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My Pop Culture Map – Due M/W/F 9/2-6, on the day you present
This assignment should combine both written and visual communication. You will create a map that depicts at least four (4) of your favorite areas/features of pop culture as geographical features. These should be specific enough that you are able to describe specific features of them (see list and attached maps for examples). Feel free to hand draw your map, or create one online. Digital map makers can be found through Google, but a good place to start is Inkarnate.com.
For each piece of your map, you should include a small blurb about the pop culture it depicts. Things you may want to talk about include, but are not limited to:
- Language: what language/dialect/style of language does this pop culture space use? Do fans/users mimic that language? To what purpose (identification, definition, etc.)? Does this language spread to wider areas of culture?
- Example: Tumblr’s “I like your shoelaces.”
- Imports: what pieces of “outer” culture does your pop culture space mimic or borrow from? Why?
- Example: The Simpsons uses popular figures.
- Exports: What things have we adopted from your pop culture space?
- Example: Reaction GIFs from reality TV or superhero movies.
- Politics: What are the major “political” issues of your pop culture space? This doesn’t have to mean political as in your home country’s politics. It could mean issues of the space itself, controversies, or defining “parties”.
- Example: Pizzagate
- Other: Other things it might be useful for us to know in terms of your pop culture space and how it influences wider culture.
Grading Criteria
- Did you include at least 4 points of pop culture?
- Did each include a short blurb on important aspects of that pop culture?
- Is it clearly a map?
- Geographic map
- Subway map
- Country map
- City map
- DnD dungeon map
- Most types of map are fine (not a mind map), but it needs to clearly show direction between your points of pop culture