Jump to:
Research Topics | Methods and Orientation
My research concerns the role of new media technologies in society. Specifically, my work focuses on crowdsourcing, an online, distributed problem solving and production model where organizations leverage the collective intelligence of online communities for their benefit. In recent years, I have studied crowdsourcing case studies, the motivations of online communities to participate in crowdsourcing applications, and the potential for crowdsourcing to be used as a problem solving and public participation method for governments and non-profits. A project funded by the Federal Transit Administration in 2008-2010 – the Next Stop Design project – was my most recent venture into crowdsourcing research. I am looking for new ways to use crowdsourcing to solve pressing social and environmental problems, and I am beginning to closely examine the promotional methods that are needed to grow productive online communities for specific purposes.
Prior to my turn toward crowdsourcing in 2006, I focused on the representation of marginalized groups in media and how to effectively teach sensitive content in the communication classroom. This work included analysis of race and sexuality in film and television, as well as examinations of strategies for teaching issues of race, sexuality, religion, and other difficult topics from a communication perspective. I continue to find outlets for these research interests, such as in my columnist role at Flow.
^ top
Methods and Orientation
I am largely a qualitative researcher, meaning that I often turn to interviewing, case studies, textual and discourse analysis, and rhetorical criticism to make claims about human communication issues. While I appreciate quantitative research, I only dabble in numbers at a basic level and usually when I am teamed up with folks who are better at that kind of work. Ultimately, I think mixed methods research is ideal.
My research orientation is critical. While much of social scientific research aims to describe, explain, and predict human behavior, critical research aims to identify injustices in the world and to intervene in these oppressive structural arrangements to improve the world. This research orientation is rooted in Marxist critique and has traced itself through much of the writing on feminism, environmentalism, and discourse. There are many flavors of “critical,” though, with many differences of opinion about the concept spanning meta-theoretical/pragmatic tensions and methodological preferences. My own spin on critical research that pertains to new media and mass communication research is quite pragmatic, goal-oriented, and akin to design. I call my research approach one of “critical media design.”
^ top
See my Crowdsourcing page or my CV for details about my publications.
Posted by The IdeaConnection Blog · Finding the Right Research on February 8, 2011 at 11:23 pm
[...] further reading, also check out the work of professor and consultant Daren C. Brabham, Ph.D., who has spent nearly five years focusing his research on crowdsourcing and has a book on [...]