About the Background Research Assignment

The Background Research Assignment has three primary goals:

1. to help students prepare to be able to write their podcast script
2. to help students expand their understanding of their chosen song and genre
3. to help students expand their theoretical understanding of the social issues their song discusses

The assignment is informed by three Course Learning Objectives:

Objective 3: Effective Communication
Students will understand the principles, practices, and ethics of effective media communication, in particular in terms of how it applies to social movements, society, and protest music.

Objective 4: Reflection
Students will develop their understanding of the important role of reflection during the reading and communication process.

Objective 5: Risk-taking
Students will know what it feels like to step out of their comfort zones and take risks with their approaches to and understanding of the course activities and other course objectives.

Assignment Specifics

In class on Friday, March 5, students generated the following list of possible sources based on an analysis of various music-related podcasts we listened to:

To complete this assignment, students will complete a kind of annotated bibliography.

Your annotated bibliography should contain at least 10 entries relating to your research, with 3 entries being scholarly sources, and 4 being journalistic sources, and 3 being popular sources. Some specifics:

3 Scholarly Sources

• These sources must be scholarly journal articles or scholarly books to provide studies and/or a theoretical understanding of the social issues your song discusses, such as institutional racism, feminism in popular culture, the black body, and so on.
• 1 source can be about your song and/or artist, if such scholarship exists.

4 Journalistic Sources

• These sources include news shows, magazines, and newspapers, and should be about the artist, the song, and social issues your song discusses, such as red lining, interviews with the artist, racism as portrayed in popular music, and so on.

3 Popular Sources

• These songs include blogs, podcasts, videos, and other sources that don’t fit as journalism or scholarship. They should be about the artist, the song, and social issues your song discusses.

Creating the Bibliography

Part 1: Description of Your Podcast
Before adding your entries, compose a 100 description of what you are thinking will be your approach to your podcast. By now you should see that there are many ways you can go, so try to narrow it down.

Part 2: The Bibliography with Annotations
The entries in your bibliography should be chosen to help the goals discussed in Part 1. You may use sources that you reference in your Listenings, if you feel they fit the requirements.

When creating your bibliography, group your sources by the above 3 categories.

I do not care which citation method you use, just as long as you are consistent and that your citations include the following:

• author(s) first and last name
• date
• publication title
• URL

Below each citation, compose a 100 – 150 word annotation:

• 75 – 100 words that summarizes the source
• 50 – 75 words that describes how and why you might use it in your podcast

These word counts are hard limits. Do not go above or below them.

The Do-Nots

Please do not list Wikipedia, music videos, or lyrics as sources. The latter two are understood to be sources already. You may, however, look to the citations on a Wikipedia page and if those are useful.

Due Date and Submission Info

3/24: Share a GoogleDoc with Bill to his SJU email address by 11:00pm