Assignment: Critical Consumers

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Assignment: Critical Consumers

Assignment: Critical Consumers

Assignment: Critical Consumers

Still, there is much we can do to help children and teens approach the media as critical consumers. Readers will notice that we have selected some of the most controversial topics about the media for several chapters of this book. Our aim is not to be one-sided but instead to target the areas at the heart of debates in the United States about the media and public health. Where relevant, we also introduce how other countries are grappling with these issues. We hope we have highlighted the importance of considering the content of the messages to which children are exposed. For today’s young people, there are tremendous benefits as well as serious hazards of spending time with media.

This book is designed to serve as a core text for courses in communication, psychology, education, and public health where content covers children and the media. It could also serve as supplemental reading in courses on child and adolescent development, issues in child development, or issues in the media. The book is most appropriate for an upper-level or advanced undergraduate course or even a beginning graduate seminar in the area. We assume some basic knowledge of research methods in social science, but we also provide background to help readers distinguish and compare different research traditions and methodologies. As a way to engage students, we provide a series of exercises at the end of each chapter. The exercises are meant to stimulate debate and can serve as paper assignments or small-group discussion activities. To our minds, the exercises illustrate just how complex and engaging the media environment is for today’s youth.

Acknowledgments

Dr. Strasburger would like to thank his colleagues in the Council of Communications of the American Academy of Pediatrics, who have supported his interest in the media, and his colleagues at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine, who have allowed him time to write this book. In particular, he would like to thank Dr. Loretta Cordova de Ortega, Chair of the Department of Pediatrics, and Dr. Paul Roth, Chancellor of the UNM Health Sciences Center.

Dr. Wilson would like to thank two industrious doctoral students, Julius M. Riles (MA, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) and Kira Varava (MA, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), for their persistent efforts to track down journal articles, online references, and terrific examples of media content popular with youth.

Dr. Jordan would like to thank Michael Delli Carpini, Dean of the Annenberg School for Communication, and Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Director of the Annenberg School for Communication, for their unfailing support in her teaching and research in the field of children, adolescents, and the media.

Victor C. Strasburger Barbara J. Wilson

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

  • The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS

    Discussion Questions (DQ)

    • Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
    • Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
    • One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
    • I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.

    Weekly Participation

    • Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
    • In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
    • Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
    • Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.

    APA Format and Writing Quality

    • Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
    • Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
    • I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.

    Use of Direct Quotes

    • I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
    • As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
    • It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.

     

    LopesWrite Policy

    • For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
    • Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
    • Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
    • Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.

    Late Policy

    • The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
    • Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
    • If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
    • I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
    • As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.

    Communication

    • Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me: 
      • Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
      • Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.

 

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