Search Our Essay Database

Essay Instructions: You are expected to choose a media artifact that you find particularly interesting and socially relevant in terms of American culture. Think Jersey Shores or New Jersey Housewives, facebook, etc.... (can not use any of these). You will conduct a critical investigation of the artifact employing a critical lens (theory) derived from the communication discipline. Ultimately, your goal in these papers is to ask the following questions: Who is this message intended for? Who wants to reach this audience, and why? From whose perspective is this story told? Whose voices are heard, and whose are absent? What strategies does this message use to get my attention and make me feel included? Using these guiding questions, your project should employ a critical framework grounded in communication theory to help you discern what role this artifact has or is having on the construction of American culture.
This paper will range be 9 pages. You must include a minimum of 5 scholarly sources in your analysis. These do not include the popular press or mainstream media sources that you will likely cite when discussing your artifact. However, those sources need to be cited appropriately too. Sources citation should follow APA 6 guidelines. You will be evaluated on the clarity of writing, justification of the artifact and theoretical perspective, synthesis of ideas and supporting evidence, appropriate grammar, spelling, and source citation. Clarity of ideas and writing are extremely important in the evaluation of your papers. Papers should:
1. Introduce the media artifact/phenomena that you will be critically analyzing. Discuss its signicance to the world around you and to the audience. Thoroughly describe the media artifact. Prodived thick, rich description of its characteristics, qualities, and / or existence.
2. Make an arguable claim about human messages with which another person can reasonably disagree. The critic gives an explicit or implicit reason for holding the claim.
3. Draw critical conclusions and or implications from you anlayisis. What does this all mean? What have we learned about the artifact, its influence on society, institutions, people, industry etc.... How well do our current theories of criticism help us to explain or understand the phenomena that exists around us.
4. Arrive at a judgement about whether something is good or bad or mediocre which involves subordinating one's personal taste to the critical assessment resulting from the first three stages.
5. Take some action that connects our critical perspective with our roles as citzens to question our media intitutions, adding our own voice to the process of shaping the cultural environment. Here is where you suggest where we go from here. What should we do with this new knowledge.

Essay Instructions: Create a 5 Power POint presentation slides to answer and illustrate the following

In what ways have music and radio shaped American culture and its values
identify and introduce your favorite musician and band or type of music
Explain how American culture and social behavior have been shaped by music you listen to
Conclude your presentation by summarizing how audio media either reflect or influence social behavior and attitudes

Essay Instructions: Write an essay answering all four of the following questions in detail. Be sure to number each question and corresponding answer.

Each answer should be no less than 250 words in length and should contain no less than one verifiable citation/reference to support the answer.

3. What was the impact of the Enlightenment on American culture and political life? Which segments of the population were drawn to its ideas and why?

4. Think about how Puritan families were organized. Why did men and women have different roles? What beliefs, conditions and values reinforced these roles? How might these roles have incorporated flexibility, especially during times of hardship? What was the most important thing that parents could teach their children and why?

5. Discuss how and why the lifestyles and experiences of American colonists began to differ from those of their kinfolk in England. When do you believe they began to see themselves as being less British and more Anglo-American? How did the emerging consciousness of different perspectives and goals lead to a different political agenda? Support your answer with specific examples.

6. America became a culturally distinct place from England during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Using specific information about decorative arts, architecture, clothing, food, language, ethnicity, and race, describe the evolution of this cultural distinctiveness.

Essay Instructions: The paper will need a Thesis.
Would like a paper on an intriguing point about what is and what isn?t representive of American culture. Based on claims that shows such as ?Baywatch? exemplifies how American culture overwhelms other cultures.

How do some Americans and many international citizens perceive American culture?

If a person believes that North Dakota?s lifestyle and culture are ?truly? American, what does this suggest about the lifestyle/culture in Los Angeles, San Francisco, or New York?