Pop Culture Analysis

Description

Pop Culture Analysis GuidelinesDescription: For this assignment, you will choose a contemporary popular culture artifact to analyze using course concepts and intercultural communication perspectives. An artifact is a tangible piece of communication such as a film, TV show, song, music video, speech, or commercial. You may choose any artifact from these categories that you feel is significant or interesting that fits within the textbook’s definition of popular culture. The best artifacts are clearly connected to larger social, political, cultural, or ethical issues. For example, a commercial about immigration or the COVID-19 pandemic, a song about protest or resistance, a speech about climate change or gender inequality, a TV show about intercultural relationships or patriotism, etc. (If you think about it, the show 90 Day Fiancé is a great artifact because it is all about intercultural relationships!)To analyze an artifact means that you must use course concepts to illuminate how the artifact is communicating a particular message and explain why that message is important. Analysis is subjective and relies on your unique perspectives and informed opinions. You should use Ch. 9, “Popular Culture & Intercultural Communication” to help guide you in this assignment. After listening to/watching your artifact and taking detailed notes on your observations, you must write a 3–4-page analysis using course concepts. In particular, you should aim to answer the following questions: (1) How and why is popular culture important/powerful?(2) How does this artifact fit within the parameters of popular culture?(3) What issue(s) is this artifact demonstrating? Why is this issue important to our contemporary moment?(4) What perspectives and/or cultural groups are being represented by this artifact? For example, does the artifact demonstrate a transnational perspective, a U.S. American perspective, the perspective of hyphenated Americans, the perspectives of migrants or refugees, etc. How and why isrepresentation in pop culture important?(5) What course concepts does this artifact demonstrate? For example, stereotyping, code-switching, intercultural relationships, transnationalism, social and/or cultural identities, different types of histories, privilege, etc. Review your notes on previous chapters to help you remember the concepts you have learned.Writing Guidelines: Essays must be submitted electronically—through Canvas, NOT emailed—as Microsoft Word or PDF files. All essays should be formatted in Times New Roman 12-pt. font, double-spaced, with 1” margins on all sides. You must always include a creative title at the top of your essays. Please use full sentences and edit for proper grammar and spelling.Minimum page length requirements for essays are firm—a 3–4-page essay means 3 complete pages of text. Title pages and bibliographies do not count toward page length. Assignments short of minimum page length requirements will have 5% deducted from their final grade for each ½ page missing. Please don’t attempt to artificially extend the length of your assignments by increasing the size of your punctuation, margins, or spacing—doing so will result in your final score being cut in half as I consider this to be a form of academic dishonesty.