Media Curation Paper.
The idea of “curation” refers to the process of putting together a collection of things into a list, display, or presentation (like in a museum or a gallery). For the purposes of this assignment, we take this idea of curation towards popular culture. Your objective in this assignment is to come up with a “curated” list of examples from popular culture that demonstrate (or otherwise speak to) one of the main pop culture tropes we are examining in the first half of the course. These include: the “Dark Continent”, “Yellow Peril”/“model minority”, “noble savage”/“dangerous savage”, the “Terrorist”, and “Whiteness”. For the assignment, you are to select one of these tropes, and then come up with an annotated list of 5 examples from popular culture (past or present) that relate to it. The annotation for each of the 5 items on your list should feature a brief commentary explaining what the item is, and how you think it relates to the main trope on which you’re focusing the assignment. See below for further details on what kinds of things you might include in your list, and what your annotations should feature. You can think of this as a brainstorming exercise of sorts in which you’re thinking about the different ways these tropes have been expressed in popular culture. What to include… The assignment you’ll prepare should have the following elements: (i) An introductory statement…………………………………………(1 Paragraph, ~200 words max) A simple introduction indicating which of the main tropes covered this term you will be examining and illustrating with your curated list. This introductory statement should include a very brief summary of the main ideas associated with the trope you’ve selected. (ii) Your “curated” list of examples………………………………….(5 entries, 200 words max each) Following your brief introductory statement, it’s time to start your list. Here is where you will list off 5 different examples from popular culture that either illustrate or refer to the main pop culture trope you have selected to examine. For each entry on your curated list you should include: àa title for the item, a date, a source/author, and the media type (e.g. film, news story, novel, photograph, etc.). This info should clearly identify what the item is. àa URL (if the item is available online) or other relevant reference information (e.g., a bibliographic citation if it’s something published in print) àyour annotation comments – approximately one paragraph (anywhere from 100 words to 200 words max.) of comments for each entry on your list. The annotations/comments on your list are really the main substance of the assignment. Each example on your list should be clearly identified and accompanied with a paragraph-long comment. This comment can involve a brief account/description/summary of your selected article source to help situate what it is. But don’t spend ALL your space just describing it. The main focus of your comments should reflect on the ideas/images/representations at work in each of your examples. Think about: -What aspects of this trope are being reflected here, and how? -Is this reflecting or recirculating older racializing tropes? -Depicting old stereotypes in a new context? -Does it demonstrate any specific idea from the assigned readings from the course? -Is it an example of something that challenges and complicates the trope in question? Try to be specific where you can, but your comments here don’t have to be absolutely comprehensive and exhaustive. You don’t need to account for every detail in every example in your list. Some additional pointers on what kinds of things you might include in your curated list: …it can be something of any media format (book, news story, film, TV, music video, song, blogpost, documentary, Twitter thread, YouTube video, comic book, photograph, painting, etc.) …your list can involve any combination of media formats. Your list could have 2 films, 1 news story, and 2 YouTube videos. Or it can have 4 films and one music video. …it can be either from any time period, past or present …it can include media examples that have been featured in lectures and tutorials. Lectures and tutorials make reference to different sorts of pop culture examples all the time, and these can be used in your curated list of examples. However, the intent of the assignment is to also have you think about, and examine, popular culture more broadly. You are strongly encouraged to think about pop culture that you’re familiar with, and to try to come up with examples that relate to your main trope that we haven’t covered in class. This is where the brainstorming element comes in – think about where you might have come across certain images and ideas before. Look around online to see what additional examples you might find.