Write a problem statement on your chosen research question (300-450 words). Your problem statement should include:

  • Observation, background, context: Here you might talk about what drew your attention to this topic, what struck you as interesting about it, and/or any important context for the topic.
  • Problem: What problem or question arises from your observation?
  • Frame: How are you approaching that problem? What’s your point of view?
  • Example sources: Provide citations for one primary source (something that is direct evidence for the question you’re asking) and one secondary source (something that uses direct evidence to make an argument) that relate to your research question.
  • Proposed technology: What tool or method do you intend to use in your project? This could be
    • A storytelling tool that you’ll use to share your research about a topic (for instance, an interactive timeline, a storymap, or a website)
    • A tool for data analysis and visualization that you’ll use to formulate an argument (for instance, text analysis, a distribution map, or charts and graphs)
    • A tool, project, or organization that you want to interrogate, to understand its impacts on a local or regional community (for instance, a municipal data platform, a tech-related organization or nonprofit, or a large language model)

Post your problem statement to the course website as a blog post by the start of class, using the tag “Problem statement.”