Final Reflection

This course started out with the philosophical thoughts about knowledge and theory and then ended with the research methods, so this course followed the course name very well ‘Theory and Method for Media Technology’. First week of the course was focused on ‘what knowledge is’ which was highly philosophical, it was my first time to read philosopher’s texts because I don’t have interest in philosophy but in seminars I actually enjoyed to discuss these concepts. One question from Kant’s text still confuse me ‘How is it possible to gain knowledge of the world a priori?’ Also the Plato’s thoughts about ‘what knowledge is itself’. I am glad that now I have studied the new ways of perceiving the world and I will look forward with these thoughts. The next week was about ‘critical media studies’ in which I have learned new concepts such as enlightenment, nominalism vs realism (how we shape society based on illogical things or historical background). We also discussed revolutionary potentials with the help of new technology. After these two weeks I was thinking that how these text relate to our field of study or this course. But still I found myself a developing interest to read more about these concepts and philosophy. The week after was focused on ‘what theory is, or is not’, we have grasp the term ‘theory’ in different ways and I believe now I have good understanding of theory and I have reflected my understanding in my blog post. This theme was actually correlated with the first part and upcoming part of the course.

Now, come to the purpose of this blog post ‘ways of combining the research methods’ and also week 4, 5 and 6 which was about different research methods. I have learned a lot about different research methods during this course even I have used these kind of methods in my bachelor’s projects but actually now I can differentiate about those methods which is quiet interesting. In theme 4, we had a seminar with Olle Bälter in which I have learned a lot about how to create survey as survey is an important part of any research method so I think it is important to know that which kind of survey would be best in your research. Also he told us more about advantages and disadvantages of web-surveys and paper-surveys. Which was also linked with pros and cons of quantitative and qualitative methods. I would must appreciate his way to compare the two different methods and structure of seminar. I think this is the main difference of quantitative and qualitative methods:

During this course we also had two guest lectures. Eva-Lotta Sandnäs discussed the difference between collaborative and single-user setting, she talked about research methods that she used in her research. In the next lecture with Haibo Li, I have learned that most crucial thing for choosing or combining the research methods is ‘defining the problem’. As he told us that people usually put very little effort in defining the problem and just start solving it. Even though they didn’t realize that, is it really a problem or is there anything to solve? I think in real life, sometimes people chose research method to use even before knowing the research question. There is a big risk of being stuck or have a bad quality research when you don’t understand that which research method would be better for your research question. Haibo Li also said that if problem is defined properly then you will be able to see problem from different angles which will help to define different research methods in better way. For this purpose, prototyping is a best way to understand the problem or idea as he suggested. So I have learned that it is more important to put more effort in understanding the research question first, also understand the difference between different methods to know that which method suits the research question more. I believe that this concept will help me throughout the life to solve problems.   

In the last theme of course, we discussed case studies which combines all the methods so I think it was a good idea to place this theme at last. I think that I have understood case studies in depth. Case study is a method used to narrow down a very broad field of research into one easily research-able topic. While it will not answer a question completely, it will give some indications and allow further elaboration and hypothesis creation on a subject. Case studies should not be confused with qualitative research and they can be based on any mix of quantitative and qualitative evidence. I have used this method in my final year project of bachelor’s which was software application ‘emotion based music player’, we started by developing a prototype of the software and then interviewed people to know how people interact with it which was quantitative method. Then we interviewed two expert software developer to get more technical insight which was I think qualitative method. And after developing the supplication we used testing methods and ask people to use it and comment on it. So I think sometimes it is very useful to combine different methods but it depends on the nature of project. That’s why as I explained before that it is important to understand the nature of the research project first.

During studying different articles, I found one more interesting method ‘triangulation’ which also combines different research methods. Triangulation is one of the several rationales of multi-research methods, refers to the use of more than one approach to the investigation of a research question in order to enhance confidence in the ensuing findings. Triangulation is a way to combine two or more research methods in a strategy which is meaningful i.e. all methods should correlate each other and describe your research question in a better way.

