Thesis Post #4: All This

Well...

I'm pretty sure we're all on the same page. This is a very confusing time for everyone. It's hard to get into the swing of things with all the craziness going on, but I've been trying to do coursework throughout.

A couple weeks ago, I sent some emails to request contact information for the BCM, but there's been no response so far. If they don't get back to me by the time the thesis is due, at least I have some pictures of the exhibits from the Internet. I'm thinking about changing my thesis outline to narrow the scope, since I've gotten advice from a few professors about limiting how much I am trying to cover. It makes sense.

Hope everyone is staying safe and enjoying the remaining days of the extended break.

Content Analysis and Goals

     Throughout my college career, I have worked on a plethora of papers and projects. However I have never been as passionate about a topic or challenged by the tasks that still lay ahead. My journey in this course is an arduous process, balancing writing and researching for my thesis paper and project with my other coursework. Luckily, my readers and the class instructor as well as family and friends have been nothing less than supportive of my endeavors.

     My methodological tool for analysis is set up in an Excel sheet with individual tabs for 1965 to 1974. I am looking at March and September in alternating years – March 1965, 1967, 1969, ’71, ’73 and September ’66, ’68, ’70, ’72, and 1974. On each tab, there are clarifications such as marking if the content is an advertisement, lifestyle article, or an editorial photography shoot as well as an area to write pertinent information, such as the month, the page, title or company advertising, and authors. Each tab has my categories of analysis, an area for conclusions and observations, and a space for the related image. I chose each advertisement, lifestyle article, or editorial photography shoot after careful consideration of the most significant or extreme examples of my categories. This means each year has 3 images associated with it and that overall I am analyzing 30 images over 10 years. I coded by existence rather than frequency.

      I had a productive meeting with my advisors last week and it inspired me to get my action plan rolling. Currently I have 15 of my images chosen and will have all 30 images chosen by March 20^th.  I will be spending Spring Break analyzing the images and coming to conclusions, as well as writing and editing the paper component of this project. This means that I have the next nine days open essentially to make significant progress in my project. I believe I will be well on my way to submitting my findings ahead of the deadline. By examining just 5 years of American Vogue at this point, I have seen an interesting progression in regards to how fashion magazines construct and represent women’s roles. I have learned so much from my research and my project already and I cannot wait to postulate my findings.