____________________________________________________________________ Midterm goals agenda: Here is a brief list of work required for completion of the Fall 2012 section

of Designing a Research Proposal There need be:

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

1.A title page 2.An abstract 3.An introduction to the research paper and within that a discussion of the phenomena in question, and a 'concise hypothesis statement. 4.A literature review of articles related to the Research 5.A discussion of methods (in this case, voice recorded interviews typed out for textual analysis.) 6.Some samples of our field work compiled as a preview to further research study It is important that these goals are met in order to begin the second leg of research design. The deadline for the above is December 15th (upon Professor Galbo's approval or goal modification) Qualitative Research Project Cross-sectional Research design-including analysis of secondary sources, un-structured Interviews/opened ended questionnaires Inductive approach to research/Theory Building We intend to find patterns of association between our interviewees usage of media/television, how they interact and expose themselves to media/television, why we will group all our interviewees into categories and deduce some reasons for these patterns of usage.

Media Convergence !!!! Key term

Definition -Flow of content across different media platform and national border -Cooperation between multiple media platform -Movement of audience across different media platform to get desired content Dr. June Madeley 1. TITLE PAGE-simple

2. AbstractThis research proposal probes into consumer practices relating how feature films are viewed in the domestic setting of the home. Many academic papers have investigated the effects of electronic media distribution on feature films. These papers investigate concerns relating to media distribution and market consolidation. Other papers investigate media piracy or intellectual property issues. These are interesting, contentious issues and are important relative to the business and legal world. However they are sociologically impoverished in casting light onto how individuals and groups of people relate to each other during the pandemonium of rapid technological change.

Of particular interest of THIS paper will be the viewing habits of a cohort of local people who enjoy feature films in their homes. To magnify this sociological study to the micro social level, our research will interview home media users so as to biopsy local media consumer choices. Doing interviews allows for investigating commonalities in speech analysis - which will inevitably reveal a secret story that both us researches will benefit from. And THIS is just the story from the consumer side! Conversely, digital download accessibility has increased manifold and conventional video stores around the country have been rapidly closing since the mid 2000s. Video stores demise from the local marketplace changes the video market for viewers. Our job is to do grounded inductive research and find out the W & the T and F! There is no longer a technological shoulder to lean on. > To break property laws or remain in ethically properly download territory > To consume film like fast food? = At work=on bus= during line ups ......... All these things I just do not know !!!!!! But they are entirely knowable. Why where and how the people choose to adapt or refuse to current and cutting edge technology. Home media consumption habits are the business of this research proposal. It will be conducted in an open-ended interview style and graded for statistical value (pie charts ect) and qualitatively supported in rhetorical and qualitative evidence. The method of this research project is micro-sociological and advantages open-ended questions that will be quantitatively tabulated and qualitatively analyzed. The subject cohort will be sampled from the Saint John, New Brunswick residential population. Due to the choice explosion in "domestic Movie/Film digital platforms" the research will in-

vestigate widening consumer habits as they reflect: * Family size, * Educational accomplishment, * Marital status, * Disposable income levels * Propensity to social media * Propensity to local DVD 'distributors' (initial surveys indicate used DVD sales/traders & pirates/torrent * Philosophical reflections concerning ethics of legal/illegal choice, * Local supplied content vs. global supplied content * Environmental issues surrounding "hard content" and lightness of "digital content." 3. INTRODUCTION: Exhibiting movies/film in the home has become a North American tradition over the last thirty plus years. It is no less of a tradition in Atlantic Canada. One can easily witness the movie watching after dark by seeing so many flickering blue glowing windows of grand homes and modest dwellings alike. Home spectatorship of movies and film is a rich site for sociological research because habits and tastes intersect with current-temporary viewing platforms and current-temporary resources of media content. Much existing literature relating to home movie spectatorship concerns issues of copyright law and pirating. There has also been attention paid to the business end of movie distributorship and the ethical issues that could potentially affect the consumer. The overarching concern of these studies deal with that monster that is called illegal downloading and the potential it has to cannibalize formal methods of resourcing media content. While these are important issues in their own right, these studies cannot access the realities, both subtle and crass, which are inherent in actual case study. This paper will pry open the subterranean activities of the residential movie viewer and look into habits of movie consumption. Our research method will involve semi structured and unstructured interviews that we will have digitally recorded and qualitatively analyzed. Instead of sociological assumptions derived from large and impersonal data cohorts, this paper will scrutinize the personal viewing activities of at home viewers. This will shed light on realities more formal research methods do not fathom. The broad questions that our research will address are: what movie watching technologies do movie enthusiasts frequently use, where to they resource movie content, and more nuanced particulars such as sociality surrounding residential movie watching. Besides these questions, the interviews we conduct could very well uncover unthought-of areas of research for future research.

