PRESENTATION PPCS Inaugural Seminar

17-18 Feb 2012

Anne HolappaUni Turku /Digital culture Phd student

WHO?

• MA University of Oulu 1998• Major: Cultural anthropology• Working as an information specialist• 2011– Phd student @ Turku University since January– Getting to know the cultural model theory

• 2012– Collecting reserch data

WHAT?

• THE WORKING TITLE: The heterosexual relationship schema in the

Finnish internet dating ads

• LOOKING FOR: shared cultural knowledge concerning romantic male-female relationships in internet dating ads in dating services site

WHAT?

• Heterosexual • man looking for a woman • woman looking for a man

• Relationship • Schema • Finnish • Internet dating ads

WHAT?

• Heterosexual • Relationship

• True Love or Serious relationship

• Schema • Finnish • Internet dating ads

WHAT?

• Heterosexual • Relationship • Schema

• CULTURAL MODEL: patterns of shared knowledge• SCHEMA: the essential contents of online dating

phenomenon [eg. physical attractiveness]• SCRIPTS: sequence of expected behaviors for a given

situation [eg. certain behavior in certain age group]

• Finnish • Internet dating ads

WHAT?

• Heterosexual • Relationship • Schema • Finnish

• language is the key to the culture• researcher is a representative of the same culture than the

research subjects: a major significance in interpretation • knowledge of the Finnish language, the Finnish culture and

Finnish life

• Internet dating ads

WHAT?

• Heterosexual • Relationship • Schema • Finnish • Internet dating ads

• data will be collected from internet sites that require no registration or logging in• ads written in open text field NOT structured form

• What kind shared knowledge do Finns have about Internet dating, ideal spouses and ideal relationships?– What kind of scripts are to be found in Finnish dating ads?– What kind of schemata are to be found in Finnish dating ads?

• Is it possible to find the “origin” behind the scripts or schemata? Are the intertextual features seen clearly? Are they traceable?

• How has the popular culture influenced the content and the form?

• How has “online” influenced the content of the dating ads? • Does the theory of cultural models fit well in digital data?

Research questions

How?

• Categorizing & classification by thematic choices

• GOAL: to break language down to find commonalities in the ways people perceive the ideal relationship and the ideal spouse

WHY?

• Mediated world:information technology is increasingly involved in our daily routines

• Meeting a future spouse via internet has become more and more common

• Unique combination: the relationship schemata in digital context and in internet dating context + national (Finnish) aspect

Thank you!

anne.holappa@welho.com