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Media Analysis Exercise: Media Deprivation Blog

The purpose of this is:

1. To raise your awareness of how media technologies shape your life;
2. To make you think about what other activities or relationships this media activity might be displacing in your life by asking you to be aware of what you are doing and feeling when you are NOT involved with your accustomed media activity;
3. To, at the same time, give you experience in creating and managing a media blog, which will be a useful tool during the rest of the semester, and perhaps in your other classes.

Procedure for the project:

1. Select a gadget you use a lot , but can safely ( if not happily) do without.( Of course, if a serious emergency arises, you will ignore this restriction.) Some examples are cell phone, laptop , blackberry, ipod, video-game player, or you can suggest some other media technology you use a lot- even good ol’ radio or tv. We will start on Friday AM by turning off the technology we have chosen. ( I will be doing this ,too.)

2. Each day, through Monday, evening, you will make at least 3 blog entries per day. They can be fairly short, but at least one paragraph each. You will comment on how you are feeling about being without your chosen item, inconveniences, comments from friends and family,, activities or ways of communicating you are using instead ,the impact on your mood, your social life, etc.

3. You must add at least 2 media “ illustrations” to your blog. These could be photos, video clips, scanned drawings, film, etc.You must also add at least one music clip that you have chosen to express your reactions to this Media Deprivation.

4. The final entry in your blog should be an analysis of your experiences and your feelings about living without this technology. If possible, relate your experience to one of the theories about media that we have discussed.

5. Be prepared to share your blog briefly with the class.


You will be graded on this project based on:

1. Clarity of thought and written expression in your blog.
2. Relevance of the media examples you have chosen
3. Quality of your analysis and conclusions.