PLEASE FOLLOW THE ATTACHED FILE BELOW ALSO PROVIDE ME THE PLAGIARISM

Sociology 1000, Fall 2022

Media Assignment and Third Annual Meme Competition

This brief assignment (worth 5%) will probably take about an hour to complete.

Think about what you have learned from Sociology in recent months and apply that knowledge through the creation of a meme. The possibilities are pretty much endless as long as you apply sociological thinking. You might want to reflect upon online learning, COVID restrictions, loneliness and isolation, global conflicts, or perhaps a newfound appreciation for the outdoors and nature, feelings of hopefulness for the future, a sense of gratitude for what is great about your life, or whatever else comes to mind. Make it moving, make it funny, make it edgy … whatever you do, just make it sociological.

The main parameter is that the meme should be an original creation. i.e. DON’T STEAL IT FROM THE INTERNET; years of experience make those sorts of things easy for me to spot, and it always results in a mark of 0. You might choose images that are found in other memes, but the caption and message should be original. Please be reminded that your assignment is completed independently of anyone else, and there is no group option.

Ideally, in order to ensure academic honesty the content should be as specific to our course content as possible. Focusing on course material will help to ensure that your creation is original. Here are some suggested steps to follow.

1. Go to a website such as Meme Generator https://imgflip.com/memegenerator and either select one of their images or upload a personal image of your own. This website allows you to create images that are downloadable directly to your own device rather than becoming publicly available. Make sure to check the box “private” in order to download straight to your device rather than house it on their website. If you have another preferred website or software program capable of creating a meme, please by all means do so. Just make sure to read the fine print in terms of what the company does with your images.

2. Add a caption to your image to create your meme. The image itself might be one of the popular ones, which is perfectly fine. Your originality will show in the caption that you give it.

3. Copy and paste your meme into a Word document.

4. While the sociological relevance of your meme might be reasonably self-evident, expand on things a bit in the Word document by providing a short paragraph that further explains things. Why did you create the meme? How does it illustrate a specific concept, or theory? It might stem from struggles with the pandemic, stress about upcoming exams, dreams for your future career, a favourite hobby of yours, or interest in a particular social issue, for example. Your name should be provided at the top of the document. (Tip: A couple of sentences aren’t usually sufficient, so make sure to provide enough detail to show that you spent time on it.)

5. Upload your file into the Assignment folder.

Here’s my example:

PLEASE FOLLOW THE ATTACHED FILE BELOW ALSO PROVIDE ME THE PLAGIARISM 1

This meme took me less than a minute to create. In my explanatory paragraph, I would comment on the fact that my inspiration comes in part from my own questioning about the state of Sociology. At times I have wondered if our field has lost its way, that our priorities should be reset and the spirit of healthy debate restored. Therefore, much of the material in this course has constituted my attempt to prove the meme wrong. E.g. I point out the fact that Sociology is particularly well suited to understanding crime and deviance, and has successfully reduced youth alcohol and drug use. The sky is the limit here, so this is just an example of the direction one could take.

Marking criteria: Marks will be based on creativity, the sociological nature of your image, and the quality of your explanation as to why you selected your image and why it is sociological.

Optional Competition Entry

I’m all for a little competition to keep our spirits up. There will be a separate folder for students who want their meme to be entered into our competition, so please submit your meme (just the image and not the write-up) to the contest folder if you want to enter it. In previous years, students have had a lot of fun viewing the entries and voting for their favourite. My plan is to do the same this year if we get enough entries. The course TAs and I will create a shortlist if needed. Winners will receive a $5 Starbucks gift card. We won’t reveal your name to fellow students during the entire process, unless you ask us to do so.

ALTERNATE ASSIGNMENT FORMAT

A few students have expressed an interest in creating a TikTok style video instead of a meme. You are very welcome to do so; just bear in mind that this is new territory for me and I need to be a bit more specific on parameters to ensure that it meets the assignment’s objectives as well as academic honesty rules. The goal is the same as the meme assignment, but you would not need to do Steps 1-3, and Step 4 would be different. Here are a few specifications.

(1) The video should normally be between 10-60 seconds in length. I don’t care whether you create it via TikTok or another way, as long as the video file is viewable through UMLearn’s assignment folder (i.e. I should be able to open/click on it and view it.) There is a “Record video” function in the assignment submission folder on UMLearn, which you can also try if you prefer (although I am not very familiar with it.)

(2) In order to ensure that it isn’t copied from existing TikTok (or similar) videos, the content should be as specific to our course content as possible. If you are visible in the video, that will help satisfy this requirement. Other than that, use your best judgment about how to get your message across (visuals, music, captions, narration, etc.)

(3) Additionally, in a Word document, provide an accompanying paragraph just like step (4) of the meme assignment. UMLearn will be set up so that you can submit two separate files.

(4) You can do this alternate assignment alone, or as a group of up to 4 people. If as a group, we need to have proof that everyone contributed, so in that case, every member should be visible in the video. Everyone will receive the same mark. To receive credit, each member should submit the same video and Word document, and they should be the exact same files including everyone’s name in the Word file. That way all of you can be marked at the same time.

(5) Feel free to submit your video to the contest! It can go in the same contest folder as the meme entries.