Mrs Hartley's SAC Class 2009/10

Taoism

Tarot Cards

Voodoo

Holistic Medicine

Buddhism

Herbal Tea

This is a diagram completed in Gliffy of an example of the rituals involved in a Western style wedding.

After weeks of blankly staring a dormant and largely directionless PIP in the face, it came to my attention that a change needed to be made to my topic. I pondered whether a complete change in topic was necessary, as it sank in that the former topic about the media being responsible for human intellectual decay through a ‘dumbing down’ of society was not going to be as engaging for both the reader and researcher. I realised that the more centred my topic is on my micro world, the more achievable primary research- particularly interviews- is and how much more passionate I can be about it, as it is something that I am less alien to and more inclined to have a stronger opinion about.

Because I am a member of the youth group at Hillsong and am a regular attendee of various services and conferences, therefore calling it ‘home’, I find myself much more passionate about constructing my PIP. I have gained a desire to bring to light the workings of a corrupt network of news sources that systematically pick and choose the most negative material regarding Hillsong, thereby conditioning the minds of the public to function counter-Christian, counter-church and ultimately, counter-Christ.

Without further ado, my new topic is as follows;

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This PIP is concerned with the negative portrayal of Hillsong in the media, particularly through the television and newspapers, thereby influencing people’s decisions to attend the large Pentecostal church campuses in Baulkham Hills and the city. Primary research and content analysis of such media sources was conducted to ascertain the extent of this negativity and in which media forms is it most prominent or effective in altering people’s decision making. My personal belief is that the media- television, the internet and newspapers- is greatly impeding ones clear perception of Hillsong, and stands as a fog shrouding what is a remarkably large but more so remarkably God breathed church of evangelical credibility with a vision to unite humanity by bringing to light the injustices of the fallen world. The general aim of this PIP is to deconstruct the mythology surrounding Hillsong’s motives and to disprove the negative image that has been constructed for them through the spawning of lies and misinterpretations of the media. Research methodologies such as surveys, interviews and focus groups were chosen to gain an in depth understanding of attitudes towards Hillsong and if they were a product of the perennially pernicious stories spun by the media.

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(excerpt of PIP introduction)

What is necessary now: to reach a satisfactory level in my primary research:

Interview with media manager of Hillsong-

I am interested in ascertaining information regarding issues such as the media’s impacts on people’s choice to attend, how successful the media is on tarnishing the church’s image and, as a media team, if there are any ways of combating the influx of negative press. I will ask questions such as these:

-Do you have a means by which you are able to monitor negative press?

-What is level of ability/power you have to stop negative press (i.e. remove negative blog posts/online news bulletins)

-Are there any particular news sources that you believe are particularly hostile towards you? (i.e. The Sun Herald)

-In what circumstances is it necessary to make a media release or public statement?

I have finalised my topic to,

How religious and non-religious individuals identify with colour. I plan on investigating the factors that influence ones choices when dealing with colour, the subjects that are associated with particular colour and whether or not colour can reflect ones identify. My cross-cultural components will be non-religious and religious individuals. I still have not chosen a specific religion to focus on, but once I have completed research, I will then base my choices on the number of responses I have received and then analyse the key points.

My progress:

