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UK Politics and Harry Potter Dissertation Survey

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Phantasm, Nov 22, 2017.

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  1. Phantasm

    Phantasm Second Year DLP Supporter

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    Nov 22, 2017 #1
    Hi guys! I'm not really sure where to put this, I was going to do it in the UK Politics thread but I know we need a meaningful post to bump up old threads and this wouldn't really be classed as one!

    As my title says, I'm doing my undergraduate dissertation in university on both UK Politics and Harry Potter. If you were born between 1980 - 1999 and either have lived in the UK, or know enough about UK politics to pretend that you have, I'm really desperately needing participants for my survey who are from outwith Scotland? It takes about 10 minutes to complete and you'd be helping me to get my degree, I know I'm not a regular poster on here, but I lurk a lot and I know a lot of you guys opinion would help fill gaps in responses I've received so far. If this is against the rules, or considered a shitpost, I'm sorry and feel free to Hall of Shame me, or lock this. I'm just a bit desperate to bulk up my numbers of respondents!

    Thanks.

    https://hass.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_ba8TxVmBKBfA3yJ
     
  2. Sorrows

    Sorrows Queen of the Flamingos Moderator

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    Nov 22, 2017 #2
    Sure man I can't see why not.

    Edit: Took 5 minutes.

    I am guessing that you wish to explore whether binary good/evil narratives such as Harry Potter may influence how people see real life people that get framed as cultural interlopers or threats such as immigrants, Muslims, refugees etc. Especially if they absorbed such messages at a young age. I would have thought that the questions around that aspect would have been a little more detailed. The way you have structured those final questions seems a little vague.

    For example you ask people if they have read some books with a good/bad binary but you give them no way of indicating how many of these kinds of books they have read or whether they enjoy or identify with that type of story.

    I'm also not so sure why you are limiting yourself to books, most people these days watch far more movies and tv shows than they read books. Plenty of those have good/bad storylines, LOTR, most of the Marvel movies, Star Wars etc. If your looking into the effect of those kinds of narratives on prejudice etc your missing a big avenue of influence.

    This Question: Rory Stewart - a government minister for international development - stated that, for those convicted of terror attacks in the UK, and British born IS fighters, "unfortunately the only way of dealing [sic] will be, in almost every case, to kill them" rather than bring them to justice. What is your stance on this statement?

    Here you are asking a simple agree/disagree question for an extreme statement. Its not going to get you great data back. Most people, even people uneasy with Muslims or ISIS are not going to advocate the death penalty. Especially when you bias it with rather than bring them to justice.

    If you want to get an nuanced idea about how people view real life 'bad guys' you need either a scale of agree, disagree or a few more statments with are a bit more nuanced. (Perhaps, agree with taking away certain human rights for terrorists, strip them of citizenship, etc, not just kill them all.)

    Plus by posing on here you have unbalenced your data set. All the people on here are fans enough of Harry Potter to be on a fanfiction site 10 years later, so most will cite a strong connection with the books. However this site clearly also has a liberalised and higher educated subculture for the most part (we've done polls in the past.) So it mostly attracts a particular type of fan. Harry Potter is a good cultural good/evil influence to use because a wide demographic of people now in their 20s read them in their teens, however you wont find most of those people here.
     
    Last edited: Nov 22, 2017
  3. Innomine

    Innomine Alchemist ~ Prestige ~ DLP Supporter

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    Nov 22, 2017 #3
    Pretended that I was Brittish! Done.
     
  4. Thaumologist

    Thaumologist DA Member ~ Prestige ~

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    Nov 23, 2017 #4
    Done, but I agree with a lot of what Sorrows said - as a site, we're gonna skew your data.

    Also, I find you generally need an "I don't mind/think about it" option on questions with "Very yes/yes/no/very no" answers, and the same with "depends" on a "yes/no". Otherwise I have to force myself to pick an answer that isn't completely true.

    Maybe a clarification on "many" and "some" for fictional books and the "how well off are you"? I don't read as much as I used to, but I know I read lots. Would 1 book a month count as lots? 1 a week?
     
  5. Skeletaure

    Skeletaure Magical Core Enthusiast ~ Prestige ~ DLP Supporter

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    Nov 23, 2017 #5
    Question assumes that killing them is not justice.

    One imagines that the questions in surveys such as this should not express opinions as to the correct answer.

    The context of the quote is killing them in combat in Syria, not about executing them on their return to the UK. Indeed the statement was made as an explicit contrast - we should kill them in combat in Syria before they can return to the UK.

    Other stuff:

    Your sympathetic/unsympathetic question does not have a category for "I am completely indifferent to this characteristic, it neither makes more or less sympathetic to a person or group".

    The questions on books with good guys/bad guys are very vague. You ask if they have influenced us but then define influence as including "being a fan of". But it's entirely possible to love something fictional without it influencing you at all in terms of your outlook or mindset. I feel like the questions have been phrased to guide the study to a particular result.

    Also, if the books have influenced you, there's no way of qualifying that influence. For example a book with a strong good/evil divide could strongly influence you away from viewing the world as divided in that way, if when reading the story you dislike those elements of it.
     
    Last edited: Nov 23, 2017
    Thaumologist
  6. Sorrows

    Sorrows Queen of the Flamingos Moderator

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    Nov 24, 2017 #6
    The context given is " for those convicted of terror attacks in the UK, and British born IS fighters." It is speaking of both those who go to fight for ISIS and those who commit acts of terrorism in the UK. In both cases they should be killed. Putting to death people through our justice system is an extreme statment considering as of now we do not have the death penalty.

    In fact if OP wanted more nuanced data he could have split this statement up and asked people if they agreed that terrorists who fought Syria should be killed and if they feel those who commits acts of terror should be put to death for it. Though perhaps not one after the other as answering one question may prime a subject to answer the other in a a similar fashion.
     
  7. Skeletaure

    Skeletaure Magical Core Enthusiast ~ Prestige ~ DLP Supporter

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    Nov 24, 2017 #7
    Sorry, when I said context I meant the context in which the statement was originally made, not the context in which the OP chose to present it. My point is that the OP has misrepresented the statement by implying that it was intended to apply within the UK. Rory Stewart's comments were clearly about fighters in Syria and in fact he explicitly stated that ISIS fighters within the UK should go through the normal criminal justice process: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-41717394

    On an unrelated note: the "should they be able to vote?" question doesn't really factor British citizenship into the equation, which is odd as citizenship is probably the most common criterion people would propose for voting rights. For example, you ask if immigrants should be allowed to vote but it's entirely possible for immigrants to have acquired citizenship. For many people the answer to that question would depend on whether or not said immigrant had done so.
     
  8. Sorrows

    Sorrows Queen of the Flamingos Moderator

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    Nov 24, 2017 #8
    You are right, the quote is completely misrepresented. Both points still stand though, since most people will not remember or know the actual context.
     
  9. Vir

    Vir Centauri Ambassador ~ Prestige ~ DLP Supporter

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    Nov 27, 2017 #9
    I presumed that the refugees did not have citizenship, and that immigrants did. I also presumed that Rory Stewart's comments were referring to IS fighters outside the UK, and that there would be difficulty in returning them to face trial, so they would most likely be killed on the battlefield.