Demonstrate your indepth knowledge of key concepts as they

Question

Aims:

To demonstrate your in­depth knowledge of key concepts as they relate to globalization, media and technology

To apply the research tools, theoretical concepts and academic conventions addressed in this course to a specific essay topic

To develop your lucidity, pith and craft as academic writers

TASK

Assignment Two is a 3000 word paper exploring a particular topic or phenomenon related to globalization, media and/or technology. This is an individual assignment. You will have selected one of the following options below to structure your assignment as discussed in your proposal (see Assignment One brief). Your final essay will expand on the ideas outlined in your proposal in order to produce a well­developed, independently­researched paper.

OPTIONS

A. The Burning Question

Is there a particular question that has been plaguing your thoughts lately and pertains to globalization, media and/or technology? How might you go about answering that question in a 3000 word essay? This option is for those of you who perhaps wish to build on skills you have developed in previous CCT courses.

For example, you might be very interested in the politics of representation and wish to investigate the question: ‘Based on its covers, how does Cosmopolitan magazine envision the global "fun, flirty, fearless" female?' The skills you developed in CCT210 or CCT314 would help you to conduct a semiotic analysis of Cosmopolitan magazine covers from various countries in order to answer this question. Alternatively, maybe you are very interested in empirical research (as taught in CCT208) and you wish to conduct interviews with a particular group of international students in order to answer a question such as: ‘What media do South Asian male diasporics engage with? In what ways might

this media conform to ideas of dominant hegemonic masculinity and in what ways might it offer a kind of counter­hegemonic masculinity?'

There are five things you will want to make sure your essay achieves:

1. You must identify your question (also called a research question) that clearly outlines your aim in this paper.

2. You must frame your topic with relevant, academic literature that supports your specific area of investigation (also called a literature review). For example, if you chose the Cosmopolitan example above, you will most certainly want to refer to Dr. David Machin's semiotic analysis of Cosmopolitan magazine covers, among a number of other relevant sources.

3. You will include a brief ‘methodology' section which describes your chosen approach to answering your question (be it semiotic analysis, qualitative interviews, narrative analysis, etc.). Please note that a discussion of previous literature is NOT considered a form of primary research for this option. You MUST produce your own, original data and analysis.

4. The bulk of your essay should focus on a discussion of your findings. What I mean by ‘findings' is what your analysis revealed. The best way to organise findings is by certain key themes that have emerged from your investigation. We would have already discussed what a ‘theme' is when you were preparing your Assignment 1 proposals.

5. Though you will likely discuss academic sources that are outside the course readings I want to see some connection between your specific study and the broader interests of this course. How does your research deepen our understanding of the process of globalization? What insights can we extract from your investigation about the relationship between globalization and media/technology and why should that matter to us? In other words, so what? I want to see you tying your specific findings to what we often call ‘the bigger picture'.

B. Your Fantasy Day

If you could spend the day with any two authors/scholars/political figures/activists/etc. that we have discussed this semester, who would they be? You probably want to select two individuals who hold contrasting views in order to give your essay enough depth and intrigue. How do these people relate to you and this course? Describe your day with

them: where would you go? What would you see and talk about? What kinds of questions would you ask them and how do you think they would respond? How might they react to contemporary issues and/or new technologies?

There are three things you will want to make sure your essay achieves:

1. You demonstrate that you are familiar with the works written by these individuals or the phenomenon they are associated with.

2. You need to engage with additional academic work that comments on/analyses/engages with the people you are planning to spend the day with.

3. You should frame your discussion within course themes of globalization, technology and/or media.

Note: This option runs the risk of becoming a well­written story with little to no analytical rigour. You want to avoid writing things like: ‘And then we went to McDonald's for lunch and Arjun Appadurai had a Big Mac'. If you write a sentence like this, it has to be followed by a more thoughtful discussion. Did you then go on to discuss with Appadurai how angry it makes you that there are McDonald's all over the world? What was his response to your reaction? Did your second author/scholar/activist have an alternative point to contribute?

C. The Thirteenth Lecture

There are a number of additional political, economic and cultural issues we could have looked at in this course relating to themes of media, technology and globalization. If we had a thirteenth lecture in this course, what topic/phenomenon/issue would you have liked to address? Create a lesson plan for this class. What would the general theme be? What readings would you assign? What practical case studies might we discuss relating to that theme? You can pitch any topic as long as it relates to technology, globalization and/or media.

There are six things you will want to make sure your essay achieves:

1. An in­depth explanation of your topic and how it relates to our course themes.

2. At least three key concepts or ‘big ideas' that your students should come away with after attending your lecture.

3. The readings you would assign and why these readings are appropriate/relevant for your chosen topic. Note: students normally read between 20­35 pages a week. Given that limitation, you might also discuss additional reading you would do to prepare for this lecture but that you wouldn't necessarily assign to students.

4. How you would arrange a two hour lecture on this topic. What would you do to introduce the lecture: describe a particular moment in history? Show a brief video­clip? How do you plan to incorporate your three key concepts? What case studies or current issues might you make reference to or ask students about in order to demonstrate certain theories? Note: This should take up the bulk of your essay and either one of us should be able to deliver your lecture after reading this part of the essay.

5. An in­class, practical activity or exercise that gets students involved. This cannot take up more than an hour of your two hour lecture and you must explain how this activity connects to your lecture material.

6. At least one example of a mid­term or final essay prompt you would give students and a brief discussion of why this prompt is suitable.

D. Think Glocal

As we have seen in this course, media texts are constantly being re­worked and tailored to suit the cultural tastes and preferences of certain local markets. In this option, you can create and analyse your own glocalised text. How would you adapt a media artefact from one culture/region to suit the cultural tastes of another? You can choose any media text (film/TV show/advertisement/videogame/newspaper/magazine/song) and glocalize it to suit any region or culture.

You can also create a text for a fictional product/practice/tool if the existing product/practice/tool would not make sense in your chosen region. For example, if you choose to glocalise an American advertisement for lotion that tans women's skin and your chosen region is Singapore, (where tanned skin is not highly valued) you can create a fictionalised product that the company has produced for this market which lightens skin (and then create the advertisement to match). You can choose any medium for submitting your glocalized text: powerpoint, jpeg, flash video, or printed copy so long as I can open any digital files on a standard PC/Mac. Next, you will write an essay which analyses your text against some of the key theories/concepts we have discussed in this course.

Note: While I want to see your glocalized text, remember that you will not be assessed on the production value or quality of the text. The text is for reference only. Your written essay is what will be assessed.

There are three things you will want to make sure your essay achieves:

1. Rationalise the necessity for glocalizing this particular text for this particular region. You cannot randomly choose any text and any culture - it has to make sense. This will require some research on your part to see what the demand is for this particular text/product in that region and an assessment of possible competitors already established there and the campaigns/texts they have glocalised.

2. Description of your text. Why does this text need to be glocalised for your chosen region? Is it culturally offensive? Why? Corollary: What did you do to glocalize the text? Again, you will want to do some research here to see what this culture/region would find more appealing. If your text is geared towards a certain demographic (e.g. men, women, girls, boys, LGBTQ, etc.) you will also want to explain the cultural differences between these particular groups.

3. A discussion of the broader implications of this glocalised text in the chosen region/culture. What is the cultural, economic and/or political significance of this text being made available to the chosen region? This is where your analysis skills really come into play. This is also where you will want to bring in some of the course concepts to assist your analysis.