Twilight Researcher Needs Help

A couple of professors researching the Twilight phenomena need your help. Here’s what they sent us:

We are a group of media researchers (and Twilight devotees) at the University of Missouri-Columbia who are interested in researching the cultural phenomenon known as Twilight.

We invite you to participate in our Twilight Survey. If you are 18 or older, you can take our survey through this link: www.surveymonkey.com/twilightmoms . If you are under 18, you will need to ask the permission of your parent or guardian, and s/he will be sent a code via email that will allow you to enter the survey. Please ask your parent or guardian to email Elizabeth Behm-Morawitz at [email protected] to give their consent for you to participate and to receive the code. Once you have the code, you can take our survey through this link: www.surveymonkey.com/twilightteens .

On the survey, you will be asked to answer questions regarding your personality, relationship history, your interpretation of the characters and relationships in the Twilight saga, your fan activities, and finally your basic demographics. The entire survey should take about 20 minutes to complete. Your participation is voluntary, and you are free to withdraw at any time.

To repay your favor of filling out our survey, we will enter you into a lottery to win one of three $50 Amazon gift cards. At the end of our data collection, we will randomly select three participants to win the gift card.

The risks to participating in this research study are expected to be no greater than those encountered in ordinary, everyday life. In fact, you have likely talked about the topics we will ask you about with your friends or in online discussion forums. The benefits to participating in this research study include the opportunity to get exposure to the research process and to take part in an academic study that will contribute to the understanding of fans’ connection to Twilight.

The data from this study will be kept anonymous. Your personal information, including your name, will not be connected to the data you provide, unless you indicate at the end of the survey that you would be willing to be interviewed over the phone or in person. Interviews will be conducted at a later date.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding the study, please contact us at [email protected]. If you have any questions about your rights as a research participant, contact University of Missouri Campus Institutional Review Board at (573) 882-9585.

Thanks for your consideration!

Jennifer Stevens Aubrey, Elizabeth Behm-Morawitz, & Melissa Click
Assistant Professors of Communication
University of Missouri-Columbia