Review the Week 1 readings and videos.
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.
• Submit your assignment to the Assignment Files tab.

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.
• Submit your assignment to the Assignment Files tab.