FIRST WEEK RESOURCES

1) For the syllabus, click here.

2) For Thursday, please read the following:

Cullen: Introduction to Popular Culture

Harrington and Bielby: Constructing the Popular

3) Please remember that all students wishing to take this course need to fill out, print and turn in the Academic Honesty Contract.

CULTURAL ANALYSIS PAPER

Purpose: The main idea behind this assignment is for students to demonstrate their critical thinking and writing skills by examining and analyzing underlying ideological scripts present in some form of popular culture/mass media of their choosing. Students are expected to not only identify ideological influences but connect them with larger social and/or historical forces that feed into and out of those social scripts.

Topics: The object of your analysis needs to be drawn from the world of either popular culture or mass media. There is a great deal of latitude to what would fit into this category – it can include movies, television, music, sports, toys/games, advertising, the news, etc. However, your topic should be recognizable as a form of popular culture/mass media to any reasonable person. For example, studying gang violence is not an appropriate topic. However, studying representations of gang violence in video games would be appropriate.

When in doubt, please discuss your topic with the instructor.

Format: All your papers should follow the same basic format. Deviation from the format can result in points deducted, as per class policy (see syllabus).

Include the subject headings in bold, since this will help organize your paper and make it easier to read through.

Statement of purpose: (1 paragraph)

What is your topic? What example(s) from popular culture/mass media will you be analyzing? What will you be looking for, in terms of ideological scripts? What sociohistorical forces are you drawing upon?

This should not be longer than a paragraph. It’s basically a front-end summary of your paper as a whole.

Example (using recent comedy films): “This paper is a study of Judd Apatow’s directed/produced male “buddy” comedies of the last several years. I will be discussing the construction of masculinity and sexuality in these films and its relationship to changing gender relations and sexual mores in American society.”

Example (using a NASCAR event): “This paper analyzes my experience attending a NASCAR event in Southern California. I will be discussing the role that class identities play in both the attendance of the event as well as the media’s coverage/discussion of it on television. I suggest that the media portrays NASCAR as largely a blue collar attraction, representing an idealized portrait of “Middle America” but my experience at the actual event found that…”

Background: (2-3 paragraphs)

You’ve just explained what your topic is – this section is meant to explain why you’ve chosen it. Why is the topic important to you? Why do you think it’s important to others?

Pretend you’re explaining this topic to someone who knows nothing about it at all – what would you say to convince them that your topic is worth studying?

You should draw from at least two outside sources here.

Methodology: (3+ paragraphs)

This section explains, in more detail, what you will be analyzing. You should be very specific in regards to names, dates, titles, etc. (depending on what your actual topic is).

You should also briefly remind the reader what it is you’ll be looking for in examining these objects/events.

Findings: (3+ paragraphs)

This describes, objectively, what you discovered through the course of your research. What did you find?

The section is not meant to be analytical (that’s the next section) but rather, clearly and objectively explains what it is you found/observed through the research process.

Analysis: (4+ paragraphs)

This sections breaks down what conclusions you have reached based on your research and what your initial hypothesis was. More specifically, in meeting with the assignment’s mission, you should address the following at the very least:

What kind of ideological scripts do you think are operating?
What relationship do you think these scripts have to larger social tensions/anxieties/fantasies, etc? How might we explain these specific scripts by examining social trends?

You should be using at least two outside sources in this section to help bolster your argument/discussions, especially in discussing “larger social trends.”

Conclusion: (2+ paragraphs)

Sum up what you learned and where, if given more time, you might want to take this research in the future.

Note: Spelling and grammar count. Make sure you thoroughly proof-read your writing or try to ask someone else to proof-read for you. Incorrect spelling, use of punctuation or grammatical structure weakens the effectiveness of your writing.

Citations can be in either MLA or Chicago format. You may use footnotes/endnotes or a bibliography but do not need both. Remember: failure to properly cite other works is a form of plagiarism and penalties have been outlined in the Academic Honesty contract.

When finished, upload your essay to Beachboard. Look under “Assignments” for Cultural Analysis Paper.”

PAPERS MUST BE UPLOADED BY THE END OF MARCH 6th.

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.

CLASS BLOG

Each week, 2-3 students will be asked to research a topic related to popular culture and society and make it available in the form of a blog entry. The schedule for when students need to submit is here.

The instructor will handle the formatting and posting but students are responsible for:

1) Finding a topic by looking through news and media sources.

2) Copying a URL to an appropriate story or article.

3) Writing a brief (300-400 words) response that describes why they chose this story and what issues and/or ideas it raises for them, especially in relation to the themes of the course.

Blog entries need to be uploaded to Beachboard (Look under Assignments for "Blog Entry") by the Sunday night before the week you are assigned.

Students should upload their blog entries as a word processing document. Inside that document should be the URL of the story they are linking to, plus the written response.

Because of the weekly turnover in blog postings, timely entries are imperative. Therefore, late assignments will not be accepted without an excused absence.

Students are encourage to respond to the blog postings in their respective comments sections.

This assignment is worth 5 points.