Yanzi+&+Mia

Variables/Concepts explored: -target audience -omissions -civic engagement -media habits -advertising perceptions -personal likes and dislikes

Research Hypothesis Options: 1.) How does media use effect student civic engagement? In this hypothesis, we would be assumed that if the students use multiple media forms, and use them often, that they would be more likely to participate in democratic activities. It would be interesting to see how each student treats media, including what media they trust most, in their decision-making processes. 2.)By using complete sentences, do students create more advanced content? For the open-ended questions, this hypothesis could be important in identifying students' abilities to analyze media content. It would also be interesting to see how the students information would differ from one another. This information could also be placed against the personal likes and dislikes of the students, located in the back of the survey. It would be important to see if there is any correlation to their coursework and future aspirations. 3.) How does media intake influence perceptions of reality? In comparing these two variables, one could discover how students treat media. Included in this, students would be more objective about television content if they use more media. Their usage would determine how they view media, including perceptions of reality and celebrity.

Part 2: In our research project, we decided to expand on Levine's idea of the audience being a motivator for students. He states on page 129, " One important motivator is the belief that one can reach other people: an audience... But others are more interested in finding a responsive audience that provides commetns and feedback; or they may seek a politically relevant audience that can act in response to their media." Our idea would be to create an experiment that measures different kinds of audience motivation in the creation of student-produced media. For the experiement, three groups would essentially be created, with the first being one that is creating a piece of media solely for class credit to be shown to their peers in the classroom. The second would be for students who would be able to create media for a centered audience, that has the opportunity for feedback, response, and effect. The final group would recieve no feedback, but show their piece to a large audience. These groupings would represent levels of audience influence, and provide options for the students. The first group would be limited to their classroom, attempting to limit their audience. The second would essentially have the most power, according to Levine, because their piece would be shown to a group of people that it could directly influence change. For example, a video on gun control issues or laws could be shown to local government officials. Thirdly, the large audience group would attempt to direct their attention to a large audience without any direct effect or influence coming from their work. This would be something like posting their work to YouTube. In order to create a proper experiment, all the groups would have to be assigned the same topic, like gun control laws, making the study fair and equal throughout the groups. In terms of analyzing the data, we would have the students prior and after the production, in order to gage their attitudes about audience. That would determine how the students view their pieces, and determine if Levine's hypothesis is true -- that audiences effect production. It would also be important to observe the students during the work to see if it effects behavior. If audience plays a role, they might be more creative, more active, finish quickly, etc.