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A research paper that includes a detailed communication analysis of a popular cultural artifact or artifacts. The topic for the paper is wide open, but you must incorporate popular cultural analysis into your essay. The goal of this assignment is to apply some of the concepts and skills you have learned for better understanding popular culture to some specific artifact or problem area in popular cultural studies.
You may take one of two approaches to this essay: you may begin with a specific cultural artifact or object, and structure the paper as an analysis and evaluation of that artifact. Your thesis will then arise out of your engagement with the artifact. Or you can take the opposite approach, beginning with a general issue or problem in cultural studies (e.g. representations of terrorism in popular culture), in which case multiple specific artifacts might be used to support your main argument. In either case, the paper must explicitly integrate theories and ideas from our course materials.
To receive minimum credit you must clearly refer to and accurately utilize theories and ideas from our course readings. You should also incorporate outside research in your analysis. All sources must be cited consistently using MLA. Take care when crafting the paper; you should not be turning in a first draft. The essay should be carefully written grammar, punctuation, word choice, citations and organization should be professional. Your writing should be thoughtful and engaging as well as grammatically correct. It is required that you incorporate vocabulary and theories from the course materials and that you use these tools accurately.
Specific course material/theories that can be used:
Book used in course is The Rhetorical Power of Popular Culture 3rd ed by Deanna D. Sellnow (book isn’t necessary but maybe you can find free pdf)
Theories to be researched and applied to artifacts can be:
Cultivation Theory
Social Learning Theory
Visual Pleasure Theory
Neo-Marxist Perspective Analysis
Conducting Rhetorical Analyses of Popular Culture Texts or Artifacts
Examining a popular culture text to effectively reveal covert messages about taken-for-granted beliefs and behaviors is essentially a three-step process of (1) selecting a text and formulating a research question, (2) selecting a rhetorical perspective (for example applying one of the above theories/perspectives, and (3) examining the text from that perspective via a process of description, interpretation, and evaluation.
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