Research Essay on Children and Media.

Your 10– to 15–page essay (double-spaced) must be developed based on a topic chosen from the list provided below. The essay must be developed using a combination of course materials and readings and secondary research. At least 60% of the sources you use for the essay must be taken from the course readings; up to 40% of the sources can come from your own research.

The essay must address one or more questions raised in the course. Given that the field of children and media is very broad, this requirement reduces the possible scope, which should make it easier for you to narrow down your topic. Please finalize a topic with your tutor after you have completed Unit 8. It is recommended that you submit the essay at least two weeks before the end of your course contract.

Please use either MLA Style or APA Style to cite your sources and to draft a Works Cited (MLA) or a References page (APA). Ten per cent (10%) of your mark for this assignment is awarded for properly citing your sources in the text and in the Works Cited/References page. You can find academic writing resources and citation information at Athabasca University’s Write Site. The Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) also offers excellent, easy-to-use information on both MLA and APA Styles.

Essay Topics

Your essay should address one or a combination of the following areas. Alternatively, you can work out a topic with your tutor.

Note: Your tutor will only accept an original essay topic that the two of you have discussed beforehand.

1. Use narrative theory to describe or explain some aspect(s) of narrative in one or more texts written or produced for/by children. This essay affords you a great opportunity to compare narratives written for/by children of a certain age, or ages. Alternatively, you could compare or contrast narratives written for different technological formats or examine how a single narrative can change when translated to other formats.

2. In this option, the essay can be framed as a proposal.

3. Using a framework for narrative competence for children from pre-school to the age of thirteen, outline and describe a library-, school-, or home-reading program intended take place over a set period of time (at least three months). The program must contain texts that both match children’s reading interests and abilities and challenge them. Explain why you have chosen each text and what results you hope to achieve through the program.

3. Using the eighteenth century and the twentieth or twenty-first centuries as points of comparison, discuss some aspect of the interplay between social change, definitions of childhood, and narrative.

4. Literacy is a theoretical concept that was first formulated with respect to print culture, particularly the ability to read. Having now studied the different competencies required for “literacy” across a variety of technologies, this topic offers an opportunity to summarize your learning and add to it through further research. Choose two or three technologies to compare or contrast. What has changed? What stayed the same? What do we think we know? What questions remain unanswered?

5. Genre is a large factor in any study of storytelling. Each genre—whether chapter books, information books, series books, or digital stories—requires certain competencies from its readers. After performing a close reading of two or three books of a particular genre, indicate the skills that readers would need to bring to understand that genre, and describe which skills would be developed through reading it.

6. Employing methodologies and readings that you have encountered in this course with respect to analyzing the relationship between narrative and visual imagery, prepare an essay indicating why you would or would not recommend five or six specific texts for the curriculum of a certain school grade (you choose and identify the age of the children).

7. This option allows you to compose an essay that analyzes some aspect of narrative in film and television. This analysis can take you in many directions. You can look at repertoire, address, modality, intertextuality, focalization, camera techniques, cultural difference, etc. You might compare different television shows/films aimed at the same age or gender, versions of the same show/film produced in both the UK and the USA, versions of the same show/ film produced in different eras, or the same narrative delivered through different technological formats (etc.). You might focus on how successful the show or film has been with its intent to entertain, to educate, or to inform. Alternatively, you might examine how one show/film has influenced others over time. Choose a specific aspect of narrative in film and/or television for your essay.

8. The study of narrative in video games presents an especially interesting field for discovery. Have a good look at the literature on what happens to narrative in video games. What should we ask ourselves about the ways in which video games are changing (or may change) narrative? You may wish to refer to a specific game or game type to illustrate your argument, but you must ensure that your tutor has access to the game.

NOTE: Generic essays on “Violence in Video Games” or “Sex Role Stereotyping in Video Games” will not be accepted, as these areas have been covered thoroughly by students before you. Be original. Take this general topic and apply it specifically to a narrative text or an aspect of narrative that has not yet been studied or thoroughly analyzed. For example, consider the questions raised about narrative in video games in the course readings. Do any of these questions or issues interest you?

9. Any study of children and narrative is inevitably implicated in the material culture of childhood. Several obvious choices include Disney, Barbie, Peter Rabbit, etc. Describe and explain what you see happening to a particular narrative (and its readers) as it becomes part of the fabric of material culture. If you choose a popular narrative (i.e., a Disney narrative), make an effort to develop a NEW take on an old theme. Alternatively, take a narrative not discussed in this course and use a theory or methodology you have encountered in the course to describe and explain the progression of the narrative as it has become part of material culture.