The Mobile Experience of Amazon: Redefining Retail through Mobile Apps and Services
This final research project gives the opportunity to investigate a mobile media topic of their choice and to apply the conceptual knowledge acquired in this course.
Select one of two approaches:
1) an ethnographic study based on direct observation or 2) an analytical research paper based on textual sources.
Whether conducting an ethnography study or analytical research paper, your final research paper should include the following sections:
Introduction: What is your specific topic? Why is it important?
In this section, you should clearly describe the issue, behavior, or social phenomena you are studying. You should also explain why this topic is relevant and important. In other words, why should the reader care about this topic? Finally, you should clearly state how your paper will answer these questions. It is often helpful to state what your paper will analyze in the sections below. For example, “In the following paper, I will examine mobile phone use and the problem of phubbing, drawing attention to issues of subtopic x, y, and z.”
Literature review: What have others written about this topic? What other concepts or ideas help to understand your topic?
In this section, you should summarize the research of other scholars who have studied the topic you are addressing. This means you will locate relevant scholarly research and discuss the important concepts and key findings in each of these works. This is important because your analysis should be anchored in these concepts and findings. If you are conducting an ethnographic study, you should connect your research to what others have already written. How do your findings confirm, refute, or complicate these existing concepts or findings? If you are writing an analytical research paper, this section should be used to link your topic to broader issues that other scholars have written about. How does your topic relate to key issues involving mobile communication?
Analysis: What are the specific issues that you are studying in this paper? What has your research revealed?
In this section, you should clearly state the specific topic you are examining and share your findings. Often the findings can be grouped into several subtopics or subthemes. For example, “phubbing” might involve subthemes such as description of the behavior itself, reaction of those affected, and the social effects or outcomes. This would be a cluster of three subtopics. In this way, identify 2-4 subtopics and use these subtopics to organize your analysis.
Important: This section should draw upon the “evidence” you have collected in your research! If you have conducted an ethnographic study, this section should report the details of your observations and findings. If you are writing an analytical research paper, this section should draw upon scholarly research (journal articles, book chapters, books written by academic researchers) as the foundation of your analysis.
Conclusion: What did your research reveal? Why is this topic significant?
Here, you should provide a summary of your main findings and remind the reader why this topic is important.
My topic is Amazon, focusing on mamazon obile experience and the importance Amazon apps and mobile services (e.g., returns at Wholefoods using mobile scans). In other words, how does the mobile Amazon experience differ from online retailing in general?