I have done and learned quite a bit these past two semesters and in this blog post I want to give a brief summary of what has happened so far and what the next two semesters might look like for me in Design and Research.
So far I have mostly focused on the production side of things, reading up on how to film, edit and fund a documentary as well as how to properly conduct interviews. I have also done some research on the different forms of tourism and how they can positively or negatively impact locals and the environment. The different types I treated so far were mostly overtourism and responsible tourism as two very contrasting examples.
Going from there I have also started a bit to connect different types of media with the effect they have on travel behaviour. For the next semester I want to dive deeper into this topic, figuring out which types of media have the strongest influence and why. I also want to figure out whether this influence always has negative effects on the specific areas or if media influence can also be used for good. Therefore I want to explore different examples of times when the media has had negative impacts as well as maybe positive ones. I also want to create a collection of documentary films I deem valuable and fitting for the topic and explore what it is about them that appeals to me.
I want to research which connections have been drawn before and how researchers came to their conclusion in order to maybe do some research myself on the topic. I want to contact different organisations working on the issue of overtourism and how to improve it, in order to see how they approach the problem.
Furthermore, I want to get into concrete planning for my practical work in the end, figuring out where and what I want to film exactly and how to do it in the most efficient way. But not only should my practical work slowly take shape, I also need to figure out how to integrate the theoretical part in a fitting way and what I want to explore there specifically.
All in all, my mission for next semester and maybe even already summer break, is to specify my research further and narrow down what I have done so far to a workable topic for my Master Thesis. I feel like the more I research, the better my insight will be into what makes a good topic and what will be interesting to write and read about as well as how to collect the data and information I will need.
Another issue I want to focus on during the summer is planning the project with my project partner at the travel agency, talking about which journey I might join and what could be interesting and valuable to document.
So all in all, my blogs so far have been pretty interesting to write and research for, as well as my semester project where I got a first idea of what it can look like to film interview, but all of my effort has been fairly unfocused and a bit all over the place. So for the next semester I think I also want to make a plan beforehand of what I want to explore in each blog posts in order to have more of a structure and concrete plan behind it. I believe this will help me see results better and also steer my efforts into a more productive and targeted direction and lead up to the start of my Master Thesis.
I am looking forward to narrowing down my topic and diving deeper into what I want to do, but I am also a bit overwhelmed still because there are so many different ways I could go with the topic and deciding which one is the most suitable for my thesis. But I believe that researching further and also talking to my peers, friends, relatives and experts about the topic will help me see what is the most promising path to take.
So to conclude this semester, I have learned a lot about the topic as well as about the practical aspect of my thesis, and now it is time to narrow down the broad basis I have so far in order to get more specific the next semesters.
