Media and Society – SOSC351
Final Project Proposal
PROPOSALS are DUE next week at the start of class on the Google Classroom
** If you do not have it in by this time, you cannot make it up**
Proposal option 1: Globalized media option (you do NOT have to use Asian culture – that is just an example in the book)
In a paragraph, describe your chosen culture and the elements of it you see being a part of your research into American media and 2 preliminary questions for your survey.
Annotated bibliography of 3 expert sources:
Citation MLA format –
Why it is an expert source –
What you expect to get from it or how you will use this source in your research –
Citation MLA format –
Why it is an expert source –
What you expect to get from it or how you will use this source in your research –
Citation MLA format –
Why it is an expert source –
What you expect to get from it or how you will use this source in your research –
Proposal option 2: Fake News
In a paragraph, describe your chosen news story.
| Pizzagate On a Sunday afternoon in 2016, a man strolled into a Washington D.C pizzeria armed with an assault rifle, claiming to investigate that the food store was running a paedophile ring. Fortunately, the scene did not result in another mass shooting. The assailant claimed he received information on the paedophile scandal from a fake news story covering Hillary Clinton’s 2016 Presidential campaign. Donald Trump’s supporters had pushed the conspiracy story on social media to counter the opposition. |
How did you determine it was fake news?
| The fake news was spreading on social media platforms with little evidence. Social media does not require any source validation. No professional news organizations, such as CNN or NBC, had run the story. Moreover, the FBI did not confirm any of the claims. |
Annotated bibliography of 3 expert sources:
Citation –
| Molina, Maria, Shyam Sundar and Thai Lei. “‘Fake News’ Is Not Simply False Information: A Concept Explication and Taxonomy of Online Content.” American Behavioral Scientist, vol. 65, no. 2, 2021, pp. 180–212, doi:10.1177/0002764219878224. |
Why it is an expert source –
| The article is peer-reviewed and published in a scientific database, and the authors have more than five years of professional experience analyzing online content. |
What you expect to get from it or how you will use this source in your research –
| The article will provide insight on the characteristics of fake news in online content, including distinguishing features, such as deep fake images. The authors list seven key features for identifying fake news that the proposal will employ in devising solutions. |
Citation MLA format –
| Pennycook, Gordon and David Rand. “The psychology of Fake News.” Trends in Cognitive Science, vol. 25, no. 5, 2021, pp. 388-402. |
Why it is an expert source –
| The article is peer-reviewed, published in a scientific database, and the authors are well-established professionals in cognitive science. |
What you expect to get from it or how you will use this source in your research –
| The article provides a psychological perspective to fake news, explaining why it is increasing and why people are so drawn to it. The paper will offer an understanding of why there is purposeful sharing of misinformation despite its potential negative implications. |
Citation MLA format –
| Pennycook, Gordon, Ziv Epstein, Mohsen Mosleh and David Rand. “Shifting Attention to Accuracy can Reduce Misinformation Online.” Nature, vol. 592, pp. 590-595. |
Why it is an expert source –
| The article has over thirty professional citations, is less than five years old, and published in a scientific database. Moreover, the authors are recognized speakers in the ACM conference on social media, which denotes their expertise in the field. |
What you expect to get from it or how you will use this source in your research –
| While the other two articles offer insight on the characteristics of fake news and its influence on human psychology, Pennycook et al.’s article provides possible solutions to the problem. The authors provide psychological solutions at the individual level to curb the spread of fake news. |
Proposal option 3: Narrative Analysis
In a paragraph, describe your chosen cultural text and your first impressions of the narrative.
Annotated bibliography of 3 expert sources:
Citation –
Why it is an expert source –
What you expect to get from it or how you will use this source in your research –
Citation MLA format –
Why it is an expert source –
What you expect to get from it or how you will use this source in your research –
Citation MLA format –
Why it is an expert source –
What you expect to get from it or how you will use this source in your research –