Old life vs New life

I'm currently undertaking the Digital Media and Society module as part of my masters. It's been great to get stuck into as it meets up with not only so much of what I am currently working on (online local gov) but also my undergraduate work and first industry (journalism and newspapers).
It's been good to retreive some of that undergraduate learning (hello Habermas, my old friend) and put it into context with the current state of play for both sectors.
But while all this is fascinating learning, the time has come to pick my assignment and get on with the final paper. I find myself torn between my old life and new life when it comes to assignment topics:

1. Old life: Discuss the characteristics of online news journalism, indicating where and why it differs from traditional models and practices. (You may discuss the topic either in general or with specific reference to blogs.)
2. New life: It is often claimed that digital technologies have the potential to restore ‘direct democracy’. Explain and evaluate the claim with particular reference to electoral politics.

Option one would be interesting not only as there is so much chatter about this subject at the moment but also as it would be a nice update to my undergraduate dissertation (worryingly 10-years-on).
But I already know which way I will fall. Option two it will be seeing as am in the middle of all our local election online coverage right now (perfect timing). I'm happy with my choice...but it feels a little disloyal and sad to have to choose between my old life and new life.

New kid on the block

I'm delighted to have had a shout out from the research community about the work I am about to undertake on my thesis.
The lovely Liz Azyan introduced me via her Local Government Engagement Online Research Blog and the post is both flattering and hopefully really useful in letting others working in the sector know I will be pestering them shortly.
I have been thrilled that the online local gov community have been so interested, positive and supportive of my work so far and I'm hoping to build on these relationships further as my research gets underway.
Things may seem a little quiet at the moment but I am still beavering away on the taught modules of my MA. I am currently looking at Digital Media and Society and doing some skills building ready for the thesis next year.
I'm also busy in my day job - on the non-technical side of the eContent team at Derbyshire County Council. We've just launched a new section of the site ready for the elections on 4 June and this marks some big steps forward for us in terms of integrating and making use of social media.
Anyway, another big thank you to Liz for taking the time to give me such a postive introduction after already being a big help in pointing me in this direction and sharing some tips about the real life of researchers.
If you want to follow me please find me on Twitter (@sarahlay) or check out my full background on LinkedIn.

And the subject is...

Social media in local government internal communications.
After thinking long and hard about whether to go down this route, look at social media in local gov engagement with young people or another avenue entirely I decided internal comms would be best suited to my organisation, the limitations of a part time dissertation and perhaps be useful to others in the sector too.
I'm happy to say this has now been approved by my tutor and I'll be returning to plan the thesis in more detail from the autumn. My feeling at the moment is that an 'active research' approach may work well and be interesting, hopefully piloting some possible social media solutions next year.
While the thesis will mainly look at problems and solutions within my own organisation I do plan to research what else is already in place across the sector.
I'm looking forward to getting started and really excited that my first bit of pilot research took place in the online space!
Thanks again to everyone who took the time to read and/or comment on my post about topic ideas. I'll be happy to share the outcome of my research with anyone interested when the time comes.