Creativity and its role in research

1. Creativity and its role in research & What is new media research? MPM107: New Media Research Methodologies

2. 1.New Media Research What does it mean? • What it means: New media research is a method of research where individuals adapt to the flow of rapidly evolving media. • Also it New media research is when individuals go beyond the spectrum to discover new ways of “communicating”, for example, technologies, human interactivity and more.  Finding relevant causes and what society is engaging in or not; we basically need to research “what’s up”. We as new media creators have to be aware of what to do next, the next “big thing”. Analyzing and understanding the society we live in is crucial because they are the base of all new inventions/media. • This is basically the past, present, and future idea. We research what has been done in the past, what can be improved, successes, fails. Then research can be done on the present, what people want, current interests. And finally research can be done to see begin new ideas for the future.

3. 1.New Media Research What does it mean? • What types of skills needed: New media researchers need skills such as creativity because many solutions to problems, or ways of looking at things, in a new media perspective, need to be solved in a creative way because the things new media brings usually have never been discovered or used in that specific way, until that point. • Research that can be done: Research can be done on basically anything that involves media, which in our society is almost everything. Types of new media can be researched, as well as different ways to use media forms. Also research can be done to see the effects of certain types of media.

4. 2. What is the role of creativity in research? • Creativity comes in handy when doing researches. It helps individuals to experiment with the knowledge they have; allowing them to come up with new innovative ideas. 

5. 2. What is the role of creativity in research? • It may lead to new inventions and artistic movements. For example, researching a certain artist may bring out your own interests and ideas. Thus, innovating and composing what you’re influenced by.  Researching and learning about what YOU like and want to incorporate in your projects rather than just researching what you’ve been told. Creativity in research lets you explore fine knowledge repeatedly and helps each individual be more in tune with their personal interests.

6. 2. What is the role of creativity in research? • Creativity can have many roles in research. One thing, which is important to remember, is “Creativity is the ability to generate ideas and artifacts that are new, surprising and valuable.” (From Defining Systematic Creativity by Edith Ackermann, David Gauntlett and Cecilia Weckstrom) This idea helps creativity in research because when researching, sometimes the best ideas come from unexpected places. If someone uses creativity then they may find unconventional answers that work well with whatever is being researched.

7. 2. What is the role of creativity in research? • Creativity is plays an important role in research because everyone is always searching for the next best thing. Innovation is the key to success. Thinking outside the box can and presenting anything a novel way will make it contemporary, thus exciting. An example of this would be the program Napster. Fourteen years ago (in June of 1999), Shawn Fanning, John Fanning, and Sean Parker revolutionized the music industry by rendering purchasing music obsolete. They orchestrated a program called Napster that allowed its users to download music files free of charge. The distribution of music through sales had been around for over 60 years, to which record labels had monopoly over. Napster provided an innovative way to infiltrate that market by using technology to creatively make music far more accessible to the masses.