Data Update

Data Update 

With senior thesis quickly approaching and a variety of a data I have decided to narrow my spectrum of data collection. I have previously discussed expanding my research further by interviewing more employees and residents of assisted living facilities to better understand the experiences of the residents in these facilities, due to the many laws in place to protect these patients, I have decided that for my purposes I can get the same, if not even better results, from analyzing memoirs or autobiographies of employees in these facilities. To get a better grasp on the family perspective of their experiences with the elderly and senior living communities, I have requested access to multiple Facebook support groups for families and individuals in these situations. Some of these Facebook groups allow employees of senior living facilities to join and participate in discussions.

My current data reflects that women in assisted livings are very detail oriented and prefer things to be done in a very specific manor. This is similar to men but have found that men are more concerned about things that involve change, such as the way their food tastes in the assisted living as compared to the food they ate at home. I was also able to find, from interviewing employees, that there are different dynamics, in terms of aggressiveness, between men and women with women being more likely to become physically combative than men. Finally, I was able to find that both genders can tend to be very flirtatious, from my short observation it seemed women could be considered more forward with flirtatious comments and gestures than male residents. I am hoping from observing these group conversations I will be able to find even more commonalities but potentially an explanation to what could influence these behaviors.

I have currently requested access to three different support groups including, “Memory People” with 16,000+ members, “Alzheimer’s and Dementia Caregivers Support” and “Working Daughter” a support group specifically for women caring for their elderly parent. I find it very interesting that from this list there was a specific outlet for women and none listed specifically for men. Upon being granted access I will be collecting data within the support groups to understand the gender dynamics, not only between residents of these facilities but also gender dynamics between family members that are responsible for a senior citizen.

https://www.asaging.org/blog/11-caregiving-memoirs-get-it-right

https://dailycaring.com/11-caregiver-support-groups-on-facebook-youll-want-to-join/

Thesis Proposal

Thesis Proposal 

            The aging process is inevitable. It will happen to you, it will happen to me, it will happen to our parents, our parent's parents and so it goes.In addition to this being a concept everyone has to deal with in a sense, adult care facilities such as assisted livings are an industry that isn’t likely to go out of business in our lifetime. With that, there is an opportunity that many potential employees can find job opportunities in these communities. It is important to have an understanding of what these workplaces are like. For my senior these I will be attempting to understand how experiences between the different genders of the elderly effect their interactions with employees in assisted living facilities. While there is research published on the psychological soundness of the elderly and studies on cultural issues in communication and aging, there is little research connecting experiences between the genders of the elderly to how they communicate with individuals they interact with. This will be beneficial to anyone who interacts with the elderly whether it be through personal or professional relationships. 

METHOD

            To come to a conclusion of my research question, I will use ethnographic research to observe how residents in multiple assisted living facilities interact with each other and employees of the facility in which they reside. I would also like to observe interactions with residents and their families, although this will be harder to do naturally. After these observations I will interview the employees of the facility to understand how their relationship with residents, their feelings for their job, and how their communication may vary between residents.To support my decision to conduct both observation and interview I have pulled information from Ethnographic Choices by Bollinger and Menchaca. My observation will include mostly note taking but I will also participate as much as I find appropriate. Observation will help improve my experience as, “When you become more immersed in a community and learn the community ways of being, you begin to see things from a different prospective.” (64)

After observing I will conduct my interviews. Having the period of observation will allow potential for even more questions to be asked. My Interviews will be in person as “face-to-face interview is the most advantageous… this approach allows you to both see the body language and hear the voice and tone of the participant. The combination of nonverbal and verbal signals gives you a fuller understanding of their experiences, thoughts and emotions.” (101)I will record these interactions to transcribe and further analyze to find an answer to my research question and form a thesis. 

