Evolving Conflicts: Thom to DeLillo. Literature & Language Essay
The Issue: Evolving Conflicts: Thom to DeLillo
James Thom's "Perfect Picture" (1976) and Don DeLillo's "Videotape" (1996) examine the issues and conflicts caused by the interplay of technology, media (i.e., news reporting/journalism), and audiences. The mid-to-late 20th century texts depict newsworthy events captured by powerful technology and scrutinize the impact of the technology, the media, and the media’s product on its subjects and audience. They also capture the spectacularly rapid evolution of personal technology and the evolutionary impact on the media, the media product, its subjects and its audience.
***Instructions for the paper are as follows:
In a 3 page, MLA style essay, take a position on the authors' arguments regarding the interplay of technology, media, subject and audience. The essay should present and support a clear thesis position that answers the thesis question: What do the authors and their texts argue about the intersection between technology, media and audience? The thesis position should be supported with primary source textual evidence.
A thesis statement is needed. I have to turn in a thesis statement separately, so if you could identify what the thesis statement is, I would appreciate it. The thesis statement should answer the assignment thesis question: What do the authors and their texts argue about the intersection between technology, media and audience? The answer to this question is your interpretation of the texts' arguments and may include whether the authors argue similar or distinct positions.
Essay Requirements:
• focused thesis position
• critical, academic structure
• analysis of 2 primary sources
• primary source textual evidence
• correct attribution and documentation
• Edited American English
• error-free
• MLA style
*****I ordered a Discussion assignment regarding this topic and would like for the same writer to do both assignments so that the same information can be used in both assignments.
**”Perfect Picture” and “Videotape” will be attached.
Grading criteria:
• Critical Response
Written product demonstrates analysis (compare/contrast, interpretation, evaluation and/or definition) that documents student's grasp of the topic and readings; the student articulates a well-defined position on a text or within a multi-faceted issue.
SLO: Read, reflect, and respond critically to a variety of texts.
• Evidence
Appropriate sources that build credibility of student and argument; effective attribution & correct quoting.
SLO: Develop ideas with appropriate support and attribution.
• Documentation
MLA style (in-text citations & full source citations) is correct, complete & document is correctly formatted.
SLO: Develop ideas with appropriate support and attribution
• Academic Writing
Writing displays formal voice & language; text follows thesis-based, top-down, structure that articulates claims first and validates all claims with evidence.
SLO: Write in a style appropriate to audience and purpose.
• Sentence Level Skill
Writing is concise (avoids wordiness, repetitive and redundant phrasing), specific, and error-free; demonstrates varied sentence structure and is easy to read (flows, avoids choppy or awkward phrasing).
SLO: Use Edited American English in academic essays.
• Process SLO
Written product demonstrates work on ideas & critical position in a discussion, development, or drafting stage; or, final product demonstrates a clear end-stage, well-developed position reached through process stages.
SLO: Demonstrate knowledge of individual and collaborative writing processes.
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Evolving Conflicts: Thom to DeLillo
James Thom, in his article “The Perfect Picture” (1976), retells a personal experience of how the media has turned ‘‘human sufferings into a spectator sport,” (435). Then again, in Don DeLillo’s “Videotape” (1996), the reader is immediately drawn into an anecdote of a man (audience) who seems to be overly fascinated by the shocking footage on the news (DeLillo 1460). These essays describe some remarkable events that were captured by powerful technology. With this evidence, Thom and DeLillo scrutinize the impact of the media and technology and their product on audience and subjects. These texts also capture the exciting and rapidly evolving personal technology and their impact. Regardless of the level of technology, the media and the audience should “confront” the pressing urge to satisfy their morbid fascination because their interplay leads to privacy issues and unnecessary “comparison” conflicts.
The level of technology cannot prevent conflicts and issues, but the advancement of technology progresses the situation. In 1976, Thom used his big, bulky speed graphic camera to capture of a “perfect news picture” of a grandfather who had run over his granddaughter when he turned (435). He had captured a picture that could have possibly changed his career and had the green light to publish it because he was a reporter in a crime. Not everyone could have had an opportunity like Thom’s, but regardless of this, he made a final decision of not to share the pictures. Twenty years later, a girl was captured capturing a simple family video using a video camera. Thinking that this was a fun, the little girl points her camera out through the back window and starts recording a man who was driving a car behind them in the middle of the road without his consent (DeLillo 1461, para 1). Shortly, the man is fatally shot, and she decides not to stop recording. Later, her video goes public, and she becomes a witness to a homicide case. With advanced technology, we will have very few real “private” places left.
New or old technology, conflicts and other issues such as infringement of privacy cannot end because media (reporters, journalists, or photographers) does not face their morbid fascination with required maturity. For instance, in the case of the “Perfect Picture,” Thom faced his fascination and made a moral deci...