TopAceEssays

Length requirements: approx. 500 words
Formatting requirements: Double-spaced, 12-point font, Times New Roman/Arial/Cambria.
Citations should be formatted in APA citation style (either 6th or 7th edition). Students
unfamiliar with APA citations are encouraged to review the Purdue Online Writing Lab’s manual
or avail themselves of an online citation generating service.
A title page or cover is not necessary for this assignment. However, submissions should
include their student’s name, number, and course information on the first page of their
submission (e.g., in the header).
Students may use first-person pronouns (e.g., “I,” “my,” etc.) in the course of their work.
Instructions:

1. Choose one of the following topics or themes on which to write your essay (note: you will
   further refine your topic or theme into a proper thesis statement for the annotated
   bibliography).
   a. Referencing at least one specific example of a film or franchise, argue that
   Hollywood’s dependence on blockbusters is bad for the art and/or business of film.
   b. Referencing at least one specific example of a film or franchise, argue that
   Hollywood’s dependence on blockbusters is good for the art and/or business of film.
   c. Considering one specific example of a television series and/or streaming service,
   argue that post-network television has empowered audiences with greater choice,
   control, and/or complexity of television programming.
   d. Considering one specific example of a television series and/or streaming service,
   argue that post-network television has returned audiences to the conditions of
   network television programming.
   e. Examining one specific example of an ad or commercial or campaign, argue that
   brands can use advertising to advance worthwhile causes in ways that do not just
   promote consumerism.
   f. Examining one specific example of an ad or commercial or campaign, argue that
   brands, even when they use advertising to promote worthwhile causes, only help
   themselves, promote consumerism, and/or even do harm to those causes.
   g. Looking at one specific example of a fandom, argue that fandom empowers
   audiences to be active and productive, or even political, in their relationship with pop
   culture.
   h. Looking at one specific example of a fandom, argue that fandom reduces audiences
   to passive, possessive, or parasocial relationships with pop culture.
   i. Looking at one specific example of a popular music artist and/or streaming service,
   argue that digital streaming platforms are good for performers and/or consumers of
   popular music.
   j. Looking at one specific example of a popular music artist and/or streaming service,
   argue that digital streaming platforms are bad for performers and/or consumers of
   popular music.
   k. Focusing on one specific example of non-American pop culture, argue that the
   globalization of pop culture leads to the dominance of American practices, values,
   and ideology around the world.
   l. Focusing on one specific example of non-American pop culture, argue that the
   globalization of pop culture leads to a reciprocal exchange of American and
   nonAmerican practices, values, and ideology around the world.
   m. Describing one specific example of an influencer, YouTuber, TikTokker, or streamer,
   argue that celebrity has been universalized in ways that benefit ordinary people.
   n. Describing one specific example of an influencer, YouTuber, TikTokker, or streamer,
   argue that celebrity has been universalized in ways that are bad for ordinary people.
   o. Looking at one specific example of a video game or franchise or platform (console),
   argue that AAA game development is good for developers, gamers, and/or the video
   game industry.
   p. Looking at one specific example of a video game or franchise or platform (console),
   argue that AAA game development is bad for developers, gamers, and/or the video
   game industry.
   q. Students may pursue their own research agenda and pose their own questions (or
   modify an existing one), with the prior approval of the instructor.
   Do not include the text of prompt or question in your submission, as this will inflate your
   Turnitin similarity index score; only include your specific thesis or question (see below).
2. Then, narrow down more precisely the specific recent (i.e., released or popular in
   or after 2020) example of pop culture and entertainment that you are going to
   consider in your essay. For example, if you want to write about video games, which
   example of a video game or franchise do you want to use to illustrate your arguments?
   Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Fortnite? FIFA, NBA 2K, Grand
   Theft Auto? Stardew Valley, Hades 2, Palworld? If you want to write about advertising,
   what specific ad or commercial or campaign do you want to orient your discussion
   around? Nike’s 2019 ad campaign featuring Colin Kaepernick? Apple’s recent poorly
   received iPad Pro commercial? And so on.
3. Then, narrow down more precisely the specific issue(s) that you want your essay to
   explore. For example, do you want to write about concentration of ownership in the
   American movie or video game industry and how those are leading film or video game
   development to privilege expensive blockbusters or AAA titles? Do you want to write
   about the problem of “crunch” and working conditions of developers in the video game
   industry? Do you want to write about the rise of digital streaming platforms in music and
   the artists?
   Do you want to consider how globalization is promoting pop culture from South Korea
   (KPop) or India (Bollywood films) in the United States and Canada? And so on.
   You aren’t just going to write on film or television or popular music or video games or social
   media, etc., but on some specific issue that that medium or industry is facing or has
