Reference no: EM133030359 , Length: word count:700

Question: For this thought paper, you are to write about a pop cultural interest you indicated in your introduction or in one of the online-activity responses. In my comments, I will have indicated things you could write about. You should consider this pop cultural thing you are going to write about a "cultural text." For example, if I had introduced myself and said I like American football, and specifically the American NFL, those interests would be considered a "cultural text," and if I wrote about it, I would analyze it as a cultural expression that says something about me and the people that are into that thing. For more info on cultural texts, see the video below.

Once you''ve chosen a cultural text you want to write about, you are to analyze that cultural text based on any one or a combination of the ideas encountered in the videos and worksheets on Hegemony, Cultural Texts, and Structuralism. So, to repeat, you do not have to use all the ideas in your paper, but choose one or two or maybe three that you want to use as a way to interpret or say something more about the meaning of the cultural text you have chosen. The language of the videos may at first be a little foreign to you, but don''t worry, the more you work through them and the more I help you with them, the more you''ll find ways to use them in your paper. As you watch the videos, notice some of the pop culture references he uses and the way he analyzes them; these can provide examples of the way you can analyze the cultural texts you choose.

Be adventurous with what you say about the cultural text you choose and your use of the ideas from the videos and worksheets. Don''t worry too much about being fully correct in how you interpret your cultural text and in your use of the ideas from the videos/worksheets; instead, be willing to use terms you didn''t know before and be willing to examine your cultural text in as much specific detail as you can. Also, make sure you are interpreting the cultural texts in your own way; in other words, don''t give me things copied from the internet--nothing annoys me more!--or give me something written by somebody else!

In the coming week, there will be a video that examines a sample thought paper, and explains more the expectations and rubric for the paper. For now, focus on choosing a cultural text you are interested in, and thinking through the ideas you want to use from the videos/worksheets.