Thursday, April 30, 2009

Choosing my dissertation topic - Earthquake Communication

I have spent quite a lot of time tring to decide what I will do for my dissertation. It is not easy if you are interested in too many things. I have decided on:

Earthquake Communication with Computer Games

Current science and technology can not specify when an earthquake will occur. The individuals who are susceptible to earthquakes live with this unpredictable risk. Coming from Istanbul and having gone through a major one, this topic touches my heart.

My concern is that because this is a major life and death issue, which you have very little control over, you do not want to think about it all the time. My question is, how can we make this a topic that is no longer scary but something fun and something you can have mastery over.

My answer was computer games!

Benefits of choosing this project:
-It addresses the question of “how can we transmit a message the best way with a computer game?” which is the main question that I want to pursue in my academic career.
-I am excited about this project on the personal level due to experiencing a series of bad risk communications in Turkey.
-It will contribute to risk communication studies (which I became familiar with at Maastricht University while completing my Masters thesis) as well as computer game studies (which I studied at Purdue).
-It can be the first step of a research agenda which has practical and consequential implications.
-It will potentially benefit projects that entail creation of an earthquake prevention and management game.
-The study can be repeated with different cultures and contexts.