Keyword Assignment Instructions
For this assignment you will write a 1500-1800 word paper on a course Keyword. Papers should be formatted like an entry from either the Williams or Bennett, et. al. books [Linked below].
From the Syllabus:
This course is designed around certain keywords. If you look closely, you will see that each week has a large overarching theme like Colonialism and then a “thoughts for discussion” both which are a keyword. The keywords are the significant thematics that define the course and the academic logic derived from media and communications studies and its cognate disciplines (philosophy, history, etc.). Keywords are so important that the scholar Raymond Williams wrote a book in 1976 called Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society. 45 years later there is still a Keywords project https://keywords.pitt.edu/index.html run out of the University of Pittsburgh. This is because language and culture rather than being static and unchanging are constantly evolving and becoming something new and different.
In the first class we decided that this assignment can take the form of an essay, a short film (7-10 minutes) or a podcast (7-10 minutes).
Some General Thoughts
Look at a couple of entries from Williams and Bennett, et. Al. This is your guide for all your essay should be structured and formatted. If you do a podcast or film, I expect a script or transcription with sources indicated and a works cited included.
For this assignment you should consult relevant dictionaries, handbooks, subject dictionaries, encyclopedias, and other sources. Though I am a fan of Wikipedia that won’t cut it for this project. Consult the library, relevant databases, and the Communication Librarian.
Cite your sources.
Strive to be expansive and comprehensive. Most words have more than one meaning and certainly specialized vocabularies like those in media studies have multiple nuances.
Remember this is a course called Screen Studies in the Department of Communication and Media Studies. Keep your paper focused on this area of study. I also recognize that concepts are interdisciplinary and cross borders, but do this with care.
Keywords you may write about [PICK ONE!]
Schizoanalysis (film)
Analog OR Digital Image [One only]
Sonic
Database [Maintain media focus!]
Remix
Story
Lookinga
Colonial Gaze
Immersion
Virtual
Medium
Camera
Future
Indigenous OR Decolonization
Screen
Brain
Algorithm (film)
Works Cited
Williams. (2015). Keywords: a vocabulary of culture and society (New edition, second edition.). Oxford University Press. [PDF can be found here: http://s3.amazonaws.com/arena-attachments/1385668/2a0d6d0b045feef2adb6ae76ec9a2c92.pdf?1509502303]
Bennett, Grossberg, L., Morris, M., & Williams, R. (2005). New keywords: a revised vocabulary of culture and society. Blackwell Pub. [PDF can be found here https://analepsis.files.wordpress.com/2020/08/new-keywords-a-revised-vocabulary-of-culture-and-society.pdf].