Attached is the assignment

Assignment Overview: The purpose of this assignment is to provide students with an opportunity to interact with their colleagues to discuss and provide feedback on the final projects of their peers.    

Requirements: There are two parts to this assignment.  The first is to post your final project PowerPoint into the body of a discussion post, the second part is where you interact with other course participants by filling out a Peer Review form for two different students and inserting the file into a response to their initial post.  See below for further details.

When to Post: Please post your Final Project PowerPoint in the discussion board by Thursday at 11:59pm PST.  You may review other student’s final projects on Friday through Sunday after all initial posts have been made, and your two Peer Review forms are due Sunday at 11:59pm PST. 

Netiquette: Please be respectful to other members of the class. The goal is to have an open discussion without insulting one another; disagreeing is healthy, but please do so in a respectful manner.

1 Final Project Post + 2 Peer Review Forms = 3 posts required to earn maximum points for Week 3 Discussion

Please click the link above entitled Week Four Discussion.

Week 4 Media Analysis Instructions:

Step #1 – Locate the Week 4 Discussion Board and create a new thread.  Attach or insert your final project PowerPoint into the body of the discussion thread with “Your Name Final Project” as the title of the thread. 

Step #2 – Select and review the final project PowerPoints of two other students and fill out a Peer Evaluation Form for each.  Attach your completed Peer Evaluation word document into a response post on the student’s original post.    

COM 100 Peer Evaluation Form x

COM 100 Peer Evaluation Form x – Alternative Formats

COM 100 PEER EVALUATION FORM

Name of Peer:

Name of Reviewer:

Use this peer review evaluation form to provide feedback for two peer presentations for the Final Project. Do not just write “yes” or “no” to the guiding questions under each prompt. Instead, offer substantive feedback that will prove beneficial for the writer.

Please choose presentations that have not been reviewed yet, or have fewer reviews than others. Provide feedback in a reply post to the corresponding peer and attach the filled-out peer review form.

For your evaluation, please consider the following critical elements and write your comments in the space provided below:

· The effectiveness of the design:

· Is your peer’s presentation visually appealing?

· What did you like about their presentation?

· What did you learn from their presentation?

· What would you suggest for improvements to the design?

Comments:

· Strength and clarity of the ways in which the specific media reflects and/or impacts culture.

· Does the presentation clearly communicate the ways in which the media reflects and impacts culture? If not, suggest ways for improvement.

· Do the supporting quotes back up the major points being made?

· Does the content in the presentation consistently refer back to this central subject, or does the writer stray off-topic?

Comments:

· Strength of support from resources and visual elements.

· Comment on how effectively or ineffectively the visual aspects (graphs, charts, images, etc.) illustrate the point being made. Do the visuals add or detract from the reader’s overall understanding of the information?

Comments:

· Integration of appropriate terms and concepts

· Does the presentation appropriately incorporate concepts from the course?

· Can you think of any other course concepts that should be included in the presentation?

Comments:

· Reflection

· Can you think of any other ways in which the chosen media impacts or reflects culture?

· After having seen your peer’s work, what could you have done better in your own presentation?

· How does peer review strengthen your own learning?

Comments:

Presented By:
Amanda Overbay
COM100-Jan 2020
Final Project

We’ve all seen people at restaurants taking photos of the food that just arrived at their table. And odds are, we have all taken a selfie before. And what do we do with these photos? We post them on social media. And because they are photos and we don’t need to be wordy about it, we post them to Instagram.
1

The media channel I chose is Instagram, in the New Media category.
This presentation will explore how Instagram reflects culture through fashion, impacts culture through diverse representations of beauty, and has created its own culture through “instagramization” of the world.
Specific Media: Instagram

I chose Instagram because I used to love it. It was easier than writing a blog, quicker than a Facebook post, and I could be less witty than writing a Tweet. I only use it now to post things to keep my extended family up to date with my goings on because I just am not a fan of how people only show their best lives, or post to get attention because of their struggles. When I post, I don’t scroll. I just post and hop off. I like the idea of Instagram, but in practice it just doesn’t match who I am.
2

Instagram reflects culture by making all aspects of the fashion industry more visible.
 “[Instagram] allows people to raise awareness,” Chen told Vogue, whether that’s acknowledging an act of plagiarism that would have otherwise gone unnoticed, or highlighting the injustices present in the industry.”

