Picking up where we left off in Part I of this post, exploring Sean Paul’s long (and successful!) history working with other artists across genre lines is a great way to understand the differences between a research question and a research hypothesis. Seriously, it is!
Read MoreNBD, but I think that I might have given one of the best lectures of my post-secondary teaching career last week in my Introduction to Research Methods course. And, not surprisingly, it involved Sean Paul.
This is Part I of II, and an example of how incorporating popular culture into classrooms makes complex topics easier to understand and discuss.
Read MoreIf you know me at all, you won’t be surprised to learn that I’ve incorporated a lesson about the franchise into my Popular Culture course. Any excuse to ogle pictures of the Rock and Vin Diesel and call it course prep…
I’m kidding, but the series merits serious academic study. In 2015, as the franchise was gearing up to release its seventh instalment in theatres, it was the ninth-highest-grossing film series of all time with a combined gross of over $5 billion. Since then, two additional films have been released - Fast 8: The Fate of the Furious, released in 2017, grossed over $1.2 billion worldwide and the 2019 spin-off, Hobbes & Shaw made over $760 million worldwide. That’s a lot of money…
Read MoreA few weeks ago, I presented some of my ongoing research at the the 15th Annual Communication Graduate Caucus (CGC) Conference at Carleton University. Under the theme of “Beyond Boundaries”, the conference sought to explore the ways that communication and media cross social, political, technical, and cultural boundaries. My research project advocates for a move beyond the purely quantitative metrics for assessing success in the music industry, and considered the longevity of Sean Paul’s career, his performances, his collaborations, the frequency with which he releases new songs, his lyrical relevance, his social media following and interventions, and his general recognizability. My presentation at the CGC Conference focused on one aspect of this research project - Sean Paul’s collaborations.
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