In this post, I will explore some potential sources of data that I can and will use for my thesis analysis. After meeting with Liz, I have decided to look to specific fictional texts that regard or represent earthquakes.
Data
After The Big One: This is a five-part fictional piece written for the science fiction section of Motherboard (a subsidiary of VICE). Through careful research, Adam Rothstein imagines what might happen when Portland experiences a large earthquake. This piece cites its scientific sources, yet maintains the prose of short-form science fiction and reporting. Further, the author is accessible and there are several Q&A’s with him.
after the quake by Haruki Murakami (2000): This is a collection of 6 short stories written about the month after the 1995 Kobe earthquake. Short and meditative, this collection promises to convey the transformative powers of natural disasters. Due to its relationship with real events, I feel as if this will be an interesting foray into the unique capabilities of fiction.
This LA Times article lists 9 books about earthquakes. While I probably won’t read all nine, perhaps a few of the titles will be useful in either a close-reading textual analysis or a broader discourse analysis.
In addition, I hope to look at the depiction of earthquakes and the narratives of disaster movies such as San Andreas and The Impossible. Both of these movies touch down on some kind of scientific or historical moment: the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and the San Andreas Fault in California and Nevada.
In addition, I may examine the work we did this summer (creating a pilot campaign of earthquake messages) under similar criteria, but acknowledging that our study has specific intentions and is not a product of a media market.
Methods
I wish to examine 5-7 earthquake fictional narratives. These narratives may take the form of novels, short stories, online material, and feature films. Ideally, I would use narratives that have some relationship with a real earthquake event (or future one). There are three possible angles of analysis that are available to attend to my guiding questions:
- Using a literary, media studies, and scientific discourse analysis, I can create a criteria by which I can evaluate the texts. Possible criteria may include comparison to the genre conventions of science or disaster fiction or comparison to the current discourse about earthquake communication or response in scientific and public health communities. I will read and view the texts and make systematic notes on their treatment of specific criteria related to discourse.
- In the vein of Satterfield and Slovic’s What’s Nature Worth? Narrative Expressions of Environmental Values, I can focus my research on the production of these texts. I can seek out interviews of the authors, funding sources of the films, and other information regarding the purpose or intent of the narratives (both in distribution and creation).
- A guiding question of my analysis will be: how can fictional renderings of earthquakes fill gaps in scientific and popular communication? In this vein, I can analyze the discourse of scientific and popular communication surrounding earthquakes and other natural disasters, identify gaps, and evaluate the texts based on the criteria of the gaps. This notion of filling gaps can be theoretically and linguistically tied to the capacity of fiction.
Questions
[table]
Question Type, Question
Instrumental, How can we use fiction to fill gaps in scientific and popular communication regarding natural disasters?
Evaluative, Are there gaps in the message; audience; or content of scientific and popular communication regarding natural disasters and earthquakes? If so; what are those gaps?
Explanatory, Why does fiction communicate ideas differently than scientific and popular non-fiction?
Descriptive, How does fiction communicate ideas differently than scientific and popular non-fiction communication?
Framing/Guiding, How can fiction be used to communicate environmental values and behaviors?
Focus/Research, How can (do) fictional renderings of earthquakes fill gaps in scientific and popular communication regarding natural disasters?
[/table]