MediaSpace Wiki

Relationships And Communities Session Twenty

Mid-term Exam due at the beginning of class (the exam is available at http://davis.foulger.info/oswego/Fall2002/RelationshipsandCommunities/midterm.htm)

Term paper (due on December 11, 2002):

Explore the relationship of our communication, and more particularly our systems of communication (e.g. media), to community formation and maintainence. Note that while this topic is fairly specific in some regards, it provides for a fair amount of latitude:

• Community can be flexibly defined to include such varations as:
  • the town you live in
  • the neighborhood you live in
  • an business that you work for (so long as the people who work there regard themselves as a community)
  • a college campus
  • a group that meets on-line on a persistent basis (so long as participants regard themselves as a community)
  • a group of people who share a set of common characteristics (commuter students at a college, for example, so long as they think of themselves as a community).
• The focus of your paper can be flexibly defined within the scope of the course. You might look at:
  • how a community forms an emotional bond through its shared media
  • I discussed more in class by going through the syllabus and will add more examples here when I have the chance.

As a related starting reference: http://davis.foulger.info/papers/RelationshipEqualsSumMedia.htm