Topic outline

  • Assingments

    There are four assignments and five learning diaries.

    Please read through the instructions carefully. The submission box for each assignment can be found on this page, below the instructions.

    Unless otherwise stated, please write in proper academic style (vocabulary and language; proper citations). While this is not an English language course, nor a course on academic writing per se, assignment will be marked down for bad spelling, lack of citations, stylistic issues such as missing page numbers, etc.

    Please name your document "Lastname A#" or Lastname L#, # being the running number for each assignment and learning diary (for example, when submitting Assignment 1, I would name the document MikkonenA1 and submitting Learning diary 1 MikkonenL1). Remember to include your name on the first page of each assignment and learning diary.


    The deliverables are


    • Assignment 1: Analysis of theoretical frameworks
    • Assignment 2: Formulating a research question
    • Assignment 3: Personal interview/Ethnographic observation
    • Assignment 4: Data analysis and interpretation
    • Learning Diary

    Below are the detailed instructions for all assignments and readings:

    Assignment 1: Analysis of research articles (max 10 points)

    Read the following three research articles (available through Google Scholar via Aalto VPN)

    1. Hodis, Monica Alexandra, Rajendran Sriramachandramurthy, and Hemant C. Sashittal. "Interact with me on my terms: a four segment Facebook engagement framework for marketers." Journal of Marketing Management 31:11-12, 1255-1284.
    2. Mikkonen, Ilona, and Domen Bajde. "Happy Festivus! Parody as playful consumer resistance." Consumption Markets & Culture 16.4 (2013): 311-337.
    3. Thompson, C. J., & Haytko, D. L.. (1997). Speaking of Fashion: Consumers' Uses of Fashion Discourses and the Appropriation of Countervailing Cultural Meanings. Journal of Consumer Research, 24(1), 15-42.
    Write a 3-5 page report (12 bullet point font, 1,5 line spacing) in which you

    1. Identify the research philosophy/paradigm of each article (realism; constructivism (cultural); constructivism (interpretive). Justify your answers based on theory on different paradigms (0-6 points)
    2. Ilustrate your answer with excerpts from the articles; show which types of formulations and choices of terminology support your argument. (0-3 poins)

    (1 point for proper style and format.)

    Assignment 2: Formulating a qualitative research question (max 15 points)

    Write a 1-2 page (12 bullet point font, 1,5 line spacing) report with the following parts:

    1. Based on your knowledge of what kinds of questions are appropriate in qualitative research, formulate a research question for your Master's thesis. Justify your answer with theory. (0-5 points)
    2. Specify the research paradigm your research positions itself into. What makes the question you have formulated appropriate from the perspective of your research paradigm? Justify your choice with relevant theory. (0-5 poins)
    3. Discuss the kind of data would you need in order to answer the question, and how would you go about collecting the data? (0-4 points)
    (1 point for proper style and format.)

    Deadline: January 20, 23:55pm


    Assignment 3: Personal interview OR Ethnographic observation (20 points)


    Personal interview:


    Conduct a semi-structured personal interview on your Master's thesis topic. You can choose the person you are going to interview yourself.

    Be sure to incorporate your knowledge of what kinds of questions are suitable and unsuitable.

    The length of the interview should be 30 to 60 minutes. 

    The body of the report should be 3-6 pages in length (12 bullet point font, 1,5 line spacing), and you should:

    1. Describe why you chose this particular person to be interviewed (0-2p)
    2. Describe how the interview was organized; where it took place, how long did it take etc. (0-2p)
    3. Include the interview outline that you constructed before the interview (semi-structured interview (0-8p)
    4. Include your transcription of the whole interview as an attachment. (0-2p)
    5. Include your own reflections on the interview process (i.e. what did you learn from this process) - Did you find anything difficult? Did you feel that your question outline was useful? Would you do anything differently the next time you conduct an interview in general, or on the same topic? (0-5p)
    (1 point for proper academic style and readability)

    You need record the interview, and transcribe it verbatim - remember that transcription will take you 2-4 times longer than the actual interview. The full transcription has to be included in the report as an appendix!


    Deadline: Sunday, February 8, 23:55pm

    Etnographic observation:

    (adapted from Janesick 2011)


    • Select a setting/venue of your choice (can be anything; a supermarket, a gym, an office, a bus terminal, etc.).
    • Use as much time as you like, but you should spend at least 60 minutes in the venue (can be split into shorter periods). Actively take notes as you go.
    • You may take photos and video if you so choose. (If someone asks you what you are doing, introduce yourself and explain you are doing this as a coursework for a research methods course :) )

    When observing, take notes, paying attention to the following:


    1. Physical setting (0-2p).

    2. Activities (0-2p).

    3. Human, social environment. The way in which human beings interact within the environment. This includes patterns of interactions, frequency of interactions, the direction of communication patterns, decision-making patterns (0-3).

