There is so much ground to cover in understanding the social implications of new media, and so many questions that the scholarly analysis of media can offer to these new phenomena, we can hardly address them all within the course. Your group project will allow you to take responsibility for area of concern from the semester, explore it on your own and as a group in more depth, and then contribute your own argument to the discussion. And, it will let you try on one of these new media forms as a tool for scholarly inquiry, and reflect on its value and implications.

Due February 27: Survey Log onto our Blackboard site within the next two days, go to "Assignments," and take the survey we've posted there. It will ask you to rank your preferences as to the broad topic your group will be assigned to, and the format your project will take. Here are the choices you will find there:

Once you've filled out the survey, we will put you in a group of 4-5 people, assign you to a topic and a format. You should meet as soon as possible, to introduce yourselves and talk about your interests and skills in the assigned area.

During the month of March, you should set up your site, and build it out as a "scholarly resource" for your assigned topic. This is not (yet) about making any particular argument. Instead, think of it as a "literature review," a site of scholarly value for someone who was beginning to study this area themselves. Your site can certainly offer primary examples, i.e. links to examples of new media relevant to your topic. But, its primary focus must be scholarly resources. This means finding theoretical, research-based, or otherwise intellectually insightful contributions to the understanding your topic. I will be posting a few suggested articles in each area to the online syllabus; you should be reading them, and chasing down articles and resources they refer to; in addition, library and online searches of relevant journals and books will give you other suggestions. Some questions you should be asking along the way, as you develop your site: What's relevant to understanding this topic? How should the resources be organized? How is your assigned format best used for this? Be sure to "sign" this, i.e. make clear your names and Cornell affiliation. The version that exists on April 1 will be graded for how thorough and thoughtful a resource you have created. The same grade will go to each member of the group. (20% of your course grade)

Due April 1: Publicity Plan In addition, each group should come up with a plan for how to make your resource something that the public (i.e. beyond our class) will not only find valuable, but can in some way participate in or contribute to. This plan should be written up (1 page maximum) and turned in to us in class. By that point, you may already have some public participation, or the means by which people would may be obvious - this is fine. This assignment is not graded for content, but is required: not doing it will drop your "resource" grade by one step.

Due April 29: Proposal Once your scholarly resource is built, the next step is to decide as a group, within that area, what specific aspect of the topic is worth investigating further and making an argument about. Now you have mapped out the terrain of your question; it is time to take a stand on that terrain. This does not mean explaining the whole phenomenon - this would be way beyond the scope of a course assignment. It means taking a specific observation or tension or unanswered question or emerging phenomenon within that topic, and investigating it. On April 29, your group should turn in a 1-2 page written proposal for the argument you plan to make. Remember, this proposal should be focused, driven by the insights provided by the intellectual resources you collected, and should be of interest to everyone in the group. You will receive feedback from us on this proposal, to help you with direction and scope. This assignment is not graded for content, but is required: not doing it will drop your "argument" grade by one step. Please bring two copies.

Due May 14, 4:30pm: Argument The rest of the assignment is to make your proposed argument. This is much like a final paper: raise the question, build an argument around it using the readings from the course and from your collected resource, come to a conclusion and stand by it. But, it is a group task, so you must make it together, and somehow it should be presented in your online resource, using the format to its best advantage. By the date determined, whatever is posted will be graded, as a group. (20% of your course grade).

You should also have updated the "general resource" aspects of your site, by this deadline.

Due May 14, 4:30pm: Reflection At the same time, each, individual will turn in a 2-3 page reflection paper: In this paper you may reflect on any or all of the following three issues: the argument you made, the format you had to work with, and the process of collaborating with the group. (1) Are there points you wanted to make about the topic or argument that you were unable to include in the group project? (2) How well did the technological format serve you and your group in developing a scholarly resource, in connecting with the broader public, in making and defending an intellectual argument? What were its limitations? How did the particulars of your format shape what you could or could not do, did or did not do? (3) How did the group collabroation process work or not in tacking these issues? (More specific comments or concerns about your group can be addressed in the feedback form.) (10% of your course grade).

You should also turn in the "group feedback form" at the same time as your reflection paper.

Some suggestions:
- get moving on this project early: set up your site right away, contribute to it regularly, talk about its direction often.
- this is a group project, so all the classic pitfalls of group work apply. Be fair in how you all contribute, talk openly about either sharing or dividing the work, address any sense of inequity early. For instance, if you are all looking for academic resources, coordinating your search (you pursue this issue, I'll pursue that, or you look through this journal, I'll look through that one) will help avoid frustrating overlaps.
- this does require some technical skill, which will not be taught in class. So figure out right away who has expertise in setting up and maintaining a site like this, get it set up early in a way that even the unfamiliar can add to it easily, and be fair about the kind of time and effort that will likely fall on the people who know the technology best.