This is the beginning of my process blog for research in my feminist methods class and for a possible dissertation topic.
I have been working on a project with the Medical Foundation for months now. Specifically, I was interested in looking at how they depicted survivors of torture on their website. One section of the site was devoted to video testimonies which were incredibly interesting due to the insider nature of them.
HOWEVER, when I went to look them up for this project, I found that they had been removed. Now, being the awesome student that I am I of course saved all of the pages and videos because I knew this was going to happen. Unfortunately, I am not an awesome student and did no such thing. However, I do have a paper on the videos, which will come in handy.
While this is a bit shocking, it is actually also liberating. I feel like it opens me up to look at different forms of visual culture on the website. I am still very interested in representations of clients of nonprofits on websites, so perhaps this will make me expand into new areas.
Also, it forced me to contact The Medical Foundation in order to gain more information on the site itself. Below is the e-mail I wrote:
To whom it may concern,
My name is Sean Watkins and I am a PhD student in the United States at Bowling Green State University in the Media and Communication program. About four years ago I volunteered at your London offices.
I am writing because I noticed that I can no longer find the 'Speaking Out' section of the website that included video testimonies. I was wondering if there was any reason why this was taken down or perhaps I am not looking in the right place?
I am very interested in examining your website as part of a larger dissertation project on representations of clients on nonprofit organization websites.
Any help you could give me would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you,
Sean Watkins
____________________________________________________________
So the next few weeks will be interesting as I try and figure out a new angle for future research.
