Project 3 Essay: The Pop Culture Research Paper

Writing Task: 

Write a 1600 words minimum persuasive research paper about a specific type of pop culture and its representation of (or influence on) a social issue.  Your paper should have a well-defined thesis–a claim about the pop culture product/media and the social issue. This paper is a research-based paper, so you will conduct research and use what you learn in your research to decide on a thesis (claim) and defend and explain your point of view.  

Some Topic Options:

• Option 1: Pick a specific social issue and research how that social issue is portrayed in a specific pop culture product (such as film, a tv show, a sport, popular books series/graphic novel, or other pop culture media or phenomena). You will analyze the representation of this issue in the pop culture product, and/or the influence it might have on the social issue itself.  Consider how pop culture can both reflect issues in our world and bring awareness to them, but can also influence people and change people’s attitudes/thoughts about these issues. 
• Option 2: Consider a particular pop culture product or genre that interests you (for example, a genre of music, a particular sport, a genre of film or a tv show, a genre of books, or a specific example of any of these).  Make a claim about how the issues of representation and diversity relate to that genre/show/etc. Choose a specific kind of diversity—racial, ethnic, gender, sexuality, disability, class. How diverse is this genre of tv/movies, sport, or type of music? What issues connect to its relative diversity or lack thereof? How does representation (or lack thereof) in your chosen form of pop culture have an impact on the minority groups being represented (or not being represented or not being represented accurately)? 
• Option 3: Create your own argument about a form of pop culture media and have me approve it in advance. You must get your topic approved before you start writing the essay!