Description
Digital Media Unit Project: Applying Unit Concepts to Our Digital Media Use
Word Count: 1000-1200 words
Due Date: Wednesday, December 20th at 11:59am
Purpose
In this unit, we have touched on some major ideas and concepts when it comes to digital media. Now, we’ll start applying these concepts to our own digital media use. In doing so, you will showcase your ability to apply course concepts to your own lives. The purpose of this essay is to demonstrate your knowledge using the tools we have learned in order to consider how things like advertising, media business models, and other ideas affect your everyday digital media use.
Step #1: Choose a Media Franchise or a Social Media App
The first thing you’ll do is choose one Media Franchise or a Social Media App to analyze in your project. Choose one you are very familiar with, since you’ll be writing a lot about it!
For this project, a Media Franchise is any media text that builds a narrative across at least two different mediums (books, movies, TV shows, social media accounts, video games, board games, etc.) So, this can be as large as a franchise like Star Wars or Black Panther, or something smaller like Shadow and Bone.
For this project, a Social Media App is any digital website or phone application that allows users to communicate directly with one another via text, video, and/or video. So sites like Reddit, Facebook, Instagram, BeReal, Twitter/X, and TikTok are all examples of sites you can use to complete this assignment.
Step #2: Choose Three Keywords You’ll Use
Next, you’ll choose three keywords to apply to your Media Franchise or a Social Media App. You’ll talk about one keyword in each of your body paragraphs.
The keywords you can choose are listed below. There are several major keywords with more specific keywords in parentheses. You can choose to either use the major keyword or one of the smaller keywords within the parenthesis if you choose.
Media Life Cycle (invention and development, distribution/commercialization, regulation, or domestication)
Designer Intentions vs. User Affordances
Participatory Culture
Audience Reading Strategies (Dominant, Oppositional, and Negotiated Readings)
User-Generated Content
Advertising Strategies
Media Business Strategies (Concentration, Conglomeration, Vertical Integration, Horizontal Integration)
Transmedia Storytelling Strategies (Spreadability, Durability, Continuity, Multiplicity, Immersion, Extractability, Worldbuilding, Seriality, Subjectivity, Performance)
Micro-celebrity/Influencers
Consumerism/Overconsumption
Step #3: Draft Your Essay
Now that you know what you’ll write about, start writing!! Here are the requirements for each part of the essay!
Introduction
Your introduction should…
Introduce the Media Franchise or Social Media App you will be discussing
Provide some basic information about the Media Franchise or Social Media App including
Who invented/made the Media Franchise or Social Media App
When the Media Franchise or Social Media App first started
What the basic narrative of the Media Franchise is or what you can do on the Social Media App
How popular or big the Media Franchise or Social Media App is
Any other information you think is relevant for your project!
Provide a thesis statement that introduces the four keywords you’ll discuss in your essay
This can be one sentence long.
Be around 150-200 words
Body Paragraphs
You should have three body paragraphs. You should focus each body paragraph on one keyword you want to write about
Each paragraph should consider how the keyword you chose can help you describe how people interact with the Media Franchise or Social Media App. In other words, how does each keyword affect how people engage with the narrative or the app?
For example, you might ask:
How does Star Wars and its parent company Disney use Influencers to sell their products?
How does Twitter’s constant invention and development this year affect its users?
How does the Super Mario Movie immerse the audience in the game’s story world?
How does TikTok’s reliance on user-generated content affect what you can find on the platform?
Your body paragraphs should…
Include a clear topic sentence that introduces the keyword you’ll use
Include a clear description of which part of the Media Franchise or Social Media App you’ll discuss
For example, will you talk about a specific movie, book, or game for the Media Franchise? Will you discuss a specific page, user, or hashtag of a social media app?
Include an analysis that discusses how that keyword affects how audiences can use or engage with the Media Franchise or Social Media App
You should also include direct quotes or paraphrases from the weekly readings and/or class PowerPoint
Include a concluding sentence that links the current paragraph to the next one
Each body paragraph should be around 200-250 words.
Conclusion
Your conclusion should…
Clearly restate your thesis statement, including which keywords you used
Consider how these three keywords work together to affect the audience
For example, how do immersion, user-generated content, and conglomeration come together to affect the users of YouTube?
Be around 150-200 words
Essay Checklist
Before submitting your essay, make sure you have all the following requirements.
Does your essay…
Have between 1000 and 1200 words?
Include an introduction that…
Introduces the Media Franchise or Social Media App?
Introduces the three keywords you’ll use?
Have a clear these statement?
Is around 150-200 words?
Include four body paragraphs that…
Clearly describe which keyword and which part of the Media Franchise or Social Media App you will discuss?
Consider how that keyword affects the audience?
Include at least one quote/paraphrase from the course readings?
Are around 200-250 words each?
Include a conclusion that…
Restates your thesis?
Considers how the three keywords work together to affect the audience?
Is around 150-200 words?
You should also make sure your essay is…
Double-spaced and written in easy-to-read 12pt font
A doc, docx, or pdf file
Includes a works cited page, following the MLA style.
You do not need to do additional outside research, but I expect you to use (and cite) the readings, the presentation notes, and the screenings if appropriate.