By summing up all the useful things which I have learned during this course, I think this course was a good start of my Master’s program and these thoughts will help me throughout the entire program. Now, I can see the philosophical part and methods part correlated with each other in better way. Actually I am thinking now that this course was designed very smartly, for example first we have to post pre-reflection so we were already having some understanding of the phenomena during lectures and seminars, after reading other student’s blogs and post-reflection we even have clearer understanding of all the themes. In this way it was a real learning portfolio!

http://www.lse.ac.uk/media@lse/research/eukidsonline/bestpracticeguide/faq01.aspx

http://www.referenceworld.com/sage/socialscience/triangulation.pdf

Post reflection- theme 6

This was a final theme which was about ‘qualitative research and case study research’.  We focused more on case study research as it covers qualitative methods as well, also we already talked a lot about qualitative methods in previous theme. In seminar we were divided in smaller groups and we discussed those papers we red for this theme and our understandings about case study research.

The definition of case study I have given in my pre-reflection is similar with Leif’s explanation about case study, ‘A case study is an in depth study of a particular situation rather than a sweeping statistical survey. It is a method used to narrow down a very broad field of research into one easily research-able topic. While it will not answer a question completely, it will give some indications and allow further elaboration and hypothesis creation on a subject.’ I think case studies are more like stories or scenario, which presents a complex situation involving a conflict or problem that characters in the case must negotiate. Case studies are used to help you to see that how the complexities of real life influence the decisions. It allows us to use different methods for investigation, for example qualitative and quantitative methods helps to collect data and understand the phenomena deeply. In seminar we discussed that case studies have several positive aspects such as you will never short the data, more participants in these kind of surveys and then off course more useful results. I have learnt that case studies can be of two types, first usually defined by researcher from a broad research field that doesn’t exist already where researcher can narrow down the research according to the main focus area (What he actually wants) and target group. Secondly, those case studies which are common and exist already in the world.

Summing up things, this theme was really interesting and I have learned many different concepts about case studies. Leif also told us that it is always good to have more than one case studies so researcher can compare them and can keep track of different kind of questions and also common questions. In this week, we also had a postponed lecture by Haibo Li which was about ‘design research and problem solutions’. The lecture was really informative as he used interesting short films to explain that how ideas are usually simple, defining a problem and finding a best and simple solutions.

However, this week was quiet good and I have learned a lot about different kind of research methods. I would say it was a good ending of the course.

Post reflection theme 5

In this week, we were supposed to attend two lectures instead of seminars. But we only had one lecture with Eva-Lotta Sallnäs, because Haibo Li’s lecture moved to next week.

She talked about her research in the field of Haptic. How she is working on her project and which methods she used. She also talked about the questions which we have answered in our pre-reflection.  She explained the question in the text "How does a collaborative setting differ from a single user setting as regards methodology used and the results obtained?" She gave the example of schools in Sweden, as they are mostly using collaborative methods which can give you deeper understanding of question, every pupil will came up with different point of views and encourages each other to think more about it. Also, collaborative methods can provide you both quantitative and qualitative results. As she gave example, you can videotape the interviewee during survey and then transcribed and analyze the conversation later which can give you a clearer understanding. She also talked about the concept of ‘peace on earth’ and then compared it with the concept of ‘flaming’ on the internet.

I would say the lecture was not interesting as she talked a lot about her research. It took me a lot effort to understand the point of lecture. This lecture was actually totally opposite of my expectations as I thought that this lecture would be more about general concepts of collaborative/single-user testing and subjective/objective methods.

Pre-reflections Theme 6

I have chosen the paper "Facebook and Online Privacy: Attitudes, Behaviors, and Unintended Consequences" from the journal of Computer-Mediated Communication with an impact factor of 2.019.

Which qualitative method or methods are used in the paper? Which are the benefits and limitations of using these methods? 

