[eccr] FW: A research invitation

>-----Original Message-----
>From: Martin Barker [mailto:(mib /at/ aber.ac.uk)]
>Sent: 31 January 2003 10:50
>To: (v.nightingale /at/ uws.edu.au); (uranmacr /at/ mq.edu.au); (drotner /at/ litcul.sdu.dk);
>(guyot /at/ acm.org); (sophia /at/ alplanet.gr); (George.Terzis /at/ eccg.be);
>(ingunn.hagen /at/ svt.ntnu.no); (breda.luthar /at/ uni-lj.si); (muhr /at/ jmk.su.se);
>(svein.osterud /at/ ped.uio.no); (birgitta.hoijer /at/ media.uio.no); (tufte /at/ hum.ku.dk);
>(monteiro /at/ tiss.edu); (kpj /at/ tiss.edu); (jostein.gripsrud /at/ media.uib.no)
>Subject: A research invitation
>
>
>Dear colleague
>
>We are writing to ask if you might be interested in becoming part of a
>planned major research project, to be conducted at the end of 2003 and in
>the early months of 2004.  In December 2003 the final part of the film
>adaptation of The Lord of the Rings will be released, almost
>simultaneously, around the world.  We are planning to carry out a study of
>the launch, marketing and reception of this film, and we believe that there
>is a highly unusual opportunity here for a cross-national study which could
>make a significant contribution to an area of debate in which to date there
>has been very little concrete research.  Please read on through this, if
>you think this might in any way interest you.
>
>Parts 1 and 2 of The Lord of the Rings have been substantial box office
>successes.  In different national contexts their release has been
>accompanied by some debates  some in the public sphere of reviews and
>commentary, others within academia.  We are proposing to take several
>important issues, and examine them through a linked sequence of research
>processes.  There is the question of the ways in which the film is
>prefigured for people by the ways it is marketed (posters, teasers,
>trailers, and other official materials), by other circulating rumours,
>images, public associations, and then  close to the date of release  by
>reviews and other direct commentary on the film.  There is the question of
>the kind of fantasy that this film offers, and what it means to people: is
>there any mileage in commonly used terms such as 'entertainment' or
>'escapism'?  how close do people feel that the film's story and characters
>are to anything in their own experience, or to the wider world they find
>themselves living in?  And there is the question about whose fantasy this
>is seen to be: given that the originating book is in various ways very
>'English', but the film has accumulated in and around it some powerful
>images and associations from New Zealand, while the whole project has in
>fact been financed by a company, New Line Cinema, which is now a
>constituent part of one of the largest media conglomerates in the
>world  AOL-Time-Warner.  To whom does this fantasy 'belong', for different
>kinds of people, and how does that make a difference to their perceptions
>and judgements of the film?
>
>We think these questions are interesting in their own right, but they
>become more so when set in the context of the considerable history of
>debates about 'cultural imperialism', 'Americanisation of culture', the
>'colonisation of the imagination', and so on.  And the prevalence within
>film studies of use of claims about 'fantasy' offers another avenue of
>relevance for this research.  We see in this film's release a wonderful
>opportunity to carry out a piece of substantive research, which could bring
>some grounded evidence into these debates, and for which there are almost
>no precedents.  It is possible to name on the fingers of one hand the
>number of substantial cross-national studies of media reception.
>
>Would you or anyone you know be interested in taking this on within your
>national context?  We have a research template which we are willing to send
>to anyone who is interested.  Clearly it will be really important that,
>while the research proposal will need some tailoring to the specific
>contexts in which it might be applied, the research methodology should be
>consistent across all participating ventures.   Being a participant would
>almost involve preparing and submitting a bid to your national research
>funding body.  We are preparing a bid in the British context to go to the
>Economic & Social Research Council, and in New Zealand to go to the Marsden
>Fund, to cover the main costs of the research.  Of course there is always
>the chance that our application will fail  even so, we intend to do some
>research on this, as much as is within our powers.  The Department in
>Aberystwyth has generously offered some support, in particular to assist in
>one essential part of the whole process  a conference of participating
>individuals/groups.
>
>We are having to send this message out on spec. to names and places where
>we either we know individuals, or we have heard that there might be people
>who could potentially be interested.  Ideally, this research is for
>individuals/groups with at least an interest in, preferably some experience
>of, qualitative media audience research.  We have a dream that perhaps this
>study might attract as many participating countries, as Janet Wasko's on
>Disney.  The methodology around which the research will be organised is
>quite detailed, and draws on some specific traditions of work (in the main,
>American reception studies; European audience research; and discourse
>analysis).  We apologise for taking your time if this doesn't interest you,
>or if you feel it is too far outside your research strengths.
>
>So, our questions are these:
>
>a)      would you be interested in taking part in this project?  If so, we
>will send to you as an email attachment the research proposal template, for
>you to examine and think about in detail.  Clearly the main bones of the
>proposal are now settled, but we will be happy to hear specific suggestions
>and critical responses, which may help strengthen the planned research;
>b)      if you can't do this, can you think of anyone else in your
>country  or indeed other countries that we may not yet have located
>possible participants in  who would be interested?  We will obviously be
>happy to send this email to anyone else whom you inform us about;
>
>We will be happy to engage in correspondence about any aspect of this,
>although we are aware that in some national contexts there are deadlines
>for submissions which will have to be met.
>
>One other thing: if and when you read the research template, you will see
>that this research is likely to run at least until mid-2004, with a period
>thereafter for analysis of materials.  We are thinking of proposing an
>interim project which might be both interesting, and a means to bring
>together all the participating individuals/groups.  We think that this
>phenomenon of The Lord of the Rings is big enough to warrant a book of
>essays, which would examine it in other ways  textually, historically, and
>so on.  We have not yet had the chance to speak to any publishers about
>this, but we are fairly confident that we can interest several in this
>idea.  Would you be interested also in contributing to this?
>
>With best wishes, whatever your response.
>
>Martin Barker           Janet Jones             Ernest Mathijs
>University of Wales, Aberystwyth, UK
>
>Sean Cubitt             Stan Jones              Geoff Lealand
>University of Waikato, New Zealand

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Carpentier Nico (Phd)
Vrije Universiteit Brussel - Free University Brussels
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