Ethnographic field research

by | Jan 17, 2022 | Research

This week, you’ll do some ethnographic field research by observing and taking notes. Spend one day documenting your media consumption, from the time you get up to the time you go to sleep.

Keep track of:

What forms of media do you consume: TV, radio, print media, Internet, video games
What types of media: mass media, social media
How long do you spend?
What is the general content? News, entertainment, homework platforms, online shopping, etc.
In your notes, document the “media messages” you receive in the course of the day. By “media message”, I mean each separate instance of media consumption or each time you shift your media focus. For instance, if you’re watching the news on TV, you might consider a half-hour news program two kinds of messages: “news” and “commercials.” If you’re online checking different social media sites, that could all count as one.

For EACH media message that you document, identify its MAIN function: Does it socialize, enforce a social norm, confer status, or promote consumption? If you believe a single message performs multiple functions, you can check multiple functions

Keep a record and tally (literally COUNT) the results. Need help keeping a record? You may download and use the worksheet posted in this week’s Moodle folder or take notes of your own.

Initial Post Instructions

Describe your overall results. What kinds of media did you consume, and what functions were present? Be as specific as possible – include counts or categories from your notes. (Optional, but encouraged: attach your record/notes to this post).
Using your sociological imagination, identify at least three demographic or cultural factors that are likely to influence patterns of media consumption (what people consume, how much, etc.). How do you think these factors influence your own consumption habits?
In your tally of the functions of media messages, which function was most common (showed up most frequently)? Explain how the media messages you observed performed this function, using at least two specific examples. (For instance, how did a news story confer status? How did an Instagram ad promote consumption?)

Sample Solution

Sample solution

Dante Alighieri played a critical role in the literature world through his poem Divine Comedy that was written in the 14th century. The poem contains Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. The Inferno is a description of the nine circles of torment that are found on the earth. It depicts the realms of the people that have gone against the spiritual values and who, instead, have chosen bestial appetite, violence, or fraud and malice. The nine circles of hell are limbo, lust, gluttony, greed and wrath. Others are heresy, violence, fraud, and treachery. The purpose of this paper is to examine the Dante’s Inferno in the perspective of its portrayal of God’s image and the justification of hell. 

In this epic poem, God is portrayed as a super being guilty of multiple weaknesses including being egotistic, unjust, and hypocritical. Dante, in this poem, depicts God as being more human than divine by challenging God’s omnipotence. Additionally, the manner in which Dante describes Hell is in full contradiction to the morals of God as written in the Bible. When god arranges Hell to flatter Himself, He commits egotism, a sin that is common among human beings (Cheney, 2016). The weakness is depicted in Limbo and on the Gate of Hell where, for instance, God sends those who do not worship Him to Hell. This implies that failure to worship Him is a sin.


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God is also depicted as lacking justice in His actions thus removing the godly image. The injustice is portrayed by the manner in which the sodomites and opportunists are treated. The opportunists are subjected to banner chasing in their lives after death followed by being stung by insects and maggots. They are known to having done neither good nor bad during their lifetimes and, therefore, justice could have demanded that they be granted a neutral punishment having lived a neutral life. The sodomites are also punished unfairly by God when Brunetto Lattini is condemned to hell despite being a good leader (Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). While he commited sodomy, God chooses to ignore all the other good deeds that Brunetto did.

Finally, God is also portrayed as being hypocritical in His actions, a sin that further diminishes His godliness and makes Him more human. A case in point is when God condemns the sin of egotism and goes ahead to commit it repeatedly. Proverbs 29:23 states that “arrogance will bring your downfall, but if you are humble, you will be respected.” When Slattery condemns Dante’s human state as being weak, doubtful, and limited, he is proving God’s hypocrisy because He is also human (Verdicchio, 2015). The actions of God in Hell as portrayed by Dante are inconsistent with the Biblical literature. Both Dante and God are prone to making mistakes, something common among human beings thus making God more human.

To wrap it up, Dante portrays God is more human since He commits the same sins that humans commit: egotism, hypocrisy, and injustice. Hell is justified as being a destination for victims of the mistakes committed by God. The Hell is presented as being a totally different place as compared to what is written about it in the Bible. As a result, reading through the text gives an image of God who is prone to the very mistakes common to humans thus ripping Him off His lofty status of divine and, instead, making Him a mere human. Whether or not Dante did it intentionally is subject to debate but one thing is clear in the poem: the misconstrued notion of God is revealed to future generations.

 

References

Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). Dante’s inferno: Seven deadly sins in scientific publishing and how to avoid them. Addiction Science: A Guide for the Perplexed, 267.

Cheney, L. D. G. (2016). Illustrations for Dante’s Inferno: A Comparative Study of Sandro Botticelli, Giovanni Stradano, and Federico Zuccaro. Cultural and Religious Studies, 4(8), 487.

Verdicchio, M. (2015). Irony and Desire in Dante’s” Inferno” 27. Italica, 285-297.

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