Bernice Afriyie, W14: Introductions

Hello. My name is Bernice Afriyie and I am a second year English & Professional Writing student. My research experience is mostly restricted to school, but my personal dabbles in researching have increased ever since I started a blog. Blog features, domains, widgets and themes are just a few things I forced myself to learn after realizing just how much my technological incompetence held me back. Prior to that, my personal research was limited to the occasional music, author or career search. With my limited researching skills it was difficult to find accurate and well written information. This course, among other things, I hope will help me narrow my search focus to find credible and useful information. When I hear the word "research" I automatically associate it with boring. That should not be my first response to the word. I find that we are bored, annoyed and angered by the things we don't understand. To counter this I hope to gain an understanding and appreciation for the many purposes of research.   

I am interested in studying music, art, film and psychology. What draws people to certain kinds of music? Is there inherent value in art, or is the worth of art determined by popular opinion? Why do we love the films we love? Can we ever be fully aware of our conditioning?  With sharpened research skills, I hope to answer these questions.

I have neither used information management software, nor heard of RefWorks or Zotero. My only experience with podcasting has been on the receiving end, listening to a professor's lectures. However, I am excited to learn how to make a podcast. Even though I am very scared I see how this skill will be useful. You never know when you'll need to use certain skills, and I definitely need to improve my technological and research capabilities.

Under the Influence stood out to me. I think this topic, more so than the others, will give me a chance to analyze the roles of psychology, music, art and film in media and communication. Ad campaigns are successful not because they manipulate the desires of people but because they either manufacture or reveal a want. To be able to do that in the compressed span of a minute through sound, colour and dialogue requires a deep understanding of the psychological needs of consumers. And in order to know these needs, one must be able to gather unbiased, credible research. Through following the research techniques of the people behind major ad campaigns I will in turn develop my research abilities.