The qualitative method used in this paper based on the ‘open-ended in-depth face-to-face interviews’. In which they conducted an online survey that was administered to 119 college undergraduates, then eight participants (two male, six female) from the online survey respondent pool were selected for open-ended in-depth face-to-face interviews. The selected participants received a written explanation of the research objectives and ethics before signing a consent form. The interviews were recorded and analyzed through a combination of qualitative content analysis, typological reduction analysis, and rhetorical interpretation. This type of qualitative analysis is particularly fruitful when dealing with a novel field that is not yet structured and requires preliminary understanding. Also as they sent written explanation to participants before interviews, so participants will come up with some research and analysis so interviewer can get different point of views, or interviewer might get some additional information which can be beneficial in research. In this paper, through qualitative analysis interviewer gain deeper insight into attitudes and behaviors with respect to Facebook use and privacy issues, narratives related to the relevance, attraction, and usage of Facebook, and experiences about invasion of privacy on Facebook.

What did you learn about qualitative methods from reading the paper?

I think the same concept which I already have about qualitative methods. But I liked the way as they categorized their research, first reduction of the material and the inductive development of analytical categories from it and, in a second step, the deductive application of categories to interpret the data. I think in this way, you can gain deeper understanding of actual research question and reduce the irrelevant data.

Which are the main methodological problems of the study? How could the use of the qualitative method or methods have been improved?

It is difficult to find methodological problems in this study, they used both qualitative and quantitative methods very well. But the only problem I would say, how they chose only 8 people for in-depth interviews from 119 participants. I also think that they just conducted survey in one university so it might be difficult to generalize or conclude the result based on 119 people of same university.

Part 2:

I have chosen the paper "Social media competitive analysis and text mining: A case study in the pizza industry" from the ‘International Journal of Information Management’.

Briefly explain to a first year university student what a case study is.

 A case study is an in depth study of a particular situation rather than a sweeping statistical survey. It is a method used to narrow down a very broad field of research into one easily research-able topic. While it will not answer a question completely, it will give some indications and allow further elaboration and hypothesis creation on a subject. Case studies should not be confused with qualitative research and they can be based on any mix of quantitative and qualitative evidence.

Use the "Process of Building Theory from Case Study Research" (Eisenhardt, summarized in Table 1) to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of your selected paper.

Step 1: This study came up with three research questions in the beginning, which is plus point according to table.

Step 2: This study examined the social media sites of the three largest pizza chains, so yes they are not using random sampling.

Step 3: First, this study collected quantitative data manually from their individual social media sites such as number of fans/followers, number of postings, comments, shares and likes, frequency of posting. Secondly, applied text mining to analyze the text messages posted on their Facebook and Twitter sites in order to discover new knowledge and patterns, and to acquire a deeper understanding of how the three pizza chains are using social media in practice. So they used multiple collection methods which is strength of this study.

Step 4: I think they didn't use overlap data collection. They just analyzed the data which they got from surveys.

Step 5:  I think they didn't use cross-case pattern search, using divergent techniques, I think they should also look for different strategies of companies.

Step 6: This study used tabulation or graphs to analyze the questions about each company. But they didn't shape their research questions and not used any logic cross cases.

Step 7: They didn't compare their study with any other study. They just compared three largest chains of pizza which is not good. I think they should also have a look on smaller pizza’s companies.

Step 8: Yes, I think they reached to closure very well. They came up with some recommendations as well, such as a business can compare its social media data to the social media data of their competitors to gain perspective on their performance. In the end, they also came up with some future research areas related to this case study.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2009.01494.x/full

http://www.sciencedirect.com.focus.lib.kth.se/science/article/pii/S0268401213000030#

Post- reflection Theme 4

In this seminar we discussed questions in some different way, this discussion was more about advantages and disadvantages of quantitative and qualitative methods and the techniques used for these methods. This seminar was really interesting as we discussed questions in teams and made scores just like a game, which enabled me to think more about these questions and understand the concepts deeply.

