First Thoughts: Research Topics

(New topic) 
1) The messaging behind drone attacks. I'd like to look at how drone attacks carried out overseas in Pakistan and Afghanistan have been reported domestically and also the messaging behind these attacks from government sources. Targets have often described as 'militants' for being male and within a broad age range, while many civilians have been killed in the process. The Obama administration ramped up the number of drone attacks throughout his presidency and I'd like to see how these operations have been covered, and what the public opinion has been as a result. 

I'd like to do a data analysis of articles and look at broadcast stories covering drone attacks. Tone, questions asked and the amount of information presented are all things I'd like to focus on. Has the government tried to make attacks seem automatic and not with a human element? What is the benefit of that messaging? I may also look at articles about drone technology in general and how related issues (privacy, security) are covered.

Links:
Covering Obama's Secret War
Columbia Journalism Review

Drone Warfare: Blowback from the New American Way of War
Middle East Policy

2) I'm interested in exploring the use of Twitter in political movements/elections in developing countries, and the lasting effects. From Venezuela to Iran to the many Arab Spring movements, Twitter played a major role in connecting people and inciting them to join together for a common cause (or hashtag). I'd like to look at Twitter effects in demonstrations and uprisings versus elections. 

Have these political movements and political hashtags come from average citizens or are there now more political players that have access to the general population, thus creating more divisions in those societies? I could do a content analysis of tweets and hashtags from various countries. 

Also, I'd like to explore the longevity/likelihood of these movements and what this means. 

Some links: 

Gatekeeping Twitter: message diffusion in political hashtags

Media Culture Society March 2013 vol. 35 no. 2 260-270
http://mcs.sagepub.com/content/35/2/260

Pakistan testing powerful Internet filtering software
Al Jazeera America
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/9/18/pakistan-testingpowerfulinternetfilteringsoftware.html

'Citizen Journalists' Evade Blackout On Myanmar News
Wall Street Journal, 2007
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119090803430841433.html