Distribution-focused projects might look at the branding of the series, the network and/or streaming series that markets it, the audience that the series expects, or the landscape in which the series is shown as factors in its storytelling.
Potential sources of information could include: promotional materials, advertisements captured alongside the series, business models for networks/streaming platforms, network or platform series slates, network employee interviews or surveys, etc.
Your proposed analysis should incorporate concepts engaged in the course as it relates to critical examinations of TV industry and its relationship to society, especially along lines of social structures of differentiation and discrimination (race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, ability, religion, etc.). You should also ground your project in the series text itself.
Your research questions should more specifically target answers to the following question: how does the finished product of the series reflect or predict the dynamic you see in its production, distribution, or reception context?
Nuts and bolts: Your proposal should be about 4-6 pages (1000-1500 words) and should include the components below. If you are proposing a multimodal project (i.e., your final product would be something like a video essay, a series of infographics, or something similar), you should include a description or mockups of what you expect the final product to look like.
Proposal components:
Introduction: what series are you looking at, and through which part of the TV production process?
Context: give a little bit of background on the series, covering its premise, its producing studio and showrunner/creator, and where it is distributed. Give a little more information about the part of the process you’re particularly interested in.
Framework: what theoretical/critical perspectives are you drawing from to ground your proposed research? Should include at least 2-3 sources from the course, and can include 2-3 sources you find on your own (and may form part of your data). This establishes your critical framework, so it should reflect the part of the process you’re looking at and the axis or axes of social differentiation/discrimination that you are incorporating into your analysis.
Research questions: what specific questions do you hope to answer about the show and about its televisual relationship to society in your project? (Can be bullet points!)
Method/Data: what kind of information would you collect to answer this question? How would you go about doing that? (Describe in as much detail as possible. These can be hypothetical (“I will conduct interviews/I will locate trade press articles about…”) or actual/specific (YouTube interview that already exists that you’ll analyze, specific trade press articles that you cite).
Format: What will your project be when completed? (You can write this up or include a mock-up.)
(Optional) Predictions/preliminary results: here, if you like, you can include some predictions about what you expect to find in your research (or results of preliminary research you’ve already done). If you do, consider what it might mean to have these predictions contradicted!
Bibliography: cite your sources thoroughly and consistently, both in a bibliography at the end and in-text when necessary and appropriate. You can choose any citation style that you like (MLA, Chicago, APA) so long as you use it consistently and correctly. I mark APA as a preference in the rubric, since it’s generally in use in media studies, though Chicago and sometimes MLA are also common.
Last Completed Projects
| topic title | academic level | Writer | delivered |
|---|