Blog Post #2

To recap...

As previously mentioned, my research revolves around the concept of charisma bias, and its presence in Our Planet seasons 1 and 2. By recording data on each species from the animal kingdom, and running them through my self-made charismatic scale, I'm comparing the amount of charismatic animals featured between the two seasons overall. The significance of this research is that it helps give us a grasp of the current situation regarding how much we're actively doing to save endangered species-- and whether those shown are charismatic or not. 

Milestones thus far/What's going well:

• We're currently at the beginning of February, and so far I've recorded data for 7 episodes- over halfway done

• I've been able to complete 2 episodes per week (on average), which is more than I originally predicted (planned for 1 per week)

• Each episode I learn more about different endangered species, which helps make data collection more interesting and enjoyable for myself

• I'm very passionate about my topic, and excited to see the overall results when I get to data analysis

Challenges I've faced:

The biggest challenge I've faced so far is managing my time for this class, and being able to switch between working on my data collection as well as my paper and my blog posts. Although I've been able to stay on top of data collection, there are parts (like the endangerment status section) that I'm saving until the end to complete. I did this because I think it'll save more time to do every species' status at once rather than going back and forth each time. The biggest challenge with this is there's around 30 animals per episode (some repeated), so this may take more time to complete than I originally planned-- to do for each animal. The way I'm planning on navigating this is that I'm trying to complete the 5 episodes I have left before the middle of February, so that I have adequate time to complete this section. My other major challenge has been properly identifying each species shown in the animal kingdom. Despite the show stating what each animal is for the most part, there are clips where animals are shown only for a few seconds. As a result I've had to use my better judgement for assessing each animal, as I may not know what the species' diet is, or whether they have a unique characteristic that the show doesn't mention. The way I've been able to navigate this challenge is by searching up different species I think best match the one shown one screen (usually the same one), and basing their score off of what I can find online. 

Stand out moments:

Although the show notes on the endangerment status of the majority of species shown per episode, as expected, I've noticed them mentioning something else. They've also been consistent in how much they talk about species that are flourishing more today than they were in the past. The reason for this makes sense, despite me not expecting it. By talking about how ecosystems and life in them have bounced back once more, it gives the viewer hope that more action can be done to help combat the current mass extinction we're in now. I've also noticed a lot of animals receiving scores very close to 0 (either negative or positive), which is surprising because I expected there to be higher scores. 

Reflection:

Up to this point in my research, my biggest takeaway has been how widespread the topic of conservation is. Before starting my project I knew that endangered species weren't limited to one part of the globe; however, through data collection it has opened to my eyes to the vast amount of animals and ecosystems affected. Not just from one human factor like industrialization, but several, which is highlighted in the docuseries throughout. This project has in turned helped me understand my own passion for conservation, and has shown me that there are so many options of conservation work that I can go in to in the future-- and different ways I can give back to the planet.