Assignment:
APPLYING THE CRITICAL PROCESS TO DIGITAL MEDIA
1000 word paper + 1 poster
Goals:
1. To practice the Critical Process to study media
2. To explore a digital media topic in depth
3. To communicate this information to your peers in clear and concise manner
Requirements:
In addition to Media and Culture,you must have at least 3 other credible sources. These can be established news organizations with an editorial board, peer reviewed academic articles, books, or non-commercial websites that have a mission to educate or advocate for the public (these normally end on .org, .edu, .gov or .net)
Cite all sources and include a reference page
What you will do:
Write a 1000 word paper
Create a poster
Pick a topic that interests you from the ones listed below, research, write and create an educational poster with key points from your paper. The poster should be brief, clear, organized, and informative.
Topics:
Online Privacy - see example below or use the model
How well do news media serve democracy?
Do Video Games have bias?
Online Bullying - what are the issues and how to prevent it?
Net Neutrality - what are the pros and cons, who gains and who looses?
Media addiction -is it real? What to do about it?
Here is one example of how you may construct your research using the Critical Process to Study Online Privacy:
1.Description.
Interview a sampleof people about their online privacy. In what ways has their privacy been violated through their Internet use? Do they regularly have to divulge personal information to gain access to certain Web sites? Do they enter contests, play games, download files, or register on sites that require them to enter their e-mail address or disclose specific interests? What types of Web sites try to gather the most personal information from them? Have they noticed Internet advertising that targets their personal tastes? Do they contend with increasing amounts of spam e-mail? What is their biggest complaint about being online? Does it have anything to do with privacy?
2.Analysis.
What sorts of patterns emerge from your interviews? Is online privacy consistently violated in particular ways? Are there certain strategies for maintaining privacy on the Internet? Do these work pretty well? Do the interviewees generally seem to be concerned or unconcerned about their online privacy? Have your questions made them consider their online privacy for the first time?
3.Interpretation.
What do these patterns mean? Are current marketing practices merely inconvenient, or is there something more insidious going on? Do Internet privacy invasions undercut the usefulness of the medium?
4.Evaluation.
Are data mining, spam, and other invasions of privacy tolerable "costs" for the benefits of the Internet? What should be the standards of privacy for the Internet? How should they be enforced?
5. Engagement
Find credible sourcesthat discuss how you may take action against privacy infringements. For example, visit the Center for Democracy and Technology (www.cdt.org/privacy) and (GetNetWisewww.getnetwise.org) to learn how to prevent and/or delete unwanted cookies, spyware, spam, and online fraud as well as how to report violations to the FTC.
Create a poster that educates your peers about Internet privacy.