INTRO
My research in this work is based on Geographical Location Discrimination. This involved a good research about the whole problem of discrimination, thus including the ways it affects people and the ways how people are creating this indifference between each other.
To conduct this research properly and to the full, I also included the related issue of Stereotypes. By doing this, I learned that the problem of discrimination is coming from the way that people think and this cannot be easily changed because a person’s thought or action is coming from the natural instinct of a human being.
I researched about this problem from different points of view of different countries including Italians and Indians where there is clear discrimination between the Northern people and the Southern ones.
This problem does not only affect Italians and Indians, but unfortunately it is also present locally, in Malta. This discrimination may be made worse by the fact that many Maltese people do not acknowledge the fact that this is in fact one form of discrimination, but are most of the times passive about it. Thus this was one of my challenges to create awareness and show Maltese people that locally, the problem of Geographical Location Discrimination exists, and many of us may be forming part of it. One of the worst challenges for me was how to show this problem without carrying a campaign since my aim was not to take sides but to be as neutral as possible and show facts as real as they are.
To overcome this challenge, I worked on this project through Photography. My objective was to capture some images that when viewed by people, they create negative or positive mind pictures about the action of the people in the photos. After capturing these shots and studied them well, I tried to understand why this is happening. I also took in consideration the location where the photos were shot because this greatly influences the ways by which people view each other in terms of discrimination.
I chose to do research for my information on the Internet for two reasons. One is that it is easier to find information from the Internet rather than from books. Secondly is that blogs present the thoughts and comments of people which would rather help in my studies since they show the true aspects of the problem of discrimination, as explained by people themselves.
“Being able to highlight quotes and passages and easily find them again is a key feature that eBooks have over paper books. This activity can also be social” (Audrey Watters, 2010) Aug 11 2010, 04:10 PM
http://forum.antivirus365.net/index.php?showtopic=4928
To strengthen and clarify my research, I designed a questionnaire targeted at Maltese people. This questionnaire produced both Qualitative and Quantitative results and helped me to learn and understand better the points of view of people about the problem of Geographical Location Discrimination.
"All research ultimately has a qualitative grounding" – (Donald Campbel 1974)
http://www.park.edu/cetl/QualitativeQuantitativeComparison.pdf
The aim is a complete, detailed description; researcher may only know roughly in advance what he/she is looking for. Recommended during earlier phases of research projects, data is in the form of words, pictures or objects. Subjective – individuals interpretation of events is important, e.g., uses participant observation, in-depth interviews etc. Qualitative data is more 'rich', time consuming, and less able to be generalized, the researcher tends to become subjectively immersed in the subject matter.
"There's no such thing as qualitative data. Everything is either 1 or 0" – (Fred Kerlinger 9 Feb 2007)
http://www.park.edu/cetl/QualitativeQuantitativeComparison.pdf
The aim is to classify features, count them, and construct statistical models in an attempt to explain what is observed. Researcher knows clearly in advance what he/she is looking for, recommended during latter phases of research projects. All aspects of the study are carefully designed before data is collected. Researcher uses tools, such as questionnaires or equipment to collect numerical data. Data is in the form of numbers and statistics. Objective seeks precise measurement & analysis of target concepts, e.g., uses surveys, questionnaires etc. Quantitative data is more efficient, able to test hypotheses, but may miss contextual detail; the researcher tends to remain objectively separated from the subject matter.
Another method of researching was by taking several photographs of houses’ names – those in the Northern as well as those in the Southern areas. These names show Maltese stereotypes. I used photography since it is one of my interests and I wanted to express myself about the topic of Geographical Location Discrimination by showing a series of photos.
In my work, I also included manipulations to strengthen my concept of the project. This also creates more curiosity and eagerness to learn more, as well as increasing the interaction of the viewers with the visuals. As an element of graphic design, I decided to conclude the project by exhibiting my work of photography with a contemporary installation.
