Anthropological Look at YouTube & Cover of the Rolling Stone

Our first few classes have involved a little time travel to see just how significant were some of the shifts facilitated (or caused) by New Media. We have explored artifacts, (including memes and viral videos,) as a way to see how the elements of remediation, meta-generativity, and agency have shaped our 21st-century media landscape.

Students will complete viewing Michael Wesch's lecture "An Anthropological Look at YouTube" and will post their reflections, reactions, and take-aways.

Additionally, student will explicate an assigned song from a playlist - researching the hisory of the song, examining the lyrics, and deriving an interpretation of how the song speaks about the state (or history) of the Music Industry. Students will post their reflections, along with lyrics, links, or video in their blogs.

(Cheat: I did one of the songs a couple years ago - you can get the idea of what I'm looking for here.)