    4. Formal interactions (0-3p).

    5. Informal interactions and unplanned activities (0-3p).

    6. Nonverbal communication (0-3p).

    7.The things that are not done or not said (0-3p)!


    Based on your field notes write a 3-6 page (12 bullet point font, 1,5 line spacing) report the experience, including the venue, date, time etc. Also include the original field notes (or copies of them). You are also encouraged to include in the data photographs, videos, and artifacts. 


    --> The body of the report should not be your field notes, but a descriptive, organized report on your observations


    Also, include a reflective part, where you analyze the assignment (0-5p):

    • What did you learn from this process?

    • Did you find anything difficult?

    • Would you do anything differently the next time you conduct an interview in general, or on the same topic?

    • (1 point for proper academic style and readability)


    Assignment 4 - Analysis and interpretation (max 35 points)

    Analyze and interpret the interview data or the ethnographic observation

    Write the report (5-8 pages in length with a 12 bullet point font and 1,5 line spacing) in the format of a research article:

    1. Introduction (0-5points)

    Should include

    - the research gap (Identify the key articles in the given area or ‘stream’, discern potential research gaps and then select one for your study. If the research gap is not explicitly stated in the article(s), read through them and discern it yourself

    - the overall research question (i.e. what specifically are you studying)

    - your contribution --> how exactly are contributing to "filling" the research gap.


    2. Theoretical background - to what theoretical frame the research positions (0-4 points)

    This section should provide a short review of the relevant literature(s)


    3. Methodology (0-8points)

    This section, present the data set in detail (i.e. how many pages of transcription, how long was the interview)

    Also, explain and justify the data analysis process in detail

    • What kind of analytical methods or tools were chosen? Why are they appropriate in regard to your overall research question

    • Detail the process - be as precise as you can! How exactly did you proceed with the data? What kind of steps did you take? How did you code the data? If you were using an a priori coding scheme, detail how it was constructed and justify its relevance.

    4. Findings (0-5p)

    Present the main findings of your analysis organized into discourses/themes/practices etc. that you identified from your data, depending on what your research question is.

    5. Discussion and implications (0-7p)

    In this section, discuss the implications of the your findings:

    • What do these findings tell you, what should they tell to reader

    • What kind of implications marketers and/or policy makers?

    • How would you (theoretically) generalize the findings?


    As an appendix, include a reflection of the analytical/interpretive process: (0-5p)

    • What did you learn from this assignment?

    • Did you find anything difficult?

    • Would you do anything differently the next time you analyze data?

    (1 point for proper academic style and readability)

    Learning Diary (5 diary entries, max. 4 points each, 20 points in total)

    Learning diary is an instrument that should facilitate your learning process by making you more conscious about it. A learning diary should help you to

    •       become aware and acknowledge what you have learnt
    •       reflect on your own learning process
    •       deal with difficult issues that you encounter
    •       improve your knowledge and comprehension about the matters
    •       develop your argumentation skills

    Before going in the specific about what should be included, a few words on what a learning diary is NOT. First of all, it is not your lecture notes! While you should reflect on the topics covered in the lectures, please do not return a recount or a summary of lectures, or a bullet point list of the topics discussed. Secondly, unlike rest of the assignments on this course, the learning diary is not “academic” in the sense that you can write “as yourself” - you do not need citations and can use colorful language if you choose (you still need to be intelligible, of course).

    That said, the learning diary is not an anything-goes piece of writing. Things that you should cover in learning diary are

    •       What did you learn today? What was new, or interesting, or surprising? WHY?
    •       In your own opinion, what was the most important thing covered today? WHY?
    •       Was there anything difficult? Something that you didn’t understand? WHY?
    •       Did you disagree with something that was said? WHY?

    You can (and should) briefly describe the matters/concepts/theories that were covered in the lectures, or in the readings, in order to gain better understanding of them; record your thoughts, opinions and judgments about the lectures and single issues, and  give feedback and put questions to the lecturer; criticize and argue (but be sure to always give full reasons for your criticism); illustrate the topics with your own examples. The style and format are free, and you can even add news items, short poems, comic strip etc. if you think they are related to the topic. With that said, remember that this is not an entertainment piece, and you should have something relevant to say.

    Each diary entry (for weeks 1 through 5) will be graded separately using a three point scale:
    • Excellent: 4 p
    • Good: 3 p
    • Fair: 2 p
    There is no upper length limit for the assignment, but you should write a minimum of 1 page/lecture.


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Contact session 1: Course overview. Introduction to academic research & academic reading; Introduction to qualitative research