Assignment

Select and complete one of the following assignment options:

Option A

Write a 700- to 1,050-word paper in which you answer the following questions:

• What were the major developments in the evolution of mass media during the last century?
• How did each development influence American culture?
• What is meant by the term media convergence, and how has it affected everyday life?

Conclude your paper with a reflection on why media literacy is important for responsible media consumption today.

Format your essay according to appropriate course-level APA guidelines.

Option B

Choose three cultural products you have viewed, read, or otherwise interacted that are examples of distinct forms of mass media.
For example, the biography Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow is an example of a cultural product of the mass media channel of print publishing and, more specifically, Penguin Books.

Another example is the cultural product The Walking Dead, whose mass media channel is Television, and more specifically AMC.

Write a 700- to 1,050-word personal essay that describes your three selected cultural products.

Include a discussion of the following in your essay:

• In what ways did your examples shape, change, or reinforce your own cultural values?
• In what ways do you think they shape, change, or reinforce the cultural values of our society, in general?
• What is media literacy and why is it important?

Format your essay according to appropriate course-level APA guidelines.