Paper #1: One Medium – Critical Engagement

1. First, a brief, broad “brush strokes” of its origin or invention, explaining to the readers which parts of the story can be credited to the technology’s utility itself (tech. determinism) and which parts of the story required the culture to change and / or accept it (STS). After introducing your medium’s origin, I would like you to place it in context historically by specifically drawing on Smith (1994) and Winston (1994)’s overview of technologically determinist thought. You can end this section by incorporating Williams (1974) thought against technological determinism or that “the medium IS NOT the message.”

2. In this section, I’d like for you to draw from Wolff (2015) (TV is the New TV) and Spies (2014) (The Case of Aereo) to show how your chosen medium has remained resilient by being replicated in new media forms AND how it has blocked or incorporated newer media elements to strengthen its position.

3. The final section is probably the shortest. Drawing on Pelly (2017) (Spotify as Muzak) argue for or against your chosen medium using automatic interfaces or big data to keep users passive (“emotional wallpaper”).

So, the broad goals for this paper are to introduce the origins of a medium and place it in the conversation of technological determinism; explain how it has remained (if) resilient in the face of new media; and argue whether new media functions help to keep your medium’s audience passive.

What I’m looking for from you include the following: accurate definitions; specifics rather than generalities; illustrating history and elements of your medium using quotes, paraphrase, and synthesis directly from class readings and lectures, a Junior-level collegiately written and organized structure with proper introduction and conclusion. It helps greatly if you choose a topic you are passionate, or at least curious about. No run-on, or long block quotes please. No quotes as sentences please. The majority of your paper should be your synthesis and paraphrasing of ideas with short appropriate quotes, properly cited as support.

Format:

I am a stickler for format, so this section may be a little longer than you’d expect. You must hand-in a minimum seven page, maximum nine page print-out of a word processed paper, stapled. It can be either double-sided or single-sided – your choice. Times New Roman or Calibri font, 12pt, double-spaced between lines, normal spacing between letters and words, with normal one-inch margins. Your first line will begin on the first line of page one. Your name, class time, paper #, and date will be placed by you in the document’s header – NOT ON line #1. No cover pages necessary. You must insert page numbers. You must run spell-check before printing it out. You must use APA format for in-text citations and your References list at the end of your paper (not included in seven-page count). If you use bibliographic management software, nonetheless check the formatting of the citations before turning it in (I should not see “n.d.” in the reference list if in the in-text citation you dated it as from “2008”). Remember, you might need to do a little extra digging for dates OR use an alternative, better source if you first choice does not possess date of publication data.

Some Reminders for APA style (consult handbook or Purdue Owl Online please):

Basic information for in-text citation: (Author Last Name, YEAR, p. #) (Smith, 2007, p. 156).

If online, and no page numbers, paragraph numbers should be used (Smith, 2007, para. 13)

If your sentence begins with author’s name (Smith writes that donkeys are…) then add year and then only cite page # at the end of sentence (Smith (1997) writes that donkeys are… (p. 7).

Consistency is the key.

Works cited pages for online work should provide author, date, title of work, title of publisher or company, and URL.

Good: