[ecrea] The World Hobbit Project: spreading the word

I hope you won’t object to intruding on your time to explain THE WORLD HOBBIT PROJECT, in case you don’t already know of this.  (Some of you certainly will, because you are involved in it!)  The project is a seriously ambitious attempt to gather responses right across the world to the films of The Hobbit with the aim of being able to explore both the patterning of the reception of the films (against many variables [country, language, age, sex, educational level, kind of work]) but also to open up through these an investigation into the changing position of ‘fantasy’ in contemporary culture.  (And it surely is changing – think just the number of major franchises that have emerged in the last decade.)  To do this, we need responses from all kinds of people, with all kinds of views of the films (from serious fandom, to outright disappointment and anger).

With just a very small research grant from the UK’s British Academy, research partners in 47 countries agreed on a complex quali-quantitative questionnaire, which is currently recruiting responses in 33 languages at this address:www.worldhobbitproject.org.  We have already attracted 27,500 responses, which is pretty amazing.  But we do need more, to be sure that we can with confidence make cross-cultural comparisons, and we have absolutely no money for publicising the project.  We will be hugely grateful if colleagues could help in different ways:

- By completing the survey yourself, of course, if you have seen the films.
- By passing on this information to students, colleagues, family, friends, and asking them to do the same.
- By mentioning and pointing to the project’s address in blogs, postings, and conversations.
- By mentioning the project and showing the link on Facebook and the like, so that it is as widely visible as we can possibly make it.

What can we offer in return?  All our findings will be made publicly available, in as many forms as we are able; and once we have completed our own work on the database, the entire body of data and materials will be placed in the public domain for other researchers to use in whatever way they choose.

Best wishes, and thanks everyone

Martin Barker ((mib /at/ aber.ac.uk))

The World Hobbit Project is on:
- Wordpress:http://globalhobbitca.wordpress.com/
- Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/WorldHobbitProject
- Twitter:https://twitter.com/WorldHobbit
- Pinterest:http://www.pinterest.com/ghobbit/
- Tumblr:http://world-hobbit.tumblr.com/
- Youtube:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYsI3JEi8iwK4nCCsZin_4Q/playlists




---------------
ECREA-Mailing list
---------------
This mailing list is a free service offered by Nico Carpentier and ECREA.
--
To subscribe, post or unsubscribe, please visit
http://commlist.org/
--
To contact the mailing list manager:
Email: (nico.carpentier /at/ vub.ac.be)
URL: http://homepages.vub.ac.be/~ncarpent/
--
ECREA - European Communication Research and Education Association
Chauss�de Waterloo 1151, 1180 Uccle, Belgium
Email: (info /at/ ecrea.eu)
URL: http://www.ecrea.eu
---------------