Option 2 - Proposal
Media is one of the largest influences on people today. What to wear, what to eat, what kind of car to drive, and yes, who we should elect into office. Every second of the day, there is someone in our media telling you how to live your lives, and reporting on how others are living theirs. The biggest effect of this is our opinionated news media: Sean Hannity, Keith Olbermann, Rush Limbaugh, Rachel Maddow, etc., etc. All of these people have radio shows, television shows, articles, and books. So the real question is: Do they have an effect on how our country is run? The answer is yes. But the other question is: How much do they affect it?
Now, I do not want to focus on such a large scale like national politics. Let's focus on something smaller like state government. I want to find out how people like this affect how our state runs and who is elected. I also want to focus on if more money = more power. So, for my project I will look at how TV ads (from everyone) and media control or don't control congress.
I think this will be extremely relevant to current times because there is almost always an election going on, and Congress is in session a majority of the year. Also, after the last supreme court ruling, anyone can run TV ads, so if you have money, go for it!
I will do 3 different kinds of research. 1) I will search in academic journals about politics and media, 2) I will talk with people about how they view the media and political commercials, and 3) I will do research at my internship with a State Senator to see how our constituents react to certain things.
So far, I have found that there is a large effect on people from media. We get more phone calls in the office when there is a big event going on, and we get even more petitions and calls when someone goes on TV and tells our constituents to do something. So, I feel like I will be able to find out how much of effect our media has on everyday politics.
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The focus of this paper seems to be the effect of the media on our nation's government. It seems like a good focus- it's broad enough to give you room to write a long enough paper on it, but specific enough that you can still say some meaningful things.
ReplyDeleteThe paper could focus on one specific audience if it wanted to, but really it's something that affects everyone. There's really multiple directions you could go with this, which is good.
It seems as though your purpose is to suggest that media does indeed have a large effect on the nation. When you write the actual paper there will be much more room to flesh this out and I think it will be much clearer to the reader.
It's not clear how much research you've done so far, but it seems as though you've got a great list of sources to check out, so you seem to be right on track with that.
Overall it looks like a good topic for this type of paper, and I'm curious to see which direction you end up taking the final product.
Focus: The focus of this paper is that media effects voters, and its audience. You gotta pick whether you mean a positive or negative effect because no one would disagree that "media effects audience"--I mean that's why magazines and commercials continue to exist! Your topic is smart but too broad and not argumentative. You have to argue something someone will argue against (that's the definition of a thesis). As long as you pick a side, it's gonna work and be a manageable topic.
ReplyDeleteAudience: This audience will be pretty specifically Wisconsin residents (or at least the evidence will be for WI politics), but the implications are more important for any state. The media is not state-wide; it's everywhere. It's important to voters and consumers (depending on which way you take it--you started talking about consumerism and then switched to politics; I think I'd pick one or the other), which is the vast majority of people.
Purpose: Your purpose is to explore what kind of difference the media actually makes in the lives of voters. The argument is based on the assumption that publicity works, that ads make money, so from that assumption I think you wnat to find out "how much?" Your conclusion will make people more aware of themselves as an audience, which few people probably do. I think you'll have a struggle finding out the quantitative "how much" do people admit that it changes you, do the numbers change you. But there is evidence. The famous first televised election would be a good historical idea too (the famous Kennedy-Nixon debates).
Thesis/key claims: This part is pretty fuzzy in your proposal--what exactly are you proposing that the media does? Are you proposing that people with money can afford more media and therefore win elections? The ideas of media effecting audience and money equaling power are two pretty distinct places to take this thesis. Maybe pick one or find a way to connect them. Is your ultimate goal to explore the audience or the politicians?
Use of sources: It sounds like you have a great start for your use of sources. Good ideas, good start.