1) In this assignment, you are to choose a fictional movie
(not a documentary) for a written review. Whereas film critics tend to
review a movie for its entertainment value, your job in this assignment is to
review the sociological content of the film. In your review, you should address
at least several of the following questions:
•What social problem(s) is/are the focus of the
film?
•What social factors are attributed as causing the
problem(s)? What individuals, groups, organizations, institutions are
involved?
•What other social problems are linked with the
particular social problem depicted?
•What are the consequences or effects of this problem/
these problems?
•What values, beliefs, and norms are presented? Who
holds these values/beliefs? How do these values contribute to the problem(s)?
•What solutions are proposed in the movie and by
whom?
•What additional problems do the (proposed) solutions
raise?
•What conclusions can you draw about the problem(s),
based on watching this film?
I expect you to incorporate theories and concepts introduced
in class lectures and/or from your textbook in your analysis of the
movie. Sociological theories may include functionalism, conflict theory,
and/or symbolic interactionism. Political orientations include
conservative, liberal, libertarian, and radical left.
You will probably want to begin organizing your review by
spending a portion of the paper summarizing or laying out the major
plot/premise/ storyline of the movie. Then, move on from there and
address several of the questions I posed above. You can incorporate
the answers to those questions within the body of your work– each question’s
answers do not have to be separate paragraphs per se. It is up to
you how to organize your thoughts/critiques accordingly and that make sense
given the movie you have chosen.
SUGGESTED PAGE LENGTH: 5-7 pages
2) Additionally, you will prepare a SECOND Social Problems
Movie Review that you DID NOT WRITE BUT THAT IS GENERATED BY CHAT-GPT (SEE
BELOW).
SUGGESTED PAGE LENGTH: 5-7 pages
3) Finally, you will then prepare a THIRD short paper that
compares the two versions and critique what artificial intelligence
generated. What were the strengths and weaknesses of the A.I.
generated paper? Of your human-generated paper? What do
you think Chat GPT did well? What were its limitations? In what
ways was your writing/ your review better than Chat GPT’s writing/
review? In what ways was your writing/ review worse? How would you
describe your experience in using this technology to write? What are some
things you would change about Chat GPT from the end user’s experience?
SUGGESTED PAGE LENGTH: 2-3 pages
To Begin Writing with ChatGPT
1) Go to the Chat GPT website: (https://chat.openai.com/auth/login)
2) Create an account (instructions on the website are
clearly stated and straightforward)
3) Once logged in/granted access, begin. Where the
screen says “Send a Message”, type in a prompt to help the Chat GPT program
start to write your movie review. Begin with one prompt and then keep on
refining or adding prompts to your initial prompt.
For example, maybe you start with something like “Write a
movie review of (whatever you have chosen as a movie for this
assignment).”
See what the Chat GPT program comes up with. Once the
initial paper is generated, perhaps refine it further by typing another prompt
in the “Send a Message” box and send it. I will leave it up to you to
develop several more prompts to refine the paper each time.
4) Make sure you keep track of the prompts you type in the
“Send a Message” box. You are required to send me the list IN THE EXACT
ORDER that you typed and sent them to the program to generate the paper.
You will most likely have several additional prompts from your initial prompt.
5) When you are satisfied with the paper that Chat GPT
wrote, save a copy. You will submit that Chat GPT paper along with the
paper YOU wrote for this movie review assignment.
6) You will then prepare and submit a 2-3 page paper in
which you assess the strengths and weaknesses of using Chat GPT to write this
movie review. What do you think Chat GPT did well? What were its
limitations? In what ways was your writing/ your review better than Chat
GPT’s writing/ review? In what ways was your writing/ review worse?
How would you describe your experience in using this technology to write?
What are some things you would change about Chat GPT from the end user’s
experience?
The text book we used throughout class is Macionis,
J. J. (2018). Social problems. New York: Pearson.
