The final project for Introduction to Civic Media is flexible, but is expected to be a significant original work that reflects both your understanding of the topics and texts covered in the course as well as your own ideas. Final projects may be completed individually or in groups, and may take the form of a case study (with a significant written component), an investment of time in civic media practice, with a substantial written reflection on that practice, or a Civic Media demo design accompanied by an analytical paper. Demo design (of games, applications, platforms, tools) may be a core component of the final project, but must also be linked to a written project paper that goes beyond description or documentation to place the demo in (theoretical, historical, and/or comparative) context.
Final projects may be completed individually or in groups, and may take the form of a case study (with a significant written component), an investment of time in civic media practice, with a substantial written reflection on that practice, or a Civic Media demo design accompanied by an analytical paper. Demo design (of games, applications, platforms, tools) may be a core component of the final project, but must also be linked to a written project paper that goes beyond description or documentation to place the demo in (theoretical, historical, and/or comparative) context. Final project summaries and links will be posted to the C4 blog.
A complete final project includes the following:
- A blog post summarizing the project has been published at civic.mit.edu
- Any multimedia elements of the project have been published online and are embedded in or linked from the blog post
- The final version of the project text has been sent to schock AT mit.edu in either an open document format or as a pdf. This should also be uploaded somewhere (to the blog, scribd, book, etc.) and linked from the blog post.
In session 4, project proposals will be due. Come up with 3 short project proposal ideas (one to three sentences each) and add them to. You can also write ‘+1’ or your initials next to proposal ideas that you think are especially interesting and would consider joining for a group project.
During the last class meeting, each student (or project team) will formally present their final project as an IGNITE talk (5 minutes, 20 slides, 15 seconds per slide, automatically advanced. Final projects are due on this date. Late projects will not be considered.
When developing final projects, consider the following theories, frames, platforms, geographic contexts, and uses of Civic Media:
- Theoretical approaches to Civic Media: political economy, public sphere & networked publics, hegemony & resistance, identity formation.
- Theories of social change and uses of civic media (dialogic, contentious, hacktivist.)
- Frames: civic media, citizen journalism, media justice, public media, radical media
- Platforms: print, radio, TV, internet, mobile, games, maps, music, theater, posters & murals, etc… Also consider cross-platform and transmedia approaches.
- Geographic Contexts: hyperlocal & neighborhood news, city, nation state, regional & transnational, global.
Other potential themes:
- Free software / free culture / networked commons
- Additional reports from Knight
- Selections from Center for Media Justice reports
- Selections from Berkman reports
- Selections from New America Foundation reports
- Review IJOC Special Sections
- Collaborative Futures
- Suggestions from Henry
- Dougherty, Audobon. “New Medium, New Practice: Civic Production in Live-Streaming Mobile Video.” (PDF - 1.9MB)
- Center for Civic Media and CMS theses
- Our World, Digitized: Cass Sunstein, Yochai Benkler, and Henry Jenkins
- Youth and Civic Engagement
- [Politics and Popular Culture](https://commforum.mit.edu/politics-and-popular-culture-8848ab9d272b
#abstract) - [Civics and Difficult Places](https://commforum.mit.edu/civics-in-difficult-places-1e1c4a085ff7
#abstract) - Communications in Slow Moving Crisis
- Cunningham, Dayna. “Can African-Americans Find Their Voice in Cyberspace?” [parts 1-4]
- An essay by Joshua McVeigh-Schultz which explores issues of citizen voice and plebiscite entertainment, ending with some ideas for the design of civic media.
- Alexdrina Agloro on the differences that new media made in the Rodney King and Oscar Grant trials.
- Bimber, et al. “Reconceptualizing Collective Action in the Contemporary Media Environment.” (PDF)
- The Organic Internet
Note: below you can find several examples of final projects from last year’s Intro to Civic Media class that received an ‘A’ grade.
- Gabi Schaffzin, “Preoccupied with Occupation: Habermas, Prefigurative Politics, Effective Protest Center.”
- Ania Shapiro, “Digital Discourse and Civic Engagement in Ukraine.”
- Hailey Lee and Mary Kenefake, “Television Newsroom Diversity and Civic Engagement.”
