Presentations

As listed on the syllabus, December 2 and 4 (last week of class) we have presentations. Here is the info!

Your assignment will be to give a short presentation on a topic of your choice. You may do this by yourself or in a group of two.

You can use your research paper topic if you want.

Here is the presentation length for each option:

By yourself: 10 minutes long
2-person group: 15 minutes long

For example, if you are in a 2-person group and you chose MTV, one person could talk about the history of MTV and the other person could talk about social or economic influences of MTV.

This project is worth 50 points.

The only thing I'd like you to turn in is an outline of your research. Please type them up. It doesn't have to be written up like a regular paper. Please include a list of the sources you used.

Here are some topic ideas (you aren't limited to these):

Is advertising good for society?
Should copyrights be extended to infinity?
Are American values shaped by the mass media?
Should freedom of speech ever be restricted?
Is fake news journalism?
Any topic of government regulation, law, guidelines, ethical issues, etc covered in chapters 15-17 (for example, NY Times v Sullivan, Telecommunications Act of 1996, Shield Laws, FCC regulation, Zurcher v Stanford Daily...)
Advertising & Kids -- what are the rules? what do studies say?
Subliminal Advertising
Analyze a famous PR case (Ford Tires, finger found in Wendy's chili)
Censorship of the Internet in China
The effect of YouTube on regular TV
Satellite Radio - here to stay or not?
Reality TV - how much of it is real?
Triumph of the Will (or other propaganda) - does it work?
War on TV (Vietnam to now with embedded journalists)
The impact of the OJ Simpson Trial on how news is covered
MPAA movie ratings or video game ratings - what is right/wrong?
An analysis of a news or blog website - pro's and con's of the site
Compare and contrast different station's newscasts on the same night - which stories did they lead off with? Did any stations have stories that the other one didn't?
Negative political advertising: Does it really work?
Video games and violence: what does the research say?
History of the Internet/history of a specific website
Photojournalism ethics/photoshopping
Fabrication/plagiarism by journalists (Jayson Blair, Stephen Glass)
Journalists going to jail for their sources
An inventor/notable figure: Benjamin Franklin, Philo Farnsworth, David Sarnoff, Mark Zuckerberg, etc.
How has the media changed since 9/11?
Media credibility


You may use Powerpoint, play audio or video clips, make your own audio or video clips, overheads, or just stand up at the front and talk. The key is:
Teach us something!!!!

(If you use Powerpoint you can put it on a USB flash drive or CD.. or you could try emailing it to me. I'll let you know if it works.).