Molly McLaughlin: Concept application

The group I am going to be looking at is those who considered themselves Republican.  I am very familiar with those who believe in the Republican values and those who are involved in the Republican party. so reaching out to them for this project should be easy.  The concept I will be looking at is cultural spaces, from chapter 7.  Cultural space is explained as “the social and cultural contexts in which our identity forms- where we grow up and where we live” (Martin and Nakayama, 2013, pg 274).  I chose this concept because cultural space has a lot to do with how a person becomes who they are.  A persons political affiliation can be a large part of their identity, so what they consider their cultural space impacts that part of them.  I think looking at the surrounding cultural spaces people have I can better understand how they came to be part of the republican culture.

For my data collection I have decided I will interview people.  I have several friends and connections that are part of the Republican party, so I plan on setting up times to sit and talk with them.  I also decided that I would only be looking at participants that are around the same age group as me so 21-23 years old.  So far I have 2 willing participants, 2 males age 21. I would actually like to talk to 1 or 2 more people, hopefully females.  Some example questions I will be asking are things such as:

 -What political background do you have?

 -What party do your parents affiliate with?

 -Have you ever voted? If so, was it for the republican candidate?

 -Have you ever taken part in a republican campaign?

 -Where did you grow up?

 -How much did you learn about politics in high school?

Along with the interviews I plan on attending one of the UNL college republicans meetings as soon as possible.  I found the UNL college republicans facebook page, where they post about meetings, events, speakers and even t-shirts members can buy.  I will probably just sit in the back and take notes on how the meeting is ran, who attends, and what they talk about.