural and social representations and impacts through newer media forms such as video games (Wilson & Peterson, 2002; Beasely & Standley, 2002). However, little is known about the cultural and identity representations and their impacts on audiences through exergames, a fairly new and quickly emerging genre of video games.
Exergames are games that encourage physical activity, movement and kinesthetic learning – meaning they encourage full body movement and knowledge making. Although exergames require different playing styles than traditional video games, the social practices in video game play, and the culturally rooted nature of exergames and their effects on audiences, particularly young women, is an important area of exploration (Dubels, 2009; Buckingham, 2008). The purpose of this study is to investigate female representations in exergames through feminist theoretical lens, and the implications of these representations for adolescent females. Specifically, this study will investigate the implications of these representations on identity, self-esteem, self-efficacy, engagement and motivation in female adolescent gamers. This study will offer important considerations of female representations in popular cultural media, such as video games and the emerging exergame arena. The research questions guiding this study are as follows

1. How are females represented physically, emotionally, intellectually, agency, in the top-selling exergames?
2. How do representations of females in exergames affect female adolescent players? (emotional affect, identidy, power, agency, self-efficacy, self-esteem, motivation in playing game).

Literature Review
There have been numerous studies documenting the representation of the female body in traditional media and the negative impacts those representations have on the body image, self-esteem and self-perception in the American female population, particularly in adolescents (Byrd-Bredbenner, 2003).
In comparison to the average American women, women across all spectrums of the media are increasingly represented as disproportionate in body size (usually being too thin and with large busts). These representations can have numerous negative implications for females who aspire to those body proportions and are therefore unhappy with themselves and their body images if they cannot achieve those proportions.
Much of the scholarly work on female representations in the media has generally covered television and traditional print media such as magazines and newspapers. However, more work continues to emerge regarding the same considerations of female representations in newer media such as video games. For example, Beasely and Standley (2002) analyzed 597 video game characters and discovered a significant gender bias in representation of these characters with more male characters to choose from, and the majority of female characters in hyper sexualized clothing that exposed more skin than their male counterparts.
Video games represent prominent cultural media influencing daily lives. In fact, video games represent a prominent socialization feature in many American lives, especially children. Additionally, the engaging, hand-on experience of video games that offer users a more interactive environment that traditional media, can potentially impact audiences all the more, both negatively and positively, because the immersive experience feels more real (Beaseley & Standley, 2002; Royse et al., 2007). Like other media, video games portray social mores and ideals inherent in their given societies. Further, video games offer opportunities for identity construction, particularly in relation to “gendered identities” (Royse et al., 2007), making them important artifacts in which to study these dynamics. While considerable research has documented the social and cultural representations of women and their effects on identity formation in traditional media, more research continues to investigate these similar issues within video games (Wilson & Peterson, 2002, Byrd-Bredbenner, 2003). However, little is known about the cultural and identity representations and impacts of exergames, a fairly new and quickly emerging genre of video games.
Identity construction through video games, particularly exergames
Adolescence marks an important time for youth and their formation of identity. During this time, youth develop their one sense of self, become more aware of their abilities, strengths and weaknesses, and begin to celebrate their unique character qualities. However, while identity is developed individually, it is impacted, negotiated and confirmed through social interactions with others (Buckingham, 2008; Ericksen, 1968).
This important period of identity formation is especially critical in adolescent females, who are overwhelmingly susceptible to idealized body images portrayed throughout the media (Byrd-Bredbenner, 2003). Female adolescents are also introduced to certain “female” qualities and gendered performances through video games and exergames, making female representations in exergames an important area of exploration.
On one hand, video games and exergames offer youth opportunities to explore identity formation and creations, often allowing players to create or “try on” their own character through body size, clothing and even characteristics. This flexibility in “identity play” is important, but still garners a closer look. If character options are limited or help to propagate negative female representations, especially idealized body size and image, this is an important area of consideration.
Understanding Games Through a Feminist Lens
It is important to examine female representations in video games, particularly exergames, through a feminist theoretical lens feminist theory seeks to investigate the oppression and domination of any subjugated person or group, including women, African Americans and homosexuals (Foss, Foss & Griffin, 2004). Feminist scholars such as Judith Butler and Donna Harroway, provide important insights regarding identity formation and performance as it pertains to women and gendered experiences.
Butler’s (1993) theory of performitivity posits that an individual’s identity and performance of that identity (behavior), is based upon social and ritualized controls, including someone’s gender and preference. Donna Harroway (1991) suggests that people experience and “read” the world through coded and socially determined “texts” in technology. Video games, including exergames, demonstrate non-neutral social artifacts that encourage and propagate social norms that in turn affect their players. Players perform certain behaviors and gender roles through the characters they create and through which they play the game.





