Overview
Assignment #4: Conclude What Could Make Democracy Better? Three-part Assignment. Textbooks in Course Resources.
This is an opportunity in this signature assignment to focus on the last and most important level of Zizi Papacharissi’s methodology, “what could make democracy better” (2021, p. 7), and personalize your approach. Read the last two chapters in Papacharissi (4 Toward the New & 5 Before Democracy ) and the last chapter in Higdon & Huff textbook (2019) – (5) Make America Think Again. Then you can distill your own ideas and resources into the mix. This assignment requires APA style with in-text citations and references listed in this signature six-page paper (title and reference page not included in total). The reference page should be at the end and not in each section, and in-text citations are required throughout to strengthen credibility.
Part I. Imagining New Solutions to Strengthen Democracy
Papacharissi in Chapters 4 & 5 discusses ways in which to move democracy forward. Find at least five key elements that resonate with you and why. Did you agree or disagree with her overall approaches? This section requires thoughtfulness and needs to be distilled from her work with in-text citations, and your distinctive slant on the themes. What other solutions do you envision that could be helpful in strengthening democracy? Two pages for this section.
Part II. Analyzing Ways to Create Less Polarization
After reviewing Chapter 5, Make America Think Again in Higdon & Huff, review and describe three approaches that you think should be adopted in the US to improve democracy, and media, and create less polarization. Speculate on whether some of the other suggestions are useful, and add some of your own ideas. Provide in-text citations and integrate course materials and outside resources to strengthen your positions. Two pages for this section.
Part III. Participating in Civic Engagement
Identify multiple ways in which you can be an agent of change when it comes to civic engagement on either a local, national, or international level. We often do not get to consider how we can make a difference in our community. This is your chance to take inventory of your skills and convictions and to imagine how they can best serve others when it comes to civic engagement. Be sure to take into account the diversity of interests and perspectives in your community. What kind of alterations would this require in your personal life to make this happen? Two pages for this section but depth is important with real approaches and examples of how you can realistically be more participatory. ● After Democracy: Imagining Our Political Future
Papacharissi, Z. (2021). After Democracy: Imagining Our Political Future. Yale University Press, New Haven & London.
Higdon, N. & Huff, M. (2019). United States of Distraction: Media Manipulation in Post-Truth America (And What We Can Do About It). Open Media Series, San Francisco.
100 points and worth 17.5% Check out embedded rubric.