Lauren Russell
DARE Project: Digital Participation and Community Knowledge: Supporting International Research on Online Investigation
Program(s) of Study: English & Professional Writing
Project Supervisor: Dr. Rich Shivener
This experience has truly challenged me and helped me grow as a researcher and data collector. The organizational skills that I honed through countless hours of data collecting, categorizing, and comparing will be invaluable to me as a prospective employee. Aside from technical skills, I know employers really value someone who can think outside of the box and come up with ideas. It took a lot of brainstorming to figure out which variables to compare in order to produce the most accurate and compelling representation of online web sleuthing activity. But it was worth it.
Project Description:
Our project, as part of a collaboration between Dr. Shivener and Dr. Anne Ganzert of Philipps-Universität Marburg, examined how members of web sleuthing communities create, speculate, and interact in digital environments. We focused primarily on five Canadian unsolved cases: the murders of Lindsay Buziak, Amber Tuccaro, and Barry & Honey Sherman; the missing and murdered women of BC’s Highway of Tears; and the disappearance of Eric Larsfolk and John McCormick Jr. Web sleuthing—engaging in online investigations of cold and ongoing cases—is highly community-driven and often collaborative. Consequently, my research focused not merely on true crime creators, but on audience and community response. During this DARE project, I conducted rhetorical analyses of public videos, collected viewer and commenter data, and analyzed the sentiment and speculation of audience comments. I also researched existing scholarship on web sleuthing, communication, and media studies to support and contrast my findings. Lastly, I assisted Dr. Shivener and Dr. Ganzert in drafting a manuscript examining how web sleuthing operates in Canada across various platforms and cases.The Dean’s Award for Research Excellence (DARE) - Undergraduate enables our students to meaningfully engage in research projects supervised by LA&PS faculty members. Find out more about DARE.