multimedia technology

The essay will analyze the effect that television and other forms of multimedia technology have had on the delivery of news.

Writing Assignment #2: Synthesis Essay

Writing Assignment #2 will be a synthesis essay.

Approach and Requirements

Your essay should synthesize the information provided in at least three articles. The essay will analyze the effect that television and other forms of multimedia technology have had on the delivery of news.

In this essay, you will use three sources:

You must use the following two sources:

· Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death

· Matt Quayle’s article, “The Method of the Medium is the Motio”

This article is available in the reserved readings section of our class.

In addition, you must use at least one of the following sources:

· Mark Kelley, “An Apology to the 4G Generation,” available at http://bangordailynews.com/2012/05/13/opinion/an-apology-to-the-4g-generation/

· “The Media and the Middle East,” available at

http://www.teachmideast.org/essays/26-stereotypes/49-the-media-and-the-middle-east

· Paul Grabowicz, “The Transition to Digital Storytelling,” available at http://multimedia.journalism.berkeley.edu/tutorials/digital-transform/multimedia-storytelling/

Overall, you will integrate at least three sources into your essay. You may integrate four or all five of the above sources if you would like to. But you must use Postman, Quayle, and at least one other sourcelisted above.

Postman takes a particular view on television’s impact on journalism. Quayle agrees on some points with Postman but disagrees on others. Kelley writes rather informally about the effects of current technology on attention span in taking in news. “The Media and the Middle East” discusses issues related to the attention span of consumers of news. Grabowicz writes about new forms of journalism and storytelling that are taking shape in journalism.

Your essay should have the following:

· an introductory paragraph with a thesis statement.

(WH offers a section called “Drafting an Introduction with Thesis” that will help you understand how to construct a solid introduction and develop a sound thesis statement.)

Your thesis sentence should mention your three sources and the main similarity/differences among them. Remember that this is essentially a compare/contrast essay. You are comparing and contrasting points of view andor ideas among the three pieces.’

· body paragraphs that offer evidence to support your thesis and synthesizes your source material

(WH sections on “Drafting the body” and “Synthesizing source material” will help you develop this section of your essay.)

Each paragraph should begin with a topic sentence that contains two elements:

1. A reference back to the topic of the previous paragraph (Like Postman, Kelley also believes that television has a bad influence on our minds…)

2. The main point of the new paragraph (…but he differs from Postman in his believ that television can be improved.)

Be sure to include examples from the texts in your compare/contrast

· a solid conclusion that reminds readers of your main idea (or thesis) without simply repeating it

(WH offers a section called “Drafting a conclusion” that will offer you guidance as you develop this part of your essay

Be sure to use APA citation style in your essay. Essentially this means that after each mention of an author’s name you put the publication year in parentheses. The page number you got the quotation or the paraphrased idea from goes in parentheses at the end of the sentence (p.23). Include a “References” page in APA style as well.

Length: 1000-1200 words