Academic Attitudes to New Media: A Methodological Exploration (original) (raw)

2013

Abstract

The importance and availability of new media technologies within universities is growing, as is the rhetoric around them. Research typically focuses on use, behaviour, and their incorporation or instrumentalisation within research and teaching environments. Attitude is rarely considered in any depth, yet as Crano, Cooper and Forgras explain, symbolic mental processes and real-life social behaviours are intrinsically linked. Attitudes guide the "subsequent behaviours" that both create and maintain our "social structures and systems". (Crano, Cooper and Forgras, 2011, pp. 3-5). This paper describes an original, flexible methodology developed for the study of new media from the attitudinal perspectives of academic users, taking account of contextual factors such as disciplinary tradition and personal experience. Three key research objectives are addressed: Devising a suitable methodology for the study of academic attitudes to new media that takes account of the conc...

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