Multiculturalism

The purpose of this assignment is to discuss the movement to more multicultural representation in popular and mass culture. You will be writing a research paper in which you address first the role of multiculturalism in contemporary mass culture, and then addressing specifically the changes that have been made within a particular medium or genre, or for a particular group.
Please review Lecture 6-2, assigned for weeks 11 and 12. This lecture provides an overview of whiteness and the push towards multiculturalism. You may also revisit Lectures 4-1 (Television), 4-2 (Westerns), and those of Unit 5 (comic books). All of them address issues of representation in popular culture, and can provide overviews/starting points. Similarly, the assigned readings (particularly from the textbook, in re: television and film), will also help you.
Develop a topic. How do you mean to discuss multiculturalism: would you prefer to work within a specific genre of film (Disney movies? Westerns? Action-adventure?), or would you prefer to work within a different medium (comic books? advertising? sports? — note: this is not the time for a paper about Jackie Robinson, but the question of why no African American managerial candidates have yet been interviewed during the baseball offseason would be relevant)? From there, you will be researching how the debate about multiculturalism/diversity/inclusion is relevant. Remember that this does not apply only to race; gender, sexuality, and religion are all viable topics.
You are required to do primary source research. This includes newspaper, magazine, and internet articles (I encourage you to use reputable sources, unless the bias of the source is relevant to your discussion; for example, if you’re referencing 4Chan, you must acknowledge the bias of that source). This might also include movies, television episodes, commercials or printed advertisements. You may also choose to revisit the Citizenship and Social Justice (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. page, from which you read about the Race-Bechdel Test from Discussion Board 6. This page also has a bias, and through its writings you may get some insight into why activists are advocating the way they are, and through which prisms.
From there, check your secondary sources: academic texts (books, journal articles, anthologies). You will find databases such as JSTOR, America: History and Life, and Project Muse (all available through the Campbell Library) to be of use.
Once you’ve compiled your research, write your paper:
Introduction, including thesis statement
Discussion of multiculturalism and the debate surrounding it (depending on your sources, you have a greater discussion of resistance, but you also may not; it will be topic- and source-specific).
Address the changes that have been made/continue to be made throughout the genre or medium you researched.
Conclude
Example: What was #OscarsSoWhite? What caused it? Who participated in it? What reaction did it have? Does it continue to impact Hollywood? How do you know?
Example 2: How have sitcoms altered the view of the American family since the 1950s? Detail the movement form the prominent white middle-class television shows, to the diversity on television today (including shows such as Blackish, Modern Family, and even The Big Bang Theory).
There are many ways to approach this topic. My recommendation is that you choose something that you find interesting, so that you enjoy the reading and writing.

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