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Analytical Essay
("Reading Digital Culture")
assigned: April 17
due: May 8
Write an eight-to-twelve-page essay in which you do a detailed analysis
of one Web site which answers the three questions that appear below. These
three questions have been ongoing concerns in the readings we've done
from the Trend collection on digital culture. In dealing with each question,
you should:
a. answer the question by doing a "close reading"
of the site, describing and discussing the specific choices of design,
writing and content made by the site's creators (in aesthetic or usability
terms, e.g., Nielsen),
b. then, step back to answer the question further by citing,
quoting and discussing an article from the Trend collection that provides
a critical language and a "lens" through which to critique
the site's social/cultural/political implications. By "stepping
back," you're looking at the site's social context, consequences
or significance not just in itself, but as a larger example of the phenomenon
of the Web and digital culture. As much as possible, support the critique
with the specific examples of content- and site-design you detail.
Here are the questions you should consider in
your discussion of the site:
1. the body vs. virtuality
- Where and how does this site refer to (or invoke a sense of) the body,
bodily existence, bodily identity (age, gender, race, class, physical
or economic "place" in the world), a connection to nature,
the concerns of bodily or economic beings and the material commodities
they need?
- How does the site realize the hopes and/or critiques of one or two
writers in the Trend collection concerning issues of the body and virtuality?
(Some relevant critics concerning the body and virtuality include Morse,
Castells, Heim, Jackson, Levy, Turkle, etc.)
- For instance, does this site represent an enhanced integration or
coordination of the bodily and virtual selves--to "enrich the real"
(Turkle 249)--or does it represent a "rupture of our previous relationship
to time and space" and a displacement of "life" (Jackson
349)?
2. traditional vs. virtual community/identity
- Where and how does this site invoke and "normalize" a particular
sense of community, social identity(ies), affiliation, belonging, social
interaction (actual, virtual, simulated or implied), "public space"
(Poster 263), democracy, subcultures, traditional roles and authorities,
etc.?
- How does it realize the hopes and/or critiques of one or two writers
in the Trend collection concerning community and identity? (Some suggested
writers: Turkle, Landow, Rheingold, Heim, Levy, Kroker and Weinshein.)
- For instance, in what ways does this site either reinforce or subvert
traditional identities, social authority and power relationships? Who
is included and excluded ("normalized" into or out of the
picture)?
3. information vs. experience
- Where and how does this site present its content not just as static,
neutral "information" (lists, paragraphs), but as an experience,
a "knowledge space" (Levy 255), a metaphorical space or world,
an imaginative "performance" (Laurel), or as a value-added
gateway to the "metatext" or "docuverse" of the
Web (Landow 105, 104)?
- How does it realize the hopes and/or critiques of one or two writers
in the Trend collection concerning the Web as a knowledge space? (Some
suggested texts: Laural, Landow, Jackson, Heim, Kroker and Weinstein.)
- For example, in what ways does this site represent a "New Aesthetic"
(Jackson) or a disintegration of aesthetic and intellectual values?
Format:
- Begin your essay by introducing your topic and stating a "thesis"-that
is, one conclusion (not three conclusions!) that synthesizes your thinking
about the significance of the Web site as an example of the phenomenon
of the Web, Web design and digital culture. You might want to include
in your introductory paragraph the name of a critic from the Trend book
whom you depended on in the essay, and perhaps even a provocative quotation
to hook the reader. Do not mention the assignment or the three questions.
(Suggestion: write this after you finish the body of the essay.)
- Explore the first question without repeating the questions or making
reference to the assignment.
- Explore the second question without repeating the questions or making
reference to the assignment.
- Explore the third question without repeating the questions or making
reference to the assignment.
- End the essay by briefly recalling the thesis or conclusion your presented
in the introduction and adding something extra (a "kicker"),
perhaps an example, detail, quotation or observation that's interesting,
funny, or thought provoking which you didn't include in the essay so
far, but which suggestions a further implication of your analysis, or
that illustrates or crystallizes your overall point.
Quotations, Citations and Documentation
Be very scrupulous about putting quotes around other writers' words and
crediting the quotations with in-text citations. Failing to do so, even
accidentally or ignorantly, is plagiarism, and is grounds for failure
of the paper and the class. If you paraphrase an author, be sure to use
your own words and sentence structures.
Be sure to cite the authors and page numbers parenthetically in the text-at
the end of the sentence where the quotation appears-and document the source
in a "Works Cited" page at the end of the essay using MLA format.
There is no self commentary required for the paper.
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