A Good Media Assignment: Do’s and Dont’s
Friday, October 8th, 2010Media assignments can be fun to prepare
Do you need to prepare a media assignment? Well, no big news! This is a quite common assignment topic today. Mass media are all around us. Consider how much we depend on newspapers and magazines, telephones, mobile phones, the Internet, radio, television, cinema. In communication, media (the plural form of medium) are the storage and transmission channels or tools used to store and deliver information.
An advantage of an assignment on media is that every student has plenty of experience on the field. So don’t freak out if a teacher asks you to write an assignment on this topic, because you could do much worse! Here we will provide you some tips on how to write a great media assignment (and which mistakes to avoid).
Do’s
- Tell both sides of the story: The influence of media in our society makes them irreplaceable… as well as criticized because the influence they have on so many people around the world. When the mass media are manipulated by a small group of people, they can be dangerous. So even if you decide media have many more advantages than disadvantages, mention the critics they receive. The same is valid for the opposite statement: if you want to write a critical reflection on the terrible effects media can have on population, you should remember they can be useful as well.
- Do some research: Media sound like a great topic for a research paper: there are many studies available when it comes to mass media, especially about the role of the Internet (for example, the dangers of misusing the social networks), or television (for example, how TV spots influence on children). Nowadays, they are probably the most important media. If you decide to research, make sure you check all available sources and not just the local library: after all, any student writing an assignment regarding TV or the Internet should spend as many hours in front of the screen than reading a book.
Dont’s
- Do not constrain yourself to paper: When writing a media assignment, you should include extra material besides written pages. For example, you could photocopy old magazines or newspapers when writing about the press, you could hand in a DVD with selected TV scenes, or a CD with fragments of different radio programs. That way, the presentation of the assignment will be directly related to its contents. This kind of extra materials always adds some value to your work, even if they are only illustrating information already provided by text. Believe us: teachers will love them!
- Do not hand in something you downloaded from the Internet: You start researching online, and you suddenly find all those free essays and assignments on your same topic of choice. What a temptation! What stops you from printing out one and handing it in as your own work? Trust us: don’t do it. It’s very risky handing in a free assignment. If you don’t have the time to write it for yourself, better think about purchasing a custom made media assignment.
