Social Problems and Media
BACKGROUND
There are many agents of popular culture though
which the messages themes and symbols of
popular culture are produced and consumed.
Media is a key agent of popular culture
and within it music is one mode for the production and consumption of
popular culture. The music of the 1960s
marked a key period of transition in the United States as themes of social
problems and dissidence started to fill the radio waves. This assignment will allow you to explore one
social issue or problem in music today.
INSTRUCTIONS
1 Choose ONE social issue
or social problem i.e. drugs the environment war
teenage
pregnancy hate crimes
etc .
2 Find at least 5 songs
with lyrics that address your chosen social issue problem. You will need to
cite these songs using proper APA formatting
see below .
3 Analyze the songs for
similarities and differences in how they address the social issue problem.
§ You
may - look for themes within and among
the songs i.e. songs about war that talk about ending war
§ consider
the year the songs were copyrighted
§ -
consider the genre the song fits in - is
the song directed at a particular audience
think socio-demographic characteristics
age race ethnicity gender
socio-economic status SES and sexuality
§ -
what type of vocabulary words grammar
euphemisms vernacular is used for
the lyrics - Consider the actual
production of the song as well
tempo emotion male female singer individual singer band etc.
1
Find at least two
sources that address music AND your social problem i.e. the sources are providing similar
analysis or commentary on how your social problem is addressed through music . These may be popular sources i.e. magazine articles or websites but Wikipedia is NOT acceptable.
2
Find at least ONE
peer-reviewed article see attached
Finding Peer Reviewed Journals guidelines
that discusses your social issue problem and how it is portrayed by the
media ideally this would be focused on
your social issue and problem but this
may be difficult to find so an article
on TV radio internet
movies is OK .
3
Write-up your paper
a) Cover
Page
b) Clearly
identify your chosen social issue problem.
c) Why
are you interested in studying this
d) Write-up
your analysis of how this social issue problem is addressed in the 5 songs you
chose a. NOTE this is the majority of your paper.
§ It
is a comparative critical analysis of how your chosen social issue problem is
addressed in these songs.
§ It
is NOT a summary of each
§ song and it should not include cutting and pasting
the lyrics of all of the songs into the paper.
i. If you submit a paper that is full of copied lyrics you will receive
a) a
ZERO.
b) b.
Use the prompts in step 3 to help you organize this analysis
c) c.
Information about the singer band should be a VERY minimal part of this
analysis the lyrics are the heart of the
analysis
d) d.
APA-formatted in-text citations should be used throughout this section d
Briefly describe the TWO sources you found that discuss music and your
chosen social problem.
a. Discuss
how the analysis or commentary in these two sources compares to your analysis
b. Remember
your APA-formatted in-text citations
e) e Briefly describe your chosen peer-reviewed
article.
a. What
is the main research question thesis of the article
b. What
is the research method used in the article
i.e. survey interview content analysis observation
experiment etc
c. What
are the key findings of the article
d. Discuss
how the findings in this article can help you to better understand explain your
chosen social issue problem and how it is addressed in your chosen songs
f) e.
Remember APA-formatted in-text citations
f Conclude by discussing how your
analysis is helpful and relevant in the study of American Popular Culture
PAPER FORMAT - length
3-5 pages - APA formatting should
be used throughout o 1 margins
o 12 pt arial or times new roman font
o in-text citations and corresponding full references
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