Research Design
My study will explore female representations in exergames and their impacts on adolescent females through a feminist theoretical framework. This section will outline the primary research questions guiding this study, as well as my reasons for conducting a qualitative investigation using several methods with in the qualitative approach.
The research questions guiding my research design are as follows:
1. How are females represented in the top-selling exergames?
2. How do representations of females in exergames affect female adolescent players (looking at specific things like self-efficacy, self-esteem and motivation?

Qualitative Investigation
I will use a strong qualitative approach in this study, because this approach will best answer my research questions. Qualitative research projects typically investigate a problem inductively with the focus on the individual to better understand the complexity of a specific situation (Creswell, 2009).
My study will bring together several qualitative strategies to better investigate my research questions, focus groups, one-one interviews, observations, and individual blogging and video artifacts (similar to journal entries). I plan to first perform textual analysis of female representations in the top 5 exergames in the US. Next, I will collect interview, observation, blog/video diary data regarding the gameplay of these participants to investigate identity, self-esteem, motivation and other social factors involved in playing such games. Individual and focus groups (with group split into 2 groups) interviews will take place throughout the study, beginning, middle and end, to ensure research participant responses on exergame play are adequately captured.

Theoretical Framework Guiding Investigation
I will examine the female representations in exergames and their impacts on players through a feminist theoretical framework. Specifically, I will apply Judith Butler’s (1993) theory of performitivity in which she posits that an individual’s identity and performance of that identity (behavior), is based upon social and ritualized controls. I will also draw on Donna Harraway’s (1991) arguments regarding people experiencing and reading the world through coded and socially determined “texts” in technology. David Buckingham’s (2008) theory of identity formation through new technology will also provide a valuable framework with which to investigate the impacts of these female representations on the identity formation of adolescent females.

Researcher Roles
In a qualitative study, the researcher is an active participant. As the primary researcher in this study, I will server an active participant-observer role, playing games with research participants at times to better understand their game play activities and responses to the selected exergames. I will be leading research sessions, observing and interviewing participants, designing questions for their blog/video diary responses and chatting with them on their gameplay experiences over breakfast and breaks.

Participants/Recruitment
I will recruit a convenience sample 6-8 adolescent females, age 12-14, from the university community and partnerships through the NMSU Learning Games Lab where I am a research coordinator. I will use several qualitative approaches with textual analysis of interviews, observation and blog/video diaries regarding the gameplay of these participants to investigate identity, self-esteem, motivation and other social factors involved in playing such games. I will run the research similar to other LGL research sessions with structured research activities including targeted gameplay, discussion and individual responses to gameplay. Research participants will meet in the NMSU Learning Games Lab, two Saturdays in February 2010 for four hours each day.

Data Collection
The data collection for this study will occur in 2 phases. First I will do a textual analysis of the five, top-selling exergames in the US, specifically investigating the female representations in these titles.
Next, I will conduct two research sessions with participants in which I will observe exergame play with these exergames, specifically noting player comments, reactions, feedback, character design, etc. Using a structured agenda, players will engage in timed activities to ensure they play the selected games (2-3 a day) for about 30 minutes each to adequately experience and become comfortable with the game. Also, the agenda will ensure time for discussion and and responses regarding gameplay activities including responses via their blog and video diaries. Sample questions will include the following:
Describe the games you played today? What were the 3 best things about this game?

What are 3 things you would improve about this game?
How would you describe the character selection in this game? How did effect your gameplay?
Additionally, I will conduct focus groups with these participants, splitting them up into two groups to better collect feedback and illicit responses from all participants.
Finally, I will conduct one-on-one interviews with all the research participants the final day of the research session, using the peer-reviewed questionnaire (Appendix XX).