This innovative proposal method offers the researcher a new lens by which to better understand the complexities surrounding the sociological intersections of the (1.) movie distribution industry (2.) the media device manufacturing business and finally, (3.) How human agency on the personal level influences changes in (1.) and (2.). 4. Literature review Conducting a film review on this research has been challenging. This is owing to the fact that the theoretical tradition of movie distribution is primarily business and legally oriented or ethically and psychologically focused. After some considerable searching I did manage to scope out three academic articles specifically investigating how movies are distributed to the home-viewing market. The value of these three papers to varying degrees was their focus on the product users experience rather than a concentration on the market place and global economic trends. The titles of these papers are: - "Subcinema: Mapping Informal Film Distribution" Lobato, R. (2009) http://dtl.unimelb.edu.au/R/NLR6LHNQCEKRFE65G5748G18KDFJPUUXR1E91NMIP K1G8L1LUU-00837?func=dbin-jumpfull&object_id=264433&local_base=GEN01&pds_handle=GUEST - "The Warner Archive and DVD Collecting in the New Home Video Market" Schaurer, B. http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/the_velvet_light_trap/v070/70.schauer.html - "Invisible audiences for Australian Films?" Lobato, R. (March, 2009) http://researchbank.swinburne.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/swin:15296 The first paper I will refer you to is a 2009 Doctoral Thesis written by Ramon Labato for the University of Melbourne. This paper is entitled Subcinema: Mapping Informal Film Distribution. In this paper Labato stresses the importance of analyzing film from a distribution vantage point. While theoretical tradition insists that film matters because it has social consequences, Labato insists that films only ever exist if they reach an audience. Unpredictably, Lobato insists that media distribution is more edgy than Art house opening nights, first night releases and other business orthodoxies. In Subcinema Lobato explores areas such as U.S Christian DVD industry, The straight-to-video experience. Lobato refers to these STVs as possessing a transnational mobility characteristic that is a qualitatively unique cinema experience.

Here are the articles I have read for our research proposal project.

1.) Jeffery Klaehn (2010) "The Propaganda Model and Sociology: Understanding the Media and Society" Sociology Faculty publications - #5 2.) Michelle Royer (2010) "National Cinemas and Transcultural Mappings: The Case of France Literature & Aesthetics. vol 20 #1 3.) Clancy Smith (2009) "A Critical Pragmatism: Marcuse, Adorno and Peirce on the Artificial Stagnation of Individual and Social Development in Advanced industrial Societies. Kritike. Vol 3 #2 4.) Eduardo Rodriguez (Globalization and Digital Networks, 5.) (Could not download) Richard Rees (1999) "Good Will Hunting or Wild Goose Chase? Masculinities & the Myth of Class Mobility" Journal of narrative Theory Vol 29, #2 The 2010 Article introduces the reader to the general workings of "conflict Theory" and more specifically to the "Propaganda Model" of Mass Media and society. "Conflict theory" in sociological terms is derived from a group of writers from the 1040's and 50s primarily European, who were "critical" of the how the functionalist school of sociology maintained/sustained itself. Borrowing from Marx's class struggle ideas and Weber's study of power and bureaucracy, conflict theorists held that both 'class' and 'bureaucracy" were what held Functional society together (Douglas Mann, Understanding Society, 2011, p 41). They accused those in positions of prestige of creating conflict in society to both draw people together and at the same time keep them apart. When organized conflict takes place, * Group boundaries can be built and maintained * Scape-goats can be identified and blamed for weaknesses in society * Conflict can bring people to have intimate degree of solidarity * Enemies can more easily be identified * An identifiable "group" in a conflict society seeks out new allies in order to maintain/grow (Mann p42) The "propaganda Model" shares many features with conflict theory. While Conflict theory represents aspirations

Of the elite in society's function - Propaganda Model is a structural example that confronts how the state, market and ideology Constrain democracy. As an academic tool, PM predicts that patterns in media behavior are connected to larger institutional and market Imperatives (Klaehn 2010). The Term "Propaganda Model" comes from Edward Herman and Noam Chompski's 1988 book "Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of Mass Media. This book describes the intersection between media power and the political economy in current capital society. Basically the theory states that American mass media carries out a form of non-coercive but effective social manipulation due to the common interests of the profit making identities that produce and distribute popular media to the public.

"General Electric (owner of NBC and also CBS through ODs [Officers and Directors]), Westinghouse (owned by ODs), AT&T/Liberty Media, AOL-Time Warner, Sony, News Corporation, Viacom, Vivendy and Bertelsman. These firms, five of which are American, Own the main film industries in USA and Europe, the most important global television networks, Cable and satellite, 80-85 per cent of the global musical market, and an increasing number of Publishing houses, bookshops chains and online distributors. Even second order companies (PRISA in Spain, Media set in Italy, Televisa in Mexico, etc.) Are still big enough as to compete in Local markets and buy internationalized products from the large ones. These companies support The expansion of the global market of the media, which, in some cases, has made them gain Strong criticisms from their audiences. As the Asian writer put it: the difficulties are how to Control this new form of colonial power, while at the same time becoming players in the Regional and global communication markets. (Eduardo Rodriguez - Globalization and digital networks.) The Propaganda Model hypothesizes that where there is agreement among corporate and political leadership on a particular issue, the media will tend to reflect that agreement in their coverage of an issue. Also, that the media tends to function under a 'corporate' rather than a 'state' interests. Thus, media behavior is shaped to certain degree by "guided market system' that acts as a benign, but effective form of cultural propaganda. One theorized social effect of this sort of continual and ubiquitous political economy based on

