WATCH 30-60 minutes of popular media content of your choosing that illustrates an example of social inequality based on race, ethnicity, gender, or social class (the book touched briefly on inequality based on sexual orientation and gender identity, so you are welcome to include those areas as well).
READ Chapter 7 of the textbook, then write a discussion post that includes the following three elements, then comment on two of your peers’ posts. Be sure to do all three of these things in order to get full credit:
- Provide the name of the film or show, and the episode title or number (for a TV show) or air date (for news or talk show), and provide a very brief summary of the plot/setting of the story.
- Identify and describe at least two examples of how the selected media either reflects social inequality, perpetuates it, and/or makes progress toward more equality (Be sure to identify which of these things you think is happening). Use the analyses of race, class, and gender in the textbook as examples for how media can reflect, perpetuate, or break down social inequality, and cite the book as you do so.
- Analyze the media and the examples you chose using at least two of the five theoretical perspectives discussed at the beginning of chapter seven (pp.343-345, in the section titled “The Significance of Content” ), and make your own argument about how these representations reflect or influence society. Again, be sure to reference the textbook in your analysis, and clearly identify which two perspectives about content you are discussing.