LIT REVIEW

            As previously stated, the concept of gender and its influence on communication is researched minimally, I have been able to find sources analyzing the psychological well-being of assisted living residents. This is important to understand for my research as an unstable mental state could cause outliers in my data, these outliers wouldn’t be problematic but will need to be understood. The main purpose of this journal entry is to bring an understanding of how prevalent depression is in assisted living facilities, how difficult it is to recognize and why it is important to address and understand.  “the mental health of elderly people is critically related to their physical health and functioning. Researchers report that many elderly people in residential care suffer from depressive symptoms (Grayson et al.; Lawton et al.). This depression is often unrecognized and untreated and is significantly related to disability and mortality” (Cummings, 293). This thought continues further in the journal and explains “ALFs attempt to minimize resident isolation and bolster social support through congregate living in a homelike atmosphere. Many ALFs also offer a variety of social programs throughout the week. Although research on the effect of social support in residential care communities is extremely limited, findings do suggest that social support variables, such as attendance at social activities, are related to lower levels of depressive symptoms (Mitchell & Kemp, 2000). The portion that sticks out to me is underlined, essentially saying that the social activities in the ALF could minimize the potential of depression. This is important to understand in regard to my research as it will be important to understand how depression could play a part in the results of my observation through interaction during facility activities. In addition, residents that may be depressed both diagnosed and undiagnosed, could (unwillingly) affect the resident’s relationships with those they interact with whether it be employees or family members. The results of this study show that “Consistent with other gerontology studies, female residents suffered from significantly higher levels of depression and lower levels of life satisfaction than male residents. In addition to being female, increased functional impairment and lower levels of self-reported health, satisfaction with social contacts, participation in social activities, and perceived social support were all found to be related to poorer psychological well-being” (Cummings, 299).

            An additional aspect I will be analyzing to help in forming a conclusion will be the cultural aspects in communication and aging. I am expecting that the cultural influence will play a large part between both men and women in how they communicate with those around them as these influences likely shaped their lives affecting what they see as their cultural capital. The interesting aspect with this chapter is that it strictly analyzes the cultural influence of eastern and western cultures and doesn’t include the gender influences that could be present. Even at that, this is an important concept to thoroughly understand before I observe residents. From the Handbook of Communication and Aging Researchit is stated that “culture plays an important role in defining the self (the identity function of culture) and the meaning of and attitudes toward aging, as well the roles that are considered to be appropriate (the group inclusion and intergroup boundary regulation functions) (Pechioni, Ota, Sparks, 174). The chapter then analyzes Eastern and western cultures explaining the Eastern Cultures “have been built around Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism as moral, ethical, and philosophical principals of life (Chang, 1997; Ho, 1994; Kim & Yamaguchi, 1995; Slote & De Vos, 1998; Yum, 1988). By way of formal and informal education, people are socialized to act toward others with human heartedness and other-orientation to achieve group, or collective, goals in harmony with others in the same group (Kim & Yamaguchi, 1995; Markus and Kitayama, 1994; Triandis, 1995)” (Pechioni, Ota, Sparks, 175). Eastern cultures have collectivistic values, and family usually falls in the center. People from Eastern culture usually have string self-awareness and power is based on status and age, with social class being a focus in interactions. People from these cultures respect their elders and are more likely to communicate indirectly. They are considered to work in harmony with other and be strong in group orientation. 

            The western culture, on the other hand, is described to hold the “strong philosophical principle” of liberalism. “The hallmark of liberalism is an encouragement toward the development of an autonomous individual who is capable of making rational choices of his or her own” (Pechioni, Ota, Sparks 176). The power distribution of western cultures is based on social classes more than age and role. People of western cultures are more likely to be explicit in their communication “for the sake of message clarity” (Hall 1976; Kim, 1993).

            These differences are important to understand as the assisted living environment involves a community of elders, while likely from the same area there is the potential to expose residents to new cultures from other residents. Its biggest importance is understanding the cultural influence that may have shaped the residents of these communities.

DATA

I have already collected portions of my data that can be supported by my sources above. From my period of observation at one ALF I was able to observe morning exercise, a coffee and donut social hour, a daily news recap, along with half of their lunch time.  From these observations I was able to conclude that more women participated in facility events. This leads me to wonder if men in these facilities, if this proves to be a commonality with observation in other faculties, relating to my sources analyzed above, could be depressed and it be missed by staff and family with gender stereotypes that could come to mind. I also concluded that women were more detail oriented and were more nurturing than male residents. This causes me to wonder what past experiences they may have that cause that desire to have control. 

