Today's objective was to get back on track with my literature review. The proposal, for those of you reading that don't speak PhD-ese (hi Mom!), is the first portion of the dissertation comprised of my introduction, a review of the extant literature on the relevant concepts and theories I will use to frame my study, and finally, the methods section that details how I will collect my data. The topic of my dissertation is based on these main "burning questions:" How are characters developed on Survivor? How are the characters represented and subsequently perceived?
Perhaps in a later post, I'll address all the nuances implied in these questions, but here, I'm excited to share a theoretical breakthrough I had today using the techniques from my favorite new book!
My lit review will be the longest portion of the proposal and therefore it's the most daunting (although I'm certain when it comes to writing the methods THAT will be the most daunting!). Thankfully, chapter 5 of my wonderful new book is helping a lot! One of the strategies that Foss & Waters offer is going through all of my texts and typing up relevant excerpts that will help me to explain my concepts. I have a feeling I'll be pulling excerpts for the next couple of days, all of which will hopefully be as productive as today. I found a great passage which helped to solidify the theoretical background of my work - basically I found someone to say what I have been clumsily trying to parse together for the last two months. This is a very good thing!
So, thanks to Kavka's (2008) work on reality television and her insight on representation has solidified my research questions. This is really great and truly a breakthrough! I plan on weaving her work into most of my literature review, both chapters, since it touches on many of my concepts.
While today didn't produce the amount of hours I was aiming for, it was productive and a very good day! I got some grading done, I had a great lunch with some fellow 3rd year ABD's and sat through some great presentations by my TV research students.
Today: 3 hours
Tomorrow: 9 hours - it might be a library day!
(No meetings tomorrow, no class... just dissertating!)
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