I used these methods many times in my previous projects but after this seminar I actually understood these methods. The first question was about advantages of qualitative research, which compromises the individual thoughts and experiences. which provides information in depth and comprehensive, sometimes you might get feedback from participant you have not asked for but it is time consuming.  On the other hand, quantitative research is less time consuming and capture large number of participants in easier and cheaper way. The result is usually in numbers which is easy to present in statistical way. You can also use software to compile data and present it by using formula and graphs. But output is usually in numerical form so it cannot explain the phenomena, mostly used to test hypothesis.

The second question was about disadvantages and advantages of web questionnaire vs paper questionnaire. 

• web questionnaire can face some technical problems, for example may be data is not saved correctly due to technical issue or data can be hacked. distribution through email might end up with spam folder or sometimes people just don't take it seriously. But advantages are, more environment friendly and allows participants to answer according to their schedule. It stores data automatically.

• Paper questionnaire requires more responsibility, and you have to compile data manually. It could be time consuming as after getting results you have to convert data in digital form. The printing or large questionnaires might be expensive. But sometimes it is faster and easy to get feedback in physical environment. 

Pre-reflection: Theme 5

Part 1 - “Turn Your Mobile Into the Ball”

This theme seems really interested to me, as this is the one which is actual related to our program. Also, I have worked a lot with design research and testing, developing prototypes in my projects during bachelor.

1. How can media technologies be evaluated?

Media technologies can be evaluated by seeing that, whether system is giving desired output or not, whether users are satisfied and comfortable with product or not? In the paper, they used traditional approach to evaluate the media technology. As they divided the work in smaller chunks and then reached to their goal step by step. They evaluated the system by using the prototype or mock-up of mobile phone that was attached with vibration motor.  They used the ISO (International Standard Organization) recommendations that are Effectiveness, Efficiency and Satisfaction to evaluate the usability of system. Which was done by calculating the output of system every time and getting feedback from users (System testing and user testing).  Additionally, to help users they also designed a trainee process to see the users experience and also for further improvements.

2. What role will prototypes play in research?

Prototypes used as a dummy of the product to see the product’s performance and user’s response. Well-developed prototypes help the developer to assess the design and resolve the practical issues at beginning stage. For example, in software development if there is some changes occur at the testing phase so it is very hard to recover and sometimes developer have to re-code all the program, also it takes time and can be costly for both customer and developer. So prototypes helps to test the design at initial stage when incorporating changes are more affordable.

3. Why could it be necessary to develop a proof of concept prototype?

A proof of concept prototype is very important as it demonstrate the feasibility of idea or proposed technical solution. In technology and engineering field, a rough prototype called ‘proof of concept prototype’ is often developed to see functionality in real time. As I described in above question, it is very important to avoid hard changes or difficulties at the time of deployment.

4. What are characteristics and limitations of prototypes?

Prototype is a model, sample or a first deliverable in development process to show customers that what they will get at end. Prototypes describes the design and idea more practically rather than theoretically. For example, prototype of a website will show all the design, navigation, input methods but as it is not published yet so it will not connect with server and database. So the prototype can show the partial functions as it is only a practical form of intended idea. But prototypes are very helpful to revise the design, to avoid any misunderstanding and reducing the risks.   

5. How can design research be communicated/presented?

 I think that prototyping is best way to communicate or present design research. Because in this way design research will be more understandable and can show the real picture.

PART 2

How does a collaborative setting differ from a single user setting as regards methodology used and the results obtained?

Collaborative setting refers the group work including two or more participants, and single-user setting refers the work done by only one user. The first paper emphasis on the concept of group work as group work can develop the environment in which pupils can understand and solve the problems more easily. Collaborative work also reflects different views of people so I think it is better than the work done by single user.

How can qualitative and quantitative methods in the same study complement each other?

Quantitative methods used to get statistical results so these are useful to test the hypothesis. Qualitative methods used to analyze and understand the phenomena in deeper way which can create some hypothesis. So if we combine quantitative and qualitative methods so it can produce fruitful results. In this way, I think they complement each other very well and can be more valuable if combined.

How can using both subjective and objective methods give a better understanding of a phenomenon?