In addition to my observation I have already conducted my interviews of ALF employees in one facility. The results of my interviews led me to find commonalities between the actions of residents of: violence and aggression, flirtation and finally detail orientation. As previously stated, the concept of detail orientation is supported in the female residents through my observation and something I saw less in male residents. I have included below specific quotes from my interviews that led me to want to further my research. 

This first slide shows dialogue that informs us that women tend to be more physically aggressive than men who are “outspoken” or simply get upset with each other rather than acting on it. In furthering my research, I would like to make connections to what could be causing this difference in actions. 

These excerpts of my transcription show the flirtatious nature in residents of both genders. While it doesn’t seem like there is a major difference between the male and female residents, in my discussion with Alberteen, I found that residents likely make statements and act in the way they do as a response to a disease affecting brain activity whether it be a form of dementia or Alzheimer’s. This happens potentially due to the brain deteriorating, causing the frontal lobe (that controls your filter essentially) to be less developed. If this is the case, it is still important to understand how this can look between the genders, how it is received by employees and how we can better communicate in these instances. 

To finish up my current data collection we have the aspect of detail orientation that is primarily found in female residents. From what I observed, female residents are more likely to be controlling of scheduling and placement where men primarily had concerns when the food didn’t taste the same way as it was prepared prior to their time in the ALF or if it doesn’t taste the same as the last time, they had the meal. To further my research, I would like to understand what could be causing individuals to desire control, have the residents that are very detail oriented always been controlling or is this a new trait? How can understanding this influence and effect how we communicate?

            I still have a long way to go in my data collection and in my support findings. Upon establishing a well thought thesis with strong data to support, I believe that anyone can benefit from my work. We will all have to deal with aging at some point in our life. We are aging as you read this! It is likely we will have to experience aging in our parents or grandparents before it is something that affects you and I, but it is important to understand these aspects of aging and their effect on communication before we reach that milestone. With this being an industry that isn’t likely to go out of business, it is important to understand the employee and resident relationship in the event we find ourselves employed in an ALF. Upon the completion of my assignment I will stand out among other graduates as I will have the ability to conduct ethnographic interviews and have an immense understanding of Assisted Livings, different qualities between the genders and the relationships in these communities. 

Resources

Bollinger, Christopher, et al. Ethnographic Choices: a Primer on Doing Complex Social Research. Publisher Not Identified, 2014. 

Cummings, S. M. “Predictors of Psychological Well-Being among Assisted-Living Residents.” Health & Social Work, vol. 27, no. 4, Jan. 2002, pp. 293–302., doi:10.1093/hsw/27.4.293. 

Nussbaum, Jon F. Handbook of Communication and Aging Research. Routledge, 2008.

Lit Review

Lit Review

            The aging process is inevitable. It will happen to you, it will happen to me, it will happen to our parents, our parent's parents and so it goes.In addition to this being a concept everyone has to deal with in a sense, adult care facilities such as assisted livings are an industry that isn’t likely to go out of business in our lifetime. With that, there is an opportunity that many potential employees can find job opportunities in these communities. It is important to have an understanding of what these workplaces are like. For my senior these I will be attempting to understand how experiences between the different genders of the elderly effect their interactions with employees in assisted living facilities. While there is research published on the psychological soundness of the elderly and studies on cultural issues in communication and aging, there is little research connecting experiences between the genders of the elderly to how they communicate with individuals they interact with. This will be beneficial to anyone who interacts with the elderly whether it be through personal or professional relationships. 

            To come to a conclusion of my research question, I will use ethnographic research to observe how residents in multiple assisted living facilities interact with each other and employees of the facility in which they reside. I would also like to observe interactions with residents and their families, although this will be harder to do naturally. After these observations I will interview the employees of the facility to understand how their relationship with residents, their feelings for their job, and how their communication may vary between residents.To support my decision to conduct both observation and interview I have pulled information from Ethnographic Choices by Bollinger and Menchaca. My observation will include mostly note taking but I will also participate as much as I find appropriate. Observation will help improve my experience as, “When you become more immersed in a community and learn the community ways of being, you begin to see things from a different prospective.” (64)

After observing I will conduct my interviews. Having the period of observation will allow potential for even more questions to be asked. My Interviews will be in person as “face-to-face interview is the most advantageous… this approach allows you to both see the body language and hear the voice and tone of the participant. The combination of nonverbal and verbal signals gives you a fuller understanding of their experiences, thoughts and emotions.” (101)I will record these interactions to transcribe and further analyze to find an answer to my research question and form a thesis. 

