Discussion: Controversy Over Time and Space

Earlier you looked at social issues as expressed by popular culture artifacts in historical context. This week you do the same thing, but by looking at current issues that are being addressed by popular culture. Then you hypothesize about whether the conversations about this issue will provoke or resist change, and how and why this might happen. Imagine that you are a philosopher and you have been asked to predict the future of an issue based on popular culture.

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Your main post should be in the thread that corresponds to the issue you have chosen for your final project. Posting in that thread will allow you to continue testing ideas you may want to include in your Final Project. However, you should feel free to respond to colleagues in any thread that interests you. Reading about how others approach their issues and popular culture can inspire new ways to think about your own issue and popular culture elements.

For this Discussion, your Instructor will either assign groups to threads or direct you to choose one thread from the choices listed this week. If you are directed to choose a thread on your own, follow these instructions: Each thread is limited to a maximum number of students based on class size. A thread will close if the limit is reached. If a thread is closed to new posters, select from the open threads.

To prepare for this Discussion:

Review a sampling of modern popular culture artifacts. The artifacts should not be more than 5 years old. You can identify your own, or review those posted in Doc Sharing by your colleagues.
Consider how your chosen issue is conveyed in the sampling you have chosen.
Select at least two artifacts.
Review how your chosen issue is being discussed today in the news media. Do this by visiting credible news sites via the Walden Library or on your own.

BY DAY 3

Post a 250-word response in which you compare and contrast two popular culture elements in relationship to your chosen issue by answering the following:

Evaluate whether your sample of popular culture artifacts is provoking or resisting change.
Analyze how society’s acceptance or rejection of these popular culture artifacts might affect definitions of normal in 5 to 10 years.
Include references to your popular culture artifacts AND your chosen issue-focused news story.

BY DAY 5

Read a selection of your colleagues’ postings.

Respond to at least two of your colleagues by predicting whether your colleagues’ social issue will remain controversial or become irrelevant to similar popular culture elements in the future. For example, will race be expressed the same way in music in the future? Or, will social class be expressed differently on episodic story telling like television shows in the future?

SUBMISSION AND GRADING INFORMATION

Grading Criteria

To access your rubric:
Discussion Rubric

Post by Day 3 and Respond by Day 5

To participate in this Discussion:
Week 4 Discussion

Announcement

Hi Class,

This week we look at how popular culture artifacts affect society. We will be working with current artifacts. You will pick a new artifact his week and it should not be more than 5 years old.

For reading this week, explore the One Laptop Per child web site. You should learn enough about the program to be able to discuss it confidently. Look at some of their stories, the work they do in different countries and read a sampling of their press releases.

I will be very interested to hear your thoughts on Jane McGonigal’s TEDTalk and her thesis that gaming can solve real world problems. It’s a fascinating 20-minute video.

In addition, please read one of the Student Contributed Resources already posted in Doc Sharing – OR – one of the alternate resources listed on the class bibliography linked from the syllabus, which I also posted in Doc Sharing at the beginning of the term.

You are also required to locate a story from a credible news site, or the Walden Library, which includes many news archives including the New York Times, popular magazines, etc. This story should be about your chosen issue (sexuality/gender, class, race/ethnicity, violence/free speech/indecency) AND popular culture. These sorts of stories are published every day so you should be able to find something appropriate.

For week 4, we have the following due dates and assignments.

DISCUSSION (WEEK 4)

Day 3/Wednesday – Main Discussion post. This week you will notice that the Discussion Forum is broken again into four ‘Threads’. Each thread highlights a social issue. Your main 250-word post should be a ‘Reply’ to one of these threads. You are invited to read and respond in all threads. Compare and contrast two popular culture elements in relationship to your chosen issue by answering the following:

Evaluate whether your sample of popular culture artifacts is provoking or resisting change.
Analyze how society’s acceptance or rejection of these popular culture artifacts might affect definitions of normal in 5 to 10 years.
Include references to your popular culture artifacts AND your chosen issue-focused news story.

