Essay topic:
The aim of this assignment is for student to demonstrate skills in designing and evaluating empirical research. The assignment requires students to:
Choose a research question broadly related to media and communications
Choose one of the methods to examine this research question
Employ the methodology to gather data as if it were a pilot for a larger research project
Write up the assignment, focusing on a critical and reflexive evaluation of the chosen methodology

Essay Outline:
Research Question:
What do the responses of Naver users in public discussions related to celebrity suicides implicate the general public’s attitude towards depression in the context of South Korean Internet?
The research question aims to figure out how mental health issues, particularly depression, are being discussed on social media platform. In this case, the research project focuses on unpacking South Korean people’s attitudes toward depression by examining posts in regard to two incidents of celebrity suicide.
This study will examine the best strategic approach to address how the indicated cases in the paper serve as examples to demonstrate and inform readers about people’s attitudes toward mental health problems within the context of South Korean culture. Moreover, the study will further explore the role of social media platform (particularly Naver, one of the most commonly used social networking sites in South Korea) in aggravating stigmatization around mental illnesses in the online realm in South Korea.
This research employs content analysis to obtain relevant data to unfold and ascertain the general public’s attitude to depression in South Korea. Content analysis is significant to the study for various reasons. It helps to perceive and group different processes that brought meaning to the subject matter. Furthermore, it aims to help readers comprehend how media coverage on mental health manipulates our cultural beliefs and reinforces stigmatization. Overall, this is an explorative research project.

Method: content analysis
Data/ data collection: news reports and comments posted by Naver users
Analysis and conclusion (strength, weakness and limitation):
In this study, I am only focusing on unpacking attitudes as well as examining the overall trend/ the changing pattern. Nevertheless, if I conduct interviews or focus groups, the overall research would be more profound as I might be able to explore the ultimate reason behind this phenomenon. Nevertheless, content analysis could still reveal what the general public’s attitude is as well as how the cultural belief is shaped/presented on social media.