30%
Assignment 4: Final Essay
This assignment is worth 50%. A 1500 word essay on the following:
Analyse how everyday life is now experienced through Internet-mediated activities of information and communication with reference to ONE of the six topics (Sex and/or Dating, Music, Health, Games, Faith and Politics) in the first module.
This assignment is to be submitted via the Blackboard assignment upload tool before the due time.
Write a 1,500-word essay addressing the above (note: in all assignments, in-text references are part of your word count, but the reference list at the end is not included in the word count). You should use the analytical approach outlined in Module 1 (particularly the Introduction and Study Guide pages), and other relevant themes you have identified through the module to analyse the topic of your choice. Choose one or two of the four categories of power, community, identity and economy as focal points to organise your analysis of the Internet’s place in the everyday.
You are advised to engage with the lecture, website and tutorial materials and discussions on essay writing in general and this assignment specifically as part of your preparation for writing the essay. There is time set aside in your lecture and tutorial dedicated to further information on this assignment and a section in your curriculum on essay writing and perspective that you should complete. As with other forms of writing, university-level essays have a specific format and well-defined expectations with which you’d need to familiarise yourself.
Tip: review the feedback you have received previously as part of your preparation for this assignment, in particular, your essay plan.
In addition to the Module 1 material identified above, and to frame your discussion in the context of scholarly work on this topic, please draw on the reading for module I:
Bakardjieva, M. (2011). The Internet in Everyday Life: Exploring the Tenets and Contributions of Diverse Approaches. In M. Consalvo and C. Ess (Eds). The Handbook of Internet Studies (pp. 58-82). Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. (e-book in library: search for the book title and select ‘Electronic resource’)
This book also has chapters on religion, gaming and so forth that you might find useful for your essay.
To address the more specific example that you are exploring, use the unit readings that are relevant (e.g. the readings for Gaming). Note that there are different types of readings in this unit. Some are not scholarly but chosen to represent different takes people have on the topic, and some are written by academics. With each topic, we have included a more thorough scholarly source for people who are writing an essay on that topic because academic essays often require analysis and statements to be supported by solid research or other scholarly sources. These are listed at the end of each topic and also a summary is available here for your reference. These should be sufficient but any effort to find additional scholarly sources will be noted and rewarded in the assessment.
As part of the process of preparing for this essay, we recommend the following as background reading to situate the approach to everyday life taken in this unit. You do not have to directly reference them in your essay, unless you cite from them.
Relevant chapters from the collection: M. Consalvo and C. Ess (eds). 2011. The Handbook of Internet Studies. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
John Fiske. (1992). Cultural Studies and the Culture of Everyday Life. In Lawrence Grossberg, Cary Nelson, & Paula A Treichler (Eds.), Cultural Studies (pp. 154-173). New York: Routledge. In E-Reserve. Tips: you do not have to know or understand all of what he writes about, as some passages refer to debates that are not our chief concern (for instance, the discussion in the first page regarding distance and high art/low art). Use it to get a sense of what everyday life studies looks like and mainly focus on assessing his claim that everyday life both constrains and offers avenues of resisting these constraints. Definitely discuss this reading in the assignment 2 forum.
Burkitt, I. (2004) ‘The Time and Space of Everyday Life.’ Cultural Studies. Volume 18, Number 2-3 Pages 211-227.
You must clearly indicate all references and sources for the material informing your answers. Any material you refer to from written sources, online, or anywhere must be clearly indicated; all of your references should follow the APA style of citation.
This is a link to the library’s guide to the [APA referencing system (6th Edition)] (http://libguides.library.curtin.edu.au/content.php?pid=141214&sid=1335391)
####### Criteria for Assessment
Your assignment will be marked according to how well you:
1.Demonstrate understanding of the similarities and differences in the way the Internet is experienced, and how it is represented in private and public discourse
2.Present effectively reasoned views about the causes, circumstances and consequences of the Internet in everyday life
3.Identify, understand and begin using some or all of the broad categories of community, economy, power and identity to analyse the social basis of Internet technology
4.Present a concise, developed and structured argument in response to the question
5.Engage the reader and effectively communicate in a scholarly manner in the essay format
6.Support and connect your statements with evidently relevant examples
7.Substantiate your writing with appropriate references (APA style)
All university work needs to indicate clearly, and using a set format to do so, whenever another source is being used. This includes: using the wording of another person, paraphrasing or drawing on information and ideas from another source (even if reworded). Also review the unit outline regarding university policies around assessment.