Due Dates

• Slice of Project 3 due 11/21. This can be any component of the project, either from the text itself or from the Statement of Goals and Choices. 

• Ethnography on Political Community (at least 3-4 pages double-spaced) due 12/3.

• Final Project 3 due 12/17 at 4:30pm. Post to your website or link out from your website. Check in with me ahead of time to arrange a time to drop off physical pieces.

 

Components (Total is 250 points, or 25% of your overall grade)

• Slice of Project 3 (30 points)

• Ethnography on Political Community (50 points)

• Process Artifacts (40 points)

• Statement of Goals and Choices (60 points)

• Main Project 3 (70 points)

 

Goals

• Adapt to affordances and constraints of multiple media types and platforms

• Craft a transmodal, transmedia argument and practice creating cohesion across a series of texts

• Reflect critically on the potential outcomes of composition choices

• Apply multimodal skills, theory, and knowledge to a political issue and advocacy exigence
   

 

"Of course, claims that the internet has 'changed everything' are as old as the internet itself. But, stepping back from any one digital platform or piece of technology, it is evident that a profound shift in campaigning is underway not just at the level of tools, but at the deeper level of a change in voters themselves. As Marshall McLuhan said, 'We shape our tools, and thereafter our tools shape us.' At the same time, digital optimists are sometimes slow to point out that the internet by itself still does not win campaigns, and probably never will."

                                           -Matt Price, "The new politics: How the internet changed everything"
 

As Matt Price argues in this article, the internet has fundamentally changed politics, affecting the way that people hear about issues, communicate with their representatives, run for office, and organize protests or other forms of resistance. At the same time, as we discussed in the remediation unit, digital political texts are very much informed by print media, and physical media hasn’t disappeared from political conversations as some people claim: consider how protest posters, performance art, and campaign rallies all still play a key role in politics.

 

Our conversations this semester have revolved around expanding our view of writing to encompass multimodality, considering how content is continually re-mixed and remediated, and exploring how different platforms and genres shape our perception of an issue. To this end, keep the theories and conversations that we’ve had in mind as you compose this project. You might consider the following questions: How can I adapt content to fit different mediums that are accessible to different audiences? How will the way that I present my message change the audience’s reception? In what ways am I building on or remediating the ways that other people have represented this political issue?

 

For this final project, you will construct a campaign for a cause of your choice across multiple modes and platforms. This can be a local or national issue, and it’s up to you what aspect of that issue you want to focus on, whether you’re finding a solution or raising awareness. The first part of this project will require you to dip your toe into ethnographic research by examining how this issue is discussed, portrayed, and materialized in a community. Building from your findings, particularly on what is already being done about this issue, consider how you can make informed choices about the potential advocates that still need to be recruited, the information that needs to be made public, and the steps that need to be taken to address this issue. You will choose media and modes that will best accomplish your chosen exigence, and link them together through a central website, social media account, installation, or print portfolio.

 

Part 1: Ethnography on Political Community

 

• Requirements: Minimum of 3-4 pages double-spaced. Due December 3 at 9:30am. Include citations for any written/digital texts that you reference.

 

In lieu of submitting a full draft of this project, you will instead complete an ethnography that explores how a particular community has addressed your political issue. An ethnography is a study of the culture of a group, and helps reveal the practices and choices that the group makes in relation to a certain topic. In this case, you’ll look at a group advocating for your issue and examine the ways that they approach activism. 

 

There are a couple of different ways to go about conducting research for this portion of your project. You could stick to online research, examining the group’s website or social media, and discuss what you see there. Or if you’re looking at a local group, you could attend a meeting and talk about what you noticed. 

 

Whatever methods you choose, there should be clear markers that unite the group you’re analyzing. (Rather than just choosing people talking about this issue on the internet more broadly.) Group boundaries on the internet can be fuzzy, but this could include a hashtag, a Facebook group, a Reddit thread, or another clear community that people have chosen to join or participate in. For non-digital groups, you could choose an organization, club, nonprofit or collective.

