In my previous blog posts, I have been incredibly broad in my niche and what aspect of it I wish to research, and after a lot of consideration, I wish to explore the ‘house pride’ that people have with their related Hogwarts House & why we define ourselves to a fictional school house.
In Harry Potter, there are 4 schoolhouses (or teams), Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Slytherin, each known for particular skills and attributes, students in the series are sorted into their house. The series follows with a lot of house rivalry and house pride. But looking at the real world and how we associate online with one another, we as an audience and ‘fandom’ of the series have sorted ourselves into the houses and some people live and breath their house. Admittedly, I have a giant Slytherin banner hanging on my wall, and I have most definitely associated myself with the “Slytherin” brand.
I find this research topic really interesting because it explores just how much impact that a series can have on us, more often than not, if you ask someone which Harry Potter House they are in, they usually have an answer. I find it really intriguing that we can define ourselves to a fictional setting because of its popularity.
Now, getting to our blog post this week, we are required to not only think even more critically about our niche, but also to construct a timeline of research for us to follow. It is important to follow a timeline, because then when it isn’t followed, more often than not – at least for myself, things are left to the last minute, therefore, things are rushed and research is not conducted in a way that it is not influenced by your actions.
I plan to conduct qualitative research by looking through the social media tags for Harry Potter, as well as interactions through the comments on posts. Not only this but I also wish to explore forum posts that discuss similar topics on websites such as Tumblr and Reddit. I plan to record my notes and information in a backed-up computer document so that I cannot lose it and so that I can convert my notes into research writing.
Above is my rough time schedule that is outlined. My aim is to follow the weeks allocated for each task. Unfortunately, at the moment, I have failed to follow with the blog posts but am hoping to get back onto schedule and begin conducting valuable research. This research can assist me in having useful information for my research report.
Alex
AMC Blogs 