            As previously stated, the concept of gender and its influence on communication is researched minimally, I have been able to find sources analyzing the psychological well-being of assisted living residents. This is important to understand for my research as an unstable mental state could cause outliers in my data, these outliers wouldn’t be problematic but will need to be understood. The main purpose of this journal entry is to bring an understanding of how prevalent depression is in assisted living facilities, how difficult it is to recognize and why it is important to address and understand.  “the mental health of elderly people is critically related to their physical health and functioning. Researchers report that many elderly people in residential care suffer from depressive symptoms (Grayson et al.; Lawton et al.). This depression is often unrecognized and untreated and is significantly related to disability and mortality” (Cummings, 293). This thought continues further in the journal and explains “ALFs attempt to minimize resident isolation and bolster social support through congregate living in a homelike atmosphere. Many ALFs also offer a variety of social programs throughout the week. Although research on the effect of social support in residential care communities is extremely limited, findings do suggest that social support variables, such as attendance at social activities, are related to lower levels of depressive symptoms (Mitchell & Kemp, 2000). The portion that sticks out to me is underlined, essentially saying that the social activities in the ALF could minimize the potential of depression. This is important to understand in regard to my research as it will be important to understand how depression could play a part in the results of my observation through interaction during facility activities. In addition, residents that may be depressed both diagnosed and undiagnosed, could (unwillingly) affect the resident’s relationships with those they interact with whether it be employees or family members. The results of this study show that “Consistent with other gerontology studies, female residents suffered from significantly higher levels of depression and lower levels of life satisfaction than male residents. In addition to being female, increased functional impairment and lower levels of self-reported health, satisfaction with social contacts, participation in social activities, and perceived social support were all found to be related to poorer psychological well-being” (Cummings, 299).

            An additional aspect I will be analyzing to help in forming a conclusion will be the cultural aspects in communication and aging. I am expecting that the cultural influence will play a large part between both men and women in how they communicate with those around them as these influences likely shaped their lives affecting what they see as their cultural capital. The interesting aspect with this chapter is that it strictly analyzes the cultural influence of eastern and western cultures and doesn’t include the gender influences that could be present. Even at that, this is an important concept to thoroughly understand before I observe residents. From the Handbook of Communication and Aging Researchit is stated that “culture plays an important role in defining the self (the identity function of culture) and the meaning of and attitudes toward aging, as well the roles that are considered to be appropriate (the group inclusion and intergroup boundary regulation functions) (Pechioni, Ota, Sparks, 174). The chapter then analyzes Eastern and western cultures explaining the Eastern Cultures “have been built around Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism as moral, ethical, and philosophical principals of life (Chang, 1997; Ho, 1994; Kim & Yamaguchi, 1995; Slote & De Vos, 1998; Yum, 1988). By way of formal and informal education, people are socialized to act toward others with human heartedness and other-orientation to achieve group, or collective, goals in harmony with others in the same group (Kim & Yamaguchi, 1995; Markus and Kitayama, 1994; Triandis, 1995)” (Pechioni, Ota, Sparks, 175). Eastern cultures have collectivistic values, and family usually falls in the center. People from Eastern culture usually have string self-awareness and power is based on status and age, with social class being a focus in interactions. People from these cultures respect their elders and are more likely to communicate indirectly. They are considered to work in harmony with other and be strong in group orientation. 

            The western culture, on the other hand, is described to hold the “strong philosophical principle” of liberalism. “The hallmark of liberalism is an encouragement toward the development of an autonomous individual who is capable of making rational choices of his or her own” (Pechioni, Ota, Sparks 176). The power distribution of western cultures is based on social classes more than age and role. People of western cultures are more likely to be explicit in their communication “for the sake of message clarity” (Hall 1976; Kim, 1993).