Main Point #1
https://www.vogue.co.uk/article/how-instagram-is-changing-fashion-eva-chen-interview

Instagram has led to an interesting change in the fashion industry. No longer are the fashion weeks kept behind closed doors; now, if there is one influencer in the audience, the show can be seen by thousands or millions of people either by being live streamed or within seconds by being uploaded to Instagram.
3

“Instagram Stories provides that real-time close up that you might only otherwise get as an industry insider”
Read more: https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelarthur/2017/09/16/how-brands-used-instagram-stories-during-new-york-fashion-week/#
68e808202637

Support of Main Point #1
“Instagram played a role in initiating real change, with conglomerates such as LVMH and Kering signing a charter to safeguard models from abuse and create better standards for shoots and shows.”
Read more: https://
i-d.vice.com/en_us/article/bj9nkz/how-instagram-transformed-the- fashion-industry

Instagram has made the entire fashion industry more transparent. It allows regular people to see what happens backstage through Instagram Stories and helps bring to light abuses of power through the use of hashtags. When a former model gathered abuse stories from other models and published them with the hashtag #MyJobShouldNotIncludeAbuse, it inspired change within the fashion industry. While this change shows a way that Instagram has effected the culture of fashion, the change would not have happened without the transparency that Instagram has allowed.
4

Instagram has influenced culture by exposing the world to diverse representations of beauty.

Main Point 2

Before Instagram, the general public had only a few places they might hope to see a non model body shape in any kind of advertising. Now, with regular people having hundreds of followers, and influencers having maybe millions of followers, the likelihood of seeing any kind of body, hair, or skin color in any kind of ad is a lot more likely.
5

“Instagram has seen a shift in the type of content users are publishing, favouring ‘realness’ over ‘flawlessness’.”
Read more: https://www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/fashion/style/a29145591/instagram-fashion-diversity/
Support of Main Point #2

Fall 2019 Runway Diversity Report: Racial and Age Diversity Step Forward, Size and Gender Inclusivity Step Back

Instagram has helped redefine how people see beauty. Being inundated with unretouched photos of people who are of all different shapes, sizes, and ethnicities has shown the fashion industry that the public is ready to see “real” people on the runways and in advertising. What’s even better, is the fashion industry is listening and becoming more diverse. You can see in the graph here the stready increase of the percentage of models of color from Spring 2015 to Fall 2019 in the fashion weeks in New York, London, Milan, and Paris combined. Now people from all backgrounds, with all kinds of abilities are being shown as not only beautiful, but fully capable.
6

Instagram has created its own culture by “Instagramization” of the world.
Main Point #3

Instagramization is the strategic use of color and texture to enhance a photos likeability. It’s the exploitation of graffiti art to get people into an unknown town, so that town can become more well known. It’s the entire world-restaurants, cities, muesums-becoming more photo friendly so they can be seen and liked on social media. I like this cartoon because it shows exactly what I would do if I had a lemonade stand. People don’t necessarily care about the product itself, but being able to share the experience with others via social media is what makes the stand attractive.
7

“For things to sell these days, it has to be Instagrammable,” a Los Angeles restauranteur told the website Thrillist.”
Read more: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/how-instagram-changing-way-we-design-cultural-spaces-180967071/
Support of Main Point #3
“Club Med designers and architects are urged to design holiday resorts that are not necessarily beautiful or pleasant, but “instagramable” because today customers prefer places they can share on the social network”
Read more: https://medium.com/@paulvacca_58958/the-instagramization-of-the-world-34048a258611

