TERM PAPER — MASS COMM 72

The paper counts for 25 percent of the course grade. It will be between 10 and 12 typewritten, double-spaced pages of text (not counting title page, endnotes and bibliography, tables or figures, photocopied articles, etc.).  It is due on Thursday, April 26 at the beginning of class.  Any papers turned in after that time will not be accepted and you will receive a zero on the assignment. 

You will e-mail in a one-page term paper topic proposal March 1 (or earlier).  This needs to be nothing more than a couple of paragraphs about the topic you've chosen to write about, but can include any information on sources or other details you may have in mind.  The topic can change later, but this gives you a chance to get some early feedback on your topic.  There is no need to print a copy — e-mailing it to me allows me to respond easily. Please e-mail your proposal with the subject line "MC72 Paper Topic Proposal" so I can easily keep them all together.  

You will also be expected to e-mail in a one-page synopsis of sources for your paper on Friday, March 16 (or earlier).  This is simply an early list of some of the materials you plan to use as sources for the paper. Please e-mail your source assignment with the subject line "MC72 Source Assignment" so I can easily keep them all together.

The paper should follow one of three approaches:

1. Examine the media coverage of a CURRENT news story from the list below over a period of time as it develops, comparing the content of two different media outlets — one national and one local. Discuss the themes you find within the coverage, use examples to illustrate them, and explore the differences between the content of national and local media and how the outlets aim to serve their very different audiences. Also discuss the coverage in terms of how the given media organization fulfilled its mission to inform the public, and the degree to which the organization served society as a whole.  

   For this assignment, you may choose from the following stories:
   (1) The presidential primary elections
   (2) Increased concern over global warming and "green" issues
   (3) The Internet: Is it a resource or a threat, or both?
   (4) The debate over gay marriage
   (5) Any other current topic approved by Prof. Craig

2. Examine a PAST news story from the list below over a period of time as covered by one national media outlet (i.e. New York Times, USA Today, Time, Newsweek, or TV network news), discuss the themes and patterns within the coverage, use examples to illustrate them, and look at the degree to which that organization's coverage fulfilled its mission to inform the public and/or serve society.

   For this assignment, you may choose from the following stories:
   (1) The BP oil spill of 2010
   (2) The California gubernatorial recall election
   (3) The Atlanta Olympic Park bombing (and the naming of Richard Jewell as a suspect)
   (4) The Columbia Space Shuttle explosion
   (5) Any other past topic approved by Prof. Craig

   NOTE: I'd prefer you refrain from the Sept. 11 attacks.  I've read waaaaay too many papers about them, and to adequately cover them requires writing a book, so unless you have a really fresh angle, it's best to avoid them.
    

3. Examine coverage of any one of the cases mentioned in the two questions above from the point of view of Social Responsibility theory, as will be detailed in class and outlined in an excerpt from the book Four Theories of the Press. Choose one media outlet (or at most two) and focus on how its coverage of this case reflected a variety of viewpoints on the issue, how it kept to high journalistic standards, how it fulfilled its obligations to society, and how it fulfilled other obligations within the Social Responsibility model.

If you have an idea for a term paper that doesn't conveniently fit into any of these formats, please feel free to check it out with me.

The best papers are usually those that integrate both information you gather through research with concepts and examples found in readings and lecture. Show us you know how some of the ideas from this class relate to the subject you've chosen. This needn't dominate the paper, but in general the terms and concepts you learn in this class come in very handy when analyzing the information you've found.

One more thing: This may not be a writing class, but if your writing, grammar or spelling are so bad as to make your paper hard to understand, it will hurt your grade.  Papers that are well written and easy to understand almost always get better grades than ones that are full of bad spelling and grammar. 

All Papers:

1. Papers will be typed or word-processed, double-spaced, on 8½ x 11" paper, and don't enlarge the margins or bump up the type size. The instructor takes a very dim view of such efforts. Please proofread and/or spell-check your final version. There is no need to place your paper in a binder; a staple in the upper left corner is fine.
2. Any photos, graphics or illustrations you choose to include should be placed at the end of the paper as appendices. You may refer to them in the text (i.e. "See Appendix 1"). These do not count toward the final number of pages.
3. This is a research paper.  That means that you need to go out and find information about the topic and report your findings in the paper.  It means you look at a significant body of material — if you're doing a content analysis, all the articles on the subject over a period of time — and analyze what you find.  This can be anywhere from 25-50 articles for a content analysis, or if you're taking a different approach, maybe 10-15 books, or some combination of the two. It does not mean you read a handful of articles and write the paper off the top of your head.  Papers that demonstrate the author's hard work generally receive better grades than those that reflect minimal effort.
4. The biggest mistakes you can make are: 
       (1) Jumping to conclusions without backing them up with research.  
       (2) Getting facts wrong — misspelling names, misstating dates or making any other factual errors. 
       (3) Relying too heavily on one source — your paper ends up replicating another author and reflecting all the same points of view (and the same flaws).  
       (4) Plagiarizing — representing someone else's words as your own.  When in doubt, cite the source.
5. Do not use Wikipedia as a source for your paper.  It's not that all the information there is wrong — it just contains too many user-submitted mistakes to have true credibility for a research paper.  Students also sometimes use it as a crutch, listing multiple entries as though they are different sources.  If you can't help it, use the site to help lead you to more credible sources.  It's a great jumping-off point, but not a credible source by itself. Also do not use any of the offshoots of Wikipedia — many sites these days simply repost Wikipedia's material. Be wary of any site whose name ends with "pedia."
6. Use credible sources.  Since anyone can publish on the Internet, there's all kinds of unverified information (a.k.a. crap) floating around.  Please be sure you use reliable sources — ones you'd be willing to defend as valid.  Just because something appears on someone's blog doesn't mean it's true.
7. I do require both a bibliography and footnoting/endnoting in my papers. Any standard citation/footnote/endnote system is fine (i.e. Chicago Manual of Style, Strunk & White, etc.), but stick to the one style throughout. If you're quoting someone directly, please attribute the quote in the text in addition to footnoting. (As in, "In his 2006 State of the Union message, President Bush said, 'We need to pull together...'") Don't just place the quote in with a footnote at the end. That leaves all kinds of unnecessary questions for the reader to answer. 
8. Regardless of your chosen style, please inset and single-space all quoted material that's more than three lines in length.  Occasionally you'll want to make a point by using an excerpt from one of your sources, and that's fine, but you need to single-space it so that (1) it sets that material apart from your own writing, and (2) it doesn't artificially pad the length of the paper.
9. You are required to number your pages. If you can't figure out how to make your word processor do this, number them by hand before you turn your paper in.
10. You are required to keep a photocopy or electronic copy of your paper. If the paper did not print clearly enough to read easily, make a clear photocopy and turn that in. You are also required to keep all your notes, research materials and rough drafts until the papers are returned. Both of these are to protect you in case of any question about plagiarism, duplication, fabrication or missing work. See the course syllabus supplement if you are unclear on what constitutes plagiarism and/or fabrication.
11. Omitting any required element (i.e. bibliography, footnoting/endnoting, page numbering) will cost you a letter grade.  
12. Extensions will be granted only with an extremely good and well-documented reason (i.e. extreme emergency explained to Prof. Craig before the due date). Any unexcused papers turned in after class on the due date will not be accepted.
13. Most importantly, if you have any questions or problems involving paper topics, research materials or methods, or anything else, please ask me before or after class or during office hours.