            These differences are important to understand as the assisted living environment involves a community of elders, while likely from the same area there is the potential to expose residents to new cultures from other residents. Its biggest importance is understanding the cultural influence that may have shaped the residents of these communities.

Both the issues of psychological well-being and culture can be influential to gender dynamics in the assisted living. To continue research, I hope to end my period of observation and my interviews of employees with interviews with residents. It will be a difficult task to get permission to make this possible, but I feel the best way to get insight on the experiences of the elderly would be from the residents first hand. If this isn’t possible, I believe conducting more extensive observation could yield results as well. 

Resources

Bollinger, Christopher, et al. Ethnographic Choices: a Primer on Doing Complex Social Research. Publisher Not Identified, 2014. 

Cummings, S. M. “Predictors of Psychological Well-Being among Assisted-Living Residents.” Health & Social Work, vol. 27, no. 4, Jan. 2002, pp. 293–302., doi:10.1093/hsw/27.4.293. 

Nussbaum, Jon F. Handbook of Communication and Aging Research. Routledge, 2008.

New Method Section for a New Thesis Idea

        After much thought, I have decided I would like to change my thesis idea. As you can see from my previous posts, I have been working to research how celebrity re branding, specifically that of Kesha's (formerly, Ke$ha), communicates events such as drug abuse, self abuse and sexual abuse, using her most recent documentary, "Rainbow the film". While I find that we should all have a firm understanding of the concepts explain above, I feel like I won't be able to make new discoveries from this research.

                                         

I will be creating a new thesis around a concept just as important to me, aging. Aging is inevitable. It will happen to you, it will happen to me, it will happen to our parents, our parent's parents and so it goes.
 
                                         

The nature of my project will analyze how the actions between the genders in the assisted living environment can communicate the experiences of the residents to employees and how the residents means of communications effect how employees communicate to residents. This project will be an extension of my ethnography project where I have already collected data analyzing how the different genders respond to the environment.

To continue my research I will duplicate my previous methodology of observing interactions between both residents and staff in an assisted living facility. Applying both observation and interview is important to the success of this research as I will be able to gain an understanding of the interactions between residents and employees in the specific community. I will conduct interviews with employees of multiple genders and races to understand their experiences in this environment, how employees communicate to their residents and how that is received by residents.  

To support my decision to conduct both observation and interview I have pulled information from Ethnographic Choicesby Bollinger and Menchaca. 

My observation will include mostly note taking but I will also participate as much as I find appropriate. Observation will help improve my experience as, “When you become more immersed in a community and learn the community ways of being, you begin to see things from a different prospective.” (64)

After observing I will conduct my interviews. Having the period of observation will allow potential for even more questions to be asked. My Interviews will be in person as “face-to-face interview is the most advantageous… this approach allows you to both see the body language and hear the voice and tone of the participant. The combination of nonverbal and verbal signals gives you a fuller understanding of their experiences, thoughts and emotions.” (101)

Proposal Draft

Celebrity Influence on Drug Abuse, Sexual Abuse and Self Abuse through the medium of pop culture. A proposal- 

            After being forced to deal with the trauma of sexual assault, and drug abuse which led to self-abuse, pop artist Kesha has recreated herself into a feminist icon by speaking out about these events and the creation of a documentary titled “Rainbow- The Film”.  For my thesis I will be doing an in-depth analysis on Kesha’s documentary and how pop culture effects the identities of celebrities, and the influence of fan bases while comparing modern pop culture and pop music in comparison to pop culture through the 1900s. This documentary is reflective of many forms of abuse including: drug abuse, sexual abuse, and self-abuse, through thorough analysis I will understand how these are communicated by celebrities and perceived by fan bases. These forms of abuse are becoming more relevant each day and are becoming even more publicized as celebrities speak out about them. Understanding how these events are communicated and perceived by both non-fan and fan bases can help us understand the weight of discussing this. 

            A large portion of the information we see about sexual and drug abuse is brought to us by celebrities. I am curious on how pressures from society influence their identity, how these identities influence fans and how these topics compare in pop culture from earlier times. 