Equipment and Facilities
The research will take place in NMSU’s Learning Games Lab, a research facility created to investigate gaming preferences and trends for the Media Productions group, which develops educational games for a variety of audiences. The group keeps the lab well equipped with the latest gaming technology and software. Additionally, the LGL staff are accustomed to running research sessions with a variety of audiences regularly, making this an ideal space to complete this type of research. Most recently, the group was funded to investigate the physical and psychosocial impacts of exergames, so researchers purchased the most recent exergames on the market to test on audiences, so the most recent exergames will be available to test on my research participants.

Human Subjects/IRB Compliance
Research participants will be asked to carefully evaluate and sign an IRB-approved, consent form describing the purpose of the research, as well as the potential risks and benefits of their participation in the study.

Limitations and Restrictions to Research Design and Subject Pool
Because I am using a convenience sample, the backgrounds of my research subjects will be limited, and will not be an accurate representation of a larger sample. The backgrounds of my subjects will likely be similar geographically, economically and racially, as many will be recruited from the university community. They will likely be predominantly white, with parents who are a part of the university setting and likely educated within that setting.

However, given this limited pool of research subjects, this study will likely offer interesting results for further exploration and research opportunities.


Significance
What I will do in the future…
Think about how it will benefit me – where this will lead in my career – how this will feed my dissertation, I think this will contribute to the body of game theory, feminist approaches to new media…

Research Proposal Draft

“Exergames and Female Representations: Implications for Adolescent Females”
Research Proposal

Introduction
Video games represent prominent cultural media influencing daily lives with more and more youth and adults playing games regularly. More than 53 percent of adults, age 18 and above, play video games, and about one fifth of those play every day. About 97 percent of American teens play video games (PIP, 2009). Similar to traditional media forms such as television, magazines and newspapers, video games are not neutral products or communication means. They portray social mores and ideals inherent in their given societies, making them ideal test beds to investigate cultural representations and societal reproductions.

Much work has been done on the social and cultural representations and impacts of those representations through traditional media (Hall, 1997; Byrd-Bredbenner, 2003). More recently, researchers have investigated the cultural and social representations and impacts through newer media forms such as video games (Wilson & Peterson, 2002). However, little is known about the cultural and identity representations and their impacts on audiences through exergames, a fairly new and quickly emerging genre of video games.

Exergames are games that encourage physical activity, movement and kinesthetic learning. Although exergames require different playing styles than traditional video games, the social practices in video game play, and the culturally rooted nature of exergames and their effects on audiences, particularly young women, is an important area of exploration (Dubels, 2009; Buckingham, 2008). The purpose of this study is to investigate female representations in exergames, and the implications of these representations for adolescent females. Specifically, this study will investigate the implications of these representations on identity, self-esteem, self-efficacy, engagement and motivation in female adolescent gamers. This study will offer important considerations of female representations in popular cultural media, such as video games and the emerging exergame arena. The research questions guiding this study are as follows

1. How are females represented physically, emotionally, intellectually, agency, in the top-selling exergames?
2. How do repesentations of females in exergames affect female adolescent players? (emotional affect, identidy, power, agency)
3. How do these representations affect specific things like self-efficacy, self-esteem and motivation?










Literature Review
There have been numerous studies documenting the representation of the female body in traditional media and the negative impacts those representations have on the body image, self-esteem and self-perception in the American female population, particularly in adolescents (Byrd-Bredbenner, 2003). In comparison to the average American women, women across all spectrums of the media are increasingly represented as disproportionate in body size (usually being too thin and with large busts). These representations can have numerous negative implications for females who aspire to those body proportions and are therefore unhappy with themselves and their body images if they cannot achieve those proportions.

Def. of body image from Byrd-Bredbenner??
Definition of self-esteem, identity, self-efficacy??

XXX is defined as…

Much of the work on female representations in the media has generally covered television and traditional print media such as magazines and newspapers. However, more work continues to emerge regarding the same considerations of female representations in newer media such as video games.

