Yousman, Gender, Race, and Class in Media 6e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
Course Projects
Part VIII: Social Media, Virtual Community, Fandom, and Activism
1. 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
2. Poster Presentations: In this assignment, students present final research papers via
a poster presentation to the class. Explain that a poster presentation advertises the
research by combining text and graphics to make a visually pleasing presentation.
3. Writing Exam Questions and Answers: This assignment serves as a synthesis of
course material and as a review/study strategy for the final exam.
Instruct students to write any combination of exam questions with answers. The
material/content for questions and answers can be from the text, lectures, PowerPoint
presentations, and films shown in class. The instructor can provide a study guide of
relevant concepts.
Yousman, Gender, Race, and Class in Media 6e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
4. Course Evaluation: This assignment serves as an evaluation of the course and a
method of providing the instructor with ways to improve the subject matter.
Instruct students to give an overview of the course. What chapters should continue to
be covered for the next term, what should be eliminated, and what should have been
included? What could make this course better for the next set of students?
5. Revisiting the “Classics”: This project calls on students to revisit films that have
achieved “cult” or “classic” status and discuss whether or not they could be made (or
even should be appreciated) in a post – #metoo era. Films that could be discussed
include Revenge of the Nerds, Animal House, American Pie, Twilight, Love Actually,
Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Weird Science,
and many others. There are several ways to complete this project. One way could be to
break the students into groups and have them each discuss one film; looking at aspects
6. Infographic: In this project students collaboratively create an infographic that shows
positive representations of trans people in film and tv (e.g., Laverne Cox in Orange is
the New Black) and negative representations (Nip/Tuck, CSI, etc.). The whole point of
7. Hashtag Activism: This project can be done over a couple of class periods. First,
break students into 3–4 groups. Then, assign each group of students a social media
platform—Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest. Then have the students
do a search of the hashtags mentioned in the Pennington piece: #MuslimWomensDay,
#SupportJada, #BlackLivesMatter. Students should present their material in a visual
essay/PowerPoint presentation with screenshots and should come to class ready to
Yousman, Gender, Race, and Class in Media 6e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
8. Digital Posters: This project calls for students to create a “digital poster”: a still
image or motion graphic that conveys information to an audience on a big screen
(widescreen television or screen). These posters are very popular at many
undergraduate research conferences and the project can be assigned in concert with a
college’s undergraduate research conference or other related research event. Ask the
students to do research into the It Gets Better Project and Todo Mejora México