Here is a new topic I was thinking of tackling for my final paper and presentation. Please let me know what you think and how my proposed thesis can be changed for the better.
I want to explain how various communities (both RL and VR), companies (RL and VR) including Microsoft and Google, video games (RPG and otherwise), and the such both reinforce and refute racism and stereotypes in the RL and VR lives of the people of the world. I will examine various regions of the world and how their interactions in communities (RL and VR) reinforce or refute racism and stereotypes. My argument is going to be that the WWW (not real life events) is responsible for most of the racism and stereotypes we see today in the world.
I plan to use many sources. Some of these sources include many websites, Nakamura's text (as it is chalk full of race issues), newsgroups, at least 4 chapters in the CR text, and from my own accounts of racism and stereotypes I have witnessed online, in my real life, in video games, and in other media. I will show, by linking the digital divide, race, internet activism, RL and VR communities, and gender representation, that the creation of and the present and future of the World Wide Web is responsible for most of the racism and stereotypes we see today.
I want to pursue this topic because I believe the WWW can possibly be blamed for much of the racism and stereotypes that still happen all over the world these days. I have experienced a little racism in my life, as well as people in my past sterotyping me as a plain white man that doesn't care about other races. Some of the latter stereotypes involve my past blogs and community involvement on the web.
**** Please tell me if you think I am on the right road to this final project. I am running out of time and my mind is blank other than this. What can I change about this proposed topic to put it more in the realm of what is expected on this final project. I have read and re-read the Final Paper Assignment Sheet many times. I keep getting mind block. Thank you all.
Julie: Am I on a more correct line here with this? What can I change, slightly or largely, to narrow to what you want. Thank you much!
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Micheal, I am looking forward to reading your paper it sounds very interesting. It is always good to choose topics that you are interested and feel strongly. Makes for good writing. I deleted my previous entry, I had a typo I wanted to fix.
ReplyDeleteGood luck
Thank you, nroe! Good luck to you too!
ReplyDeleteWell, you're making grand generalizations here, when there are nuances involved -- there are white hat hackers and black hat hackers, there are laws on the books with specific punishments, and those laws differ from country to country, and there are plenty of things that aren't illegal by definition because government hasn't caught up with practice, etc. You can't argue that the laws are bad -- you can if you're in law school, or if you are a lawyer, but those legal briefs would be incredibly long and require a lot of research, so I'm saying you can in theory but not in practice in this class.
ReplyDeleteSo, since I don't know exactly how to help here, I'll just restate a few things:
* You must link at least two very general topics (ex: digital divide and the concept of community (virtual or otherwise), gaming and gender representations, personal representation and Internet activism, etc). You're not limited to two, but two is plenty.
* You must include secondary research that both supports and refutes your argument. Including the naysayer's point of view and subsequently arguing why the naysayer is wrong, is as important to making and supporting your argument as including a bunch of research that supports what you're saying.
* The specific rule of most importance is that you must make an original argument with your work. You must have a thesis that includes with it the "so what" or "who cares" aspect of your argument, and that "so what" or "who cares" part of the analysis must be clear throughout your essay.
Also from the assignment sheet, Step #2 says that for this assignment you should "write a paragraph or two that describes exactly what you plan to do, what you plan to argue, and how (in general) you plan to support your argument. Also, indicate why you want to pursue this topic."
Putting those things together, your proposal should include, simply, what you plan to do (including which general topics from the course that you are going to link together) -- this means details and some depth -- what you plan to argue (this could include the argument or the research question in advance of the argument, with an hypothesis of the argument you potentially foresee), and how you plan to support the argument (which theories do you see yourself using on either side of your argument, etc).
All of those elements should be present in blog #9, yet with even more depth than I expected for blog #8, since you will have annotated sources and know how you will be using them in your argument.
Is it too late to change my topic entirely to something else I thought of? Thank you for the comments....I didn't really think I was on the right track, but I wanted to hear what you thought. =)
ReplyDeleteThis is for the updated one: IT IS REALLY BROAD. Like 500 pages of work, broad. Some initial problems: the web is neutral. What people put on the web is where the action happens, so it's not "the web is the cause of X," it's people are. Or the ability to do so is the cause of X, etc. But even then, your argument implies that "most of the racism and stereotypes" didn't exist _before_ the ability to represent online. I can think of a lot of legislated racism just in this country alone in the hundreds of years before online activity that would beg to differ...
ReplyDeleteYour topic is similar to mine as far as discrimination on the internet. Do you have a specific online site in mind that is particularly discriminatory? Just curious.
ReplyDelete