Video games represent prominent cultural media influencing daily lives. Like other media, video games portray social mores and ideals inherent in their given societies. While considerable research has documented the social and cultural representations of women and their effects in traditional media, and more recently, research has turned to similar issues surrounding video games (Wilson & Peterson, 2002, Byrd-Bredbenner, 2003). However, little is known about the cultural and identity representations and impacts of exergames, a fairly new and quickly emerging genre of video games.

Why identity construction through video games, particularly exergames, is important:

Adolescence marks an important time for youth and their formation of identity. During this time, youth develop their one sense of self, become more aware of their abilities, strengths and weaknesses, and begin to celebrate their unique character qualities. However, while identity is developed individually, it is impacted, negotiated and confirmed through social interactions with others (Buckingham, 2008; Ericksen, 1968). This important period of identity formation is especially critical in adolescent females, who are overwhelmingly susceptible to idealized body images portrayed throughout the media (Byrd-Bredbenner, 2003). Female adolescents are also introduced to certain “female” qualities through video games and exergames, making female representations in exergames an important area of exploration.

On one hand, video games and exergames offer youth opportunities to explore identity formation and creations, often allowing players to create or “try on” their own character through body size, clothing and even characteristics. This flexibility in “identity play” is important, but still garners a closer look. If character options are limited or help to propagate negative female representations, especially idealized body size and image, this is an important area to consider.

Identity Performance/Performitivity:
Judith Butler

Technolgoy NOT neutral and especially not video games.
Even so, there are some important limitations to all this. Media content is, of course, not
necessarily neutral or reliable: it represents the world in particular ways and not others, and
it does so in ways that tend to serve the interests of its producers. Activities such as chat and
game play are heavily bound by systems of rules, even if the rules are not always explicitly
taught and even if they can sometimes be broken or bent. The structure or “architecture”
of software itself (for example, of links on the Internet) imposes very significant constraints
on the ways in which it can be used. And the social worlds that users enter into as they
participate in these activities are by no means necessarily egalitarian or harmonious. For all
these reasons, we need to be wary of simply celebrating young people’s “informal” experiences
of media and technology, and there are good reasons to be cautious about the idea of simply
extending those experiences into the more “formal” context of the school.
























Research Design
My study will explore female representations in exergames and their impacts on adolescent females. This section will outline the primary research questions guiding this study, as well as my reasons for conducting a qualitative investigation using the case study approach in comparison to other methods.

The research questions guiding my research design are as follows:
1. How are females represented in the top-selling exergames?
2. How do representations of females in exergames affect female adolescent players?
3. How do these representations affect specific things like self-efficacy, self-esteem and motivation?

Qualitative Investigation
My study will be qualitative in nature because this approach will best answer my research questions.
Site MacNealy and Creswell hwere
A lot of it asks us to interpret what we see – some of the

Case Study
Case studies represent one approach corresponding to qualitative research and often encompass several data collection techniques including focus groups, journals, interviews, observations, etc. (get source on this).
Creswell, MacNealy
Context is key here

This project which

For my project, I plan to first perform a textual analysis of female representations in the top 10 exergames (best selling) in the U.S. I will also collect interview, observation, blog/video diary data regarding the gameplay of these participants to investigate identity, self-esteem, motivation and other social factors involved in playing such games.

Individual interview with girls, split them into 2 focus groups and textual analysis of blog and video artifacts.

Researcher Roles
In a qualitative study, the researcher is an active participant….
I will be leading research sessions, interviewing participants, designing questions for their blog/video diary responses…


Participants/Recruitment
I will recruit a convenience sample 6-8 adolescent females, age 12-14, from the university community and partnerships through the NMSU Learning Games Lab where I am a research coordinator. I will use a case study approach with textual analysis of interviews, observation and blog/video diaries regarding the gameplay of these participants to investigate identity, self-esteem, motivation and other social factors involved in playing such games. I will run the research similar to other LGL research sessions with structured research activities including targeted gameplay, discussion and individual responses to gameplay. Research participants will meet four hours a day on weekdays over a 2-week period.

