Examining Representations of Diversity
The Media Representations of Diversity final project in this course will have you analyze how media representations of diversity shape our understanding of groups that we may not be familiar with. This assignment will help you begin to narrow down your topic for that assignment and prepare you to do research on your topic of interest.
In your Week 1 Discussion, you reviewed Chimimanda Aidichie’s The Danger of a Single Story TEDTalk and identified some of the “single stories” that you learned from books, TV shows, and movies that you watched as you were growing up. As we discussed, media of various sorts can have a huge impact on how we understand our own identities and those of other people. This is true of the media we consumed as children and that which we consume as adults.
For this assignment, please choose a book of fiction, an episode of a TV show, or a movie that you’ve recently read or watched or that stands out in your mind. You can like, dislike, or not care about the source as long as you know it well enough. For this assignment, please choose a fiction book, episode of a TV show, or movie that you have viewed recently or that you found particularly memorable. You can love the source, hate it, or be indifferent to it, so long as you know it well enough.
Using at least two of the required resources from Week 1 and Week 2, please do the following in a brief essay:
1. Provide an introduction that includes the author and title of the fiction book, name of episode and name of TV show, or the title of the movie that you chose.
2. Provide a brief (1-paragraph, no more than 250 words) summary of the book, episode, or movie.
3. Discuss whether you think the cast of characters in this book, episode, or movie is diverse. How many different diversity factors are shown via the cast? Is it minimally diverse or maximally diverse?
4. How intersectional are the characters? In what ways do they have privilege and in what ways do they not have privilege?
5. Do you “see yourself” in any of the characters? How might this relate to how much you liked or didn’t like the work?
6. Conclude with your initial thoughts about whether the book, TV episode, or movie you chose provides a positive representation of diversity.
Essay Formatting:
• The essay should be 750-1000 words long and double-spaced with 1-inch margins.
• Use and cite at least two (2) of the required resources from Week 1 and/or Week 2 of this course. You may use additional scholarly or credible sources.
• Use in-text citations in APA (American Psychological Association) style.
• Record all source documents cited in a references list at the end of your paper, also in APA format. Follow bibliographic formatting as shown in UMGC’s Online Guide to Writing and Research (https://www.umgc.edu/current-students/learning-resources/writing-center/online-guide-to-writing/index.cfm)
• Be sure to include a cover page with your name, the date, and the assignment topic on your paper.

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