Subjective methods based on one’s mind, experiences and way of perceiving the world. Objective methods refers to verify and observe the world by using scientific approach not individual’s mind. I think phenomena or theory usually based on individual’s perception (which is subjective method), so if we analyze and verify the phenomena with scientific methods (Which is objective method) then off course it will give a better understanding of phenomena.    

Post reflection- theme 3

This theme was quite different from previous ones, as in this week we chose paper by ourselves and then analyzed the chosen paper in the perspective of ‘Theory’. I read the paper, ‘The benefits of Facebook “Friends”: Social Capital and College Students’ Use of Online Social Network Sites’ and then discussed this paper in seminar, which came up to discuss the difference between theory and hypothesis. I have learned that theory is something about assumptions and then analyze these assumption, but based on these assumptions hypothesis can be created.

Overall in this theme, I have learned that ‘what is theory’. During seminar we discussed theory in different perspectives and Leif tried to clear our concept about theory. I understand theory is a possible answer to why and how. Theory is not a hypothesis but an explanation of the observation. But this explanations give birth to several hypotheses that can be right or wrong. In scientific perspective, theory is a set of propositions which explains phenomena. In psychology, theories are used to provide a model for understanding human thoughts, emotions, and behaviours. Theory is also a synonym of algorithm to see that whether the picture have reality or not. It is also important to understand the difference between ‘Knowledge’ and ‘Theory’. The relationship about theory and knowledge is very hard to interpret, but during seminar we discussed very easy example to understand this difference. For example, if we say ‘the wall is green’ this statement came up from spectrum of colours so it is knowledge. But why and how it is green that is theory. The term theory refers to the word viewing which means see something critically.

A theory provides an explanatory framework for some observation, and from the assumptions of the explanation follows a number of possible hypotheses that can be tested in order to provide support for, or challenge, the theory. After this theme, I believe that now I understand the word theory.

Pre- reflection: Theme 4

The paper I have chosen is “The growth of  TV news, the demise of the journalism profession” which is published under ‘Media Culture and Society’ journal. Five year impact factor is 1.295

Written by Carey L. Higgins-Dobney and Gerald Sussman (2013)

This study shows the critical literature on the transformation of local news ownership structure and the impacts of technological reorganization of news production on the television profession and local communities. This study looks at the underlying political economy on local news production and focuses specifically on the labor conditions of newsroom personnel. For this purpose, this study used some quantitative methods based on surveys.

Which quantitative method or methods are used in the paper? Which are the benefits and limitations of using these methods?

One method used in this study is ‘Collecting the empirical data’, the benefit of this method is that it’s fast and results are able to be confirmed and all the observations are based on evidence. For example, one observation to confirm that what the media industry calls ‘the one-man band’ – journalists who conduct the interview, shoot, edit, and report the story for air and post it to the web. More than 30% of news directors nationally said they mostly used ‘one-man-bands’ to cover the news in 2009, perhaps more telling is that less than one in five said they do not use solo journalists, a drop of 35% from three years earlier. Almost 43% said the use of one-man-bands altered the way stations were willing to hire (Paper, 2011). So through these data, we can easily see that how ‘one-man band’ growing in media industry but on the other hand the number don’t show how and why so I think that this is limitation.

After gathering the data, this paper shows the analysis of data by using table ‘cross-media ownership of Portland’s commercial TV companies’. The benefit of using this method that, the data is structured and organized so it can be proof of results they obtained from surveys. But this method have not used any scientific or logical approach to create table.
 

What did you learn about quantitative methods from reading the paper?

The objective of quantitative research is to develop and employ numerical data, theories or hypothesis pertaining to phenomena by using computational and statistical techniques. The process of measurement is central to quantitative research because it provides the fundamental connection between empirical observation and mathematical expression of quantitative relationships. Such as in this paper they came up with some questions to find best possible answers or to reach to any conclusion. For this purpose, they collected data in numbers by using quantitative approach, so they can compare the results and answer the questions.

Which are the main methodological problems of the study? How could the use of the quantitative method or methods have been improved?

