X Marks the Spot – Mapping my Media Niche

X Marks the Spot – Mapping my Media Niche

Welcome back to the blog!

Following last week’s post where I identified my general media niche, this week, I began the process of narrowing my research project and defining my field site.

What exactly is a field site?

According to Dr. Christopher Moore in the Week 2 Lecture, a field map is not a physical or virtual space; rather, it is a term for the lived experience of a network of relations (Moore 2020).

“Through the work of constructing a field site, researchers define the objects and subjects of their research.” (Burrell 2009). Similarly, I created a visual network by hand-drawing a map as a method of constructing a representation of my field site. This mapping process allowed me to visually define the key components, similarities/differences, and relationships within my field site.

It provides a visual exploration to capture the elements of my field site that I think may be relevant to my investigation.

As shown in the analysis above, the categories I chose to integrate within my map aim to create a comprehensive foundation for my research project. Each category contributes essential insights, enabling me to observe patterns, correlations, and intricacies within the field site.

Key research skills that will be useful for analysing my media niche

This week, we examined the reading ’30 Essential Skills for the Qualitative Researcher’ (Creswell 2016), which introduced us to several key research skills that would be useful in analysing our media niches.

These skills included the following:

After learning what each of these research skills entail, I considered how they could be helpful in understanding my media niche. Aside from mapping (whose utility was described earlier in this post), I recognised a couple of research skills that would be helpful in analysing my niche:

So there we have it – another week, another blog post for BCM241.

I look forward to the further application of these research skills and will provide another update in my ethnographic research in the next blog post.

Thanks for reading!

Reference List

• Burrell, J 2009, ‘The Field Site as a Network: A Strategy for Locating Ethnographic Research’, Field Methods, vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 181–199.
• Connell, J 2023, Key Research Skills with Descriptions, Tutorial Slide.
• Creswell, JW 2016, ‘30 Essential Skills for the Qualitative Researcher’, Journal of Mixed Methods Research.
• Moore, C 2020, BCM241 Media Ethnographies – Qualitative Research and Ethnographic Skills Part Two, www.youtube.com.
• LucidChart 2023, Mind Map Stock Photo, LucidChart.