Short Essay Questions:
For your final take home exam you will have to answer a total of three of these questions, one from the first five and one from the second five and a third of your choosing from any of the ten.
For your exam you must answer one of this first set of five.
1. What is naturalism and essentialism? Why is it problematic to essentialize gender? How does essentializing gender reproduce and perpetuate stereotypes? What does it mean to say that gender is a social construct that is self-regulated? Further, what does it mean to suggest that gender is "omni-relevant" and that people are "doing gender" constantly? What does this have to do with the concept of performing or communicating gender?
2. According to Mears, how do cultural ideas of race and femininity inform production practices in the fashion modeling market? What are the core differences in representation on the commercial and editorial side of the fashion industry? How does the colorblind ideology (be sure to define the colorblind ideology) reproduce racist practices in the booking of fashion models according to Mears?
3. What is discourse? Why is important to understand the discourses that surround the topic of racism? How, according to Doane, is the discourse on racism connected to the colorblind ideology? (Be sure to define the colorblind ideology.) How is discourse on racism related to the signifying process of "pollution"? How does this process of pollution impact our understanding of racism? Lastly, how would a sociologist describe racism? (Think systemic and institutionalized racism.)
4. What does Goffman mean when he suggests that we perform all of our actions? Further, what does he mean when he suggests we are consistently trying to manage the impressions of those with whom we interact? How can our actions be impacted by the cues delivered to us by our audience? What does this have to do with the concepts of idealization and negative idealization?
5. What does Goffman mean when he suggests that the self is a social construction? What does this have to do with different settings and stages we all perform on? Explain the difference between the front stage and the back stage. Legitimacy and authenticity are connected to congruency; explain what congruency, and its related term defusion, are, how it relates to the front and back stages, and how it can impact an individual's legitimacy and perceived authenticity.
For your exam must answer one of this second set of five.
6. According to Grindstaff and Murray, what are the societal changes that have helped give rise to reality television? Describe in detail the process with which reality television creates branded affect,serves itself and is intertwined in the emotion economy? Lastly, authenticity is an important prerequisite for reality star success; how is this complicated by the proliferation of agencies that teach you how to become a reality star?
7. What is the attention economy? How is it connected to social media and microcelebrity? How are social performance and authenticity intertwined in the usage, by both traditional celebrities and new microcelebrities, of social media in general and Instagram in particular? (Be sure to address why users need to conceal their desire to gain followers.) Explain using examples, what performances does Marwick find do well on Instagram? How does performative success on Instagram reproduce hierarchical signifiers?
8. Aesthetic public sphere scholars highlight three crucial insights. What are these insights? The evidence found within the aesthetic public sphere demonstrates that the line between entertainment and serious political discussion cannot be easily separated; explain in detail why. Lastly, how does discussion of the movie Zero Dark Thirty (within the review articles posted on the PowerPoint) exemplify this argument?
9. What is the sociological concept ‘field'? How does this concept illuminate journalism? How does the concept of double dependency explicate the field positioning of journalism? How is this connected to the concept of ‘governing with the news'? Why is it important for the journalistic field to be autonomous? What does this have to do with the Iraq War? How does thisrelate to Bennett et al.'s argument about the media in the lead up to the Iraq War?
10. In this class we have consistently discussed and highlighted that we understand the world through and communicate using scripts and narratives. Explain what this means. Further, explain how this is connected to performance and authenticity. That is, how are scripts and narratives utilized during our social performances to induce a perception of authenticity? Be sure to use examples, either from your life or from class material and to highlight how signification and shared meanings are intertwined in these communicative practices.
For the third and final question you can choose any question you have yet to answer.
Answer every part of the question; you should be able to answer each of these in 1-2 pages (double spaced, one inch margins, 12 point Times New Roman font). For full credit, answer the question fully, use examples, cite readings/authors when necessary and be sure to use your own language. That is, do notcopy and paste my PowerPoint notes; doing that does not demonstrate an understanding of the course material.