I think as this study used the method of collecting and analyzing the empirical data, this approach is observable, even though you can find some results still it can only show limited results in a specific duration of time. For example, the data were collected in time duration 2002 --- 2009 and paper was published in 2013 so results can be different in current situation. Quantitative methods have undoubtedly contributed to the wider acceptance but it can be fruitful if it is used prescriptively.

“Physical activity, stress, and self-reported upper respiratory tract infection”

Which are the benefits and limitations of using quantitative methods?

The main benefit of quantitative research is that it provides descriptive data —for example, allowing us to capture a snapshot of a user population by using statistical approach and in this way you can study in wider perspective. Also statistical analysis lets us derive important facts from research data, including preference trends, differences between groups and demographics.  It may have higher credibility with many people in power. Quantitative methods are less time consuming, for example you can use software for statistical analysis and mathematical formulas to compute results.    

The limitation is that the descriptive data is problematic when it comes to interpretation, as it can provide a numerical data but cannot provide the crucial information to interpret the data. The researcher might miss out the phenomena occurring because of more focus on testing the hypothesis rather than on theory. One limitation is that the knowledge produced might be too abstract and general as data obtained from local situation, contexts and individuals.

Which are the benefits and limitations of using qualitative methods?

The great benefit of qualitative research that it can provide you details about human behavior, thoughts and personality characteristics that quantitative studies cannot match. Qualitative data provides a rich, detailed picture to be built up about why people act in certain ways, and their feelings about these actions. 

The limitation of qualitative method is that the researcher collects data about the specific group of participants so you cannot necessarily use this data to make assumptions. Also its time consuming and this study is not so easy.

http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2012/09/strengths-and-weaknesses-of-quantitative-and-qualitative-research.php

http://mcs.sagepub.com/content/35/7/847.full.pdf+html

Pre-reflection of Theme 3

Research Journal:

The journal I chose is ‘Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication (JCMC)’.

Impact factor: 2.019 (JCMC Five Year Impact Factor: 4.748)

JCMC is one of the oldest web-based Internet studies journals in existence, having been published quarterly continuously since June 1995. The Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication (JCMC) is a web-based, peer-reviewed scholarly journal. Its focus is social science research on communicating with computer-based media technologies.

I found this journal more related with media technology because as it broadly publishes work by scholars in media studies, communication, information science, business, political science, psychology and other relevant disciplines.

Research Paper:

The paper I chose is ‘The Benefits of Facebook “Friends:” Social Capital and College Students’ Use of Online Social Network Sites’ that is published under ‘Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication (JCMC)’. This study examines the relationship between use of Facebook, a popular online social network site, and the formation and maintenance of social capital. Also it described bonding,bridging and maintenance of social capitals and how social network sites asses one’s ability to stay connected with other people which are previously inhabited in community. The authors collected data by surveys and they came up with regression analysis of undergraduate students (N = 286), which shows a strong association between use of Facebook and three types of social network sites such as Friendster, CyWorld and MySpace. This paper is more about Facebook usage such as ‘elements is profile and perception of who has viewed profile’ and also ‘use of Facebook to meet new people vs connecting with existing offline contacts’. Also how in short period of time, Facebook has generated strong percentage of users on college campuses. The key finding of this study is, control of demographic factors, psychological well-being measures, and the general internet use is not a significant predictor of bridging social capital, and only certain kind of internet uses support the generation and maintenance of bridging social capital. This study also shows analysis of psychological measures and found that, the extent of students’ satisfaction with the life at university campus was strongly correlated with bridging social capital.

  1.    Briefly explain to a first year university student what theory is, and what theory is not.

According to Orlikowski and Robey (1991), ‘Theory as statements providing a lens for viewing or explaining the world’. The term ‘theory’ cannot be describe easily as it have different perspectives depending to some degree on philosophical and disciplinary orientations. Theroy is a possible answer to why and how. Theory is not a hypothesis but an explanation of the observation. But this explanations give birth to several hypotheses that can be right or wrong

Sutton and Staw 1995 argue that data, variable, diagrams, hypothesis and tables are not theories. Gregor talks about five types of theories in essay but, he says still  there is a limit to what is classed as theory. However, Abstraction and generalization about phenomenon, interactions, and causation are thought to be at the core of a theory in the text.