To begin to get a grip on the identity struggles that many celebrities face I will analyze and use information from an article titled “The new Kesha Still Loves the Old Ke$ha” by Sarah Spellings. This article provides a transcript in which Kesha talks about having the ability to love herself despite her tribulations but “She describes her (old) persona as a “front” for emotional pain.”

“My feelings would get hurt and I would pretend I didn’t give a fuck. It’s a front. Put on glitter, act happy. -Kesha” (Spellings) To better understand the “old” Ke$ha vs the current Kesha seen by the public I will also view and analyze Ke$ha’s 2013 documentary “My Crazy Beautiful Life”. 

This article and the specific quotes from above lead me to apply Mead’s theory of “I and Me” to Kesha’s identity change. For this portion I will be referencing “Security and Self Reflections of a Fallen Realist” by Ken Booth. This article discusses the application of “Role Theory”, the idea that society provides the script and individuals fall into those roles, roles being “a typified response to a typified expectation”. This article also provides insight on how Mead’s theory also fits for your “I” and “Me” in a certain profession. How does Kesha change her role from Ke$ha to Kesha? What influence did producers have on this and how is it perceived by her fan base? I will be doing further research to see if there is an older Ke$ha documentary I can have my focus group watch to compare to “Rainbow- The Film”. At the least I will have focus groups watch old Ke$ha music videos to see how they compare to newer Kesha music videos.  

            While these ideas of representation can affect a fan base we have been able to see Kesha receive a lot of praise for her rebranding which is seen by many as a positive influence on femininity. “Both theorists and researchers have compared the attachments that young adults form with celebrities to the relationships that they develop with those “real others” (e.g., parents, peers) with whom they have reciprocal contact (e.g., Adams-Price & Greene, 1990; Balswick & Ingoldsby, 1982; Caughey, 1978, 1984, 1985, 1994; Cohen, 1997; Erikson, 1968; Greene & Adams-Price, 1990; Horton & Wohl, 1956). Regardless of their age, admirers, too, often speak of celebrities as though there were some sort of relationship between them (e.g., Alperstein, 1991; Caughey, 1984, 1985, 1994; Levy, 1979). Thus, investigating celebrity influence from a relational vantage point is consistent with the way that many academics and laypersons alike conceptualize the phenomenon of celebrity at- traction. (Boone, Lomore)

 To analyze the femininity aspect, I will be studying a journal article “Feminism Growing because of the Media” by Ashley Chou who claims Kesha has “come out to show other girls that it’s the right thing to stand up for yourself… Kesha is doing feminism in the bravest and most important way she can- by refusing to “save” her career by dropping her allegations against her producer. With the simple and brave act, she is inspiring an entire industry and millions of women and girls to take a stand against abuse.”  Since Kesha has spoken out against her abuser we have heard many more women come forward about men abusers in positions of power and have seen the emergence of the #MeToo movement. With this we can conclude that Kesha, who was selected as one of Time’s top 100 influential women, is not only influencing women and girls but is also influencing other celebrities. With posts from women like Anne Hathaway, Reese Witherspoon, Demi Lovato, Sara Bareilles, and many others, I will be using the article “More Celebrities Supporting Kesha” to get more in-depth information on why showing support through social media is important to this scenario.

These issues with identity and influence on society leads me to compare pop culture now to pop culture throughout the 1900’s. How have sexual assault reports increased? What were big cases, comparable to the Kesha trial, from the mid 1900s and how was that perceived, how did it influence change? 

From Kesha’s Rainbow documentary that I will be showing my focus groups I am expecting a bit of conversation on abuse:drug abuse, sexual abuse and self-abuse, specifically self-abuse in the form of eating disorders and self-harm. These are all very broad topics and I am having a bit of trouble finding articles that fit my study well.

