Essay 4

Requirements:

1) Minimum 1000 words.

2) Due date Monday, June 8, 2009 at noon via ilearn.

Prompt:

Choose one of the following three options.

1) Using your knowledge of the semiotics of consumption, gender, and race perform a close reading of a MySpace profile of someone you do not know in the interest of understanding and analyzing how identity is constructed semiotically through social network profiles. Please choose only one of the three critical lenses (consumption, race, and gender) to organize your analysis.

2) Using your knowledge of the semiotics of consumption, gender, and race perform a close reading of one of the following games: Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, or Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories. Choose one of the critical lenses (consumption, race, and gender) and use that lens to guide your analysis of how the game represents that aspect of culture.

3) Profile and analyze a space within the virtual world Second Life (http://www.secondlife.com).

• Download and install Second Life and explore the game. You will probably find completing the tutorial useful. Use the Search button on the bottom bar to find places and events to investigate and then teleport to them.
• Once you have located a space which you find interesting in terms of its representation of gender and sexuality?as well as the gender roles and behaviors of the users?profile and analyze the semiotics of these constructions in regards to traditional notions of gender and sexuality.
• Avoid pure description. Make sure to provide an analysis of the social and cultural implications of the space and how meaning is created visually.
• Keep in mind Helen Kennedy?s article on Lara Croft and how the character could be interpreted many different ways. Does the same apply to your object of study?
• Provide the SLurl to your location by standing in your space, clicking on the map button in the bottom right corner of the screen, and then clicking on the ?Copy SLurl to clipboard? button. Paste that link in your essay. You can also consult this guide to creating a SLurl: Creating a SLurl
• Beware there are many MATURE areas in Second Life.
• There are a great many social spaces such as clubs, bars, and concert halls that cater to a variety of preferences which would serve as fruitful sites of exploration.

Guidelines:

1) Use MLA Format and a clear Works Cited page with the correct citation format.

2) Include the following elements in your essay:

• Offer a theoretical framework for your analysis. At some point in your essay (probably the introduction or second paragraph) you will need to provide a brief but efficient explanation of the theory you?re deploying that relates to the critical lens you have chosen. For example, for the Grand Theft Auto prompt you may use David Leonard?s chapter to orient a reading about how the game represents blackness as criminal or for the MySpace prompt you may use Hine?s ?What?s in a Package? to discuss the commodification and packaging of identity that takes place in social networks.
• A detailed close reading of the profile or game with an attention to all of the various ways meaning is communicated to the user; please pay particular attention to the visual.
• Cite at least two academic sources.
• If you are doing the MySpace assignment provide a link to the NON-PRIVATE profile you are analyzing.
• Include a thesis statement.

3) Turn in a digital version in .rtf or .doc format through iLearn safe assignment before class.

Resources:

1) Academic studies of Social Networking have just begun to take shape. I would recommend looking at the archived work of danah boyd on her website for a large variety of her writing on sites like MySpace and the key concerns involved.

danah boyd's website

2) As of late, there has been an explosion of scholarship on video games. Some good places to start looking for resources would be:

Game Studies journal

Games and Culture journal

The Meaning and Culture of Grand Theft Auto book available through our library and through me (I have a copy).

3) Second Life Help Wiki