I have settled on a case-study approach to my PhD research. It will focus on five local governments in the greater Illawarra region of New South Wales, considering how they form and react to public issues via participatory media. The five local governments, Wingecarribee Shire, Wollondilly Shire and Wollongong City, Shellharbour City, and Kiama Municipality, have been […]
This is an extract from my PhD research proposal review, submitted and approved in September 2013. As this is an introduction to a proposal, it is exploratory and sometimes vague. It does not contain all information and data I have collected on a particular point to the moment of writing, nor does it claim to […]
A visit to the endocrinologist went well today, but the word thyroglobulin caused Meghan some troubles, thus the title of this post. Like all good goblins, my thyroglobulin levels need to be kept low. Or, rather, if they spike, it would be an indication of recurrence. To make sure the cancer stays away, they’ll be […]
For your grisly viewing pleasure, here is my scar as it has progressed since surgery on May 1. You can judge the progress by either the healing of the scar, or the growth of my beard – your choice. If you’re wondering why I’m sharing scar pics, check out the first 20 seconds of this […]
I haven’t written for a while, mostly because I haven’t known what to write. I’m in a kind of frustrating wait zone at the moment, half-way between an ‘all-clear’ and ‘more treatment’. But I had a phone call from my endocrinologist today, so that has sparked me to write something.
I’m having the first of two injections this morning of a very expensive drug, Thyrogen, ahead of my radioidine ablation this weekend. Thyrogen costs $1901.52 for two doses, but is fortunately on the pharmaceutical benefits scheme (PBS), and so only costs the patient (me!) $36.10. We were given a prescription for the Thyrogen on our […]
From the same page of an excellent book called YouTube ((Burgess, J. & Green, J., 2009. YouTube, Malden, MA: Polity Press, p.12.)), two competing academic definitions of popular culture: “popular culture is most commonly thought of – often pejoratively – as mass, consumer culture – reality TV, shopping malls, celebrity gossip, the Top 40, and […]
I’ve been thinking and writing about these two terms a bit recently as I work through my preliminary PhD research. The term e-government is largely used in an organisational context. That is, it describes the strategies used to arrange governments to respond to the possibilities and perceived challenges that digital communications tools pose. Meanwhile, e-democracy […]
An episode that once deeply offended me is now one of my favourites in a long line of classics from The Simpsons. Here are my comments on Bart vs Australia from my honours thesis. Page 13: it is worth noting that there are occasions where audiences, broadcasters and governments in countries like Australia, Brazil and […]
I briefly tackled irony in The Lord of the Rings in my last post, focussing on a quintessential speech by Bilbo Baggins at his birthday to make my point. The use of irony in popular texts is a rich vein, one that I first seriously delved into while researching and writing about The Simpsons in […]