• I undertook a focus study on my schools year 2. I asked the students what their favourite colour was, why it was their favourite colour, what colour they don’t like, why they don’t like that colour and lastly I went through a number of colours, which were basic, and asked what they first thought off when they see that particular colour. A majority of them associated the colours with the environment. They also had trouble determining their favourite colour and the colour they didn’t like. This reflected their struggle in seeking their identity. Being at that young age resembles that they are still developing their identity. Another key result that was revealed was the colour white. At least half of the students had associated white with heaven or doves. These two objects are key features within the religion Christianity. Therefore, this showed me that being at a religious school, does influence our choices in colour. From this I hope to arrange to undertake the same process with my research but at a non-religious school.
• After I had completed this primary research, I then went onto my secondary. Sticking to the age I was studying, I researched on teaching methods when it came to colour. There were over 7 songs that were aimed at kids dealing with colour. At least 2 of the songs I had recalled from my childhood memory. Not only were there songs available, but flash cards, colouring in books, a number of games, puzzles and quizzes. Through this I could then analyse how these instruments play a part in developing a child’s knowledge of colour. As at that young age, it is crucial what is being taught, as it sets the grounds and basis of their mind set.
•  Once I had completed research on this particular age group I then moved on to the ‘young-adults’ age group. I wrote up a survey asking similar questions but along with this I asked what religion and ethnic background they had. I took the surveys to my TAFE class, at school, and within my local suburb. This way I could receive a diverse range or responses. I sent out 80 and received 74 back. I hope to send more out as I believe I need more results. The results I did receive did show that religion has an impact on ones association with colour. Similar patterns that occurred within the younger age group did occur within the young adult group. Around 60% of responders associated white with purity, heaven and doves. However it was interesting result that 80% of those had some form of religion, the other 20% left religion blank or said they were Agnostic. This then supported my hypothesis of ‘religion does have an impact on ones choice of identity’, whether or not you believe or follow a religion.
• I then conducted secondary research and discovered a colour identity test, created by a man called Max Luscher. His test was astonishing. It involved a series of colours. From that series you had to in order click on your favourite to your least favourite, it then appeared again and it would then do it a second time. Once you did it, it came up with your ‘personality traits’.  When I had done the test, I was shocked at how accurate it was. So then I sent the website around asking everyone to do it then report back to me how accurate they found it out 5 (5 being very accurate). All responders had said either 4 or 5, and they too were amazed at the test. I soon will research his theories behind the test had how he created it. This proved to me that colour can reflects ones identity.
• I now am hoping to arrange an interview with our school art teacher, to have her thoughts on colour. I still need to type up interview questions to prepare.
•  I then will hope to interview another art teacher though at a non-religious school. From this I can then compare both responses and see what the difference was.
• I have undertaken a number of secondary research, that included websites, articles and books, which all dealt with how one identifies with colour.
• I still need to research the theory behind the stereotype, blue for boys and pink for girls.
• Along with the concepts behind mood rings and how they work.

Well that is my progress so far, Thanks for reading. (:

So I have now finally begun the writing of my PIP !

I have written the introduction and have now started on the body aswell. I have arranged it into chapters for the two topics I am doing, so one on gender selection,and the other on multiple births. I also may be including another chapter, which will become my first chapter which will be a general overview on IVF treatment, and will introduce my topic as well as introduce the controversial and ethical issues. This section may have to be cut down or removed at the end depending on how my word limit is going.

Apart from that I have finished all my other research and am continuing to analyse my findings, particularly for the survey. I will break each part of the survey up into the seperate questions and draw conclusions from each. I will then match it up with the ratio that occurs when choosing girls over boys in gender selection, which is around 51:49.

I am also trying to think of a title for my PIP, which I am finding quite hard to do. The chapter headings are a lot simpler because they are individual sections, where as the title has to be about both topics, so whether I simply base it just on IVF treatment.

My progress in regards to my PIP is constant but due to some of my interviews not being completed or returned via e-mail it has come to a halt. I have organised my focus group to be with 8 Afghan girls ranging from 15-18 years of age, and I also hope to hand out 90 surveys. I will be visiting Macarthur Girls School either this week or next week, and I am yet to contact the manager of the Australian Afghan Hassanian Youth Association in Auburn to arrange another interview.  The current Burqa debate within Australian has fuelled some heated discussions within my family, I am finding it increasingly difficult to accept and come to terms with individuals viewpoints. It is upsetting to see that majority of Australians have either limited or no knowledge of the Islamic culture and they regard extremists as the only people who make up the Muslim religion. I try to not be bias, but after I have done so much research on the topic I find it hard to either support or hear out what some people have to say. Arrogance, pride and ignorance are creating a separation between the truth and fabricated media lies that we see on the television, in newspapers and worst of all covering the internet. This is the reason I feel so strongly about this topic as I feel that many Australians need to be exposed to the truth.

