Research

I am currently undertaking my Masters in Mass Communication Research at the University of Colorado at Boulder. My research to date has covered the following areas:

1. The mediation and mediatization of breastfeeding and its relationship to societal norms. On February 18, 2009 I presented a segment of my research at Ignite Boulder. Ignite is an awesome fun opportunity where presenters have 5 minutes and 20 slides that are on auto advance, with 15 seconds for each slide. You can watch the fun here.

2. The integration of Web 2.0 strategies with professional journalism and associated ethical issues. I produced a paper that focused on the case study of the (now closed) Rocky Mountain News and the ethical implications of its use of Twitter to report from the funeral of a child killed in an accident. I recommend a model for using Twitter as part of a traditional reporting toolkit.

3. My thesis is moving towards studying the strength of online communities formed using social media. I have produced a paper on the use of speech acts (hashtags, @ and retweets) and discourse/turn taking on Twitter to perform identity work and associations between people. This paper was key to my being invited to attend the Rutgers Invitational Masters Student Institute in New York in 2009.

4. I have collected data on the outcry of the community through the #NestleFamily blogger event, and am interested in writing more on the use of social media leaders by corporations, what this means for the agency of bloggers, and the possibility of backlash.

5. I am currently collecting research data on the mommyblogger community. The strength of community is found in times of stress and rites of passage. The personal unveiling of experience creates a tangibility of the community. I am discovering more about what makes people on Twitter form these real relationships.

6. I am also collecting information for a paper on social media and the homeless. The latent sphere of the network society indicates that relationships formed on social media are actually breaking through barriers that exist in offline society. While many will talk to anyone online, they would not do so face to face, or “in real life.”

If you would like to be interviewed for any area of my research, or read any of my work, please feel free to access the form on the Contacts page. I am particularly interested in discourse with academics in the same fields, and with mommybloggers or the homeless who have particular experiences to share.

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