Media Research Projects for the Future

Every research lab has a secret. Some labs are producing the next big technological jump for mankind. Others are for testing chemical compounds to possibly discover a new strain or element.

But what does the University of South Dakota’s media lab produce?

 

“Alright, just come sit down in this big, comfy chair and here’s the informed consent. Once you’re done reading, we’ll get this started for you, okay?”

In the basement of Al Neuharth is a PsychoPhys lab, which stands for Psychology/Physiology Lab. The lab is run by Dr. Brandon Nutting.

“We look at primarily skin conductance and heart rate using mediated forms of entertainment,” says Dr. Nutting.

One of the projects that Dr. Nutting is most excited about is Project Cobra, which was developed by previous USD graduate students Colin Berke and Travis Loof. The idea behind the project is to look at media content in three minute intervals, and seeing if people can be transported into the narrative. What makes this research project unique is the use of a stress bar. When a subject is holding onto the bar, the force applied to the object will directly be put into the computer. The idea is over time, subjects will weaken their grip on the bar, which means they are paying less attention to the bar and more attention to the content being showed to them.

According to Dr. Nutting, Project Cobra is one of many experiments that are trying to legitimize the most recent theory to come out of the minds of media professors: The Transportation Theory.

“It’s a crazy idea, like all of our other projects. Whether it works or it doesn’t, it’s going to be one hell of a ride,” says Dr. Nutting

Another project that is being worked on is The Golden Stim. This project is designed to look at Public Relations people and their level on influence. The idea is have a group of average looking people read these persuasive messages and seeing if the audience buys into the messages being given. This experiment is being ran by current USD graduate students Allison McNamara, Tanner Sifferath and Andy Schultze.

“Advertising agencies would love to have this kind of information from this experiment. And there’s a lot of grant money riding on this one too,” says Dr. Nutting.

The last big project being worked on right now is conducted by undergraduate Charlie Dalldorf. He is looking at Micro-transactions in video games and why people pay money into them in terms of level progression. He believes that people invest money into games to get a sense of cognitive desire and closure. This idea is cutting edge video game research that game developers would want to know when designing future games for the populace.

Looking ahead, Dr. Nutting is planning on acquiring an fMRI scanner, which stands for Functional Magnetic Resource Imaging. This device would round out the lab in what it is capable of. Dr. Nutting, however, did not specify what his “ultimate project” would be that would use an fMRI. He says that the lab will be getting one in the next two years.

In a short time span, Dr. Nutting is in the talks of possibly getting Apple Watches and their conventional use. That experiment is still on the back burner for now, but he wants to see if people can be “transported” in such a small media device.

All of the projects talked about will hopefully be accepted into Media Conferences in the next coming years. The big conference that everyone is going to is the International Conference Association in Puerto Rico in May 2015. Other conferences will be the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications in San Francisco, California in August 2015, and the Society for Psychophysiological Research, Dr. Nutting’s favorite conference, in Seattle October 2015.

As the only big media lab in this region of the nation, Dr. Nutting and his students plan on making a big impact in the upcoming years with cutting edge research projects and more.