Following my last post I have started to evaluate graph and conclude my findings:

Conducted alot of primary and secondary research, at the moment I am in the process of analysing these statistics in order to support the main concepts seen throughout my PIP.

- Title Page (Redesigned to title page to be more appealing and have a higher impact with the theme of my Pip.)

- – Primary research:

Altman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET) (still gathering results from this taking a while to formulate the appropriate materials)

Focus group Methodology (got the products for my focus group. going to complete over June holidays)

Year 12 survey (conducted analysed and graphed the results from my survey the finding supported my point) _

Interview Questions (cross cultural component) Complete and analysed the cross cultural component called uncle john who lives in country Queensland as a cattle farmer.

Secondary:

Interpreting consumer perceptions of advertising: An application of the Altman Metaphor Elicitation Technique and analysed this text and I gathered that from what it read that there would be alot more to consider in terms of the theories and depths that are associated with this type of Pip.

What advertising does to us article. (Only included a summarised copy as it directly supported the finding found in the previous article)

Started my introduction for the Pip but closely looking at others to start in the right direction.

I have finished collecting my primary research, and I am now going to start the process of writing. I have started to correlate my data so that I can find out what other people think about Jesus in popular culture. But before I can start to write the main body of my work I need to watch at least one Simpsons episode, I think The Life of Brian, and ,maybe one other source of Jesus in pop culture so that I can refer to them in my writing. I have gone back through my interviews, surveys and focus group and I am now picking the parts which are most relevant to my findings. I have to go back through the huge amount of secondary data that I have and locate the relevant information to back up my primary research. The predominant amount of secondary data that I have is newspaper articles (international and domestic) and opinion pieces. I have also gathered statistics on songs which reference Jesus. I think that I need to find at least one book source, which I may have found but have been unable to attain it, (Christotainment; selling Jesus through Popular Culture), and a journal article would be helpful, just so I have an academic’s point of view.

I have started to write my introduction, and so far I am just focusing on why I chose this topic and what it is about. I have expressed my opinions about Jesus in pop culture and stated that I wanted to find out how others perceive Jesus in pop culture as well as why popular culture has so many vast interpretations.  My next step is to continue writing, by starting to break down my findings into chapters, headings and eventually come up with a title. I am really enjoying working on my pip at the moment, I just wish I had more time to be focused on it. However the holidays are coming up, and I am looking forward to the break so that I can finish my writing and start editing.

Today I am going to Coles, Woolworths, Franklins and IGA and doing content analysis for Energy drinks. I am asking the questions of

1. How many different types of energy drinks are there?

2. The average percentage of the drink isle being devoted to energy drinks?

3. And making any general observations.

I’m going to take photos and then make brief notes on my results to help analyse the results. i.e. 20 different types of energy drinks, ‘teenagers are being consumed by the enormous array of drinks which explains the large amount of those that drink the energy drinks.’

I will also interview my society and culture teacher next week, my brother tomorrow, and my parents tonight. I will try and get my primary research finished completely by early next week.

I have been continuing with my research over the past few weeks and have begun reading many articles on other peoples opinions. This has been helpful as it not only collects information, like facts and statistics, but I can see what other people think of the topic. This has helped me see opinions and take into consideration other facts that I would not have thought of before.

With my content analysis, I have decided to continue with that, as I previously stopped. I have written up more questions and will watch the show everynight to find the answers to my questions, but also trends that take place within the family. I will also have to take into consideration when doing this that the show is reality television, but it is also trying to portray the “fun and happy” side of having that many children. I will have to realise that editing processes may have changed all the events that have happened.

Aside from this I have continued with my research, and have been looking at interviews conducted by both Octomom and Jon and Kate. As for the gender selection section of my PIP I still need to hand out more surveys. I have found this particular aspect the hardest as it is hard to find parents willing to fill out the surveys. It is unethical to ask my friends parents to fill it out incase they have issues with me knowing the information.

I have also been trying  to find a simple guide to writing the PIP, which has been hard. I have my information and I feel I should begin writing as soon as possible, to have as much time to write, edit and perfect it as possible. So far, I keep on getting the same writing guide, but I will continue my search.