You are to briefly (4 hours is a good rule of thumb) embed yourself in a social location that
allows you to hear a conversation that explicitly challenges a strongly held belief or position,
and that you would not otherwise hear (you need to be largely unfamiliar with the opposing
space). Even if you choose a live option (like tuning into a TV show every day for a week), in
almost all cases what you hear will run contrary to some or all of your related beliefs.
The paper should have an introduction that touches on your strongly held belief, and goes
discussing/laying out why embedding yourself in this particular location will give you insight
that you previously had not had. Although many critiques will come out of this assignment, you
should also touch on what you genuinely think you will be able to learn from hearing these
conversations. You should have at least two body paragraphs that summarize what was in the
source(s) you used accompanied by an analysis of the source, the likely (or known) audience,
how and what material was presented, how said audience is likely to receive the material you
listened to/watched. A third body paragraph should offer your thoughts on the conversation(s)
(even a host talking to an audience is a kind of convo) you heard, and if/how helps you better
understand opposition to your initial belief. Here is where you can offer most of your critiques/
agreements and any other major takeaways.
Conclude by summarizing your entire paper.
Examples:
For instance, a liberal student could listen to a conservative radio show by a host like Chris
Plante or Rush Limbaugh.
A conservative student could listen to a liberal host like Sam Seder or The Young Turks.
A student that holds climate change as deeply important could listen to climate deniers.
Someone who favors a more unequally structured economy could listen to economists like
Richard Wolff who advocate for a more equal structure.
There are many other less inherently political ways to position yourself to hear conversations
you wouldn’t normally be privy to.
You should have 4 sources, 1-2 primary sources you use (at least 3 hours of media time), plus 2
others (a source that allows you to assess the veracity of some of the claims you encounter, and
one that help contextualize the source and the issue that you are using).
Papers should be 6 to 8 pages double spaced.
