Instruction
Essay #1: The Media Effects of COVID: A Personal Inventory
5% of total mark in course
Word count: 1 paragraph summary on a separate page + 750-word analysis + brainstorming proof
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way we relate to each other, ourselves, and the world. For this assignment, describe the effects that the virus has had on you & your environment in one very narrow way: your relationship to a medium. Your thesis: ‘COVID-19 re-shuffled my media environment's ratios when I used [insert medium example]. Marshall McLuhan and [insert the second author] explain how this is so.’
This assignment is composed of six steps:
1. Choose your medium. Pick an app, service, technology, household item--any medium at all.
2. Writeaone-paragraphdescription.Ononepage,inyourownwords,describethe item you selected. Feel free to include an image.
3. Provideevidenceofnon-academicbrainstorming.Yourevidencedoesnotneed to be exhaustive, but your record does need to demonstrate that you have given this some thought. Roughly brainstorm how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected your use of a medium in a non-academic way. Document your rough thoughts in any format you wish: scribbles on paper, notations on your device, audio, video or photographic snippets, social media entries, testimony from friends, screenshots-- any medium that interests you. Remember: this is a rough brainstorm. You’re merely gathering raw material!
4. Provide evidence of academic brainstorming across two different weeks of material. You want to sort through the readings before settling on what you use. Gather quotes from material that might work, and brainstorm why that may be. Sift through McLuhan’s definition of media and massage from September 14; McLuhan’s exploration of media ages or media types from September 21; Carr’s discussion of media shaping from the same week; Groeger and Wachter-Boettcher’s exploration of media’s accidental bias; and Amber Case and Hill & Mattu’s upcoming work on the complexity and unintended exploitation of networked technologies.
5. Writea750-wordreflectionthatinvolveskeyconceptsfromacrosstwo different weeks of readings. Use your own words to write this essay! Consult the list of key terms that you’re making in tutorial and pick what works for you. No matter what readings you use: cite them, quote from them, and explain what you’ve learned! Use a citation format of your choosing. Talk to your TA about thisJ
6. Attach it and upload it to your tutorial site! Make sure to include:
o Your one-paragraph description of your medium (and an image if you wish) o Evidence of non-academic brainstorming
o Evidence of academic brainstorming across two weeks of material
o Your 750-word reflection, with cited passages, analysis, and quotes