PUBLIC OBSERVATION PAPER

During the second week of class, on Feb. 5th, there will be no class. You are expected to use this time to spend at least an hour in public, observing what you see as the connection between popular culture and society.

Pretend you're an alien to our society - whether from out of country or outer space - and you want to learn about American (or Los Angeles/Long Beach) society using popular culture as your primary examples. You can choose to focus on things such as race, class, gender, family, youth/age, sexuality, physical fitness, etc. The range of what you can talk about is purposefully broad.

1) Take yourself to a public space, i.e. anywhere that different people congregate, move in and out of, etc.

2) Quietly observe what is going on around you and pay attention to the uses of or existence of popular culture in that setting. Examples: people listening to iPods, movie billboards, a sports game being televised in a bar, people reading a gossip magazine, people working on their myspace/Facebook page, etc.

The important thing to consider, both in your observations and for the paper, is: what does this example of popular culture teach us about our society and the people in it? Again, imagine this as if you were observing these things for the very first time. What kind of impressions would you come away with?

3) The paper should be structured as followed. Please include the sub-headings as described:

A) Introduction: Where did you go? Why did you choose that space?

B) Observations: In terms of basic description (no analysis yet), what did you observe in relation to popular culture? In other words, what example did you end up focusing on?

C) Analysis: What does this example teach us about society? Elaborate as much as you can as to what you think popular culture has to say about our society. This should be the longest part of your paper - at least 1.5 pages.

Total paper: 3 pages or more.

Finished papers should be uploaded to Beachboard, under "Public Observation Paper."

This assignment is worth 5 pts.