Media Niches and Field Maps, Oh My!

Assessing Peer Commentary

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In terms of the feasibility of my suggestions, I wanted to show my peers areas they may not have considered or overlooked in their pitches. I wanted to prompt them to think further about their plans, and how they may fully implement them. I think this worked quite well for my feedback to Joseph’s pitch, as I worked to give him some questions to consider, as well as provide a link to a YouTube video explaining the process of keeping field notes, something I noticed he did not focus on in his pitch.

Hey Joseph, focusing on Twitter sounds like a great way to immerse yourself into the Hip-Hop niche. You may want to investigate key hashtags for this niche and consider what types of accounts you’re planning to interact with and follow – will you stick to artists official accounts or interact more with other fans of the genre?

Using Spotify is also a great concept, I hadn’t thought of using the platform like this before. How are you planning to choose the songs you’ll update with? Plus, will you be updating a single playlist or making relevant playlists weekly?

The roadmap looks well thought out, but you may want to consider leaving some more time to focus on autoethnography rather than allocating a specific day. By keeping a current field journal, you can note any key discoveries or experiences as they happen. I found an interesting YouTube video that gives some good tips for keeping field notes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mp2UQQt4MdI

Comment on Joseph’s ‘Hip Hopping into a Pitch’

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My feedback for Tori’s pitch was a bit longer than the rest because I had already seen her pitch her project for bcm215. Since I suggested she look into the ethical considerations of showing peoples comments in her project it led me to realise that this is something I didn’t touch on in my pitch. In terms of my suggestions, I wasn’t sure what version of the Sims Tori was focusing on – while all of their footage was from The Sims 4, she didn’t specify that in her pitch. I suggested they potentially compare differing versions of The Sims, something that may not be feasible if they don’t have access to older versions of the game or don’t have the time to play them. 

Hey again Tori, I like how you’re focusing on your own niches within the project, are you planning to have them overlap at all or be completely separate? You’ve also been quite broad with stating ‘the Sims’, are you considering playing different versions of the game or will you be sticking to the Sims 4 – if you have access to the other games, it may be interesting to compare some of their elements (depending on which niche you decide to focus on). Here’s an interesting comparison of how school has changed through the various versions of the sims; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqsdmQsjQds maybe you could do something similar.

You may want to consider the ethical concerns of showing people’s comments in future videos, but overall, I found the style of your pitch video to be engaging – it would be great to do something similar for the videos supporting your podcast.

I noticed you didn’t focus on your field map in the pitch. You’ve touched on all the areas included within it and linked them together well but providing a visual representation of it may help to narrow down your niche or provide areas to focus on more.

Comment on Tori’s This one goes out to the PITCH in the back.

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I found it difficult to provide helpful feedback for Maddison’s pitch as it was well done and comprehensive. I wanted to suggest the idea that field notes don’t have to be perfect, as she allotted a lot of time to focus on them. I also wanted to give her the idea of expanding her field to include other points of comparison such as YouTube, however, this may be time-consuming or be too big of a change to her project so it may have been better to try and focus my suggestions on something more actionable.

Hey Madison, your field map is well planned out and a great basis for the project, its great how you’ve drawn links between the different elements of the map. The idea of comparing witchtok to wicca living sounds great, however I would suggest potentially looking at some other more ‘official’ sources rather than a single website. I found https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KzQSBn4JLU&list=PLQ-A1tHKtJoWdbeohlb_mDvZ-3e9kG-wB if you’re open to adding another platform into the mix. If not maybe another blog or website as a point of comparison.

Your research plan sounds great, I love how you’re including daily field notes as it’s something that will really help the final project – just remember not to overwork yourself with them. The field notes don’t have to be perfect or well-articulated as they are only the groundwork for the final project and don’t have to be officially shared

Comment on Maddison’s BCM241 A Witchy-Pitch

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Overall, I think this round of commentary was helpful as it led to me rethinking some elements of my pitch. Since I struggled here, I’m hoping that in the future I’ll be able to provide helpful feedback focused on developing the beta into a final da.

assessing commentary, bcm241, blog commenting, DA, hip-hop, media ethnographies, Pitch, pitch commentary, self assessment, the sims, witchtok