Day 5/Friday – Respond to at least two classmates on the Discussion Forum. Feel free to respond in any thread. At least two responses should address the questions posed in the directions. You are invited to post as often as you like.
Day 7/Sunday – Final Project Milestone: Change. This week you will choose one more popular culture artifact. This will be your third artifact. Please refer to the categories on the Final Project Planning and Overview documents for more information. Consider how this new popular culture artifact supports or disrupts the idea of normal. Then write a 400-500 word paper that addresses the following questions.

At least one reference to a news site.
At least two other academically relevant sources. The Course Readings List, found in the Syllabus of the course navigation menu, will be helpful, as will the required and optional resources listed here. Be sure to refer to the student-contributed resources in Doc Sharing.

Please use the undergraduate paper templates available in Doc Sharing and on the Walden Writing Center site for guidance on how to format your paper.

Race Thread

COLLAPSE

Controversy Over Time and Space

For this Discussion, your Instructor will either assign groups to threads or direct you to choose one threadfrom the choices listed this week. If you are directed to choose a thread on your own, follow these instructions: Each thread is limited to a maximum number of students based on class size. A thread will close if the limit is reached. If a thread is closed to new posters, select from the open threads.

To prepare for this Discussion:

Review a sampling of modern popular culture artifacts. The artifacts should not be more than 5 years old. You can identify your own, or review those posted in Doc Sharing by your colleagues.
Consider how your chosen issue is conveyed in the sampling you have chosen.
Select at least two artifacts.
Review how your chosen issue is being discussed today in the news media. Do this by visiting credible news sites via the Walden Library or on your own.

Post by Day 3 a 250-word response in which you compare and contrast two popular culture elements in relationship to your chosen issue by answering the following:

Evaluate whether your sample of popular culture artifacts is provoking or resisting change.
Analyze how society’s acceptance or rejection of these popular culture artifacts might affect definitions of normal in 5 to 10 years.
Include references to your popular culture artifacts AND your chosen issue-focused news story.

Read a selection of your colleagues’ postings.

Respond by Day 5 to at least two of your colleagues by predicting whether your colleagues’ social issue will remain controversial or become irrelevant to similar popular culture elements in the future. For example, will race be expressed the same way in music in the future? Or, will social class be expressed differently on episodic story telling like television shows in the future?

Discussion: Controversy Over Time and Space

Assignment: Final Project Milestone 4: Change

This week’s Milestone asks you to select one more popular culture artifact. Refer to your Final Project Worksheet and Final Project Overview documents from Week1. Remember that there should be no more than two artifacts from the same category with three overall.

The categories are:

Film
Episodic moving image (TV shows—may be broadcast or streamed)
Music
Music videos
Fashion
Advertising
Animation (general animation/cartoons such as Disney or Warner Brothers or genre-specific animation such as Japanese anime)
Food
Printed material (books, magazines, manga, comic books, or graphic novels)

To prepare:

Choose a new popular culture artifact, your third, to include in your Final Project analysis. This element should be current (within the last 5 years) and relate to the issue you have chosen.
Consider how this new popular culture artifact defines or disrupts “normal.”

BY DAY 7

Submit a 400- to 500-word essay that analyzes how your chosen artifact of popular culture relates to society’s values. Explain how this new popular culture artifact defines or disrupts “normal.” Evaluate whether this artifact of popular culture has changed society’s values. Be sure to include:

At least one reference to a news site.
At least two other academically relevant sources. The Course Readings List, found in the Syllabus of the course navigation menu, will be helpful, as will the required and optional resources listed here. Be sure to refer to the student-contributed resources in Doc Sharing.

Discussion: Controversy Over Time and Space

SUBMISSION AND GRADING INFORMATION

To submit your completed Assignment for review and grading, do the following:

Please save your Assignment using the naming convention “WK4Assgn+last name+first initial.(extension)” as the name.
Click the Final Project Milestone Assignment Rubric to review the Grading Criteria for the Assignment.
Click the Week 4 Assignment link. You will also be able to “View Rubric” for grading criteria from this area.
Next, from the Attach File area, click on the Browse My Computer button. Find the document you saved as “WK4Assgn+last name+first initial.(extension)” and click Open.
If applicable: From the Plagiarism Tools area, click the checkbox for I agree to submit my paper(s) to the Global Reference Database.
Click on the Submit button to complete your submission.

Grading Criteria

To access your rubric:
Final Project Milestone Assignment Rubric