Monday, August 4, 2008

Introduction & Research Directions

This my first attempt at blogging so please excuse any faux pas that I make! As I'm already half way through my research year I thought I would put up a few of my rambling thoughts and see if anyone has any comments. Please feel free to run with any of the ideas laid out here - any feedback would be great!

Also just to give a bit more context than the Participant Information Statement (which everyone has read of course!), I'm doing an Honours research year in Sydney, Australia - which basically means I get to do a one year research project in my final year of my undergrad degree. I'm looking at the relationship between journalism and governance in Second Life, and am hoping to make some interesting contributions to this area of study! (Fingers crossed.)

So my plan of attack has been to look at what kind of journalism is happening in Second Life - what sort of theories and understanding we already have of journalism might explain it, or are people doing something radically new and different? Then I'm looking at governance in Second Life, trying to find out what kind of values and models represent the funny mix of consumerism and citizenship which appears to characterise life in a virtual world. Then I'm looking at how these two elements of virtual life interact, through a case study of the couple of events which led to the banning of unchartered banks in Second Life in January 2008. I don't think anyone has done any research into this area before, but if I'm mistaken please point me in the direction of anything you've read before.

So here goes, wish me luck!
/dives in head first

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