Your name:

Sylvie Stoloff

PROJECT #1

1. Topic area #1 you wish to explore for Capstone:

distinctions in the behavior of people in my generation (millennials/ Generation Y)

2. List assorted questions that you would generate about your topic (feel free to
enlarge the box below if you need more space).

-how has social media influenced our generation?
-how have differing parenting styles influenced our generation?
-is our generation more or less independent than previous generations?
-how has increased competition to get into colleges influenced our generation?
-do we problem-solve differently than people of other generations?
-how has helicopter-parenting influenced the way people of our generation manage on
their own?
-are our general characteristics significantly changed by the problems around us (ie.
global warming, the economy, etc.)?
-has the no-child-left-behind/ everybody-gets-a-trophy mentality affected millennials for
better or for worse?
-what are the benefits/drawbacks of millennials dependency on technology?
-Millennials are known for craving instant gratification. How does this affect their long
term choices and decisions?

3. Revisit the questions you placed in the box above.
color the questions that are too simple/dead end: RED
color the questions that have some potential/possibilities: BLUE
color those questions that have significant potentialthose that could lead to
other rich, thought provoking questions: GREEN
4. From the questions youve colored, reformulate those questions into several
possible questions about your topic that approach what might be a potential
essential question.

-how do the social/technological factors that distinguish the characteristics of our
generation from those of past generations affect our ability to problem-solve?
-Millennials are known for craving instant gratification. How does this affect their long
term choices and decisions?
-How have the different parenting styles used for millennials (i.e. helicopter parenting,
coddling,etc.) contributed to their overall sense of independence?
-How has Generation Ys behavior been shaped by current global phenomena such as
the technological era, social media, environmental issues, and an interactive (sometimes
struggling) world economy?


5. Now refine your questions in the box above into a single essential question that
you think might work for your project. Put that question in the box below.


6. Now, evaluate your proposed essential question according to the following
criteria:
Does your essential question meet the following criteria?
Your essential question is open-ended; that is, it typically will
not have a single, final, and correct answer.
x Yes No
Your essential question is thought-provoking and intellectually engaging, often
sparking discussion and debate.
x Yes No
Your essential question calls for higher-order thinking, such as analysis, inference,
evaluation, prediction. It cannot be effectively answered by recall alone.
x Yes No
Your essential question points toward important, transferable ideas within (and
sometimes across) disciplines.
x Yes No
Your essential question raises additional questions and sparks further inquiry.
x Yes No
Your essential question requires support and justification, not just an answer.
x Yes No
Your essential question recurs over time; that is, the question can and should be
revisited again and again.
x Yes No

7. Based on the above assessment, do you have any revisions to your question? If
yes, revise it in the box below. If no, then copy the question you started with into the
box below.

How do the social/technological factors that distinguish the characteristics of our
generation from those of past generations affect our ability to make decisions and
function independently?

How do todays technological innovations in communication affect the ability of young
people (ages 14-24) to make their own decisions and function independently?

Hi Sylvie,

Thanks for presenting today.

If you had told us today that you were writing a doctoral dissertation on your topic, we
would still be awestruck by how big a topic yours is. Any one of your questions or
comments were topics and questions in and of themselves. So lets look at how this can
be a project and a question that is manageable in scale and what that might look like.

We heard what you were saying about your interest in how young people are affected in
their ability to make decisions independently and to act independently by any number of
factors. Lets say you picked one factor. For example, lets say you picked young
peoples relationships with their parents. What would happen if you focused just on a
group of young people (pick a particular age range) and you surveyed them (you design a
survey) and get them to self-evaluate how free they think they are to make decisions, act
independently, etc. and how much they are constrained by technology, peer pressure,
social media, etc. (Pick one)

Then you use one of those. Say its technology and how young people are affected by
their instant contact with parents thats made possible by having a cell phone in your
pocket or constant availability of e-mail. What if you asked each participant to then chart
their use of social media in a given week: their texting, their phone calls, their e-mails,
their Facebook/Twitter, etc. communications--maybe with parents. You collect their data
at the end of the week. Concurrently they are also identifying when and where they are
making decisions on what they are doing or short- or long-term plans during the course of
that week. You then look at all the data provided and try to identify how much the social
media interaction has affected (or not) their decision-making and/or independent actions.

Thats just an example and surely you will have other ideas. What the final product of
something like that could be is a combination of statistical analysis that you would present
in graphic form and maybe you would also conduct interviews with each of your study
participants after you have their data in hand. You could film those and create clips of
each which you would run together in a film and then conclude with you being on film and
making sense of what this study has meant.

Lots of possibilities here but your #1 priority has to be to narrow the scope Keep us
posted and in the loop. Ask us questions.

Ms. Freeman and Mr. Mikalaitis

8. Now, answer the following:
(a) Why are you pursuing this essential question?

Because I want to find out who/what/when/where/whether/why/how to:
Whether our generation will face any major obstacles when we reach adulthood

(b) So why do I want to do that?
In order to:
i. help my audience understand how/why/whether
how to overcome these obstacles/whether there are any at all

ii. make change in this direction:

make sure we can make positive decisions/choices

iii. to call attention to these things:
influences of the modern era on people who grow up in it

(c ) Why is this relevant to anyone in todays world, to their daily lives, to the
future of the planet?

because it highlights the influences of todays world on the youth (aka the future)

(d) Is that really the most relevant thing about it? Bottom line: so what? Why
should we care about your project?

so we can learn from our mistakes/successes

(e) Seriously, is that the most you can say? Really, truly: why should we care
about your project?

so we can discover patterns that could help us in future generations

(f) Have you any more answers to the question so what? What does this
matter? Why is it worth spending your energy on this?

