October 9th, 2020 
The first essay will ask you to compare and contrast different definitions of media. Your essays should be 1500-2000 words in length and follow standard academic format. Please use Chicago Manual of Style as your citation guide. Answers must be submitted as a Word Document (.doc or .docx format) in 12 point, Times New Roman font, with 1 margins. All submissions must be uploaded to Canvas.
Raymond Williams, Fredrich Kittler, John Durham Peters and Marshall McLuhan all put forward different definitions of how to think about media. For this essay, I want you to:
1) provide a brief definition of each theory of media for each author
2) explain what the consequences of understanding media in a particular way is (ie. why is it important to each author that their version of media should be taken up?)
3) and compare how each definition either overlaps or diverges from those offered by the other writers
4) say which version of media theory is most compelling to you and why (provide evidence, not just opinion)
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