Data Collection
The data collection for this study will occur in 2 phases. First I will do a textual analysis of the 10 top selling exergames in the US, specifically investigating the female representations in these titles. Next, I will run a two-week session with research participants in which I will observe daily exergame play with these exergames, specifically noting player comments, reactions, feedback, character design, etc. I will also have structured questions regarding their gameplay activities for participants to respond to each day via their blog and video diary. Sample questions will include the following:
Describe the games you played today? What were the 3 best things about this game?

What are 3 things you would improve about this game?

How would you describe the character selection in this game? How did effect your gameplay?


Theoretical Framework Guiding Investigation
The main theories guiding my research design will be as follows:
• Performitivity (Judith Butler)
• Identity Formation/New Technology (Buckingham/Ericksen)

Equipment and Facilities
The research will take place in NMSU’s Learning Games Lab, a research facility created to investigate gaming preferences and trends for the Media Productions group, which develops educational games for a variety of audiences. The group keeps the lab well equipped with the latest gaming technology and software. Additionally, the LGL staff are accustomed to running research sessions with a variety of audiences regularly, making this an ideal space to complete this type of research. Most recently, the group was funded to investigate the physical and psychosocial impacts of exergames, so researchers purchased the most recent exergames on the market to test on audiences, so the most recent exergames will be available to test on my research participants.

Human Subjects/IRB Compliance
Research participants will be asked to carefully evaluate and sign an IRB-approved, consent form describing the purpose of the research, as well as the potential risks and benefits of their participation in the study.

Limitations and Restrictions to Research Design and Subject Pool
Because I am using a convenience sample, the backgrounds of my research subjects will be limited, and will not be an accurate representation of a larger sample. The backgrounds of my subjects will likely be similar geographically, economically and racially, as many will be recruited from the university community. They will likely be predominantly white, with parents who are a part of the university setting and likely educated within that setting.

However, given this limited pool of research subjects, this study will likely offer interesting results for further exploration and research opportunities.




Significance
What I will do in the future…
Think about how it will benefit me – where this will lead in my career – how this will feed my dissertation, I think this will contribute to the body of game theory, feminist approaches to new media…

Comps/Reading List

Try to break it down in these categories: rhetoric, composition, cultural studies and professional communication (as it relates to my coursework) - what are the key texts and how it relates to the fields.

then have another category with specialization -

Multimedia can be lumped throughout the main courses...

Spring -

Becki, Ryan, Edgar, Dan, Polina, Mark

Sipai Klein and Research Tips/Journey info

How did he choose his methods - "Educator Design: Multimodal Texts" He is doing a case study on this. Architectonics (is a term he is also considering in his dis).

Examines composition process of 3 experienced professors who spent the semester designing videos to be used during the following semester -

(Michael Day and Janice Lauer- need to look into them for multimodal texts...)

First Steps

• Draft a page first - a summary of what you want to do...give to advisor for feedback, give back, draft 5 pages, then 10, and bigger and bigger
• Comes up with proposal, meets informally with proposal, he started closer with audio as instructional tool, but walked out knowing that his dis wasn't just going to be about audio - they said he needed to look at the text as a multimodal element - so his committee definitely veered him in the research direction he's taking now. He gave them about 20-30 pages...for a first look - by the time your advisor believes your ready for the committee, you will easily have that many pages - dis will be as long as it needs to be - needs to be a mindful substantive response to your research question so that your committee understand it and can give you feedback.
  
• Then, finding these multimodal texts - he had participated in an ICT summer crash course for faculty in how to use technology. He got ideas for researh participants from this summer course...
  
• His experience wasn't perfect, a lot of the things kind of just came about, on one hand it's promising and on the other hand, there's a variable called chance that can affect things as well.
• lit review was the least important part for his committee members - they wanted to know the topic, Why it's important, what are the questions and how is he going to solve this problems

This is what he provided:

• His intro - was why this issue was important to investigate
• Then Research questions
• Methods - and these are extensive
  

His Methods


Strategies for Staynig Sane

• Exercise 3-5 X week for 25-30 min - he sees this as it relates to his health -
• Keep a personal Journal - he merges this with his research journal (he does keep a research journal online - googledoc),
• Establish priorities
• facing fears by knowing that your stuff is your stuff - other people's stuff is their stuff - so that you own that fear
• identify your support network for various periods of time and task
• setting tasks based on energy - he has X amount of energy - not infinite - when he reaches his peak, he's done.f
• Work in SHORT sessions - less than an hour
• an investigator must work themselves out of the problem - he's contantly working through the problem
  