Chefs have always tried to make their food visually appealing, but now they are having to step up their game to get noticed. The rainbow everything, the bacon wrapped anything, the stunning table set up. It’s all to get noticed by the people constantly taking photos of their food and posting it to social media sites and apps, like Instagram.
Museums, cities, and even hotels have all bought into Instagramization by making sure that there are photo ops everywhere. They advertise by telling consumers what great pics they will get, they ensure their restaurants and views are Insta-worthy. The entire world has become photograph-able, hashtag-able, and ready for social media.
8

This presentation explored how Instagram reflects culture through fashion, impacts culture through diverse representations of beauty, and has created its own culture through “instagramization” of the world.
If I were to research this subject further, I would look at whether or not Instagram has an effect on mental health. Depression, anxiety, and eating disorders have all blamed social media and I would like to see how those statistics look.
Conclusion

On the Origin of Species/The Descent of Man
By Charles Darwin

Com 100 Final Project

Presented by: Kevin Mello

Specific Media – On the Origin of Species/The Descent of Man
Category: Print
Channel: Books

This presentation will explore the ways that Darwin’s books impacted culture in regards to racism as well as presenting a scientific foundation for ethics.

I figured that we have seen enough powerpoint presentations on the impact of new technologies on our culture. I wanted to go a little old school while still maintaing significance.

Anti-Racism
Darwin presented the idea of one human race

Branching Evolution = Common Descent
“As natural selection acts by competition, it adapts the inhabitants of each country only in relation to the degree of perfection of their associates; so that we need feel no surprise at the inhabitants of any one country…”― Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species
We are all of the same race, Homo Sapien. http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-fossils/species/homo-sapiens

Darwin’s theory of branching evolution implies that all species of living things on earth have evolved from a single unique oranism. This would mean that all humans, no matter which race, have common ancestory. Genetics, a later form of biology, has now confirmed that race is nothing more than a social construct.

Pro-Racism
Some used Darwin’s theories to promote racism.

Unfortunately, some people misinterpreted Darwin’s theories or misapplied Darwin’s language in order to advance their own agendas.

Misapplying the Language of Evolution = Racism
Social Darwinism
Eugenics
Even Hitler’s Nazi party drew some inspiration from Darwin’s theories. https://www.csustan.edu/sites/default/files/History/Faculty/Weikart/Darwinism-in-Nazi-Racial-Thought
Herbert Spencer
“This survival of the fittest, which I have here sought to express in mechanical terms, is that which Mr. Darwin has called ‘natural selection’, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life.” -Herbert Spencer

Misapplication of Darwin’s thoughts and ideas began political and social groups that believed in one groups superiority over others like Social Darwinism, Eugenics, and even the Nazi party. People like Herbert Spencer were able to take the language of evolution from Darwin’s theories and apply them to politics, economics, and society in general. A small example of this is the supplied quote from Herbert Spencer himself. Spencer is actually the one who coined the phrase “survival of the fittest,” not Darwin. Unfortunately, ideas of Social Darwinism prevaded many aspects of American society during the late 19th to early 20th centuries, including policies that affected immigration, imperialism, and public health. Some of these policies remained in our society until the 1970’s!

Ethics Biologicized
Darwin created a scientific foundation for ethics by exploring morality from an evolutionary standpoint.

Altruism in Social Animals (Humans)
Darwin’s follow-up book, “The Descent of Man” dedicated large sections to evolutionary explanations for the moral sense found in humans. https://www.iep.utm.edu/evol-eth/
“any animal whatever， endowed with well-marked social instincts, the parental and filial affections being here included, would inevitably acquire a moral sense or conscience, as soon as its intellectual powers had become as well, or nearly as well developed, as in man.”-Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man
Read More of Darwin on the Evolution of Morality at: https://repository.kulib.kyoto-u.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/2433/73086/1/KJ00000077867

Darwin connects morality with natural selection by explaining that the survival and prosperity of a social group depends to a large extent on the harmonious cooperation of the members of the group, and this behavior must be based on altruism. Such altruism, by furthering the survival and prosperity of the group, also indirectly benefits the fitness of the group’s individuals. The result amounts to selection favoring altruistic behavior.