Drug abusehas been a commonalty in pop culture for some time but how has how it been discussed changed? With recent overdoses from celebrities like Demi Lovato or the recent fatal overdose of Mac Miller, drug abuse is a topic that needs to be more widely discussed, especially in college settings to college students where we think we are invincible to the scary statistics and possibilities. Showing my focus groups Kesha’s “Rainbow- The Film” will lead me to responses to questions such as how are the metaphors used throughout this short film perceived by audience and how does it? To become more informed on this matter analyze pop artists applying references to drug abuse along with their struggle with drug abuse through their song writing and statistics that compare reports of drug usage vs how many people seek help to overcome drug abuse. Pulling from the book Persuasive Communication and Drug Abuse I will analyze how celebrities can counter the negative influence other celebrities by speaking out against drugs which is what Kesha is doing through her documentary in a sense “Public service announcements (PSAs)attempt to employ this strategy when they rely on a well-liked celebrity or sports figure to induce attitude change rather than focusing on the merits of the arguments that are presented. We do not mean to suggest that peripheral approaches are necessarily ineffective. In fact they can be quite powerful in the short term. The problem is that over time, peoples' feelings about celebrities and sports figures change, the positive sources may become dissociated from the message, and normative sources of influence become less important as one grows older. Laboratory research has shown that attitude changes based on peripheral cues tend to be less persistent and resistant to subsequent pressures. Thus, people who hold anti-drug attitudes based solely on celebrity cues are less likely to resist arguments and pressure to use drugs than are people who have developed negative atti- tudes toward particular drugs after careful reflection on the personal dangers inherent in their use” (Donohew, Sypher, Bukoski 77)

Viewing Kesha’s documentary will also likely bring up topics of self-abuse such as eating disorders. In my research so far, I have found an interesting study from the Journal of Eating Disorders titled “Pro Eating Disorder stories search patterns: the possible influence of celebrity eating disorder stories in the media” that suggests that Celebrity Eating Disorders exposed in the media are actually influencing eating disorders among young females. “public ED disclosures by celebrities represent one factor influencing pro-ED search patterns online. Findings from research examining media coverage of suicide add support for this possibility. Specifically, pursuant to media coverage of several suicides, and within the geographic region of the stories, increases in Google search patterns for the suicide methods reported in the stories have been documented [7].

Should stories covering celebrity ED disclosures impact pro-ED search patterns, it may be necessary to provide resources promoting ED prevention and recovery within people’s search results, before potentially harmful content is accessed.” (Lewis, Klauninger, Marcincinova). To better analyze these claims, I hope to find statistics that discuss the potential for people to see these celebrity struggles and use that as a wakeup call to get help with their own struggles. 

 Finally, while it is unlikely to be specifically referenced through Kesha’s documentary, the topic of Kesha in and of itself should spark a conversation on drug abuse and self-abuse. As previously stated, there is so much information on this topic that it is difficult to find something specific to my research. So far, I have found an article “Why Sexual Coercion Scandals are Good News”. At first this title struck me as odd but in further analysis, this article goes into depth about reporting sexual assault and speaking out against men that abuse their positions of power as a major feminine influence, which ties back to my research about the influence celebrities can have on society. This topic would also be great to find comparative data on the reports of sexual assault allegations from present day pop culture to prior. 

To understand the idea of how celebrities can express the repercussions of events such as sexual assault, drug abuse and self-abuse through celebrity rebranding, I will be conducting a thorough analysis of Kesha’s documentary “Rainbow- The Film”. To fully understand the message of the film, in addition to my own analysis, I will be organizing multiple focus groups. Using focus groups will be beneficial as I plan on getting a few different groups with multiple dynamics such as:

-      All male group (college students)

-      All female group (college students) 

-      Group of both male and female college students 

Using these specific dynamics that include isolating between male and female will allow me to get a more genuine view of how both male and female perceive these matters but combining these groups will give insight on how responses may change when grouped with the opposite gender. To find these groups I would like to reach out through twitter as I have a very diverse group of followers from our campus that may be willing to participate. Conducting the viewing of the documentary would be most appropriate in a classroom on campus. 

It would also be beneficial to get the viewpoints from an older audience so I would like to pull together a group of both male and female adults above the age of 30. This is another group that I could use social media to gather partipants.

Outside of the documentary I will be analyzing other celebrities that have struggled with drug addiction, along with gathering data that explains how drug addiction is perceived by audiences. I will analyze self-harm through the aspect of eating disorders and how it can be communicated in the same way I am analyzing drug abuse. A will take a different approach to the sexual abuse portion of my research, as I would like to gather an understanding on how Kesha speaking out on her sexual assault helped to influence other females including celebrities, to speak out on their sexual assault and how this led to the creation of the “#MeToo” movement. 

