Data Discussion details

My data discussion is tomorrow at 1:30, I have chosen to look at what happened on Big brother in 2004 with the eviction of Merlin. As Merlin was evicted from the house and had an interview with Grettle, he took to the stage, ducktaped his mouth shut and help a sign saying 'free the refugees'. This act was interpreted as political stunt, focused on gaining attention on the issue in the general public. I will be analysing the way in which Merlin broadcasted his message and the reaction that he got both from the crowd and the host.

Focusing mainly on:

• Symbolic interactionism 
• Dramaturgy 

This is a link to the youtube clip I will be showing in class

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3N83X0gb_c

The Code

Unwritten rules of everyday life or 'codes' of conduct in social situations are very important in maintaining civilised interactions. Without these codes would life have any standards? 
The reading about the prison code by Wieder, made me think about a social group that I am a part of that adheres to a certain 'code' whilst taking part in it. I went surfing this morning and thought that it is quite a good example when discussing a place in which you need to abide by the unwritten rules or there will be consequences. Just like the prison code, the code of surfing is known by most members who partake in the sport regularly, these participants would be the 'regular guys', who know the rules. It seems that when someone is to break the rules things can get quite heated, I have seen people get sent in, punched and yelled at for breaking the code in the surf. The code is quite simple and has the same concept of standing in a line, whoever has been there the longest is next, someone cant just push their way in. The same sort of notion applies in the surf, along with a few others that can be seen on this website. 

http://www.surfinghandbook.com/knowledge/surfing-etiquette/



It was interesting to read a few websites and articles that shed some light on the surfing 'code' and came across a few instances in which 'the regular guys' were taking advantage of the unwritten rules. Some of the worlds more popular surf breaks, such as Hawaii, guys actually block everyone else who isnt a local from getting any waves at all, they think that they are entitled to the waves because they live there. Newcomers are not the 'regular guys' and therefore do not have a say in the matter.
It was interesting to see the code become violated in this sense, as it is being disrupted by 'the regular guys', usually it is disrupted by individuals who do not understand the code. 

This concept was quite easy to grasp and I found the reading quite interesting. It is funny to think how unwritten rules can be so important to certain social interactions.

Wieder, DL 1974, 'Telling the code', in Ethnomethodology: Selected Readings, Penguin Education, Hardmondsworth, pp. 144-172

Just a link to a comment

Here is a link to a comment I made on another blog :)

http://juliasoc250.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/social-and-moral-order-in-talk.html?showComment=1347496289698

Ethnomethodology - Week 7

Ethnomethodology

http://pbmo.wordpress.com/2011/11/22/

Outlined by Garfinkel, Ethnomethodology involves the study of everyday interactions by individuals that creates social order. 
I'm not aiming to bore anyone by speaking academically about the word ethnomethodology, the word itself scared me at first, but the concept is much simpler than the spelling. 
Garfinkel believes that in society there are certain rules that create social order within interactions. We follow these rules when we interact with one another in a hope that we maintain a social order. Like i have shown in the picture above, walking into a bathroom and standing right next to someone in the cubicle when there are many free, is not seen as polite or an accepted interaction. Garfinkel explains this concept by conducting experiments in the form of games. Like Andrew did in the lecture - (starting a game of naughts and crosses and then erasing the beginning to start again). The 'fully public' nature of games are represented through a range of basic rules that are to be followed to complete the game. Garfinkel explains that in these experiments, the relationship between the 'rules' and the organised events are strongly cognitive - the rules applied are only relevant to the event that is occurring within the interaction. These experiments are also taken out in the social sphere, I tried the same experiment that was shown in the reading on my sister. Asking more questions than necessary in one interaction makes the other person feel frustrated because their understanding of social order is being taken away. 

I looked at another publication 'Social science and conversation analysis' by David Silverman which also drew on a lot of Garfinkel's work but also gave some insight into conversational analysis's. It was interesting to find the article as it stated that conversational analysis shares common origins of ethnomethodology. Conversational analysis however took a formal approach to analysing micro instances of naturally occurring talk (Silverman D 1998), which will be helpful in researching the further assignments in this course.

Picture : http://www.ourspacer.com/graphics/you're-doing-it-wrong-demotivational-posters/page02/

References 

Heritage, John. 1984. “The Morality of Cognition.” Pp. 75-102 in Garfinkel and
Ethnomethodology. Cambridge: Polity Press. 

Silverman, David (1998) Harvey Sacks: Social Science and Conversation Analysis. Cambridge: Polity.