  2.    Describe the major theory or theories that are used in your selected paper. Which theory type (see Table 2 in Gregor) can the theory or theories be characterized as?

As I understand from Gregor text, I think this paper is characterized in table 3 (Prediction). Because this study is brought up with six different hypothesis, then authors used surveys method to test these hypothesis. In another way, this study is based on one popular social site (Facebook), authors got small number of answers such as 286 from 800 people even they offered 5$ to students for participating in survey. In this way, it’s not well-organized study as it does not contain any satisfactory conclusion. The structure of study is more like predictions, testing propositions and explaining the hypothesis.

  3.    Which are the benefits and limitations of using the selected theory or theories?

I think the strength with this article is that it came up with some hypothesis that came out of perceptions or predictions. These hypothesis were later tested by using scientific methods so we have answers in terms of true and false. But on the shorter side we don’t know the underlying reasons for these conclusions and perhaps we need another study to have further deeper explanation of underlying phenomenon.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.00367.x/pdf
http://heim.ifi.uio.no/~petterog/Kurs/INF5220/NatureofTheoryMISQ.pdf

Post reflection of theme 2

The second theme was quiet good, but texts were not easy to understand as in first theme. Also these texts were connected with previous texts as the core concept was similar. I prepared for theme two by writing pre-reflection in my learning portfolio for which I have read two texts, ‘Walter Benjamin's essay "The Work of Art in the Age of Technical Reproductivity" (1936)’ and ‘Adorno och Horkheimer’s Dialectic of Enlightenment (1944) (chapters "The Concept of Enlightenment" and "The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception")’. Then I answered some questions related to these texts. By answering the questions I understood the core concept of authors that how art and culture has revolutionary potentials and evolve in our society.

Johan did a good job in lecture as he explained these philosophies with the help of interesting examples. Also he discussed the historical background and personal life of authors that enabled me to think about their concepts in a different way. He discussed some new terms as well such as ‘Futurism’ and ‘Fascism’, then explained these terms in different cultures like Italian and German fascism. Another interesting question we discussed, ‘’What is the role of culture in society?’ As I understood, culture preserves knowledge and helps its transmission from generation to generation which is essential for physical and intellectual existence of human beings.

In seminar we discussed Benjamin’s and Adorno & Horkheimer’s philosophies further, we talked a lot about nominalism, and also nominalism vs realism. As we shape society based on the illogical things or historical culture (perception based on past knowledge and experiences) but if we investigate it further so we just stuck about these concepts. However, we grasp these concepts in depth. We also did an interesting activity during seminar, we divided in smaller groups of 4 members and answered some additional questions. In which we discussed the connection between enlightenment and culture industry and how culture deceive us, here we talked about American mass media (as Benjamin was American) which makes people passive and happy slaves, for example it gives the idea to people that ‘only way you can climb society is winning money and be settled.’ We also talked a lot about revolutionary potentials with the help of new technologies.

The seminar gave me more insight about the texts and clearer understanding about dialectic of enlightenment. As Johan described enlightenment in two ways: one way it gives more knowledge but the other way it removes old knowledge.

Pre- Reflection on Theme 2

   1.      Dialectic of Enlightenment

   (a)   What is "Enlightenment"?

Enlightenment refers with cognitive process that brings additional knowledge. Knowledge helps to reduce fear. Usually there is a fear of unknown due to lack of knowledge that gives birth of risk. When there is adequate knowledge the risk is reduced and you have better control. For better understanding authors used a very good example, ‘the supernatural spirits, ghosts or demons are taken to be reflections of human beings who allow themselves to be frightened by natural phenomena.’ The concept of enlightenment is to eliminate these self-created fears by enhancing the rational knowledge.

