On Monday (11/5), the Doctoral Program in Media and Cultural Studies (KBM) continued its Research Methodology Workshop series. Similar to the first session, the second meeting was once again led by Heru Nugroho. While the previous session largely focused on the philosophy of the social sciences, its approaches, as well as the position and primary focus of Media and Cultural Studies, the second session centered on the intellectual traditions that shape research proposal writing, particularly the Anglo-Saxon and Continental European traditions.
In his presentation, Prof. Heru explained that a research proposal, especially for dissertation writing, must demonstrate feasibility and operational clarity. These two aspects are essential to ensure that a research project is not only conceptually compelling, but also systematically and practically executable.
Furthermore, Prof. Heru elaborated on both the similarities and differences between the Anglo-Saxon pragmatic tradition and the Continental European tradition. According to him, the Anglo-Saxon scholarly tradition is particularly strong in mapping systems and social constructions in a systematic manner. Meanwhile, the Continental European tradition is more prominent in critiquing structures of power, analyzing ideology, and uncovering hidden assumptions behind social realities.
Before presenting the dissertation structure format used in Media and Cultural Studies, Prof. Heru once again emphasized the importance of epistemological logic in research. He explained that good research must demonstrate coherence between one’s understanding of reality (ontology), one’s understanding of knowledge (epistemology), and the research methods employed. Therefore, within the academic tradition of Media and Cultural Studies, the position of the research paradigm becomes highly significant. In addition, research must also maintain logical consistency between the chosen paradigm and the focus of the study.
