Assignment description
This assignment asks you to explore a specific example from ecomedia cultures (media texts, platforms, gadgets, ICTs systems, celebrities, activists, companies, news organisations, policy-makers, media technology infrastructures, etc.) and identify the key facts and the key issues involved.
You identify and select a specific case for your case study essay and then apply what you have studied in class about ecomedia approaches and critical analysis. So you need to identify the relevant theories and concepts to your case, in order to analyse it.
In his Ecomedia Literacy (2019), Antonio Lopez introduces a method of analysis that enables students to explore and analyse the many different facets of ecomedia objects and issues. He calls it “the ecomediasphere”. With this method, you can examine your case from 4 perspectives:
· Lifeworld
· Ecoculture
· Political ecology
· Ecomateriality
These four perspectives can guide you for your work on your case study and its content. Please refer to this method; you have to read in the relevant chapters (primarily in Part II The Ecomediasphere, but see also p. xviii). (And, if you are an attentive reader, you will have noticed that Lopez’s method of the ecomediasphere and the 4 perspectives from which to study it underline both content and structure of the MDIA 220 course programme.)
The above paragraph describes how to do the content of your case study essay. The section below describes how to do the structure of your essay. For MDIA 220 you are doing what is called a descriptive case study (not a problem-solving case study as you might have to do in other classes). You need to structure and format it as an essay.
Writing up your case study essay
Title
Give your case study your own specific title (don’t just title it Assignment 3, or Case Study). The function of the title here is to identify your case study, put it in its context, and, ideally, to pique the reader’s interest.
Introduction
Introduce your case and identify its significance in the context of our world today and an ecomedia perspective.
Description
Lay out what the main facts and key issues or problems are. Identify and briefly describe the theory and concept(s) you will use for your discussion and analysis.
Discussion and analysis
Now analyse and discuss your case. To do so, use the relevant theory and concepts covered in the course. To guide you, you can use the four perspectives in Ecomedia Literacy. BUT: you can, and might have to, focus on one or two of the perspectives that are most relevant in your case! This is the key for this assignment: focus your analysis. Which issue is the most significant, pressing, interesting, etc.?! What is the most important thing to say about this case? Finally, the other strategy and tool that you should use to enable you to develop this focus are the marking criteria in the rubric, so please refer to them carefully.
Conclusion
Sum up the main point(s) and finding from your discussion. But please don’t waste words by just repeating a list. You want to sum up what the main significance of your case is and the most important point from your discussion. What is the key point or message and finding from your case study? That is what you want to sum up and bring home in your conclusion.
Reference List
List in alphabetical order all the references cited in your essay. Make sure to accurately format your references according to MLA9 as your referencing style. Don’t forget to also effectively and appropriately quote, summarise, or paraphrase from your sources, as well as format your in-text citations correctly. If you don’t know by now how to do any of this, please check academic writing handbooks or online resources, such as Purdue’s OWL, or chapter 14 “Incorporating Sources” The Craft of Research. These resources are in your Talis Reading
Submission instructions
Format your assignment as an essay (see above under the section Assignment Description).
You can submit your assignment uploading a word or PDF file.
Use a standard 12pt font. Use 1.5 or double line spacing, and a standard margin.
Use MLA9 as your referencing style.
The reference list is not included in the word count.
You can submit multiple attempts.
Turnitin will be used.