Though it is a bit difficult at this stage, I'd like to begin our end-of-the-semester projects. As I mentioned in class, these can be a Web site, a video, a podcast, or another kind of "innovative" presentation. What I need from each of you is a topic you'd like to explore. Obviously, it should have a connection to media. It should be a topic with a history or tradition of relevance to our situation vis a vis current media. The topic may be a person, issue, invention, or event, but it should be something you're genuinely curious about. You will be required to compose an annotated bibliography and detailed outline prior to creating your presentation.
Possible topics: Tabloids, Edward R. Murrow, Hutchins Commission, Areopagitica, Linotype, R. Crumb, Talking Movies, Marconi, Woodstein, Jacob Riis, Maguerite Higgins, Katharine Graham, etc. I'm not being prescriptive; pursue something you care about so long as it's related to the press (media) in America.
Please respond by this Wednesday, 3 p.m.
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24 comments:
I would like to do my final project on the history and analysis of Environmental journalism. I will use historic environmental writers as well as writers from the present day and talk about the evolution of environmental attitudes in the media.
This may sound a little strange, but I'm very interesting in the infiltration of Apple products. Obviously there are competing products/services, but I think it's fascinating that people (young people in particular) will shell out TONS of money on the company's products even in the face of a less-than-stellar economy. I remember hearing the comment that the young protesters at Occupy looked silly for complaining about the economy while sitting on their Macbook Pros, etc. It's a rough idea that I probably won't stick with, but it's what I have for now
I would like to do my project on Electronic publishing and how it compares to print publishing. I want to take about the pros and cons of E publishing and what it might mean for the future of long lasting media within our society.
I've always been interested in the connection between media and language, and the ways in which that connection shapes culture. I would like to do my final project on the history of media's influence on language, more precisely our current media's influence on the English language and the ways in which it is either hurting or advancing our culture.
I was thinking of doing something about advertisements-billboards, magazine ads, commercials, etc. and how every detail (the colors picked, the font size, etc.) are strategically picked in order to persuade their audiences. Also, how they are popping up everywhere. Either that or something about documentaries and how they advanced through the years from still pictures with no sound to what they are today.
I was considering doing media's influence in sports i.e. shaping how athletes are portrayed off the court as well as the potential influence they play when negotiations are going on whether it is contract negotiations or Lockout disputes they are the medium at some points.
I was also considering doing a timeline of how the US government/ media relationship has changed over time with it's current state at a deplorable distance from truth-seeking.
What I have as an idea for now, is to explore some of the recent changes Facebook has made to their privacy settings.
I have noticed that before if you uploaded a profile picture, it would be only your friends who would see it. Today, if you upload a photo, Facebook automatically assumes that you want it to be public. It seems as though a person has to go through more than they had to in the past to maintain some sort of privacy.
I watched a TED talk from 2011 which talked about a method most search engines are using to personalize the results of our searches. I'd like to tie this in with the Facebook aspect. I guess what I'm really getting at is overall the evolution of the internet and it's affect on human development... I guess.
I would like to do my project on how ebooks are taking over education, and whether or not textbooks will continue to be used or if curriculum will shift to require students to buy books online. As someone who enjoys marking up books with scribbles and the smell of a library, I am really interested in knowing why ebooks are becoming more and more prominent.
I think I want to focus my project on the influence of twitter on the news media. Twitter really has influenced not only the speed at which news travels, but also the accuracy. There have been plenty of instances where reports have circulated worldwide over twitter only to be completely false. One of the most recent case was the false reports of the Joe Paterno's death. Despite sometimes being inaccurate, Twitter has helped circulate news that otherwise wouldn't have been covered by the big media networks, like the crisis in Libya and Occupy Wallstreet. I want to focus on how twitter is changing the way we consume, receive, and post news for better and worse.
I've always been disgusted by how intrusive advertising has become in the modern age. Consumerism has become the way of life were are trained is the only way to be happy. Id like to do my final project on the evolution od advertising since the fifties, its negative effects on culture and possibly come up with some solutions.
I would like to focus my project in terms of the evolution of television. Obviously that is very broad, so I was thinking of focusing on how people watch television. I mentioned in a previous blog that maybe we should go back to the 1950s, where tv was only on for a few hours a day compared to now that it is 24/7. I would like to expand on that statement.
I am interested in the presence of advertisement in our daily lives and how we can't really move two feet without some sort of product being advertised in our faces. What role does this play in our lives and how does it affect us, i mean, Really affect us? I think it might affect us in ways that we aren't even aware of. I was also interested in the whole "stuff designed to break" concept where our whole society now is based on consumerism. I'm not really sure how I would go about presenting this yet but it was just something I was interested in.
For my final project, I would like to focus on political communication and how the media can help to make or break a politician's career. I would like to talk about how the radio, television, and social media have shaped our opinions on politicians and government in general.
I would like to do my project on how contemporary advertising thrives on the emulation of stereotypes of different groups of people. I remember discussing sexism in the media in a women studies class I took 2 years ago, which I found intriguing. So for this project I would discuss how men, women, and different races, and minorities are portrayed in American advertisements, and how that affects (even if only on a subconscious level) American popular opinion of them. I would try to find a way to put a more technological spin on it, but for now, that's what I'm considering.