profit is that diminishes the imaginative terrain of other social political possibilities and fills the imagination instead with what market societies 'can' provide. This impoverished state of imagination causes what Herbert Marcuse named "One Dimensional Man." Marcuse called this era the "Technological epoch" and argued that it perpetuates its own structure through use of "media control, institutionalized desublimation, and the artificial creation of false needs in their citizens" (Clancy Smith) I would understand this to say that contemporary consumer society narrows a person's tastes to the point that - even if offered a wide variety of news sources and movie offerings, we are fetish driven towards what feeds a modified psychology that attempts to appropriate a missing past" that has been "refracted through the iron law of fashion change." To get hands on idea how this works, think about George Lucas's THX-1138. It was good but made little money - It was also a critical abstract of contemporary society. Luca's next film "American Graffiti" was a celebration of contemporary society and it was nominated for an Oscar and made a trunk full of Ducats They Want Unfreedom and One-Dimensional Thought? I'll Give Them Unfreedom and One-Dimensional Thought: George Lucas, THX-138, and the Persistence of Marcusian Social Critique in American Graffiti and the Star Wars Films. By Extrapolation https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/they-want-unfreedom-one-dimensional/id486876976?mt=11) Although the paper does research into pirating video, his emphasis is of the functional way piratings cheapness allows stories to be told, particularly in poor areas. Dealing mainly with informal aspect of the economy, Lobato focuses on six characteristics of sub-cinematic networks as: Instantaneous, invisible, textually unstable, built on distraction and cockroach-capitalism. We are primarily concerned with the How end the user experiences film on a micro social level. Through our use of interviews and use of open-ended questions (how do...? or why do...?) we will Be able to investigate home movie watching from a perspective that is neither Legal or film industry driven. -Asking how and why home movie spectators do what they do is culturally revealing and an interesting avenue into peoples private time. How are Audiences Made? Study of Local Tastes in Home Theatre Viewing

This research proposal analyses the citizens of Saint John New Brunswick as a bracketed segment of the North American home entertainment industry. The industry of home entertainment has grown from radio, to television to Internet and has brought a variety of movie players and video gaming devices through the home. Lately, Internet has become a Swiss Army Knife of

sedentary leisure and will perhaps leave other 'stand alone' devices such as movie players and the game systems as useless garage sale and attic clutter. Since the first video tape players appeared in the 1970s there has been a ever increasing onslaught of players and viewers from giant video monitors that incorporate the latest internet features to pocket cell phones that are 'home entertainment' capable. Gaining a foothold on the rapid changes in home entertainment is this paper's business. In order to deal with the breadth and scope of this subject we will dwell exclusively on the 'home cinema' portion of the industry. There is a great deal of content in home cinema worth examining. What drives people to commit to purchase the latest model of cinematic device? Do home movie enthusiasts go beyond their financial means to pursue this home entertainment? And if they do spend beyond means does that say anything about what may prefer to watch? More than a small amount of academic literature suggests that there has been a convergence in movie industry. The companies that produce movies, distribute movies and design tools for viewing movies have come to consolidate their interests for the purpose of increasing profits, lengthening artistic copy write, and arguably, to direct the interests of the movie audience that buys, rents or steals its cinematic offerings. This literature is based upon a sociological position that is often referred to as 'conflict theory.' Conflict theory stresses that the elite movers and policy makers within any given society put whatever means necessary in place in order to maintain or increase the level of prestige that elite class enjoys. In a democratic society, conflict theory works to constrict the free exchange of ideas that are the hallmark of democracy. Alternatively, there is a more optimistic view of modern media supported by sociological authors such as Anthony Giddens. Giddens supports a 'heterogeneous' model of advanced technology that is simply the result of escalating technological advances that are free of ideological controversies. The Internet and other aspects of globalization mean that we are all interconnected rich and poor alike. In this paradigm there are no great-unwashed victims and no elite overlords. We are winners.

5. Research Methods - Our research method for this project will be through the use of audiorecorded interviews. The format of these interviews will be open ended and will inquire into the home cinema preferences that members of the general public have in regards how they acquire movie material and under what circumstances to they view their movies (alone, with friends, on portable devices). A degree of subtlety will be necessary for these interviews in order to best ascertain unbiased/undirected data. The answers given could very well shed light onto social concerns ranging from ethical procurement of movie material to socio-economic conditions of the in-

terview subjects. All in all, we want this to be a salient and interesting research topic that will engage our Professor.

*" For an undergraduate project, you will only have time to conduct a few interviews. It is, however, worth noting that it is always possible to learn a lot from very little data. If you ask open-ended questions, follow up particular topics in a second interview, and give the interviewee the opportunity to comment on your interpretation of the answers, you are likely to obtain some rich, original data. . You will understand far more about what takes place in (say for instance) a religious cloister (at least from the interviewee's perspective) than from simply observing morning rituals and undecipherable chanting).