This assignment is a standard academic essay. Your papers are expected to make u

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This assignment is a standard academic essay. Your papers are expected to make use of
original research, develop an original insight or perspective, and put forth an original and
compelling argument.
Instructions for Research Proposal and Annotated Bibliography
The proposal component of this assignment is to both get you thinking about your final
paper early in the term and to provide an early opportunity for you to get some feedback
on your ideas. Its job is to provide a basic outline of what you intend to do in your final
paper, and should contain three basic elements of information:
1) provide a clear outline of your paper’s topic including your proposed research
question (i.e., describe WHAT your paper will be on),
2) indicate why it is a significant and worthy topic of investigation (i.e., explain WHY
this topic is appropriate and important with respect to this course), and
3) provide an outline of how you intend to organize and carry out your investigation
(IOW, provide a brief preliminary outline of your final paper) by introducing the
theories, examples or case studies you will use to illustrate your argument (i.e,
explain HOW you will organize your paper).
Your annotated bibliography should have 2 scholarly sources, none of which are assigned
as course readings (you can use course readings as sources for your final paper, but NOT
for the proposal). Each bibliographic entry should provide (1) a properly formatted
bibliographic entry (APA style, preferably), (2) a brief summary of the source, and (3) a
brief description of how it is appropriate to your chosen research topic. Each annotation
should be between 1/3 to 1/2 a page, double-spaced.
** Please note that the 2 scholarly sources requirement is for the proposal ONLY. Your
final paper will require AT LEAST 5 more sources. **
Suggested Research Topics
You may also develop and propose your own topic. If you wish to do this, feel free to
consult with me before either part of the assignment is due.
1) Globalization is often heralded as bringing about a fundamentally new form of society.
But is globalization really new? If so, in what ways? If not, what are the basic continuities
with previous forms of interconnected societies? How might the media of the day either
contribute to or resist globalization? (NOTE: This is NOT an either/or question. Feel free to
say it is both new AND old. However, make sure to distinguish which features are which.)
2) Explore the relationship between network media, our sense of time and space and the
process of globalization. What are the social and cultural implications of such new ways of
considering time and space? To what degree is our current understanding of globalization
itself a product of a new attitude towards, understanding of and relationship towards a
mediated experience of time and space?
3) Pick an historical epoch (e.g. ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, Han dynasty-era
China, 18th or 19th Century Europe, post-WWII, etc.) and examine the state of globalization
as it existed then. What were the key network technologies that facilitated this condition?
What were some of the social and cultural implications of the network society that
prevailed at that time?
4) Protocols and standards are crucial to the proper functioning of media networks. Choose
one of these media networks (e.g. the Internet, the telephone network, the rail network,
satellite communication, global container shipping, etc.) and examine the historical
development of its protocols and standards. How has this process unfolded? Who are the
central players? What sort of politics have been involved? Whose interests have shaped the
development of this network? What are some of the social, political, cultural or
environmental implications of the way your chosen network has been organized?
5) Network development is inevitably an uneven process. Choose a particular network and
analyze how the uneven development of this network has manifested in social, cultural,
political or economic inequality.
6) The cultural dimensions of globalization are one of the most remarked upon features of
the phenomenon. Choose an example of this aspect of globalization (e.g. globalization of a
particular popular culture industry such as the film or the music industries; globalization of
higher education; etc.) and profile its history and current conditions. What have been some
of the social, political or economic accommodations or transformations required for this
aspect of cultural globalization to take root? What are some of the tensions or challenges
engendered by it?

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