 

In your ethnography, you should take note of the group’s practices surrounding this issue. Someone reading your ethnography should have a good sense of what this group is, how they’re organized, how they’ve cultivated a collective culture, and what choices they make when advocating for your issue. Here are some questions to keep in mind as you write (these are just starting points--you’re not required to answer all of these questions or reference them directly):
 

• What kind of leadership structure does this group have, and what kind of culture do the leaders cultivate?

• Where do members disagree about how to approach this issue and how does that affect the group?

• What materials, tools, and practices has the group agreed to use when advocating for this issue?

• What do you notice about the shared language of this group in relation to this issue? What terms, acronyms, and references do they use, and why?

• In what ways do members communicate with one another in the spaces you examined, and how might they communicate differently in other spaces?

 

As you write, keep in mind that this ethnography is intended to help you become aware of the ways that people are already advocating for the issue you’re covering, and where gaps might exist on that issue. So choose a community that you’re interested in, and let that exigence guide your observations--focus on what is most interesting and salient for your own work.  

 

Step 2: Creating Transmedia Texts

 

After writing your ethnography, you will create the transmedia project itself, which should build on the work that you saw your chosen community doing, or improve upon the work that they’ve already done. Consider what mediums and methods you want to use to advocate for this issue, drawing on multiple modes and means of engaging audiences. 

 

What is “transmedia”?

 

Transmedia is defined as the process of telling a story or constructing an argument across multiple platforms and kinds of media. This concept connects to Artz, Hashem, and Mooney’s concept of transmodality, as when you create a transmedia project, you’re moving across different modes to adapt to each new piece of media and platform. The challenge of a transmedia project is to establish clear links between the different pieces of media, and to construct a consistent, overarching narrative or argument. One choice you’ll need to make is in deciding what you want the hub of your transmedia project to be: where will audiences begin, and how will they move between pieces of media?

 

The central requirement of this project is that you create at least 4-5 pieces of media, each of which should be a different type of media and/or hosted on a different platform. You’re welcome to create more smaller pieces, or focus on 4 more extensive pieces of media, depending on the goals that you have in mind for the project. Your pieces of media should ultimately be connected by a particular argument and goal. For instance, you could create texts for a political campaign (for yourself or another person you want to run for office). Perhaps your pieces of media all revolve on making this issue understandable to a younger audience. You could also unite your work around a particular rhetorical situation, like a protest or townhall meeting.

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The pieces of media that you choose are entirely up to you, but consider how you draw upon the modes to form connections between them. For instance, you could use linguistic markers like a group name or slogan that is consistent across pieces, or visual markers like logos or symbols to give the pieces of media cohesion.

 

As you create the pieces of media and write your statement of goals and choices, consider the exigence of your approach to transmedia. For a project that forwards an argument about a political issue, the reason to compose across different mediums and modes might be because you’re likely to reach multiple audiences of different ages, backgrounds, abilities, and technological literacies. In addition, as we’ve discussed, different platforms lend themselves to particular modes, which would allow you to shift your purpose slightly as you move between pieces. For instance, you could use Instagram to feature an image with short, snappy text that is more memorable, while a blog would be more suitable for a longer linguistic text that outlines the issue in more detail. Together, the two can be complementary and fill the gaps the other leaves behind.

 

In short, we rarely experience media in isolation, and one text alone likely won’t accomplish political goals. Use your transmedia project to broaden your reach and explore diverse composing choices.

 

Expectations

 

My central expectation for this project is that your argument regarding a political issue is clear and cohesive across the different pieces, whether you’re advocating for a particular solution, raising awareness on an underrepresented aspect of that issue, or crafting a specific call to action that you want your audience to take. The project should build in some way off of the observations you made in your ethnography, and take advantage of the features of the platforms and technology that you choose.