I first thought of writing on how the development of social networking sites such as myspace.com and facebook.com has influenced the way people; who are involved in all sorts of different relationships, not simply friendships, but relatives even and co-workers and future spouses too, can come together and communicate in a whole new way. I could also add how these sites have influenced pop culture by advertising the latest movies, bands, and even things such as viral videos, replacing other media networks or at least attempting too. I was also thinking of going into how it has even driven politicians to create their own personal MySpace profiles, in an attempt to keep up with the crowd of today, or something along the lines of that.
A challenge in this would be that I could have trouble finding articles or sources for this type of essay. I would have to speculate a lot on a lot of my claims.
For my second option I thought of the viral video. The viral video has also influenced the public in a myriad of ways; from giving anyone and everyone a shot at their 15 minutes of fame or humiliation even. They too can advertise a movie, or launch some webcam singer into stardom. Politically it has helped as well, allowing for immediate spread something like President Obama’s Yes We Can song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjXyqcx-mYY).
The problem with this is that I doubt I’d be able to write 1800 words about viral videos. I would have an even bigger problem finding intelligent sources to draw from.
Lastly I could choose to write about the act of smoking marijuana, seeing as to how it is in hot debate currently and seems to come in and out of focus throughout time. It would be an unbiased look at the history of smoking marijuana. I wouldn’t write about why or why not it should be illegal but about its cultural affects on our society, in music, movies and general pop culture. I could go into how public perception of this drug has changed through different time periods and through different societies and maybe relate it to how it fits into California’s current bill that is in favor of the drug’s legalization and production.
I would have trouble with this though in that I’m not sure how I would make my point for it without sounding like a “pothead” per say. The reason for this is that although I don’t smoke marijuana, I along with a growing number of others have tried it, and I don’t see much wrong with it. Keeping in mind that I don’t smoke it habitually and am not am not trying to be an advocate for it, but am in favor of its legalization and I think it eventually will happen. I’m not sure of the sources I could find on this and am pretty positive I can develop a different or better paper on the history of smoking MJ. But I’m not sure how to set it up.
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ReplyDeleteI really like your first two ideas, and I think you could find a ton of information on them based on a historical perspective. Like, what were the viral videos prior to the existance of viral video?
So, for instance, Howard Dean was ruined by CNN, some argue, due to their overly repititous playing of his 'scream' in the '04 election primaries (CNN later recognized this). Was that a form of a viral video?
Or, there probably has been numerous studies based on gossip or news spreading (Orson Wells and the alien attacks!) over the years. How does this relate to viral video? Or even Facebook?
So, with some historical perspectives, you'll do great with those two. Actually, there has been a lot of research on how groups operate and communicate--you'll just have to synthesize that with the research that has been done on Facebook/youtube.
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ReplyDeleteT.M.
I think your first idea is pretty good one to go with, I've read several articles on facebook, and its popularity. Also you could look at the psychological need for people to interact with others.
I also like your third idea, since there is quite alot of info on this subject too. You could use research based on the effects of marijuana on the brain and also past history of cultivation of marijuana. Gearge Washington and Thomas Jefferson come to mind, both grew hemp. As far as the cultural effect of smoking marijuana, I think would be more of a opinion than fact.
For the first topic i would say you would need a direct purpose that you wish to accomplish with your paper, but here is a link to a study that I found that might be of help if you are talking about the relationships that develop.
ReplyDeletehttp://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.88.3398&rep=rep1&type=pdf.
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.79.5665
Your third option also called me attention, I would say there is a lot you could focus on, and in particular the governmental aspect of it. Such as its role in the legalization (Fed vs. State) and even something that just came up, Mexico is talking about it, to curb the trafficking that is becoming a "National Security" issue for even the US.
http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=13438457
http://www.jstor.org/pss/3342518