The style of photography that I used is Photojournalism. According to Jozef Gross, (2011) the value of Photography as a means of communication depends on the ability of the camera to shot a moment in life instantly. He speculates about how the invention of the photography has contributed to the speeding up of the humans’ reflexes. The rapidity of the camera has almost made perfect man’s capacity to observe over and over again. Photography has taught several of us how to use our minds to classify visual phenomena in a period of time and to relate our own attitude to that of the person in front of the camera. This is the essence of Photojournalism to his mind . - - “A point of view: fact of feeling?” [cited in: Creative Camera March 1968, p. 99]
Jozef Gross, (2011) believes that the chief value of photography as a means of communication depends entirely on the ability of the camera to arrest life instantly. He is fantasized to speculate how the invention of photography has contributed to the speeding up of human reflexes. The rapidly working camera has sharpened man’s capacity to observe and observe rapidly. He continues that it has taught many of us to use our minds to classify visual phenomena in an instant of time; to relate our own attitude to that of the person in front of the camera in a split second. This is the essence of photojournalism to his mind. - - “A point of view: fact of feeling?” [cited in: Creative Camera March 1968, p. 99]
U wrote that u don’t know how to join this and I wrote it in my own words ok
dawn iz zewg paragraphs ma nafx kif ha naqqadom!!
“One of the leading uses of photography by the mass media came to be called photojournalism. From the late ‘twenties’ to the early ‘fifties’ what might have been the golden age of this speciality – photographers worked largely as the possessors of special and arcane skills, like the ancient priests who practiced and monopolized the skills of pictography or carving or manuscript illumination. In those halcyon days the photographer enjoyed a privileged status”. - John Szarkowski - Aperture, 13 March 1967 [cited in: Creative Camera January 1975, p. 4]
http://www.photoquotes.com/PopularQuotes.aspx?TagName=photojournalism
"Photography, as a powerful medium of expression and communications, offers an infinite variety of perception, interpretation and execution." (Ansel Adams, 1902-1984, American photographer and enviromentalist)
http://www.digitalphotographywriter.com/2010/08/famous-photography-quotes-sayings-for.html
"There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer." (Ansel Adams, 1902-1984, American photographer and enviromentalist)
To some a photograph in time magazine may just be a picture accommodating a well-written article. To others photojournalism is a story told by the photographer accommodated by a four-page description and a title. Sometimes "a picture is worth a thousand words" and nothing much has to be said.
Another way of working on my project was to focus on one main installation with an artistic approach. I used Photography for this installation, taking photos by my camera, a Nikon D3000 and lens Sigma 70-300mm. I took photos of houses’ names which was rather a complicated and challenging thing to do since people do not like the idea of an outsider taking photos of their house name. Thus I decided to take the photos from a car, and in this way I was not disturbing anyone. I edited the photos using ‘Adobe Photoshop’ and gave them more life and character and made them more similar to each other by using bright colours which contrast with their usual colours. I was influenced by Pop Art as a style but worked more on contemporary styles of today’s times. This was done on purpose to eliminate the usual norm.
The two methods by which I collected my research was through questionnaires and interviews. Whilst the questionnaires helped me to collect quantitative information by asking for explanations and quantities, the interviews helped me to collect qualitative research.
It was difficult to fill in and collect the questionnaires because whilst some were not interested to fill in the questionnaires, others just did not want to do it. This worried me because I could not fully work on my study without having the results of questionnaires so I had to try to convince people to accept the questionnaire and fill them in. One of the methods was to go to Pavi supermarket and stayed at the shop’s entrance, wearing a shirt of a particular drink’s brand. On my side were some bottles of this drink and in my hands, I had a handful of questionnaires. I was receiving some feedback, but obviously from those who wanted to receive some free drinks. However I wanted to target people of different standards, housewives, people you meet at the greengrocer, young people and also people of a good level of education. With the help of my cousin, I distributed some questionnaires to teachers in a boys’ school. In this way the ideas and opinions about Geographical Location Discrimination are more varied with a wider spectrum of reasoning and ideologies.
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