Yousman, Gender, Race, and Class in Media 6e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
Course Projects
Part VII: Still Watching Television in the Digital Age
1. Creative Projects: This assignment asks students to illustrate 12–15 claims/facts
from class material through a creative project. It builds on and applies the assignment
“Identifying Claim/Facts” from Part I.
Ask students to design an original creative project such as a game(s), drawing(s),
sculpture(s), collage, songs(s), photograph(s), cartoon(s), dance, film, computer games,
2. Media Journal: In this assignment, students keep a journal in which they (1)
document all media use/consumption (TV, film, video games, social media, use of their
3. In-Class Essay of Synthesis and Reflection: This is an opportunity for students to
reflect upon the material from the course and write about it in relation to their individual
gender identity. Suggested possible prompts are:
• How does your gender, race, class identity impact/relate to a particular social role you
occupy (parent, employee, member of a religious group, profession, etc.)?
• Describe the impact of media/toys from your youth on you today. After all these years,
what has left an impact, how?
• Research continuously asserts that gender is best conceptualized along a continuum
versus a binary, yet we continue to see the binary reinforced in numerous contexts. How
do you make sense of this?
• Imagine if you could become another gender, race, and class for a week . . . would you
want to? What would you want to do? Why?
• What do you think might be the advantages and disadvantages of being another gender,
race, and class?
• What material from this course has made an impact? What lessons will you take away at
the end of the term?
Yousman, Gender, Race, and Class in Media 6e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
4. Creating Prezi/PowerPoint Presentations: Students create research-based
presentations using either Prezi or PowerPoint around the suggested topics below. The
associated readings from the text are designed to get students started on the topic.
From there, they will need to gather more scholarly and popular press research to build
the content of their presentations. The topics are fairly broad, so students can narrow
the focus as they deem relevant and interesting. Place students in five groups and
assign topics/readings. Presentations should be between 10 and 20 min and the
5. Comparing International Reality Wedding TV Shows: Have students research
wedding reality shows in the United States, South Africa, and other countries. Examples
6. Exposing Students to Trans Cinema: This project calls on students to choose a
film about the trans community and write a short reflection paper. The film can be a
narrative text such as Boys Don’t Cry, The Danish Girl, Tangerine, or Dallas Buyers