Week 12

Erik OBrien
Class notes:
While I have learned quite a bit about qualitative methods, the direction of
our lectures recently have been of huge interest to me because they have focused on
culture, the self, the nature of communication, and the theory of knowledge. I keep
asking myself why is the lecture from this class not just comm 7001? In some ways
I think that if I would have been thinking of these things day one of my graduate
career I would have been better prepared, or at least be asking better questions.
That being said I remember very well the first guest lecture we had in 7001, it was
Dr. Anderson presenting on his ultra awesome wheel with the systemic empiricist
and the other 3 categories. I had absolutely no clue what that lecture was about in
7001, nor the readings. The PhD students seemed to get it (key word seemed) but I
was absolutely lost. It was not until I came into this class this semester that I finally
understood the wheel. So maybe I take back what I said about this knowledge being
helpful for 7001. I obviously was not ready for it at the time. At least I can be happy
that it would seem that I am smarter this year than I was last year.
I think I have written about this a few times now so forgive me if I keep
rehashing, my feelings about it just continue to become more and more complicated.
During Jason and my presentation I brought up something that Dr. Anderson has
basically said over and over, at the end of the day we are just writers. I think Mike is
feeling the same thing I am. We feel conflicted because we do not identify as writers
and we dont like to think of ourselves as such, but deep down we know what we

produce here is writing. What I am producing now is writing. It is the product by

which we are judged, and the change we are maybe making on the world around us.
I do not know if I am a writer, I do not know if I am an artist. I draw a lot, even
sometimes for money, I edit video, make comics, and am even trying my hand at an
animated short, but I am still uncomfortable with creative identities like being a
writer or an artist. It is interesting that I am so uncomfortable about this because
according to my personal definition of art I am clearly an artist (My definition is that
once you gain enough perspective on anything it becomes art.).
Yesterday my friend hosted a writing workshop at my apartment, I hung out
and did not read anything I had been working on but it was strange that all of a
sudden I take this class and I start getting all these realizations about writing and
then my friend who is an amazing poet tells me he is going to start hosting a writing
workshop at my apartment on Thursdays. It feels almost like a sign or something,
though I do not believe in that sort of thing. After our writing meeting I opened up
my writing folder on my computer. For the most part I pretend the folder is not
there out of some sort of bizarre embarrassment. I opened up a file that contained
some writing from earlier this semester. I wrote about this piece in a previous
portfolio entry but I will refresh your memory. I had a bizarre experience and ended
up having to ride my bike home in the middle of the night. In my whole life I had
never felt something like this, I felt an intense feeling where I just knew that I
needed to write what had happened. When I got home at 2 in the morning I sat
down and started writing, I wrote the facts of the case, what happened, how I felt, it
was basically a very narrative field note. I never hit backspace and finished it all in

one sitting, closed the document and had not looked at it since. I read it and I was
surprised by how much it meant to me, how much I remembered, how I felt then. I
do not identify as a writer, but I am someone who writes, someone who needs to
write more even if its bad. Also on another note I developed a new writing
technique, I turn of my computer screen and just start typing away, it is what I am
doing now.

Outside Reading:
This week I found an article that is pretty much pointless because the
method employed made some huge assumptions about the data they collected
making the entire argument not very compelling. It is an article by Kuk et al about
Corporate Environmental Policy Statements. The article looks at firms in the UK and
their policy statements on the environment. They come to the conclusion that
companies that have environmental policy statements and are technologically
advanced performed better in terms of environmental impact. The problem
however is that they used the business community engagement index to rate a firms
environmental sustainability. The index is absolutely worthless if we are talking
about real environmental change, they use a product life cycle metric when rating
companies which other authors such as Cerin have said are not accurate. The
Business community engagement index allows for companies like Land Rover and
Calor gas to receive accolades. Basically the index has no real meaning. For example
(though not on the list since it is a voluntary index) Exxon could conceivably get
accolades because of some green washing recycling, or reducing pollution initiative

because they have a lot of money and super sophisticated technology even though
their business is inherently problematic.
At the end of the paper the authors even list 4 caveats to their findings. The
first is that the index they used is outdated, which does not really matter because
even the updated one is problematic. The second is again with the index since it is a
SELF ASSEMENT by the businesses. The third is about their open coding
methodology, which is not a big deal, basically they said they could have developed
more codes you can always develop more codes. The 4th and final is that they
admit that it is hard to quantify how successful these companies were at
benchmarking. These caveats basically say, We spent the time writing this article,
found nothing, but somehow came to a conclusion that is full of holes but we might
as well get it published. There could be a good article here if they would have taken
a critical approach. It is mostly just frustrating because the caveats at the end
basically say hey, we did not do a good job, but we told you we did a bad job so how
about you green light this paper.

Centerpiece development:
Though I did not write about it last week I have been working on my
centerpiece for two weeks now
Step 1: Construct research question about DJ Identity.
I have completed step one. My question is: How do KUTE Radio DJs conceptualize the
DJ identity?

Step 2: Create asynchronous interview question guide.

Step 2 is complete. As we talked about in class there is no such thing as a structured
interview, a structured interview would really just be a questionnaire when doing
an asynchronous email interview. The guide is as follows, start big questions about
DJ Identity at the largest cultural scale, then at the KUTE organizational scale, then
finally on the individual scale.
Step 3: Conduct email interview for 3 participants
I am currently in limbo on step three. I chose to do asynchronous interviews for 3
reasons. 1st. Tracy says they are flexible regarding time and it give participants
space to thoughtfully consider the question 2nd I have never conducted this type of
interview before and wanted to try something new 3rd one of the people I wanted to
interview was out of town when I first started the process.
What I have learned in step 3
While it may seem like a bonus that the interview process is flexible as Tracy says,
it is a bit too flexible. I have only completed 1 of the 3 interviews because the others
keep forgetting to respond. This should have taken no more than a week and now I
am sending out emails reminding them to respond to me it feels like I am a
nagging parent. Lastly while I think the responses are accurate they seem so
produced. I have heard these people talk before and they talk nothing how they
write. I feel more like I am grading a paper than I am interviewing someone. I feel as
though they are thoughtfully reflecting on the question in a way that makes them

seem so manufactured with their response. I am wondering if there are any coding
implications here.

Unrelated:
I read part of Rulon Woods dissertation, I dig it. I also talked with one of his former
undergraduate students yesterday and She said Rulon was one of the coolest dudes
ever.