************************************************************************************************
**********
PROJECT #2

1. Topic area #2 you wish to explore for Capstone:

ethics in the media

2. List assorted questions that you would generate about your topic (feel free to
enlarge the box below if you need more space).

-how do journalists choose which stories make the front page?
-how do journalists choose which way to spin stories?
-do journalists ever get personally invested in a story?
-how much of the news is reported by journalists as opposed to created by them?
-how do the concepts of supply and demand play into journalism? Do the viewers
demand purely entertaining stories, or do journalists supply the stories they find most
important for the public to know?
-How do viewer ratings play into journalists decisions?
-To what extent do politics play a role in what type of news viewers see/hear?
-what are the drawbacks to a society that is so heavily influenced by the media?
-how do both the corporate world and the average Americans desire for entertainment
influence the types of stories journalists display at the forefront versus which stories they
push to the back burner?


3. Revisit the questions you placed in the box above.
color the questions that are too simple/dead end: RED
color the questions that have some potential/possibilities: BLUE
color those questions that have significant potentialthose that could lead to
other rich, thought provoking questions: GREEN
4. From the questions youve colored, reformulate those questions into several
possible questions about your topic that approach what might be a potential
essential question.

-how do both the corporate world and the average Americans desire for entertainment
influence the types of stories journalists display at the forefront versus which stories they
push to the back burner?
-how do the concepts of supply and demand play into journalism? Do the viewers
demand purely entertaining stories, or do journalists supply the stories they find most
important for the public to know? How are these phenomena corrupted by the networks
desire for higher ratings?
-How/why does the 24/7 availability of information lead to a more paranoid society?
-How do increased reportings of crime influence the crime rates themselves?


5. Now refine your questions in the box above into a single essential question that
you think might work for your project. Put that question in the box below.

How do both the corporate world and the average Americans desire for entertainment
influence the types of stories journalists display at the forefront versus which stories they
push to the back burner?

6. Now, evaluate your proposed essential question according to the following
criteria:
Does your essential question meet the following criteria?
Your essential question is open-ended; that is, it typically will
not have a single, final, and correct answer.
Yes x No
Your essential question is thought-provoking and intellectually engaging, often
sparking discussion and debate.
Yes x No
Your essential question calls for higher-order thinking, such as analysis, inference,
evaluation, prediction. It cannot be effectively answered by recall alone.
Yes x No
Your essential question points toward important, transferable ideas within (and
sometimes across) disciplines.
Yes x No
Your essential question raises additional questions and sparks further inquiry.
Yes x No
Your essential question requires support and justification, not just an answer.
Yes x No
Your essential question recurs over time; that is, the question can and should be
revisited again and again.
Yes x No

7. Based on the above assessment, do you have any revisions to your question? If
yes, revise it in the box below. If no, then copy the question you started with into the
box below.

How do both the corporate world and the average Americans desire for entertainment
influence the types of stories journalists display at the forefront versus which stories they
push to the back burner?

How are media outlets presenting the news to meet the diverse tastes and intrigues of the
American public? How are the same stories presented differently from region to region
and on different types of websites/publications?

So here Sylvie we have some different ideas. Once again the topic is too big. And its a
big topic in the media and academia right now. Are sensationalist stories eclipsing
everything else because that is what media types think audiences want? We know the
answer to this is yes and you could easily find lots of material documenting that.

We think you ought to be able to come up with an original way to tackle this topic to make
it manageable and to answer some fundamental questions. Say you took a single
day. You identified the big stories that day and then you scour the media landscape to
see what was covered, what was trending on the social media journalism sites, what
appeared on page 1 of major newspapers across the nation (or regionally if you wanted to
limit it), what appeared on national and local news stations, etc. That material is
accessible and you could chart it, looking for patterns, trends, etc. You could focus on
one story--say the story is the current story about Ray Rice (football player for the
Ravens) and the information about his beating his wife--and one day in the life of that
story. How is that story covered in different media, how prominently is it featured in one
or another source, how much detail is included, pictures, etc.? How are these various
stories headlined? How does the coverage of that single event compare to other
concurrent stories covered in the media that particular day?

And then you would have, as a result of collecting all that, plenty of source material to
work through, analyze, reflect on and from which you could draw conclusions.

Again, thats just one possible approach. But see how we are trying to narrow the scope
and get you to something manageable. The essential question for something like that
would be something on the order of How are media outlets presenting the news to meet
the diverse tastes (and obsessions!) of the American/local public?

Another thing that might be worth considering: what are the patterns of what people want
to read about (news-wise) when they set up preferences on a Flipboard account?

Tell us what you think

PS: Did you have any thoughts about doing any project involving BLS-TV?

Ms. Freeman + Mr. Mikailitis



8. Now, answer the following:
(a) Why are you pursuing this essential question?

Because I want to find out who/what/when/where/whether/why/how to:
why journalists report the stories they do

(b) So why do I want to do that?
In order to:
i. help my audience understand how/why/whether
why some stories get more coverage than others

ii. make change in this direction:

make news decisions based on importance rather than entertainment value

iii. to call attention to these things:
business decisions behind news headlines

(c ) Why is this relevant to anyone in todays world, to their daily lives, to the
future of the planet?

because everyone is influenced in some way by the media

(d) Is that really the most relevant thing about it? Bottom line: so what? Why
should we care about your project?

because viewers hold more of a sway than they realize on what kind of news is
displayed

(e) Seriously, is that the most you can say? Really, truly: why should we care
about your project?

because it can point to patterns/precedents in the future

(f) Have you any more answers to the question so what? What does this
matter? Why is it worth spending your energy on this?