MEDIA AND GLOBALIZATION
Fall, 2014
Dr. Lewis Kaye [email protected]
Major Essay Assignment
DUE DATES
Proposal and Annotated Bibliography
5% of final grade Week 5, October 1
Proposal Length: 1 page PLUS bibliography
Final Paper
35% of final grade Week 12, November 26
Paper Length: 8 €“ 10 pages (plus bibliography)
This assignment is a standard academic essay. Your papers are expected to make use of
original research, develop an original insight or perspective, and put forth an original and
compelling argument.
Instructions for Research Proposal and Annotated Bibliography
a) Your proposal should provide a clear outline of your proposed research question and
indicate why it is a significant and worthy topic of investigation. It should outline how you
intend to organize and carry out your investigation and what examples or case studies you
will use to illustrate your argument.
b) Annotated bibliography should have 3 scholarly sources, none of which are assigned as
course readings (you can use course readings as sources for your final paper, but NOT for
the proposal). Each bibliographic entry should provide a very brief summary of the source,
as well as a brief description of how it is appropriate to your chosen research topic.
Suggested Research Topics
You may also develop and propose your own topic. If you wish to do this, feel free to
consult with me before either part of the assignment is due.
1) Globalization is often heralded as bringing about a fundamentally new form of society.
But is globalization really new? If so, in what ways? If not, what are the basic continuities
with previous forms of interconnected societies? How might the media of the day either
contribute to or resist globalization? (NOTE: This is NOT an either/or question. Feel free to
say it is both new AND old. However, make sure to distinguish which features are which.)
2) Explore the relationship between network media, our sense of time and space and the
process of globalization. What are the social and cultural implications of such new ways of
considering time and space? To what degree is our current understanding of globalization
itself a product of a new attitude towards, understanding of and relationship towards a
mediated experience of time and space?
3) Pick an historical epoch (e.g. ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, 18th or 19th Century
Europe, post-WWII, etc.) and examine the state of globalization as it existed then. What
were the key network technologies that facilitated this condition? What were some of the
social and cultural implications of the network society that prevailed at that time?
4) Protocols and standards are crucial to the proper functioning of media networks. Choose
one of these (e.g. the Internet, the telephone network, the rail network, satellite
communication, etc.) and examine the historical development of its protocols and
standards. How has this process unfolded? Who are the central players? What sort of
politics have been involved? Whose interests have shaped the development of this
network?
5) Network development is inevitably an uneven process. Choose a particular network and
analyze how the uneven development of this network has manifested in social, cultural,
political or economic inequality.
6) The cultural dimensions of globalization are one of the most remarked upon features of
the phenomenon. Choose an example of this aspect of globalization and profile its history
and current conditions. What have been some of the social, political or economic
accommodations or transformations required for this aspect of cultural globalization to
take root? What are some of the tensions or challenges engendered by it?