Conclusion
This presentation should have addressed the ways in which Darwin’s 1-2 punch of On the Origin of Species and The Descent of Man impacted culture by influencing racism and establishing a scientific foundation for ethics.
I would like to research in which ways Darwin’s theories impacted religion during his era and during ours.

Hopefully this has given you some idea of the huge impact that Darwin had on our culture. Not bad for a couple of books that were published almost 150 years ago!

COM 100 PEER EVALUATION FORM

Name of Peer: Shaun Ranney

Name of Reviewer: Julienne Mata

Use this peer review evaluation form to provide feedback for two peer presentations for the Final Project. Do not just write “yes” or “no” to the guiding questions under each prompt. Instead, offer substantive feedback that will prove beneficial for the writer.

Please choose presentations that have not been reviewed yet, or have fewer reviews than others. Provide feedback in a reply post to the corresponding peer and attach the filled-out peer review form.

For your evaluation, please consider the following critical elements and write your comments in the space provided below:

· The effectiveness of the design:

· Is your peer’s presentation visually appealing?

· What did you like about their presentation?

· What did you learn from their presentation?

· What would you suggest for improvements to the design?

Comments:

Shaun’s presentation was visually appealing. I like the color combination/color scheme that he chose because it was the same to that of Facebook. I think the pictures he chose helped to support the major points he was making, especially the one used in support of his third major point. I learned more about Facebook addiction – I have heard of it vaguely, but never knew the extent of it. Design-wise, I wouldn’t suggest anything than wasn’t already done because it is visually appealing and the pictures used helped illustrate the points being made.

· Strength and clarity of the ways in which the specific media reflects and/or impacts culture.

· Does the presentation clearly communicate the ways in which the media reflects and impacts culture? If not, suggest ways for improvement.

· Do the supporting quotes back up the major points being made?

· Does the content in the presentation consistently refer back to this central subject, or does the writer stray off-topic?

Comments:

I think that Shaun does a great job of exploring the way that Facebook reflects culture in the points that he makes. His supporting quotes do back up the major points he states. I especially like how he used an infographic for the support of his third major point, since it adds some multi-modality to the presentation.

· Strength of support from resources and visual elements.

· Comment on how effectively or ineffectively the visual aspects (graphs, charts, images, etc.) illustrate the point being made. Do the visuals add or detract from the reader’s overall understanding of the information?

Comments:

Overall, Shaun did a great job of choosing visual aspects that effectively illustrate his three major points.

· Integration of appropriate terms and concepts

· Does the presentation appropriately incorporate concepts from the course?

· Can you think of any other course concepts that should be included in the presentation?

Comments:

The presentation is linked to how Facebook reflects the culture, behaviors, and values of the Internet generation, changed the way we stay in contact with our friends and family, and the creation of a culture of “Facebook addicts.” The course did explore the way Facebook interacts with culture, especially in Chapter 10 (“The Internet and Social Media”) in the book.

· Reflection

· Can you think of any other ways in which the chosen media impacts or reflects culture?

· After having seen your peer’s work, what could you have done better in your own presentation?

· How does peer review strengthen your own learning?

Comments:

I think some other ways that Facebook impacts culture is the way that the platform has affected its users psychologically, so I’m glad that Shaun mentioned it is something he would research further if he had the chance. After seeing his work, I think I could’ve probably used more quotes to put in my support slides. I think peer review strengthens your own learning because it helps you look at things from a different perspective, and from an outlook that otherwise not have had, or thought about.