Essay 2: Multi-Modal | The Great Literacy ShiftWord count: 1500 minimum (works cited page not included in word count) MLA style: 12 pt. font, Times New Roman, 1-inch margins, etc. Goal: The year is 2132, and you are an anthropologist looking at an event that took place more than one hundred years ago called “The Great Literacy Shift”: when over a mere two decades, the vast bulk of media and information exchange migrated from paper to screens. This migration manifested new technologies and other means of social communication, entertainment consumption, and consumerism. Your investigation addresses this question: Based on two artifacts [texts/sources] you have discovered/uncovered from the early 1990s to 2022, what changes have occurred to society and culture as they progressed from the paper age into the digital age? For this project, you will need to analyze various articles to determine what changes took place during the period between the late 20th century and the early 21st century. You will need to read articles representative of each era. You will use evidence gathered from those artifacts to address what changes in technologies led to changes in either social interactions, entertainment, consumerism, or other aspects of culture and society. Developing Work: Your first goal is to find two artifacts, one from each of the time periods, which suit the goals of this assignment. o I suggest you find artifacts that represent the same genre or even the same publication to simplify the analysis. If their content is similar, it is even better (for example, if both artifacts discuss gender issues in movies). o For example, Rolling Stone magazine is still in publication today as it was in 1990 (and long before that). o Newsweek magazine, Cosmopolitan, and even specialized magazines such as PC World or Guitar Player are still published. o (FYI, the archives of these publications as well as a thousand others are all available through ProQuest.) Next, you will need to analyze these artifacts. Some parts to analyze are: o What is the central idea (thesis) of the text? o Who is the intended audience (and what evidence in the text tells you this)? o What are the key parts of the text? o What evidence does the author bring to support their argument? o What motivates the argument in the text? Is there a context for the text? Is there an event or does the time period provide any significance to the argument? You will then want to compare and contrast these artifacts. o What are the examples of how people treated or discussed communication, entertainment, relationships, money, race, and/or gender? o Are there differences between the two time periods? Based on your observations, what led to these differences? o What evidence from each of the artifacts helps you answer these questions? o Remember, these examples will form the basis of the answer to the question. Next, consider cause and effect. o What were the catalysts of change from one era to the next? o What changes influenced society and culture? Sample Framework: A model of the essay may be similar to: Paragraph one: Introduction (thesis) Paragraph two: Analysis of first artifact Paragraph three: Analysis of second artifact Paragraph four: Comparision and contrast Paragraph five: Cause and effect Paragraph six: Conclusion (Final answer to question)
