Television In American Culture
Length requirement: 4 or 5 pages, double-spaced (maximum acceptable length is 7 pages)— should work out to about 1300 to 1600 words.
Consider one of the following key areas of American television and screen media:
1) TV News
2) Pornography
3) Representation (meaning how different groups are represented in our media)
4) Children’s Television an introduction, body and conclusion explaining how this aspect of our media works:
- In terms of who’s in charge (ownership, production, writing)
- Distribution and access
- Creation of content
- Regulation
- Audience demographics
- Representation of diversity and gender
- And effects of content
Identify what you consider to be at least two positive and two negative aspects of this kind of media content and how issues like technology, ownership and regulation influence what we see (or don’t see!).
Consider the effects on specific target audiences and society as a whole and also consider how much power those audiences have to influence content and whether those audiences have any needs that are not being addressed.
Then choose one key problem area related to this subject and suggest how you would attempt to address it—would you require more regulation? Less regulation? More diverse ownership and production personnel? More accessible technology? Give it some thought and then explain how your solution would improve content and benefit audiences and American culture.
Feel free to draw on ideas you posted in the discussion boards. Look back at the prompts for each discussion board to give you ideas of “problem areas” or “issues” in each type of media.
You must back up your arguments by referring to at least three class readings or videos (you may also use outside sources, but they are in addition to the in-class sources, not in place of them). Be sure to use your sources in a way that is clearly relevant to your points. Please highlight each source you use in the text in BOLD.
You must also back up your arguments by citing at least six specific examples from American or western media (specific programs/plots/characters, ads, videos, etc.) that bolster your argument. Again, please highlight each example you use in the text in BOLD.