Strategies for organizing Data
He coded his data using color codes to be multimodal DOES NOT require a computer - he can explore ways to analyze data in other ways outside of computer...that's a myth - so he coded by hand - used method applied by Foss, Foss and ?? - Destination Dissertation - their coding method is the same as Creswell when talked about grounded theory - he decided to code by hand (his interview data - he collected interview/preliminary, observation (screen capture their computers when composing texts, and talking outloud as they are composing their texts)

Looking at composition as a process (flower and hays study) - took writers of alphabetic text and had them talk out loud as they compose their text and then code it and come up with a system - writers are reviewing, generating, goal setting, etc. - it becomes a process - This was alphabetic text,
Sipai is examining multimodal text and adapting this investigative tool to this multimodal text

Straus and Corbin (memos) and Waters/Foss - cut it up and put it envelopes - coded interviews - and timed his process on this coding too - Work in SHORT sessions - started counting and began creating concepts or categories from this - cloud concepts - "these are the 5 main clouds"...

Used company for transcriptions - a company in LA (verblink)

Think aloud protocols - he transcribed and coded by hand

Video - used hyper research - extracted categories -

now he has tons of categories -
starting creating think board -

Miles and Uberman - writing is thinking - writing is a cognitive behavior

Write a single page as fast as you can -

Also composing memos (Straus and Corbin) -

He is using multiple thoughts and theoretical ideas...

He merged these theoretical ideas and built his theoretical framework and discussion section...mergers Flowers/Hays with Bezzimer and Kress

Bezzimer and Kress - Written Communication (2008?? or 2000)

He is qualitative...

He does have a small part that doesn't fit - the social positioning part...he doesn't have to make it fit.

He didn't use outside coders - simple to train people - there are a handful of diss's that look at multimodal composition...

His methods are very recent so gettins someone to be able to apply these will be very difficult...he's one of the experts in a very limited field...

Writing strategies
Free writing, drafting, working on figures, reorganizing, outlining, journaling - all considered writing

• write in short, regular sessions - takes several days to recover from long exhaustive sessions of writing, short chunks allow for greater creativity
• break large tasks into small pieces
• after writing, indicate specific writing goal _ for example "i drafted first paragaphon XX" tomorrow I will write XX
• write first, revise later
• replace negative statements with positive ones
• critique and revise later
• making writing a top priority - modus oporende - my motis operandi is to write
• and he sees himself as what he envisions what he will be...what he wants to be - he sees himself as a publishing scholar and remember this when he is at a crossroads...
  

Other readings to consider in my research

• Kress - multimodal discourse - repurposing and recontextualizing images - selection, arrangement, forgrounding and socal positioning - are the key issues - taking one form of media and repurposing it with a new media - through these 4 categories...
• New London Group

What guides my research?

I believe the first thing that guides my research is first my worldview/ideological stance which centers on feminism and social construction. I'm really interested in "othering" occurring through cultural products and media. Secondly, I believe my research, the subjects chosen and settings also will guide my research choices. This is where I do really align with Johanek - that you need to find what will work with certain research settings.

I'm also "passionately" committed to understanding the othering occurring through different cultural capital, especially video games, and how this may help others to combat negative implications, while offerring greater opportunity for those being "othered."

Proposal Abstract

Rachel R. Gallagher
“Exergames and Female Representations: Implications for Adolescent Females”
Gender, Bodies, and Technology Conference Proposal

Abstract
The purpose of this study is to investigate female representations in exergames (games that encourage physical activity and movement), and the implications of these representations for adolescent females, such as identity, self-esteem, self-efficacy, engagement and motivation. Video games represent prominent cultural media influencing daily lives. Like other media, video games portray social mores and ideals inherent in their given societies. Much work has been done on the social and cultural portrayals and effects of traditional media and more recently, video games (Wilson & Peterson, 2002, Byrd-Bredbenner, 2003). However, little is known about the cultural and identity representations and impacts of exergames, a fairly new and quickly emerging genre of video games.

