Social Controversy
One important theme throughout this class is responding to social controversies and creating social change. This paper is your chance to consider a social problem that matters to you and what should be done about it. What kind of change is necessary to respond to your social dilemma? The purpose of this assignment is for you to synthesize our course materials, your intellectual and emotional reactions to our course materials, and any additional scholarly and/or credible resources you deem necessary into a clear, cogent argument on a cultural event and/or social issue of your choice that you feel passionate about.
Some questions to consider: What is the conflict underlying this controversy? How are the various people involved in the conflict? What kind of change is necessary to resolve the conflict? What kind of tactics could be used to respond to the conflict? Where are the opportunities to navigate differences and create better relationships to negotiate this conflict?
Your paper should:
Introduce the controversy and its importance
Explain why this controversy is important from a communication standpoint
Connect this controversy to the tensions with democracy, civility, community, and social change
Describe what you and others can learn from those involved in addressing this controversy and how you and others can enact social responsibility in responding to this controversy
Sample Solution
A social issue is a problem that affects many people within a society. It is a group of common problems in present-day society and ones that many people strive to solve. Racism is an example. Racism is a form of prejudice that assumes that the members of racial categories have distinctive characteristics and that these differences result in some racial groups being inferior to others. Notions of human equality were the necessary precondition to the emergence of racism. That is, racism arose as a result of the contradiction between egalitarian principles coupled with the exclusionary treatment of specific ethnic groups: the rejection of organically hierarchical societies brought with it the implied necessity to account for the fact that some groups were subjected to servitude, enforced separation from the rest of society, or ghettoization.