On the other hand in order to anticipate lack of knowledge humans can develop myths and beliefs that can be based on their previous experiences or perception. This additional knowledge helps to further clarify or reject the myths or believes that exist.

   (b)   What is "dialectic"?

Dialect is the method of argument that helps to find the right opinion. The basic purpose is to resolve the disagreement between two parties or persons through rational discussion. It may not be possible to reach to absolute truth but there are ways and logics that lead us closer to the truth.  

   (c)    What is "nominalism" and why is it an important concept in the text?

The way I understood nominalization is that it brings relativity to reality. There are illogical things that are being used to give birth to logic and we made them absolute to make a basic structure. For example why A is called A is illogical but later this principal helps to create logical use of this letter. Same is the case for digits. Similarly there could be things around us that doesn’t exist and we have created them to bring more logic and methods to our world.

   (d)   What is the meaning and function of "myth" in Adorno and Horkheimer's argument?

Myths are the stories that we have created to fill the gap of knowledge. Myths could be leading misleading half true as well. But in all the cases myths are there, pointing that there is a lack of knowledge. So myth indicate the absence of knowledge and creates attention. Adorno and Horkiemer has also argued that enlightenment is a process that lead to clarity of these myths and clear the way to truth.

   2.      "The Work of Art in the Age of Technical Reproductivity"

(a)    In the beginning of the essay, Benjamin talks about the relation between "superstructure" and "substructure" in the capitalist order of production. What do the concepts "superstructure" and "substructure" mean in this context and what is the point of analyzing cultural production from a Marxist perspective?

I understand from the text, ‘substructure’ is directly connected to the general production such as machines, factories, tools etc. ‘Superstructure’ is ideology for the general production such as concepts, laws, reasons etc. As mentioned in text that superstructure takes place very slowly than the substructure so it is important that substructures (which prepare the base or ground for general production) must met the superstructures (ideology, constitute). In the context of art film, photography, paintings are the forms of substructure and conventional ideology behind them is superstructure. In a Marxist perspective, substructure is base which forces the feasible work conditions and technically division of labour, and in these conditions cultural production takes place which is necessary for people’s life. And superstructure is cultural ideology such as rules, politics etc. which often influence the base. For example any culture is built on some core values that are very hard to change but bringing minor changes to any culture or slow transition is easier.

(b)     Does culture have revolutionary potentials (according to Benjamin)? If so, describe these potentials. Does Benjamin's perspective differ from the perspective of Adorno & Horkheimer in this regard?

In my opinion the concept of enlightenment is the concept that can revolutionize a society. So yes, culture has revolutionary potentials. As enlightenment leads to further clarity of unclear or the knowledge about unknown can raise the awareness to change the logics that are wrong. So in case if there will be enlightenment toward the elements of subcultures then subculture will change but the basic structure of the society will still be same. On the other hand if there will be higher enlightenment towards the superstructures of the society there could be revolution on a greater scale. In this way, Benjamin's perspective is not different from the perspective of Adorno & Horkheimer.

(c)    Benjamin discusses how people perceive the world through the senses and argues that this perception can be both naturally and historically determined. What does this mean? Give some examples of historically determined perception (from Benjamin's essay and/or other contexts).

As I understand this concept historically perceived, perceptions are the ones that were conceived on the basis of natural senses first. The perception may have been combined with individual cognitive abilities but later these perceptions developed as the people shared each other’s views and opinions and the process of cognition went on for a time that further lead to developments in perceptions.

For example as Benjamin explained this concept with example of Roman art that, how not only the culture changed but human being’s perception changed too about Roman art industry.

(d)    What does Benjamin mean by the term "aura"? Are there different kinds of aura in natural objects compared to art objects?

As I understand what Aura means is, if we see things from some distance we may have a picture of them that include some of their shadows or reflections that can be differ from actual picture. What we will see also include some other elements because of distance. Though, the term ‘aura’ refers to the uniqueness of object. I think natural aura (objects) cannot be changed because of its natural characteristics and facts. On the other hand, artistic aura can be shaped as per modern necessities.