Write two essays to critically reflect on media’s impact on society. For each essay, you will select an artifact (e.g. a music album, a tape recorder, an iPhone app, a Facebook profile page, a video game, a concert ticket, a baseball jersey, a tattoo, a fingerprint, as long as you can make a case that it can be considered as a medium), analyze it in relation to course concepts, and discuss its impact on society.
Grading Criteria:
Content-wise: 1) describing the key facts of the media artifact; 2) briefly situating the artifact in a larger social historical context (e.g. where/when it came from, what forces shaped the way it is now—outside research needed) 3) applying one or more course concept(s) from the readings of the past 3 weeks—quality over quantity; 4) analyzing how this medium influences culture and society; 5) assessing its implications for larger questions or societal values concerning identity, privacy, intimacy, literacy, democracy, environment, etc. (i.e. the “so what” question);
Form-wise: 1) clear structure with a thesis; 2) written in good academic English with no grammatical or syntactical errors; 3) attaching multimedia aids—e.g. photographs, web links, video clips, etc.—to your argument; 4) including a MLA-format Works Cited list; 5) between 600 and 800 words.
