Point value: 105 pts.
Standards: Double spaced, 12 pt. type
Length: 6-7 pages or 1,800 – 2,200 words
For this final paper you will do interviews/audience reception, and write a final paper on a new topic.
Chicago citation
You do not have to stick to the pairing of the class (i.e. gender and content analysis, sexuality and audience response). For instance, you could do a content analysis about representations of sexuality. However, you must address gender, race, and/or sexuality in the media.
Interviews and Audience Reception
1. Choose a media text (for example, a television show, a song or album, a film, a videoblog, a video game, etc.) Your data will grow larger for this final paper by interviewing more people rather than covering more texts. (For example, a specific media like “50 shades of Grey”)
2. Develop a list of questions that will help you answer a question you may have about how audiences interpret the media object you choose.
3. In this version of the paper, you will need to spend more time deciding who you want to interview. Since you have a larger sample size you need to be thinking about what kinds of claims you want to make. Do you want to compare men/women, old/ young, African American/Asian? In that case you’ll want to have half of your interviews in each group. Alternatively, you could narrow your focus so that all your interviews are with female fans of K-pop, for example. In that case you’ll need to target your interviews to fit a specific demographic.
4. Interview five to six people about their responses to the media text.
5. Write a 6-7 pages or 1,800 – 2,200 paper analyzing the data you collected. This paper should include the following:
o An explanation of why you chose this media and why it is a useful object to analyze. Why is this a worthwhile topic to study?
o A description of how you chose your interview subjects and under what conditions your conducted your interview. Remember, there should be some logical connection between who you chose to interview and why you chose the media text you decided to analyze.
o A discussion of your interview and what your interview can tell us about how audiences respond to representations of sexuality in the media.
o A list of the questions you asked (the list should not be included in your word count).
Things to keep in mind:
1. Stay away from the obvious. The argument that people think women are too sexualized in the media is not an original argument. However, one interview with a teenager and one interview with an older viewer about how accurately a show represents the sexuality of its high school female star might yield more interesting results.
2. Start asking for interviews early. This is even more important for this last paper since you will need more interviewees. It can be difficult to find people with the time to talk you. You should also leave time for an additional interview in case the person you interviewed has to cancel or ends up being a poor interview subject. And remember that interviews over the phone or Skype can be used as source material for your paper.
Grading rubrics will depend upon your method of analysis.
Interviews and Audience Reception:
Use of three citations from readings (in addition to research citations)
Have you used quotes or ideas from at leastthree readings?
Have you cited those readings?
Are those citations appropriate to your paper? 15 pts
The quality of your research design
Did you ask good questions related to your topic?
Were you ethical in your dealings with your interview subject?
Did you complete at least five interviews? 40 pts
The quality of your analysis of your data
Do you organize and report on your interview in a clear way?
Do you adequately defend your choice of interview subject?
Are you able to draw interesting conclusions from your interview? 35 pts
The organization and quality of your writing
Is the paper organized logically?
Is the writing clear and grammatically correct?
Are there problems with spelling? 15 pts
Total: 105pts
