thesis revised-ish

Yay, I did some revision on my thesis proposal, which for me meant adding more specifics about my methodolgy and the like. Here's the new stuff:

I have chosen to focus my thesis on one particular online community, Afropunk.com, which is one of the largest and well-known of these communities. Afropunk.com originally started as website promoting James Spooner’s (find the year) documentary, “Afropunk”. It has since spawned an online community of nearly 3000 members and also hosts events in the real world. Although the website uses the term “Afropunk” specifically, community members are into various rock scenes. Like “punk”, the term “Afropunk” is more about one’s attitude or approach.

My research methodology will be “netnography”, which on a basic level is defined as “ethnography adapted to the study of online communities” (Kozinets 1). For the purposes of my research, my netnography will contain three major aspects. First, is developing a clear characterization of the Afropunk.com community. This will involve questions such as, when the community started, who are the main creators/forum admins, number of members, average frequency of posts, and other things, such as the genders, socio-economic statuses, and geographical locations of community members. Although I will be able to find out many of these things through forum observation, some (like socio-economic status) might be harder to discern. Depending on where the research takes me, I might create a short survey concerning the community demographics and post it to the members.

Part two will concern actual posts in the forum, specifically looking at posts concerning black identity and relations between black people, gender, sexuality, and the role of Afropunk.com in community members lives. Although all of the message board will be fair game, I will be focusing on the forums “Punks meet punks”, “Political Speak- Race/Ethnic Issues”, and “Political Speak- feminism/gender issues” , as they are more likely to deal with the topics I am interested in. Part three, will consist of in-depth interviews with 3 – 5 individual community members, addressing the same topics of Part Two but in a more specific, personal manner. Together, Parts Two and Three will provide me with a strong base of qualitative data.