Nataliia Laba (she/her)
ARIN3620 Researching
Digital Cultures
Week 2
Researching Digital Cultures
The University of Sydney
Acknowledgement of Country
A photo taken at the current exhibition A Line A Web A Word
at the Powerhouse Museum, Ultimo
The University of Sydney
Today’s lecture
1. From last week
2. Resources and support
3. Researching Digital Cultures:
• What is research?
• What do we mean by ‘digital cultures’?
• Key elements of digital/new media – a refresher.
• What to research?
• How to research?
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The University of Sydney
Unit objectives
- LO1. Build skills and understanding towards writing a research project proposal
investigating a case study in digital cultures: identifying social and cultural practices
that emerge with humans and technological components.
- LO2. Develop your capacity to define and understand how to develop and apply a
research methodology that uses appropriate methods including discourse analysis,
digital ethnography, interviews, focus groups, surveys, and more.
- LO3. Participate in in-class and out-of-class exercises experimenting with these
methods and documenting your experience.
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1 | FROM LAST WEEK
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Unit assignment schedule
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Type Description Weight Due Length
Assignment Entry tickets
Submission of weekly entry
tickets in class
30% Ongoing 1,000 words (10x
100-word tickets)
Assignment Research exercise
Submitted via Canvas
30% Week 08
Due date: 22 Sep
2023 at 23:59 pm
1,500 words
(exercise)
Assignment Research proposal
Research proposal submitted
by the end of Semester
40% Week 13
Due date: 03 Nov
2023 at 23:59 pm
2,000 words
1 | FROM LAST WEEK
The University of Sydney
Essential information sources for students
Student life, wellbeing and
support page
2 | RESOURCES AND SUPPORT
The University of Sydney
COVID-19 support and care
– From Monday 3 July, rapid antigen tests (RATs) will be available to students for pick
up at multiple locations across campus.
– If you become infected with COVID-19 during the semester, or need to stay at home,
please notify your tutor, as with any unexpected absence.
– If COVID-19 illness impacts assessment, use the usual mechanisms including simple
extensions and special consideration to arrange reasonable adjustments.
– Other helpful study information can be found on the Study Information page of Student
website.
2 | RESOURCES AND SUPPORT
The University of Sydney
Be mindful of scams and scammers
What to do
Discontinue contact, do not panic, do not hand over
any money or personal information.
If you are experiencing distress or need support due
to a scam, you can contact Student Wellbeing by
completing a registration form.
Contact the SRC or SUPRA for advice (domestic
and international students).
Get 24/7 support through Sonder (international
students).
Common scams are listed on the Scamwatch
website: www.scamwatch.gov.au
Scammers
May contact you via phone, email, text message or
even in person
May pretend to be from an official organisation such
as the government or university
May pretend to know about your family, that your
visa or studies may be at risk or that you are in
trouble with the police
For more information, or
to contact Student Wellbeing for support,
follow the QR code:
2 | RESOURCES AND SUPPORT
The University of Sydney
Safer Communities Office
- Support and case management for people who have experienced sexual misconduct,
domestic/family violence, bullying/harassment or issues relating to modern slavery.
- Contact the team
– 8:30 am to 5:30 pm Monday to Friday, Sydney local time
– phone: +61 2 8627 6808
– email: safer-communities.officer@sydney.edu.au.
– campus: Level 5, Jane Foss Russell building, City Road, Darlington Campus
- Make a report
- Visit the website to make a complaint or disclosure of sexual misconduct to the
University.
2 | RESOURCES AND SUPPORT
The University of Sydney
Academic integrity
– Academic integrity refers to behaving honestly, ethically, and responsibly in relation
to all elements of your study at the university, including assessments.
– Always submit your own work, sit your own tests, and take your own examinations.
– Acknowledge any contributions in your assignment which are not your original
thoughts, ideas or words.
– Writing technologies (e.g., ChatGPT, Grammarly, etc.) cannot be used to create or
modify work for submission unless expressly permitted by your unit coordinator.
– Academic Honesty Education Module – all commencing students must complete by
census date. Continuing students can self-enrol at any time.
Strategies for maintaining academic integrity
Planning and time management
Know your strengths and what
you need to develop
Use citations and referencing
Know when and where to
ask for help
2 | RESOURCES AND SUPPORT
The University of Sydney
Generative AI
- Generative AI can create digital content, including text, images, and video
- Common examples are ChatGPT, Notion AI, DALL-E, Bing Chat, etc.
- Use of generative AI is split into two realms: learning, and assessment
Generative AI for assessment
- You cannot use AI to generate the
content of your assignments in this unit,
but you may make use of it to improve
your grammar and written expression
during the proofreading phase of your
work.
