You will prepare, research, and record a 6-8 minute oral PowerPoint presentation (8-10 slides) exploring a media topic of interest. The topic presented can be anything media-related, from taking a position on video gaming to critically examining specific shows, platforms, networks, representation, channels, or the consequences of binge-watching. The topics are yours to explore.
Remember to keep the project narrow enough to do the following within the allotted time:
- Assert an original position on the topic that is imaginative and considers the complexities of the issue.
- Consider the alternative or opposing cultural dimensions of the problem or topic, which should include the positive and negative impact of culture on the media and vice versa, the impact of media on culture.
- Thoroughly present evidence and reflectively question your own bias.
- Incorporate at least five current research references (including textbook) for articles, quotes, and images that back up various points of view.
- Examine whether your position changed after more research.
- Make sure your conclusion is logical and considers opposing viewpoints while it also highlights your position to expand the issue.
- Use your presentation to expand on, rather than simply to read, your slide bullet points.
The following questions, adapted from L. M.
Sacasas’ “The Questions Concerning Technology,” might help you to develop a position on the relationship between media and culture:
- How does this media or cultural practice affect one’s experience of time and/or place?
- What actions, behaviors, desires, or feelings does the use of this media or cultural practice cultivate or displace?
- How does consuming this media shape one’s vision of the good life or attitudes towards others?
- Whom, if anyone, does this media empower and/or disempower, and how?
- What kinds of cultural assumptions or values emerge in the media?