Mass Communication and its Impact on Society: Class 16 - Academic Research Topic Reviews

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Class 16 - Academic Research Topic Reviews

INDIVIDUAL MEETINGS: We discussed topics and articles students had found for the Academic Research project. Scroll to the bottom of this blog to see the assignment.

NEW BLOG ASSIGNMENT: I am replacing the original blog topic (Electronic News) with the following, due Sunday 2/28 at midnight:

Write 2-3 sentences about your Academic Research project and post a related media clip or image that you might want to use in your PowerPoint presentation. You don't have to commit now to using the clip. If you find your clip on YouTube or another site that includes an embedding code, you should embed it so that viewers do not have to go to another Website to view it. If you use an image, post it in the blog rather than using a link. If you are having trouble embedding or posting an image, click "help" in blogger or ask a classmate for help.

COMMENTS: Please comment on classmates' blogs, and check their comments on your blog. When you comment, save the URL (Web address) of the blog post. At the end of the quarter, you will e-mail me the URLs of your comments. You can comment on any week's blog posts, not only the ones I suggested.

QUIZ REMINDER: The quiz or essay question from today is due Tuesday 3/2. For the essay question, the length is 1-2 handwritten, double spaced pages. Typing is not required.

HOMEWORK: Read Chapter 12 - Public Relations - and complete the workbook page.

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Academic Research/Annotated Bibliography

Topic and two articles due for review: Thursday Feb. 25 (hard copies)

Blog about topic due: Sunday Feb. 28 (this will REPLACE the Week 9 Blog entry)

MLA-style bibliographic entries due for review: Tuesday March 9 (hard copy)

Presentations: March 16/18 Annotated Bibliography due the day of presentation (hard copy)

Choose a media research topic, e.g. a controversial issue or the effects/impact of a specific media on a specific group of people. Find sources that describe existing research in the topic, or sources that describe research into a very similar topic. Write an annotated bibliography and present a PowerPoint summarizing your findings. NOTE: Instructor needs to approve all topics.

Tips: Be as specific as possible. Think about newer issues, controversies and impacts (e.g. social media, file sharing, online advertising, etc.) If you can’t find existing research, find research methods that could be applied to your topic and explain how you would apply them.

Sources

SOURCES SHOULD BE:

· Articles, books or conference reports

· Preferably, found in peer-reviewed academic or scholarly journals

· NOT book reviews (avoid Library Journal and other library publications, unless your topic involves books)

SOURCES MUST BE:

· Total of three per person

· At least two from academic journals or books

· At least half dated 2007 or later

WHERE TO LOOK FOR SOURCES:

· De Anza subscription databases -- EbscoHost, ProQuest, InfoTrac etc.

· Subscription databases found on public library websites (you need a card)

WHERE NOT TO LOOK FOR SOURCES:

· Search engines such as Google

· Wikipedia – use Wikipedia as a reference to find legitimate sources.

WHAT TO HAND IN

Each person will hand in printouts of three articles and an annotated bibliography that includes:

· Resource used to find each item (e.g. Ebscohost, Google Scholar, name of library)

· Bibliographic entry in MLA style for two sources

· Brief summary/annotation of each source. Explain how the source fits in with the research you are doing.

· Bibliographic entry for media clip (if used)

POWERPOINT

Each person or pair will present a 5-10 minute PowerPoint summarizing their findings. The PowerPoint should include:

· Brief description of research topic

· Media clips if relevant (1-3 minutes total)

· Controversies

· Summary of articles

· Your opinion

POWERPOINT FUNDAMENTALS

PowerPoint is for presentation rather than for text. You should not read from a PowerPoint. You should use it as notes for what you are going to talk about. Some basics:

· No more than seven words across, seven lines down

· Use bullet points

· Use photos, graphics, video clips

· Video should be limited to 1-2 minutes

· Limit animations

GRADING

· PowerPoint presentation – 4 points

· Annotated Bibliography (hard copy) – 6 points

EXPECTATIONS (CLASS PARTICIPATION)

· If working in pairs, double the requirements (six total articles, four from scholarly journals; 10-minute presentation, 2-4 minutes can be video clips)

· If working in pairs, stay in touch with your partner

· Be prepared to present without your partner

· Show up on both days of PowerPoint presentations

· If you do not show your PowerPoint in class, you can make it up by presenting it to me (outside of class time) (e-mails not accepted)

Research sources

· De Anza databases (on Library page, Articles & Databases)

· Academic Search Premier

· Ebscohost

· InfoTrac

· Points of View

· Proquest (newspapers)

· Subscription databases such as JSTOR, Questia, etc.

What to look for

· Scholarly, academic, peer-reviewed

· Interesting, relevant articles about research or controversial aspects of the topic

· Articles, books

Research terms in databases

· Use specific search terms

· Use * to include different forms of search term. E.g. advert*, blog*

· Do not fixate on a topic, but be willing to change topics to reflect the research you find

· Use Advanced Search to enter specific fields and limit results to “Full Text” and “Scholarly” or “Peer-reviewed” journals

· If you find a book review, do not use it as a source but try to find the book to use as a source

CITATIONS/WORKS CITED

· Use MLA citations style for your annotated bibliography

· Use the complete bibliographic entries you see at the bottom of most articles on the De Anza databases

· Fill in the library information if needed

· Check that MLA style is correct

o • MLA does not use ALL CAPS

o • Titles of articles are in quotation marks

o • Titles of publications are in italics

· Use easybib.com to construct bibliographic entries