The purpose of this interview is to discover how people obtain information about current events and to determine whether people use different sources for types of news. A test subject was interviewed for forty five minutes via Skype and asked a series of questions about his news seeking habits.
The subject, a male in his mid-fifties, participated in the interview. Employed as a letter carrier with Canada Post for the past thirty years, he is a Canadian citizen residing in British Columbia. The highest level of education held is a high school diploma.
Summary of News Seeking Habits
To summarize the subject’s news seeking habits, the interviewer, as Wildemuth suggests, searched for themes and patterns in the responses. As Ryan and Russell recommend, the interviewer searched for repetitions in the subject’s answers to make determinations about news seeking habits.
The subject expressed interest in current events and demonstrated understanding and familiarity with current events asked during the interview. The subject exhibited strong curiosity but remained an active participant. The subject expressed interest in national, international, and political, current events and demonstrated deep concern about events such as the Harper government’s plans for changes to public service pensions and familiarity with economic issues in Europe. Entertainment news did not garner the same interest level. While the subject did not dislike such news, he explained he would not typically seek it out and was “less interested in celebrities than other news.”
The interview revealed the subject did not go to different sources for different types of news. Rather, the subject is interested in an establi…
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…ried about whether he obtained news from social media, the subject did not understand. An illustrative example was used to help. Once told that “…some people obtain news from Face Book, one might have learned about Whitney Houston’s death from a status update…” the subject understood clearly. Throughout the interview, illustrative questions were valuable in clarify the meaning of some questions.
Works Cited
Patton, Michael Q. Qualitative Evaluation and Research Methods. 2nd ed. California: Sage Publications, 1990. Print.
Ryan, Gery W, and H. Russell Bernard. “Techniques to Identify Themes in Qualitative Data.” Field Methods 15.1 (2003): 85-109. Web. 17 Feb. 2012.
Wildemuth, Barbara M. Applications of Social Research Methods to Questions in Information
and Library Science. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2009. Print.
themeaw Themes and Fate in The Awakening and Madame Bovary
Themes and Fate in The Awakening and Madame Bovary
Kate Chopin’s The Awakening and Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary are both tales of women indignant with their domestic situations; the distinct differences between the two books can be found in the authors’ unique tones. Both authors weave similar themes into their writings such as, the escape from the monotony of domestic life, dissatisfaction with marital expectations and suicide. References to “fate” abound throughout both works. In The Awakening, Chopin uses fate to represent the expectations of Edna Pontellier’s aristocratic society. Flaubert uses “fate” to portray his characters’ compulsive methods of dealing with their guilt and rejecting of personal accountability. Both authors, however seem to believe that it is fate that oppresses these women; their creators view them subjectively, as if they were products of their respective environments.
Chopin portrays Edna as an object, and she receives only the same respect as a possession. Edna’s husband sees her as and looks, “…at his wife as one looks at a valuable piece of personal property which has suffered some damage.” (P 2 : The Awakening) Chopin foils their marriage in that of the Ratignolles who, “…understood each other perfectly.” She makes the classic mistake of comparing one’s insides with others’ outsides when she thinks, “If ever the fusion of two human begins into one has been accomplished on this sphere it was surely in their union.” (P 56 : The Awakening) This sets the stage for her unhappiness, providing a point of contrast for her despondent marriage to Mr. Pontellier. She blames their marriage for their unhappiness declaring that, “…a wedding is one of the …
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…ate UP, 1969. 881-1000.
Delbanco, Andrew. “The Half-Life of Edna Pontellier.” New Essays on The Awakening. Ed. Wendy Martin. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1988. 89-106.
Gilmore, Michael T. “Revolt Against Nature: The Problematic Modernism of The Awakening.” Martin 59-84.
Giorcelli, Cristina. “Edna’s Wisdom: A Transitional and Numinous Merging.” Martin 109-39.
Martin, Wendy, ed. New Essays on the Awakening. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1988.
Papke, Mary E. Verging on the Abyss: The Social Fiction of Kate Chopin and Edith Wharton. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1990.
Seyersted, Per. Kate Chopin: A Critical Biography. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 1969.
Showalter, Elaine. “Tradition and the Female Talent: The Awakening as a Solitary Book.” Martin 33-55.
Skaggs, Peggy. Kate Chopin. Boston: Twayne, 1985.