Paper Help

[adamb100]

I asked in In Game Chat yesterday but I wanted to avoid detracting from the game yesterday so I'll ask here for a response:

 

In my Intro to Mass Media Class I have this paper due a week from Monday and I dont know really how to do it. Heres the paper description per the syllabus

 

Dahlgren also describes four components of civic culture-culture that promotes citizenship-and considers ways in which media promotes these aspects of civic culture (see pages 321-2). These four are:

1. knowledge

2. values

3. practices

4. identities

Your assignment is to choose a media text (see below) and discuss whether it promotes citizenship in a democratic society. In particular, you should identify the political content in your media text as either traditional politics or lifestyle politics, as some combination of the two, or as neither one. You should make an argument about whether or not this constitutes a form of civic engagement. You should also describe ways in which your media text contributes to any or all of the four components of civic culture (you may see it contributing to some but not others). To make your task manageable you might choose to write about one issue of a print publication or one episode of a television program.

Basically, your paper should answer the question: How does [name of media text] function (or fail to function) as civic culture?

 

If I read this right I pick a TV show like the Office and use the episode where Michael quits Dunder Mifflin and has a hard time trying to find a job so he starts his own company. This is related to today because of the current economic climate.

 

Is that right?

 

Thanks

[GAME05]

as i read it, i'm thinking pick an episode of a TV show (or newspaper or whatever media) and decide whether or not it promotes civic culture (those four points). just that the specific thing you choose helps make people good citizens/good people or whether it's negative.

 

that episode of the Office, for example, would be Michael's stereotypes of other cultures and ethnicities, whether the typical viewer thinks "I don't want to be like that" (think All In The Family) or because it's humourous, it might prompt other people to act that way, which obviously is a negative in our little melting pot. Then you've got the actions of authority figures to their subordinates, vice versa, and the general peer-to-peer behaviours in the office, whether that's all positive or not.

 

I don't get the impression that the professor is asking whether the media relates to society, but more whether the particular media has a positive or negative influence on teaching people to be good citizens.

 

A whole TV show might be a lot to break down and have a lot of subtulties, but something like a magazine cover or a billboard or a single TV commercial will be a lot more blatant in the message it's trying to give.

[TooLiveBrew]

If I read this right I pick a TV show like the Office and use the episode where Michael quits Dunder Mifflin and has a hard time trying to find a job so he starts his own company. This is related to today because of the current economic climate.

As long as you bring in the main points the prof. is seeking, then yeah, I think you're on the right track.

I don't get the impression that the professor is asking whether the media relates to society, but more whether the particular media has a positive or negative influence on teaching people to be good citizens.

I think GAME is right on here.

For my unsolicited take... out of that assignment's paragraph, the main points I see that the prof. wants addressed in the paper:

1) Identify the political content, & what type(s) it is/they are -- be sure to only identify what you actually want to use in your argument... don't waste time trying to search out & identify every political aspect of the episode
2) Does the fact that the show expresses this political content make doing so civic engagement? (argue yes or no)
3) How does the presentation of the political content engage or not engage civic culture? Specifically, how does it relate to the 4 listed aspects? (knowledge, values, practices, identities)
4) -- From the final line of the assignment -- How does your selected episode of The Office communicate its underlying points/commentaries on civic culture (humor/satire? blatant lines delivered by characters?), and are these methods effective? In other words, does this episode provide any real message to the viewer, or do its tactics simply make the viewer laugh off the problem(s) addressed?

Tune me out if this next point is obvious, but it's always a good idea to try to establish the structure of your papers (intro, body paragraphs, conclusion) from the actual assignment/question(s) the professor gives you. And stringing together a coherent argument from start (introducing your argument, providing evidence & support with the body paragraphs -- quotes, symbolism, etc.) to finish (bringing all your body paragraph arguments together to show their relevance & the validity of the argument you've made) is always key.


I don't get the impression that the professor is asking whether the media relates to society, but more whether the particular media has a positive or negative influence on teaching people to be good citizens.

Again, I agree with GAME on this. I think his example of All in the Family is good, since that's clearly a show that, through a bigoted character, pointed out how absurd & disgusting bigotry is (think South Park & Cartman for a more current, though not necessarily better, example).


A whole TV show might be a lot to break down and have a lot of subtulties, but something like a magazine cover or a billboard or a single TV commercial will be a lot more blatant in the message it's trying to give.

The (possibly obvious) flip-side of this coin, though, is that you might find more tangible support for your argument if you have more material to utilize (tv show) than just one image (ad/billboard)

[adamb100]

So I emailed my professor on this and he responded:

 

You should be able to write a good paper based on that episode. However, the focus on economic troubles is only relevant to the assignment if you can argue that it has to do with civic culture and promoting some type (lifestyle/traditional) of civic engagement. Because it's a comedy without expressly political stuff, it wouldn't make much sense to choose it and then argue that it isn't good for civic culture because we wouldn't expect it to be. I would only stick with the topic if you can think of some really good ways the episode relates to at least two of the four aspects of civic culture (knowledge, values, practices, & identities).

 

Remember, your paper should be one big argument about how your text does or does not promote civic culture through the ways it invokes knowledge, practices, values, and identities.

I was sick the day he did the lecture that this paper is based around and his response hasnt helped my understanding.

[nate82]

If you could use a movie that would be easier at least to me it is. Starship Troopers would be a perfect example of this. A TV show that was canceled a couple of years ago would also be a good one to use. The TV show I'm thinking about is Jericho or something like that. There are a lot of political situations in that show. If you use Jericho I would choose something from the first season. The second one was rushed and it never really ran with the story. Jericho on Hulu.

[adamb100]

Im thinking of doing the Onion instead, it seems to be better.

 

I want to get started on this paper tomorrow so I can relax this week of classes. I have a few questions first though:

 

What exactly is Civic Culture?(which this paper argues the media text is for or against on).

What are these 4 aspects of it?

1. knowledge

2. values

3. practices

4. identities

 

I still dont quite get the assignement and my professor isnt helping. I also feel like a @%!!+* because people in my discussion class said this paper is easy to do and thats why its worth 25% of my grade.

[nate82]

I don't know if this will help but a quick search on google came up with these two definitions first and second.

[adamb100]

Im doing the Onion instead. It seems simplier in that it doesnt promote civic culture(all the stories are made up and such).

[Baldkin]

As your professor said, picking a comedy and then saying it isn't good for civic culture is not a good idea. You have to be able to back up what you write.

 

Just because something is made up doesn't mean it is not promoting those 4 things, even in satire.