Academic survey seeks opinions about The Hobbit: AUJ

[Bêthberry]

This survey is jointly sponsored by academic researchers at the University of Waikato (New Zealand) and Ryerson University (Canada). I've taken it and it has many of the hallmarks of good academic surveys. It asks for responses to statements about the movies, then asks for reasons in support of your two top responses, and also provides for personal, individual statements about the movie. You can omit any question you wish. It takes about half an hour to full out, more if, like me, you provide extensive prose explanation. It also asks some ancillary questions about events concerning the making of the movie.

A study of audience responses to Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: an Unexpected Journey (2012)

So, go ahead; let them know what you think about the movie.

[Aiwendil]

A chance to kvetch . . . for SCIENCE! Now that's right up my alley.

[Inziladun]

Sadly, I would guess they only want to hear from those who have actually seen the movie. Pity...

[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by Inziladun

Sadly, I would guess they only want to hear from those who have actually seen the movie. Pity...

Surprisingly, I think there might be a possibility for non-viewers to reply. You should take a look and see if it will allow you to skip the first part (responses to comments about the film) and answer other parts. (Or if any of them can legitimately be answered by someone who has refused to see the movie. ) There is one section in particular which asks if any of the pre-release controversies influenced the respondant's opinion about the movie. I wonder if there it would be possible to argue why one would not see it. It does ask how many times one has seen the movie. I don't know if "0" is acceptable or not.

Originally Posted by Aiwendil

A chance to kvetch . . . for SCIENCE! Now that's right up my alley.

Not only that, but there is a section where one can ask questions of the researchers. I forgot to ask if they are sharing their results with New Line but I did ask how their research is funded and what if any relationship with New Line did they have. (One of the researchers is in media studies and the questions about controversies were surprising to me. I would like to know more about why they asked the questions they did.) You can leave an email address, which I did. I will report here what responses I receive.

[Galadriel55]

Gonna do this when I have time. Thanks for the link, Bethberry! Do you know if there will be some sort of tally/results/overall opinion?

[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

Gonna do this when I have time. Thanks for the link, Bethberry! Do you know if there will be some sort of tally/results/overall opinion?

I would imagine they would want to have an article accepted in one of their academic journals, unless they are doing this for some other reason.

There is the option of leaving an email address so they can contact respondents. I asked how their research is being funded but I didn't ask how they will present the results. You can do that!

[Lalwendë]

Thanks for this, I have provided some thoughts as it was a well thought out survey. I don't much mind if it was for higher academic purposes or just for a student's paper, it had some good questions.

[Aiwendil]

The hardest question: 'How many times have you read The Hobbit?'

[Galadriel55]

I believe I was around 80% through when I accidentally made the page go back, deleting everything I wrote. Lesson to be learned: do not swipe your fingers across the pad of a laptop when in the middle of a non-savable document.

I shall probably make a second attempt later this weekend, but my second attempts never turn out as good as my first ones when the first get deleted accidentally.

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by Aiwendil

The hardest question: 'How many times have you read The Hobbit?'

Exactly. I had to put in a pretty random guess. Ah well. I have just supplied them with quite inaccurate data. What a tragedy.

[Galadriel55]

Originally Posted by Legate of Amon Lanc

Exactly. I had to put in a pretty random guess. Ah well. I have just supplied them with quite inaccurate data. What a tragedy.

But it really is hard to answer when most of the time you don't read it cover-to-cover but read random bits and chapters.

[William Cloud Hicklin]

However, reading the paper by the same people that resulted from a similar study of the movie Avatar a few years ago, this isn't really about the movie but about the viewers. Copious postmodern-sociology polysyllabic handwaving.

[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by William Cloud Hicklin

this isn't really about the movie but about the viewers.

Look at their academic disciplines. Look at the title of the survey. Why expect anything different?

Copious postmodern-sociology polysyllabic handwaving.

Hardly copious. The paper is surprisingly free of sociological claptrap, especially given that the authors are arguing for a particular methodology rather than presenting their results of the Avatar survey.

For those interested, the paper can be found here.