The social practices and daily life involved in video game play, and the culturally rooted nature of exergames and their effects on audiences, particularly young women, is an important area of exploration (Dubels, 2009; Buckingham, 2008). In a pilot study using the top 10 exergames in the U.S., researchers investigated the female representations in the games, in addition to investigating identity, self-esteem, motivation and other social factors involved in playing such games by observing the gameplay of 6-8 adolescent females, age 12-14. Using interviews, observation and blog/video diaries, investigators collected feedback from research participants to consider the hypothesis that most top-selling exrgames portray women in a sexualized manner, impacting users’ self-esteem and body image. Findings were consistent with similar studies on other forms of media and traditional video games. This presentation will be about 20 minutes and will outline the findings of the study, offering the field important implications of female representations in popular cultural media, such as video games. I will use a slideshow presentation to demonstrate important findings of this research.

Texual Analysis

Like any of the research methods, does have weaknesses in potential of displaying bias on the part of the researcher and CAN'T get at "basic truths" as discussed in class. I like the idea of using this for graphic displays and art, as it seems a little more conducive to analyzing these types of elements and discourse.

There were some questions about terms with textual vs content vs discourse analysis, but I really think it depends on your specific discipline or on the sources you draw on in your study and lit review. I don't get too caught up with these terms b/c they can really change based on the discipline...more later.

Writing the Research Proposal - notes from class discussion

Parts of the Research Proposal - taken from "Dissertation Destination"
This research proposal will be about 15-20 pages, Due during Exam week
This is a suggested way to do this - so maybe the lit review becomes more of your intro, there's definitely play in how you structure it.

I. Introduction (So what) - 2-3 pages ballpark

• Story - how you hook someone
• Interested - how you got interested, why it's important to you
• quotes

II. Research Question(s) - 1 page or less
Come up with 3 questions/statements - I'm interested in this because...

III. Defining Terms

• Problematic Terms
• Jargon Terms
• New Terms

IV. Literature Review (30 pages for your dissertation, but b/c we're limiting this to 10 sources for this assigment or 8-12 sources) 4-6 pages

• This is where you identify the gap - why it's important for you to be doing what you are doing and what the contribution will be.
• But DON'T be drowned out by your sources - just tie them in to what you are doing.

V. Research Design - Bulk of work 6-8 pages probably -
This is where you'll talk about:

• Subject participants you are choosing and why
• Methods and why
• Time, money, access
• Equipment, etc.
  

VI. Significance (2 pages)
For future research I would like to do...
Where might your work lead next?? This is where you will spell this out.

VII. Outline of Study (this is optional and more for dissertation)
You can start planning out what your diss will be - how you are envisioning chapters going.


Other comments or things to think about:

Preproposal should have Intro, Research questions, Design and major lit review sources.
This is Due when we meet with jen 11/18.

Blair artilces/Questions for Blair

I love the discussions the authors ignite in expanding scholarship not only in who can participate (leveling the playing field for students, allowing them to collaborate), but also the types of scholarship that are acceptable (i.e. digital communication). I think Blair's insights on offering a more feminist approach to scholarship, particularly concerning their students is intriguing. I'd like to know more about any opposition, if any, Blair faced as she tried to implement this type of paradigm at Bowling Green.

Also, where does Blair see other modes of communication, particularly video games, fitting in to this type of paradigm.

Computer Mediated Research

Some components/Class Discussion:
- Technology
- Interaction
- Community Spaces - social norms
- Tech changing how we live
- Identities created in these spaces - multiple identities maybe even more intended in online choices
- access
- Consent
- novelty of these spaces and institutions co-opting them
- generalizability - there seems to be a big push to generalize these online spaces as similar, when they are different discourse communities - ex: My Space - made up of several discourse communities

Online Research

Virtual research certainly offers an abundant amount of potential research subjects and potential for easy collection of data. For many audiences, it's a convenient way for the to participate in studies because they already know the medium and tend to be "online" anyway according to Thurlow and McKay, especially younger audiences.