   produced, e.g., the preponderance of blockbusters and disappearance of non-blockbusters
   in Hollywood, the economic rationales for micro-transactions in video games, the practice of
   activism by fans, the obsession with micro-celebrity among ordinary people, etc.
4. Then, start actually writing your proposal by drafting a one-sentence research
   objective that you want to explore in the paper, e.g., “In this essay, I will look at the
   concentration of ownership in the video game industry, in order to consider the impact
   that corporate mergers and acquisitions by the largest firms in that industry are having
   upon the working conditions of developers” or “In this essay, I want to consider
   ‘greenwashing’ and the way brands appropriate and commodify environmentalist politics,
   encouraging the belief that complex social and ecological problems can be solved by
   more, albeit ‘better’ or ‘ecofriendly’ consumerism.” Then explain the context and
   background.
   Keep this research objective more exploratory than argumentative: specify what you want
   to look at or consider more than what you want to argue (which you will do below). In all
   likelihood, this won’t be the actual thesis you end up presenting your annotated bibliography
   or pursuing in your essay, since it will be further refined and revised based on your
   engagement with the scholarly literature (as you identify gaps and weaknesses in that
   literature, which may point you in more fruitful and precise directions). But it will give you a
   starting point.
   Note: do not copy and paste the topic (a-q) you’ve chosen into your proposal. You need
   to rewrite it in your own words as a research objective.
5. Then, in a new paragraph, share your own personal opinion or perspective on the
   issue addressed by your research objective, e.g., “I want to argue that digital streaming
   platforms like Spotify are bad for hip-hop recording artists, due to these platforms
   undercompensating artists and making it more difficult for new artists to be discoverable
   without the help of algorithmic curation” or “I want to argue that with the introduction of
   an ad-supported tier, the release of each new Stranger Things season in two parts, and
   the automation of the play of episodes, Netflix is returning audiences to the conditions of
   television that characterized the post-network era.” Clarify why you hold the position that
   you do, e.g., “It is difficult if not impossible for most recording artists to earn a livelihood
   from the rates at which they are compensated by Spotify for their music being streamed.
   This, in turn, will lead to a smaller number of artists and range of music genres being
   popular and accessible to the music-consuming public, which is bad for popular music as
   a whole.”
   Ensure your personal opinion or perspective is argumentative: it should reflect a
   particular or partisan stance on the issue. Avoid an intermediate or neutral position.
   Note: by the time you write your actual essay, you may find that your opinion or perspective
   has changed and the position you adopt on it is different because of what you have
   discovered through your research.
6. Finally, in a final paragraph, explain why the theme and issue that are the basis of
   your research objective interest you so or what about them makes this a worthy
   site of research in this course. What makes it a compelling topic for you to write on, as
   well as why it is relevant for a course in pop culture and entertainment? Why does
   the example you’ve chosen make sense for the theme you want to explore, and how do
   you know about it or what is your personal relationship to it? Is it a topical or relevant
   example right now for a particular reason? How does your example help to illustrate the
   argument you want to make or disprove the perspective you want to challenge? The
   more detailed you can get about your example, the better.
   Note: you don’t have to answer any or all of these questions, but you should address their
   general points. What’s most important is that you clarify why you’ve chosen the topic and
   example you have, and related it to your own personal relationship with pop culture and
   entertainment.
   Students’ submissions will be checked for originality after they have uploaded their assignment,
   For their assignment to be accepted for grading, students must produce a similarity index
   score lower than 20%. Submissions with a score of 20% or higher will not be graded until they
   are resubmitted with a satisfactory score.
   Generative AI: Use of any tools or applications that employ generative AI is not permitted for
   this assignment. Students suspected of illicit or unauthorized use of generative AI may be
   required to furnish evidence of their writing and research process (including, but not limited,
   earlier drafts and notes of the submission).
   Proposals will be evaluated according to the following criteria (in order of importance):

• clarity of the chosen theme, issue, and research objective, that is, how precisely
  the proposal has narrowed down the theme and issue to be explored, and articulates
  a research objective that could be explored through the annotated bibliography and
  the essay;
• persuasiveness and specificity in expounding a perspective on the example(s),
  issue(s) and/or theme(s) related to the subjects of pop culture and entertainment,
  indicating the position being adopted vis-à-vis the chosen issue or theme and the
  grounds or reasons for it being adopted and the example(s) being chosen;
• quality of writing, as reflected both in the attention to proofreading, editing,
  citations, etc., to limit typographical, grammatical, and other errors, and in the
  observance of the assignment’s formal and technical requirements, e.g., citation
  style, spacing and margins, etc.

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