Generative AI for learning
- You are free to use generative AI to help
you learn.
- Use it to explain things, apply knowledge,
plan your study, make practice questions,
and more
- Be aware of its limitations
To learn more about using generative AI at USYD, visit: bit.ly/students-ai
2 | RESOURCES AND SUPPORT
The University of Sydney
The Write Site
- The Write Site provides online support to help you develop your academic and
professional writing skills.
- Each module deals with common issues and requirements in academic and
professional writing and strategies for addressing them. You will see samples of
good writing and also do some practice activities in error correction.
- Access through Canvas here.
2 | RESOURCES AND SUPPORT
The University of Sydney
Unpacking ‘Researching Digital Cultures’
Nataliia Laba through Midjourney (2023)
Prompt: /imagine university of sydney,
students starting a new subject, researching
digital cultures, cyberpunk style
3 | RESEARCHING DIGITAL CULTURES
The University of Sydney
What is research?
research (n.)
1570s, "act of searching closely" for a specific person or thing, from French recerche
(1530s, Modern French recherche), back-formation from Old French recercher "seek out,
search closely”
Source: Etymonline (2023)
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3 | RESEARCHING DIGITAL CULTURES
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What is research?
- Sustained and systematic investigation
- Social practice of generating new knowledge
- empirical study: gathering new ʻfactsʼ about the world
- methodological rigour: following considered ways of getting ʻfactsʼ
- theoretical innovation: examining the significance and interconnections between ʻfactsʼ
- peer review: quality control, feedback
- publication: expression of facts, theory, narrative, argument, exposition
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3 | RESEARCHING DIGITAL CULTURES
“It is new ideas, concepts, and models
that we ultimately want, not just new
facts”
(Sandvig & Hargittai, 2015, p. 13).
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What do we mean by ‘digital cultures’?
- Early techno-utopian visions
- active, engaged citizens? (Poster, 1995)
- alternative communities, worlds, and identities free from the prejudices of offline
society (Rheingold, 2000)
- The internet as ‘enmeshed within the enduring structures of our society’ (Miller, 2020)
- The online sphere as no longer a realm separate from the offline ‘real world’, but as fully
integrated into our offline life
- ‘Digital culture’ as more than merely sitting at a computer terminal
- Many wider forms of digital cultures (e.g., mobile communication technologies, gaming,
technological bodies, platforms) within and beyond the internet
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3 | RESEARCHING DIGITAL CULTURES
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Digital technologies and culture
Cultural patterns Communicative
patterns
Analyzing
configurations of
social relations
Analyzing patterns of
digitally mediated
communication (e.g.,
tweets, Instagram
images, etc.)
Technology and communication/culture are in a complex feedback loop:
3 | RESEARCHING DIGITAL CULTURES
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Key element of digital media
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3 | RESEARCHING DIGITAL CULTURES
A. Broadcast model B. Internet model
Few senders
Direction of communication
Many receivers
Many senders
Direction of communication
Many receivers
After Miller (2020, p. 13)
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Key elements of digital media
- Digital
- Networked
- Interactive
- Hypertextual/hypermediated
- Databased
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3 | RESEARCHING DIGITAL CULTURES
Technical processes
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Key elements of digital media
- Digital (materiality)
- A numerical representation
- Digital information as programmable, alterable, and subject to algorithmic
manipulation (Manovich, 2001)
- Can be compressed, manipulated, and copied
- Is transferable between different sources
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3 | RESEARCHING DIGITAL CULTURES
Technical processes
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Key elements of digital media
- Networked
- Produced, distributed and consumed through two-way networked infrastructures
(Miller, 2020)
- 'discursive communities'; 'virtual spaces'; 'any-to-any communication'; 'peer-to-peer
communication’
- Three dynamics to consider:
- Invisible audiences
- Collapsed contexts
- The blurring of public and private (boyd, 2010)
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3 | RESEARCHING DIGITAL CULTURES
Technical processes
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Key elements of digital media
- Interactive
- Socio-technical relationship between the user of the media and the media itself
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3 | RESEARCHING DIGITAL CULTURES
Technical processes
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Key elements of digital media
- Hypertextual/hypermediated
- Authorship
- Linearity
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3 | RESEARCHING DIGITAL CULTURES
Technical processes
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Key elements of digital media
- Databased
- The storage element
- Data retrieval and filtering
- Turning the dada into meaningful (for the user) information
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3 | RESEARCHING DIGITAL CULTURES
Technical processes
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Key elements of digital media
- Automated
- Templates
- Algorithms
- Personalization
- …
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3 | RESEARCHING DIGITAL CULTURES
Technical processes
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What to research?