However, there are many ethical considerations that the spaces prompt researchers to think about. Especially, who are we researching and should we get consent from them, even if their identities are concealed? I'm thinking about your research in particular, Jen, with the adolescent females. Did they know they were being studied? I don't believe they did, but on the other hand, would they have acted differently than they did if they didn't know? I'm not taking any particular side on this yet, as I need to still figure this out in my own head, but there are certainly important considerations regarding our research subjects we need to think about.

Thurlow and McKay also bring up an important topic of access to technology. If technology, particularly computers and Internet connection, are available to select groups of people, then accessing disadvantaged populations through this medium, would fail and their voices would remain unheard. This is an extremely important consideration that has occupied many of my thoughts since I started my Masters 4 years ago and really became interested in "the power of technology."

Possible Research Proposal

I am thinking about doing something related to young females and technology, specifically looking at the role of exergames and their impacts, if any on self-efficacy, self-esteem, identity and social practices. I will likely use a case study approach, with about 6-8 adolescent girls. I would like them to be middle school age, but am also open to possibly high school as well. For data collection, I would like to use observation, interviews and gain feedback from participants using a blog and video closet - in which participants will answer specific, open ended questions on camera and on the blog. I would likely collect this data in a 2-3 week time period, in NMSU's Learning Games Lab. I am a little worried about recruiting participants, but will reach out to the NMSU community and parents of former Lab participants.

Surveys

I know I have come a long way in my studies, when I can recognize that it is almost impossible not to hold biases and pretty much impossible not to allow those biases to influence your research. However, the simple fact of knowing that biases do and will influence data collection and analysis, is not an adequate cop out not to do research. Instead, it will help me to understand the control my biases can have on my research, and will force me to share my work with colleagues and mentors so that they can help me navigate through the potentially negative influences of these biases. I also believe that if one goes into a study with some general questions and maybe assumptions, rather than that one thing they WANT to prove, can help to broaden the scope of the research and the impacts of biases. I don't think any of these methods eliminate the biases completely, however, they are good places to start to open up the research to other possibilities. With all this being said, I am still fairly weary of surveys, definitely as the sole method of data collection. I do believe their value can increase with the use of other data collection methods to ensure a broader picture of your research topic is being captured.

Focus Groups

I realized I didn't post anything to follow up our discussions on focus groups. I really things these can be powerful tools to illicit feedback that would be hard to garner through other methods, however, I am still weary of using these in an all-in-one approach. Instead, I think that focus groups in combination with other methods can be far more powerful and can help neutralize (I understand this is a problematic word, however) or almost make up for the negatives of focus groups, such as group think or inactive participants.

Surveys

I think the most important thing the Survey section and discussions of the class has taught me is that I can come up with a valid survey instrument. It just needs to be peer-reviewed and piloted to help increase it's validity and reliability (I think I'm using these terms correctly). I love the survey process that Bonne and Jen went through. This really shows the refinement of the tool, or at least the initial stages of the refinement. I would like to come up with a survey instrument that gets at self-esteem, self-efficacy and identity in young girls, particularly those who play exergames, so this is a great starting point for me. I was going to use a tool that has already been developed and still may borrow from that, but I really like the idea of creating my own.

Case Studies

Case studies stand out to me from other research methods in that they really present a very unique, in-depth picture of a specific setting, population, etc. Also, they seem to be able to draw on different methods and data collection, like surveys, interviews, observations, etc. I think this is powerful because they use this mixed methods approach to tell a more in-depth story of what is going on.

In this same vein, they seem to me more anecdotal because they are covering several layers of a more personalized setting, and tend to be with smaller groups, so this keeps it out of the generalizable pattern. Additionally, I think case studies help to tell a bigger picture through this small sampling, or at least offer avenues for further exploration and research.

My research Paradigm

I definitely don't fit into one research paradigm only, but rather a mix of several. I believe I fit more into the am more of a social constructivist framework because I do believe people's lived experiences shape how they come to know the world and we can really only look into their lives through knowing this. I also believe that action research is important because we should be able to contribute back to the world and our research participants in some way. If we don't, I don't think our research has much meaning. Lastly, I do tend to follow more of a pragmatic view of research that uses mixed methods. Through the use of mixed methods, I believe a researcher is able to tell a story in several layers. Each layer offers the researcher a richer image and a deeper understanding of their subjects and the context.