Media and Culture: Does Media Reflect or Create Culture?

Different Types of Media Channels and their Historical Significance

You will be examining this question through the lens of a specific media channel of your choice. This media channel may come from new media, legacy media, or residual media. Communication, in the broadest terms, encompasses all media channels through which information is exchanged. That information can be exchanged in a myriad of ways or channels. As technology has progressed, we have seen the advent of the internet and all the communicative tools available through it. These digital, largely internet-based tools are called “new media.” While investigating new media, you may also ask what qualifies as old media, which is referred to as legacy media or traditional media by communication professionals.

This, in turn, will lead you to investigate residual media as well. In the briefest of terms, legacy media refers to books, magazines, cable TV, newspapers, and movies. Residual media refers to film and film cameras, vinyl LPs and record players, radio, and hand-written letters. For this project you will have the choice of working with media from any of these three categories: new media, residual media, or legacy media. Once you have selected your media channel, you will examine how it reflects culture and society, and how it creates culture and society. It is important to examine both sides of this debate.

For example, you could investigate how online dating (a form of social media that falls in the new media category) reflects our culture and society, but has also created a culture around itself.

Another example would be to investigate how the vinyl LP (a residual media) was created by a culture and its needs, but has also created a culture around itself.

A third example would be to investigate reality television (a form of television that is legacy media). In what ways did our culture create reality television, and in what ways has reality television formed a culture in itself?

In this assignment, you will demonstrate your mastery of the following course outcomes:

Analyze the effects of media on culture and culture on media for identifying the past, current, and future trends in communication and mass media ?

Apply popular and scholarly tools for researching areas of communication ?

Integrate appropriate terms and concepts, fundamental across multiple communication fields, for enhancing the delivery of messages Prompt Through the lens of a media channel of your choice, examine the following question:

Does media reflect culture, or does media create culture? This media channel may come from new media, legacy media, or residual media.

you will provide the instructor with supporting documentation for your presentation: a narrative with a brief justification of your thesis, a list of scholarly resources, and an outline. In the second part of the final assessment, your arguments and evidence will be presented in the form of a multimedia presentation posted in a public forum. Specifically, the following critical elements must be addressed:

a) Identify your topic in a concise thesis statement that states a claim that you will prove and support throughout your presentation. This statement will give direction to your presentation and should be well thought out.

b) Summarize how you believe this topic both reflects culture and society, and how it creates culture. I

c) Describe your vetting of each resource and why it qualifies as a legitimate resource. Ensure you have enough resources to sufficiently support your thesis.

d) Provide a contextual list of two to four quotes you plan to incorporate into your presentation. Milestones Final Project Part One Milestone One: Topic Selection In Module Two, you will submit your topic selection which will include the media channel you have chosen and discuss how it both reflects and creates culture