Foundations in Communication Theory: Social Media and Community

Instructions: 1. Identify a theme from the study of media and/or communication that you want your essay to explore. The issue should be related to one of the following general themes in the study of media and/or communication: a. media and economics b. media and ownership c. media and public broadcasting d. media and public policy e. media and advertising f. media and globalization g. media and representations (of race, gender, sexuality, disability, or other forms of difference) h. the Internet/social media and surveillance/privacy i. the Internet/social media and politics j. the Internet/social media and social movements k. the Internet/social media and community l. the Internet/social media and journalism 2. Then, narrow down more precisely the specific example or site of media/the Internet/ social media/communication (the theme on the left side) that you want your essay to explore. Do you want to write about the video game industry? Facebook or Twitter specifically? Large language models like ChatGPT or Bard? 3. Then, narrow down more precisely the specific issue (the theme on the right side) that you want your essay to explore. Do you want to write about concentration of ownership in the American movie industry? Do you want to write about the problem of “crunch” and working conditions of developers in the video game industry? Do you want to write about the rise of streaming services ? Do you want to write about the rise of anti-Black or antiSemitic hate speech on Twitter specifically? Do you want to write about the relationship between generative AI applications like Midjourney and the intellectual property of artists? Do you want to write about censorship of trans activists and causes on TikTok? 4. Then, start actually writing your proposal by drafting a one-sentence research objective that you want to explore in the paper, e.g., "In this essay, I will look at the concentration of ownership in the video game industry, in order to consider the impact that corporate mergers and acquisitions by the largest firms in that industry are having upon working conditions.” Keep this research objective more exploratory than argumentative: specify what you want to look at or consider more than what you want to argue or show (which you will do below). Note: in all likelihood, this won’t be the actual research objective you end up pursuing in your essay, since it will be further refined and revised based on your engagement with the scholarly literature (as you identify gaps and weaknesses in that literature, which will point you in more fruitful and precise directions). But it will give you a starting point. 5. Now, share your own perspective on the issue addressed by your research objective, e.g., “I want to argue that generative AI is bad for artists, inasmuch as these applications plagiarize and steal from them, mimicking their style, without compensating or giving credit to them.” Note: by the time you write your actual essay, you may find that your perspective has changed and the position you adopt on it is different because 6. Finally, explain why the theme and issue that are the basis of your research objective interest you so or what about them makes this a worthy site of research in this course. What makes it a compelling topic for you to write on, as well as why it is relevant for a course in media and communication? Do you have a personal connection to the subject? Have you taken another course where you wrote an essay on a similar topic, and you want to explore it in greater detail (as well as leverage research from the previous essay)? Is it topical or relevant right now for a particular reason?