In this assignment you are to explore and analyze one or more topics, issues, problems, concerns raised by our readings and discussions and of interest to you. Your task is to produce a multimedia "text" that details your research, analysis, conclusions.
These projects can and should take many forms--visual, audio, video etc. I do not have a specified length (it is tough to assess this on the Web), but the project should be long enough to examine the issue and inform a reader in detail. The topics and content will be up to you, as will printed and Internet research.
The goal of the project is to use a multimedia document to present information that a specific audience needs or can use.
Please see this discussion of the differences between composing traditional written texts and multimedia productions.
Potential topics
The following list might help you pick a topic for your project. The list includes single concepts and clusters of concepts that can work as good starting points for the discussion of a specific issue (for example, you could choose to talk about webcams as tools for surveillance). However, this list is not meant to be comprehensive and you are welcome to identify and discuss other important or relevant concepts.
- historical accounts of new media
- utopia/dystopia views of technology
- technological determinism/social determinism
- surveillance/panopticism
- resistance/subculture(s)
- visuality/aesthetics
- consumption/consumerism
- credibility/authority
- human/animal/machine/cyborg
- technology/nature
- digital divide
- high culture/pop culture
- politics/democracy/propaganda
- private/public
- public sphere/civic engagement
Some useful links:
Rubric
Nine Planets--a multimedia project
Blake Project--a multimedia project
Criteria for grading your project:
- Richness of content - Relevant information, such as name, email address, date of creation, link to home page, copyright symbol, etc.
- Quality of writing- clarity, logical organization, evidence of proofreading
- Good organization - a clear organizational pattern that's easy to navigate.
- User-friendliness - Navigation elements should be clearly marked; any special features--flash, audio, etc. should be noted; all links should work. Even though a reader might wander about as she pleases, some sense of organization and development should be clear.
- User-friendly layout - Your site should have margins that fit on a standard screen, font that is not too large or too small, appropriate contrast between text and background, consistent color scheme and consistent design.
- Appropriate graphics - Your graphics should be relevant to the topic and should compliment, not overshadow your written content. Your graphics should not be memory hogs. Your audience will not in a good mood when they have to sit there and watch your graphics load.
- Copyright - You should always cite the sources of all information that you did not create yourself. This includes graphics.
