Instructions

Analyze: Artifact of Popular Culture

Evaluation Title: The Business of Pop Culture

We have seen throughout this course how popular culture influences our attitudes, both positively and negatively. In this final paper, you will examine an artifact in pop culture to determine its message and effect.

For this assignment, select an artifact that, in your opinion, unfairly creates a negative bias or promotes a negative stereotype about one population of society. The pop-culture artifact can be a media source (song, movie, television program), a product, or other tangible associated with pop culture.  Provide a link to this artifact (or an image). Explain why you have selected this artifact, and why you feel that this creates a negative bias. Describe how you would re-design or re-write the script of this artifact to change the way others would view this population.

In your paper:

• Provide a specific link to the pop culture artifact used for this paper or an image of the artifact. 
• Discuss the artifact in depth.  Explain the stereotypes or biases that you see being perpetuated in the artifact. 
• Discuss the role of popular culture in communicating harmful or incorrect stereotypes or biases.  Using the concepts, terminology, and ideas within Units 1-7, recommendations for how people can identify and correct views that are incorrect or harmful.
• Re-design or re-write this artifact to change the way others could view this population without the negative bias.  Be sure to support this revised artifact with factual examples of the culture.

Specifications: 

Submit a 1200-1500 word essay addressing the questions above. 

In your essay:

• Be sure to structure your essay with an introduction paragraph that includes a thesis statement, well-organized supporting paragraphs, and a conclusion that reiterates the main points of your argument.
• Your argument should be supported by reputable research cited in APA format both in the body of the paper and in your references section.

Helpful Resources:

• Herzing University’s Tutoring and Writing Center
• Grammar checker and writing help: https://www.grammarly.com/ (Links to an external site.)
• Use the Herzing LIbrary to search for scholarly research sources.