Help with my dissertation, pretty please?

[littlemissjess]

Hello Beautiful DIS-ers!

I'm posting this up here because I desperately need your help! I'm a long time lurker, short time poster (I try to stay away when I'm not planning a trip, because it makes me want to be there too badly...which I'm sure a lot of you will understand!) and I'm currently in my final year at University in Nottingham. I'm writing my dissertation on Disney World as I study sociology, and the majority of the literature basically says that people who go to Disney world are duped consumers who are tricked into going, and is generally unfair to us!

Sooooo I was wondering if any one would mind answering a few questions about their experiences at Disney? Without some lovely Disney fans to answer these questions I won't be able to write my dissertation, get my degree and graduate!

So long story short; the questions I'm needing answering are;

Tell me a little about yourself (age/sex/location/etc)?

What makes you love Disney World?

What do you feel about the idea that Disney World is just a gift shop? Does this effect your enjoyment?

Do you think Disney is different from other profit driven companies?

Do you feel make your own way round the parks? Or do you feel pushed in certain directions?

Do you feel Disney World lets you create experiences unique to yourself and your family?

What do you feel about the 'kitsch' element of Disney, and the claims that it is not an “authentic” experience?

Do you feel Disney World puts forward it's own representation of an ideal way of life? (I.e. the Carousel of Progress shows a classic 'nuclear' family).

And that's it! It would be absolutely amazing if people could email me their answers (feel free to only answer some!) at lqybjw (at) nottingham.ac.uk

Thank you ever so much for any help that anyone can give! This really will effect me for the rest of my life, and so I'm incredibly appreciative of any answers I can get

Kindest Regards, Jess.

 

[lovesmurfs]

Hello Beautiful DIS-ers!

I'm posting this up here because I desperately need your help! I'm a long time lurker, short time poster (I try to stay away when I'm not planning a trip, because it makes me want to be there too badly...which I'm sure a lot of you will understand!) and I'm currently in my final year at University in Nottingham. I'm writing my dissertation on Disney World as I study sociology, and the majority of the literature basically says that people who go to Disney world are duped consumers who are tricked into going, and is generally unfair to us!

Sooooo I was wondering if any one would mind answering a few questions about their experiences at Disney? Without some lovely Disney fans to answer these questions I won't be able to write my dissertation, get my degree and graduate!

So long story short; the questions I'm needing answering are;

Tell me a little about yourself (age/sex/location/etc)?

What makes you love Disney World?

What do you feel about the idea that Disney World is just a gift shop? Does this effect your enjoyment?

Do you think Disney is different from other profit driven companies?

Do you feel make your own way round the parks? Or do you feel pushed in certain directions?

Do you feel Disney World lets you create experiences unique to yourself and your family?

What do you feel about the 'kitsch' element of Disney, and the claims that it is not an “authentic” experience?

Do you feel Disney World puts forward it's own representation of an ideal way of life? (I.e. the Carousel of Progress shows a classic 'nuclear' family).

And that's it! It would be absolutely amazing if people could email me their answers (feel free to only answer some!) at lqybjw (at) nottingham.ac.uk

Thank you ever so much for any help that anyone can give! This really will effect me for the rest of my life, and so I'm incredibly appreciative of any answers I can get

Kindest Regards, Jess.

Have you had a research methods class? I'm only an MA, so I could be mistaken, but from the way you've phrased the questions, I'm not sure you're going to get the qualitative data you need to make the responses you receive into meaningful data, rather than just anecdotal.

Best wishes.

 

[Mickey'snewestfan]

Does dissertation mean the same thing in England that it does here? Here (the U.S.) it's the research project/paper that you write when you complete your doctorate -- the standards for research are incredibly high.

I think that if you interview people on the DISboards, you'll find you have a somewhat biased sample.

 

[littlemissjess]

Thanks for your concerns/advice

Firstly, I've purposefully asked open ended questions so that I will get anecdotal answers, The questions I need answering are all there, I'm looking at how people experience the park, and so that's what I want them to talk about.

And yeah! That's what a dissertation is, except it's for a BA degree, not a docterate which is a much higher level than what I'm doing! I've explained about the site and mentioned that it will therefore be a biased example, but the particular chapter I'm writing is about Disney fans. I'm asking DIS-ers because they have great experience of the parks and can remember about the details, where as most of the people I know who have been there went on holiday a couple of years ago and can't remember the specifics.

The standards on my course for research are not very high. Its' more important that I justify all of my methods, which I've done in detail, and the nature of my course means the majority of my project is a literature review. Plus I've only got 12000 words to write it in, so we really can't go in to that much detail!

Hope this doesn't sound rude! It did to me when I read it back, which definitely wasn't my intention! Hope this answers the things you were asking...feel free to answer the questions for me

Jess.

 

[Kit'smommy]

the majority of the literature basically says that people who go to Disney world are duped consumers who are tricked into going, and is generally unfair to us!

Love this comment. My trips to WDW are highly unfair to my pocketbook, but I really don't think I am tricked into going...

 

[littlemissjess]

yeah exaclty! none of us feel tricked! all of the literature on disney handily forgets to ask any of the fans what they really feel about the parks when concluding that!

 

[littlemissjess]

Thank you so much to the people who have replied!

I still need some more people to join in so if anyone feels like emailing/PMing me with their answers that would be wonderful