Blog
Media and identity final
Topic: Media and identity final
Order Description
Use no more than 1,500 words to answer the following three questions.
Make sure to reference all your citations, name your file lastname_midterm1, and return this assignment as a doc or docx attachment to m.deseriis@neu.edu by Monday, December 9, 2013, 5PM.
1. Herman Gray, Lisa Nakamura, danah boyd and Latoya Peterson aIDress the question of the relationship between racial stereotyping and media from different angles. Gray focuses on representations of blacks on TV, Nakamura on the stereotyping of Asian players in the online game World of Warcraft, boyd on how teensÂ’ use of social network sites is inflected by race, and Peterson on the racial politics of viral YouTube videos. Keeping in mind that stereotyping is a cultural practice whereby those who do not meet the expectations of a (dominant) social group are cast as Other and reduced to a few, easily memorable features, explain how the technical, social, and economic features of the media analyzed by these thinkers are conducive (or resistant) to racial stereotyping. You may use up to 800 words to answer this question.
2. According to danah boyd the four affordances of social network sites (persistence, replicability, scalability, and searchability) are conducive to the formation of “networked publics” characterized by distinctive dynamics. Describe these dynamics, and illustrate them through examples such as Twitter’s micro-celebrity practices and drama among teen users of social network sites. You may use up to 400 words to answer this question.
3. Roger CailloisÂ’ distinction between ludus and paidia is an important interpretative framework to understand the difference between games that have a clearly defined objective and games that are more open ended. Explain how this distinction applies to the design of video games and why game designers can embed different degrees of playerÂ’s freedom within a game. You may use up to 300 words to answer this question.