To begin to get an idea on how to collect and analyze my data I decided to take an additional look at the film to analyze more of the thoughts and metaphors used throughout the films entirety. 

While I was expecting to see themes such as drug abuse, eating disorder struggles and the idea of re creating an image or "rebranding", I was surprised to find other metaphors such as "The Third Eye" and a praying Mantis appear almost as often, if not more often than the expected themes. In addition to my previously decided topics of abuse (sexual, self and drug) in pop culture, I will also study the idea of anxiety and depression and how it is communicated by celebrities. 

Method Section

Senior Thesis Method Section “Before” Version

To understand the idea of how celebrities can express the repercussions of events such as sexual assault, drug abuse and self-abuse through celebrity rebranding, I will be conducting a thorough analysis of Kesha’s documentary “Rainbow- The Film”. To fully understand the message of the film, in addition to my own analysis, I will be organizing multiple focus groups. Using focus groups will be beneficial as I plan on getting a few different groups with multiple dynamics such as:

-      All male group (college students)

-      All female group (college students) 

-      Group of both male and female college students 

Using these specific dynamics that include isolating between male and female will allow me to get a more genuine view of how both male and female perceive these matters but combining these groups will give insight on how responses may change when grouped with the opposite gender. To find these groups I would like to reach out through twitter as I have a very diverse group of followers from our campus that may be willing to participate. Conducting the viewing of the documentary would be most appropriate in a classroom on campus. 

It would also be beneficial to get the viewpoints from an older audience so I would like to pull together a group of both male and female adults above the age of 30. This is another group that I could use social media to gather partipants.

Outside of the documentary I will be analyzing other celebrities that have struggled with drug addiction, along with gathering data that explains how drug addiction is perceived by audiences. I will analyze self-harm through the aspect of eating disorders and how it can be communicated in the same way I am analyzing drug abuse. A will take a different approach to the sexual abuse portion of my research, as I would like to gather an understanding on how Kesha speaking out on her sexual assault helped to influence other females including celebrities, to speak out on their sexual assault and how this led to the creation of the “#MeToo” movement. 

            

Data Post 1

Data Post 1

As you may have noticed, I will be creating my thesis based on an analysis centered around Kesha's "Rainbow- The Film" documentary. To begin to get an idea on how to collect and analyze my data I decided to take an additional look at the film to analyze more of the thoughts and metaphors used throughout the films entirety. 

While I was expecting to see themes such as drug abuse, eating disorder struggles and the idea of re creating an image or "rebranding", I was surprised to find other metaphors such as "The Third Eye" and a praying Mantis appear almost as often, if not more often than the expected themes. In addition to my previously decided topics of abuse (sexual, self and drug) in pop culture, I will also study the idea of anxiety and depression and how it is communicated by celebrities. Below I have included screenshots from the documentary with notes on some of these ideas and how they are expressed in the form of a metaphor through the documentary. 

These shots are from the beginning of the film which starts with Kesha falling into water, drowning and sinking into, what I perceived as, an unknown realm. In that realm we see Kesha meeting old Ke$ha in what appears to be rehab and the present day Kesha is trying to shake Ke$ha awake. This sets up the basis of the documentary as her "rebranding" started during her experiences while in rehab for her eating disorder. The film ends with a message "Asking for help isn't a sign of weakness. Making the decision to work on yourself is the bravest thing you can do."

We see the theme of a praying mantis in the very beginning of the film only briefly to a point where it is forgotten throughout the documentary but see it appear once again towards the ending which caused me to wonder why this was symbolic. It could be as simple as a connection between nature and the song praying but we can conclude that the metaphor is more than that and I am interested to see how this will be perceived by my focus groups.

 Even more commonly we see regular reference to the third eye, more commonly in moments of struggle. This is another element that is a metaphor for something deeper.

Finally I have a graph that shows how often different topics came up throughout the documentary. From this I was able to realize other areas I can use for research and topics I can bring up in my focus group that will come later down the line.