Short Writing Assignment

--The assignment should be 2 pages long, double-spaced.

--You should document your source (for example, the name and date of the newspaper, or the website, etc.) so that we can find it.

--Include citations for the authors from class you use [for example: (Hill, 24)], but you do not need a bibliography.

The Assignment:

Your task in the assignment is to take a key concept/form of analysis taken from readings from the weeks on whiteness or Mexican migration and apply it to analysis of a news story or media event.

The possible options include:

--An analysis of an example ofthe normalization of whiteness (think, for example about marked/unmarked categories or the ways whiteness becomes understood as cultureless) (you could use the texts by Harris, Hill or Perry).

--An analysis of a media controversycaused by the public use of problematic language or other racial incidents, drawing on Hill's discussion of "moral panics," "linguistic ideologies" (especially personalist ideology) and "gaffes."

--An analysis of an incident (or several incidents) of "mock Spanish" in the media (Hill). (What forms and functions can you discern?)

--An analysis of media discourse around immigration, drawing on De Genova's discussion of "illegalization."

--You can come up with your own topic/approach different from these but you should have it approved by Mark or Brian.

The task is to use course concepts to analyze a news story or media event. The key to the best papers will be to show both a good understanding of the concepts and a good application of those concepts in your analysis.