Purpose & Context
Documentaries are often a great way to get an overview of a topic or aspect of a topic. Currently, documentaries are widely available and even the streaming platforms produce excellent documentaries based on recent scholarship and research. It’s also super easy to end up watching a fake news documentary though. So in this assignment, you’ll get to practice your research, evaluation, and writing skills.
Reminder: these short writing assignments should be approached as if you are writing a little part of your essay. It’s okay if your ideas change, but stay writing on the same topic as much as possible so that you can copy/paste parts of it as you start writing the draft of your term paper for this quarter.
We’ll focus on these course outcomes:
Locate, read and assess reliable academic sources.
Integrate sources into own writing appropriately using paraphrase, summary, quotation and quantitative data.
Cite sources correctly using discipline-appropriate citation styles both in the written text and in source pages.
Task
For this discussion post, you’ll research documentaries related to your topic. Then you will post in the discussion a short explanation of the documentary’s credibility and a paragraph where you make a point about your research paper topic that integrates quotes from the documentary. Since successful academic writing is based on valid arguments, try to write in a way that would be persuasive to an academic audience.
Guidelines & Requirements
Type your assignment directly in the discussion or attach an MLA formatted document
Cite quotes using MLA parenthetical citation and including a Works Cited page with entries in MLA format
Titles of documentaries are emphasized with italics and title capitalization
The parenthetical citation should include the documentary title and time stamp
Your post should follow the provided outline
Evaluation: 2-3 sentences analyzing the bias and ethos of the documentary
Paragraph: One paragraph that makes a point (your own idea) and integrates quotes from the documentary
Word Count: Your completed assignment can be 250-500 words
Outline of the Post
Evaluation
Write 2 – 3 sentences where you explain the biases and credibility of the source.
Paragraph
Explain your focused idea/opinion
Give context and introduce the documentary
Include a quote from the documentary with parenthetical citation
Analysis that makes the quote relevant, shows how it proves the point, your responses to the quote
Quote+Analysis is sometimes called a quote sandwich, you might have 1-3 of these in the paragraph
End with a concluding sentence that could bring up a related point (next paragraph)
******THIS WAS THE EXAMPLE GIVEN**********
Example
Evaluation
I picked the documentary Opiods, Inc. which aired on the Frontline series of the PBS network. I found it in the Films on Demand database and checked that PBS was rated well on the Media Bias Chart. I liked the ethos of the documentary for this essay because they interview prosecutors like the state and federal attorneys, cited course cases, and interviewed employees of the company that makes Fentanyl and other opiates, including the overdose medication Naloxone.
Paragraph
One result of inconsistent medical service compensation is that medical professionals are more likely to use alternate income streams. Physicians are routinely offered cash bonuses, vacation trips, and other incentives similar to those used by multi-level marketing (MLM) firms. The Frontline documentary Opiods, Inc. captures a lot of the unethical practices pharmaceutical companies and doctors used that allowed the current opioid crisis. Assistant U.S. attorney Yaegar says in the documentary that “These doctors were writing massive volumes of prescriiptions for one of the most dangerous drugs on the market” (Opiods, Inc 1:01). The prescriiptions were not written based on the medical need of the patient, they were written for the personal financial benefit of the doctors. Over-prescriiption of opiates has had a deeply negative impact on the United States, especially on individuals who became addicted and their families. However, the Insys pharmaceutical company used unethical and fraudulent practices for profit. A doctor Insys referred to as a whale, somebody that made the company a lot of money, “For $138,000 in speaking fees and other gifts from the company, he prescribed at least $7 million worth of Subsys” (Opiods, Inc 1:01). While individuals are responsible for their fraudulent immoral actions, the companies and stockholders still made money from the pain and suffering of others. Profit-driven, publicly traded insurance companies are bound to have profit as their main goal and it’s the responsibility of pharmaceutical regulators to ensure patient well-being is considered.
Word count: 318
WRITE ANYTHING ABOUT PROPAGANDA IN MEDIA IN PRESS THANK YOU SM IN ADVANCE
