Final Projects/Papers (20%)
- Write a 10-12 page close analysis of a media text and its fandom/audience reception, considering how the media text invites audience participation and how audiences respond to that invitation
- Write a 10-12 page close analysis of the way in which a film, television show, or web series imagines and addresses its spectators. You could consider a transmedia project as well (i.e. a media text that uses television or film and digital paratexts to tell its story and engage audiences).
- Write a 10-12 page analysis of early moviegoing history in Middlebury, Vermont, or in another location that you have access to/a connection to.
- Write a 10-12 page analysis of (some aspect of) media spectatorship culture in Middlebury in the present or recent past.
- Write 5 2-page analyses of specific audience-authored works in a popular critical voice. These reviews should be informed by the ideas we’ve encountered in theoretical readings and discussions, but they can be written in a more informal, popular, or playful tone. Imagine them to be a series of blog posts on a particular theme. You can also opt to post these online as an actual blog post series.
- Write a 10-12 page paper exploring a specific case of audience textual creativity, such as personal web pages, bulletin board participation, fan fiction/art/vids, instagram or twitter engagement, snapchat, etc.
- Create a film, videographic essay, fan vid, webisode, website, podcast, or script (or some other transmedia form) that addresses the themes of spectatorship and fandom raised in class. In addition, write a 5 page paper in which you connect your creative work to the ideas raised in class and in the required readings.
We will hold a mini conference/screening toward the end of the semester where you will share your projects with each other. You may not be finished with your project at this point, but you’ll need to have made enough progress to be able to share the final stages with your classmates.