American pop culture themes:
Choose ONE of the six American pop culture themes from the “Issue Articles” on the lefthand margin of this page: consumption, advertising, identity, technology, television, movies, OR media dreams. Prewrite to narrow down your theme to a current issue in American popular culture that you would like to write about. (For example, you may begin with the theme of television and after brainstorming narrow down to the specific issue of female protagonists taking over primtime TV). Then, using at least 3 “Issue Articles” and at least 1 database article, compose a 6-page essay (1500 words) in which you analyze your chosen issue. Your essay may blend any organizational modes you choose (i.e. argument, narrative, compare/contrast, etc.). You must include an MLA format Works Cited page, citing all sources used and annotating the database source.
Issue Articles:
Consumption:
-Barber, Benjamin. “Overselling Capitalism with Consumerism.”
-Kim, Sylvie. “The End of Spam Shame: On Class, Colonialism, and Canned Meat”
-Barthes, Roland. “Toys.”
-Postrel, Virginia. “In Praise of Chain Stores.”
-Atwood, Margaret. “Debtor’s Prism.”
Advertising:
-Lutz, William. “With These Words I Can Sell You Anything.”
-Cross, Donna Woolfolk. “Propaganda: How Not to Be Bamboozled.”
-The Economist. “The Ultimate Marketing Machine.”
-Fletcher, Winston. “Art or Puffery? A Defense of Advertising.”
Identity:
-Cepeda, Raquel. “The N-Word Is Flourishing Among Generation Hip-Hop Latinos.”
-Hsu, Hua. “The End of White America?”
-Levy, Ariel. “Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture”
-Kix, Paul. “Hip-Hop Is No Longer Cooler Than Me.”
-Ruck, Rob. “Where Have African-American Baseball Players Gone?”
-Gladwell, Malcolm. “The Sports Taboo.”
Technology:
-Saval, Nikil. “Wall of Sound: The iPod Has Changed the Way We Listen to Music.”
-Postman, Neil. “The Judgement of Thamus.”
-Christian, Aymar Jean. “The Problem of YouTube”
-Manjoo, Farhad. “Is Facebook a Fad?”
-Turkle, Sherry. “Can You Hear Me Now?”
-Shirky, Clay. “Gin, Television, and Social Surplus.”
Television:
-Kubey, Robert and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. “Television Addiction is No Mere Metaphor”
-Winn, Marie. “Television: The Plug-In Drug”
-Lies, Erica. “Mary Tyler More.”
-Johnson, Steven. “Watching TV Makes You Smarter”
-Will, George F. “Reality Television: Oxymoron.”
-Grief, Mark. “The Reality of Reality Television.”
Movies:
-Kempley, Rita. “Mystical Black Characters Play Complex Cinematic Role.”
-Sontag, Susan. “The Imaginaton of Disaster.”
-Seger, Linda. “Creating the Myth.”
-Duralde, Alonso. “Why Are So Many Films for Latinos Bad?”
-Groen, Rick. “Why Hollywood Hates Capitalism.”
-Nathan, Robert amd Jo-Ann Mort. “Remembering Norma Rae.”
Media Dreams:
-Rose, Frank. “The Art of Immersion: Fear of Fiction.”
-Jones, Gerard. “Violent Media is Good for Kids.”
-Del Toro, Guillermo and Chuck Hogan. “Why Vampires Never Die.”
-Klosterman, Chuck. “My Zombie, Myself: Why Modern Life Feels Rather Undead.”
-Wallace, Lane. “Can Video Games Teach Us How to Succeed in the Real World?”
-Chayka, Kyle. “Why Video Games Are Works of Art.”
ESSAY STRUCTURE:
Introduction
Thesis
Main Body
Argument/Example 1
Argument/Example 2
Argument/Example 3
Counter Argument/Example
Conclusion
Summary including Thesis