- You can choose to focus on producers, texts, or audiences (or a combination of these)
- Expressed opinions (written, spoken)
- Individual and collective behavior (observation, experiments)
- Material objects, places and events
- Elements of digital cultures:
- Gadgets
- Images
- Sound
- Moving images
- Text
- Bodies
- Algorithms
- Artificial intelligence
- Games
- Platforms
- Metaverse
- …
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3 | RESEARCHING DIGITAL CULTURES
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Examples of Digital Cultures research
- Gaming, games design, aesthetics, ethics, cultures, live streaming
- Social media, apps and platforms
- Technology in the home
- Mobile technology and mobility – users and uses
- Internet ethnography (online activities)
- Citizen journalism
- Online behavior – activism/communities/cultures
- …
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3 | RESEARCHING DIGITAL CULTURES
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What elements of digital cultures are you curious about?
- Please share in a Menti poll below this lecture on Canvas
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3 | RESEARCHING DIGITAL CULTURES
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How to research?
- Important to understand what we mean by the research process. Basic elements of this
process include:
- What methods do we propose to use?
- What methodology governs our choice and use of methods?
- What theoretical perspective lies behind the methodology in question?
- What epistemology informs this theoretical perspective? (Crotty, 1998)
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3 | RESEARCHING DIGITAL CULTURES
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How to research?
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3 | RESEARCHING DIGITAL CULTURES
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Social research in a digital age
- Understanding what happens in the research process
- Method as creative act rather than boring tool
- Digital media is both a research tool and an object of study
- Asking old questions in new ways and asking new question about new ways
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3 | RESEARCHING DIGITAL CULTURES
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Entry ticket question
Please watch Primer (next tab under Week 2).
Midjourney’s (2023) take on the following prompt:
imagine/ entry ticket, academic setting, assignment cover,
digital cultures
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Home > New Slide > Drop down arrowWeek 1 Welcome and Introduction
Week 2 Researching Digital Cultures
Week 3 Frameworks and methodologies
Week 4 Online literature research
Week 5 Digital data and its sources
Week 6 Research design and project development
Week 7 Discourse analysis
Week 8 Digital ethnography
MID-SEMESTER BREAK
Week 9 Digital methods/apps/platforms
Week 10 Interviews and focus groups
Week 11 Surveys and questionnaires
Week 12 Research ethics
Week 13 Writing research proposals
WEEKLY SCHEDULE
The University of Sydney
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Readings
Crotty, M. (1998). Foundations of social research: Meaning and perspective in the research process.
Routledge.
Sandvig, C., & Hargittai, E. (2015). How to think about digital research. In E. Hargittai, & C. Sandvig
(Eds.), Digital research confidential: The secrets of studying behavior online (pp. 1–28). MIT
Press.
BEFORE TUTORIAL
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Reference management software
1. EndNote: A research tool that allows you to organise, publish and share your references and
bibliographies. You can get training through our libraries. Download EndNote and resources
from Libraries
2. Zotero: A free and open-source software that allows users to collect, organize, cite, and share
research sources. It offers browser extensions for easy capturing of references and supports
various citation styles. Additionally, it has an app for desktop, allowing you to highlight ideas,
take notes, add hashtags for content filtering and more. Simple to use.
3. Mendeley: A widely used platform that combines reference management with social networking
features, enabling researchers to collaborate, discover new content, and access papers from a
vast academic database.
4. Inciteful: A newish tool that requires a bit of time to learn, but has a great potential to accelerate
your literature review process in the log run. Vrinda Nair explains how to use it in four steps
in this tweet.
BEFORE TUTORIAL
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boyd, D. (2010). Social network sites as networked publics: Affordances, dynamics, and
implications. In Z. Papacharissi (Ed.), A networked self: Identity, community, and culture on
social network sites (pp. 47-66). Routledge.
Crotty, M. (1998). Foundations of social research: Meaning and perspective in the research
process. Routledge.
Manovich, L. (2001). The language of new media. MIT Press.
Miller, V. (2020). Understanding digital culture (2nd ed.). SAGE.
Poster, M. (1995). The second media age. Polity.
Rheingold, H. (2000). The virtual community: Homesteading on the electronic frontier (2nd ed.).
MIT Press.
Sandvig, C., & Hargittai, E. (2015). How to think about digital research. In E. Hargittai, & C.
Sandvig (Eds.), Digital research confidential: The secrets of studying behavior online (pp.
1–28). MIT Press.
References
Thank you!
nataliia.laba@sydney.edu.au
n_laba