Autism and media representations: A Zine-making study

 

Research is a way of looking for information and finding out new things. People who do research are called researchers.

 

Autism researchers look at things which affect the lives of autistic people.

 

 

We want to know what you think about the way the media (like TV, films, books) talks about autism and autistic people. We also want to know how this makes you feel.

This is a form to tell you about our study and ask you if you want to take part. We will also ask you a few questions about yourself.

This study is made by a group of people at the University of Stirling, as part of a PhD (post-graduate doctorate degree) project.

 

The main researcher, the PhD student, is Sarah Dantas. Sarah has three supervisors helping her, Dr. Catherine Grainger, Dr. Carol Jasper, and Dr. Monique Botha from the Psychology department at the University of Stirling.

You are aged 18 years or older and identify as a woman or non-binary person.

 

You identify as autistic. You don't need an official diagnosis given by a doctor.

You currently live in Scotland.

You are able to attend in-person meetings at the Tolbooth in Stirling.

Travel expenses upto 40 pounds will be refunded. 

In this study, we will have four meetings. 

Each meeting will last around 2 hours, but it will depend on how much people want to talk.

The time between each meeting is 2 weeks, so you will be involved in the study for more or less 6 weeks.

Image source: https://blog.dma.org/category/creativity/page/4/

We will do different types of art in our group meetings - like drawings, paintings, collages - and this art will be put together in a small handmade magazine. This will be a way for you to express what you think. When we finish, you can pick your favourite works to be included in an exhibition if you want to. This way of doing research is called zine-making.

You will be asked to create art that shows your feelings and thoughts about our topic (the way media talks about autism). You will also talk to the researcher and other participants about the art you are making and what it means to you.

But you will also help us decide how this study works. We want this research to be about things that really matter to you, so your opinion about what we will investigate and how we will do it is very important. 

We know that many people think autism happens only in men. We also know that the media (TV, books, films, news) can influence the way people think about things.

We want to hear what you think about the way the media is currently talking about autism and autistic people. For example, what do you think about autistic characters you see in films, books, or TV shows?

We want to know how this makes you feel. 

Please keep in mind that it might be upsetting to think and talk about these topics.

You will be able to take breaks or leave the room during the discussions. 

 No, it is completely up to you if you want to participate or not.

You can change your mind later, but you will have to email us to tell us if you changed your mind. The email address for this is: sarah.dantas@stir.ac.uk

No one will know you took part. The discussions we have in this study will be video recorded and copied into a word document without your name on it. The videos will be deleted later.

We will also take photographs, but they will not have your face.

This will help the researchers look at everything the participants said and find the most important things.

No one will know you did the study (everything is anonymous and confidential). 

You can choose a different name that we will use when we publish the research.

When we finish our discussion, we will write a report (a document with information about the results).

If you want to see this report, you can give us your email address at the end of this form and we will send it to you.

The lead researcher is a PhD student at the University of Stirling, Sarah Dantas(she/her). Her email address is sarah.dantas@stir.ac.uk.

If you have any questions, you can email the researcher: sarah.dantas@stir.ac.uk.

If you would like to complain you can email Professor Paul Dudchenko (p.a.dudchenko@stir.ac.uk).

A list of help and support for autistic people living in Scotland can be found here.