I would stick with mostly present day advertising and may hint a little bit at previous decades. I would focus on current ads though, I read that someone else is doing more the history/evolution of ads, so I would stay away from that.
I was interested in the very first attempts at print media, like Publick Occurrences and The Boston News-Letter. I would compare the way their news was reported with contemporary news in the age of television, which is filled with marketing strategies and skewed information, and analyze the changes in the purpose and function of print.
I would like to do my project on celebrities in journalism. I would like to figure out why our society wants to read about the rich and famous lifestyle rather than something that may affect them in their lives.
I have an idea that I like a lot better than the one I just posted, have more interest in, and think is A LOT more relevant to the current state of media. I want to explore representations of gays in media, and marketing that is specifically geared toward homosexuals. From the mainstream depictions (gay sitcoms like Will & Grace, The New Normal, etc), to past demonizations of gay people like the 1967 CBS Reports special titled "The Homosexuals," which Wayne Besen of the Human Rights Campaign referred to as "The single most destructive hour of antigay propaganda in our nation's history"
I would also like to explore how different forms of media take different approaches to representation of gays-- literature and theatre often contain somewhat realistic and sympathetic depictions of gay characters and the gay experience (at least compared to other representations in their own times), while television often portrays gay people as flashy, flamboyant caricatures. Channels that largely market toward the gay demographic such as Bravo and Logo feature commercials that STILL depict gays as caricatures despite the fact that their target audience is one who views homosexuality as a part of life, not a fun distraction from heteronormative culture. In other words, I'll talk about the line between a truthful depiction, and the screen-media's focus on "Peek-a-Boo" gays.
The idea I have at the moment, which is a concept I've always been interested in, would be to do a project on the linguistic manipulation by politicians/the government. An example of this I brought up in class the other day was the coining of the phrase "war on terror," and how this single governmentally-fabricated term was used to manipulated popular and media perception so much. I wouldn't necessarily focus on this example, it's just one that was pertinent. I feel this project would be a video, consisting of footage of political speeches/statement with additional footage of linguists and political scientists interpreting language, as well additional narration provided by myself. I would get the more general interpretation bits from pre-existing footage, but I would also like to have New Paltz professors of linguistics and political science analyse specific speeches.
This is something I've always been interested in, and I definitely want to do something in this mean. My only concern is the manifestation of this idea into the format I described wouldn't be sufficiently compelling (or 'entertaining,' ha-ha). Or maybe it would.
I would first like to apologize for the tardiness of this response, but a topic that I think I would like to explore for the final project is mainstream media versus independent media. This project would include analysis of the content, themes and format of mainstream, or corporate/elite media sources, in comparison to the content, themes and format of independent media sources. For example, what are the reoccurring thematic contents of The New York Times, in comparison to the type of news indymedia.us is reporting? The project could also explore the question, what role does citizen journalism via new technology play in the competition of corporate and independent media organizations? I could build on some of the issues Noam Chomsky addressed in his essay 'What Makes Mainstream Media Mainstream.' (http://www.chomsky.info/articles/199710--.htm)
As I was looking up specifics about advertising, I came across two very interesting articles. I don't know if this is more specific than what I previously proposed, but I thought it was worth a shot. The articles explain how advertising is essentially necessary for us to sustain the style of life that we are currently living. The example they gave was that this new technology that allows viewers to automatically skip commercials on their recorded tv shows could be potentially harmful because advertising is what pays our service and our shows and our movies. So, if we got rid of all the advertising, things like Facebook and other companies that essentially are funded by ads will diminish. That is of course unless we all agree to pay more taxes or be charged for once free services. The argument their making is that advertising plays a fundamental role and I think its worth looking into.
I want to explore the state of current political reporting and compare this to political reporting in the past as well as what an ideal function for political journalism would be. I want the project to explore how people perceive political journalism. I would like the project to engage students in a discussion about the relevance, or lack thereof, of the media's coverage of politics to their lives.
So to reiterate and further develop my idea, I was thinking I would focus on the images of different groups of people in various forms of media, from print/online ads to television commercials. I was thinking I’d represent the stereotypical ads depicting men and women, both heterosexual and homosexual, and I would choose certain ethnic groups or minorities that are often misrepresented in both forms of media. I plan on discussing why media that break the mold, such as the Vogue Italia editorial featuring nude plus size model Katya Zharkova, are perceived as so groundbreaking and controversial. I will also try to understand and communicate why media chooses to address these groups of people in a certain way, and hopefully find some marketing research about the reasoning behind those decisions (Why McDonald’s commercials featuring African American families always seem to play R&B music, as opposed to the poppy, peppy music played for other ethnic groups featured, for example). Shane and I discussed working together last class and putting our two ideas together (his idea is regarding the representation of gays in different forms of media), so when we speak again, we will have a more concrete idea of how we want to approach this topic, and it end up being trimmed down and focus more on heterosexual representations versus homosexual representations in the media.
As a followup to my first comment, I will be doing my project on the history and analysis of Environmental Journalism, screen media, and literature. I would like to look at how the three mediums come together to effect topics such as the perception of climate change and the overhyped technology age, more specifically cell phones and computers.
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