Posted: January 31st, 2023

Paper 2 will be preparation for your final research paper (Paper 3)

Paper 2 will be preparation for your final research paper (Paper 3). There will be three steps to Paper 2:

1) You will identify a problem and formulate it as a research question.

Once this is done,

2) you will begin your research for the lit review component of the paper, i.e., this is the portion of the paper which summarizes the work that has already been done on the topic. Who are the big names in this field? What have they written? You should try to find conflicting views on the topic if possible and explain where the conflict lies.

3) You will then write up this portion of the paper along with a bibliography. Your Paper 3 will focus on your own contribution to the topic.

Paper 3 will not simply be a report on a given topic. Your task will not be to get all the facts on a given topic and write them up, but rather to do an overview of a given field/topic and find a unique angle that has been heretofore overlooked, a gap in the current knowledge. There are many different kinds of gaps. Here are a few examples:

A comparative gap (emigration (brain drain) from Eastern Europe to Western Europe looks a lot like emigration from the countryside in China to the big cities and few have looked at this comparison, or you might note that the current political instability reminds you of the 1960s, so you can ask what we can learn from the 1960s to better understand the current political climate). Or you might come at this question from the opposite direction: try to identify whether there are any historical precedents for what is currently happening in North Korea-South Korea relations. Is the Berlin Wall and the two Germanies an appropriate comparison? Why or why not?
A theoretical/methodological gap (how would a Marxist, who tends to see everything in economic terms, explain the #MeToo movement? Or how would a Freudian explain Donald Trump?)
Here are some other possible ideas:

Reception: A certain film, novel, style or genre of writing/film/TV has become incredibly popular. Explain why at this moment this is so appealing. What does it tell us about our current moment? (why is everyone citing 1984? Why are 1960s/70s/80s fashions so popular right now? What does our obsession with reality TV tell us?)
You might simply observe an interesting fact or omission and decide to find out what it means. For example, Eric observed that both Trump and Judt are fixated on the very same moment: the 1950s as a glorious time. Why? Yet the two couldn’t be more different. What does this mean? Or, Luis is interested in the importance of trust in government and how that affects the government’s ability to function efficiently. Eli is obsessed with Elon Musk: it might be interesting to look at who our heroes are at this moment and think about why.

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“Book ‘1984’ and Chinese Media Censorship”
Censorship connotes the actual removal of objects or materials that are considered to be vulgar, vague and highly emotive from a publicly consumable platform. These platforms could be the televisions, tangible written materials such as a book or even the digital censorship that includes regulation of internet content (Orwell 201). Censorship is basically a part of the day to day lives that is nearly inescapable and a critical departure from the freedom of speech and expression. Although the freedom to freely express an individual’s opinion is one of the hallowed foundations that every free society is based on, this right has come under constant attach and close scrutiny in the past decades. The Chinese regime recently passed a regulation to govern the censorship of objectionable objects from materials and other internet sources. This legal control has caused considerable amount of shock to the print, visual and written media as well as the internet community (Simon 204). The regulation is perceived by a better part of the public to be an attempt to control the content that civilians can share both on print media and digital platform. Indeed, the Chinese censorship entails the fact that most internet and other digital platform users would have to carefully consider the content before the actual posting. In essence, the users of internet and other related digital areas would have to limit the language that they use or post within the realm of online discussion. The move to regulate or censor media has been initiated to protect minors and other vulnerable persons within the community and the fundamental objective is to alleviate indecency as a whole.
It is agreeable that considered in its totality, media censorship is a great development that best fosters the interest of the society. However, at a more practical level, surveillance has currently been mounted in both public and private places where civilians visit from time to time. The telescreens monitor every person’s movement, conduct, words used, and facial expression in a supposed effort to avert and control crime within the nation’s boundaries. Even the digital platforms like the social media and commercial avenues like Google Inc. continually keep records of the users on their likes, tastes and other preferences. Today, a long list of sensitive personal data such as social security details, zip codes, banking transactions details among others are being spied upon by the relevant agencies under the guise of restoring order and decency in the society. Indeed, it is true that private citizens are being spied upon and watched closely on every conduct both at night and in the day. There are inherent fears and a huge level of confusion that has arisen as a product of the dynamic societal cultures and the increasingly delicate landscape where all are closely monitored. Indeed, surveillance on innocent civilians could as well be interpreted to mean that everyone existing in the country is to a larger extent a suspect so to speak.
Annotated Bibliography

Orwell, George. 1984. London: Secker and Warburg, 1949. Print.

In George Orwell’s 1984, the author outline an abstract society in which the concept of freedom, rights and democracy is under close scrutiny and all on their deathbed. This political satire depicts a world that s government dominated and in which the freedom and rights of the civilians are to a great extent limited. The many aspects of the disturbing phenomenon to Orwell are shown in the invasion of media and the censorship that is leveled on the civilian citizens by the government of the day though laws and other regulatory mechanism (Orwell 176). Here, the author demonstrates that there is a real possibility that the concepts of freedom and equality would be stifled under the watch of the Big Brother as he calls the government. Indeed, the realization of real freedom entails the unlimited ability to permit for the maximum enjoyment of human benefits. In relation to the Chinese censorship debate, it is conceivable that this is a situation that is reminiscent to that which Orwell best captures in his futuristic work ‘1984’. The current Chinese media censorship situation arguably equates individual and collective liberty to obtaining that which the public requires only if and when the government regime permits it (201). The inherent problem in such an arrangement is that the government gets to be accorded an upper hand and a huge sense of entitlement which means the freedom of expression and speech is technically suspended.

Shirk, Susan L. Changing Media, Changing China. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011. Print.
In this article, Susan Shark underscores the essence of censorship and why it is a problem in the modern China. The author asserts that culture within the national boundaries is known to dictate the way people lead their lives in a traditionally acceptable method. On the cultural domination and censorship front, most of the cultural forms in China have been predominantly localized but this is about to change with the recent entry of digital media (Shirk 150). The media is seen as a way of cultural domination in the sense that information can be swiftly transferred from a person at a location in the country to another. The author argues that censorship is a retrogressive step that must be fought from being entrenched into the Chinese media society by the government (225).The author notes that it is important to note that the censorship world portrayed can be safely equated to the current Chinese situation. This is especially most practical when viewed in the context that there is an overwhelming level of civilian complacency that permits for the limitation of the freedom to freely express oneself by the government.

Simon, Joel. The New Censorship: Inside the Global Battle for Media Freedom. , 2015 – Research Paper Writing Help Service. Internet resource.
Joel Simon argues that primarily the government introduces censorship to avoid criticism for its wrongdoings and to intimidate the civilians and journalists alike. The process of censorship controls what can be said and this is a step backwards in the creation of a modern civilized society (Simon 204). This is because the freedom of expression permits for healthy discussions on crucial matters that affect the society and based on such discourse, solutions may be found to address the challenges. In light of this, any democratically inclined government would see the sense in avoiding censorship of the media within China. The underlying rationale for the end to censorship by the Chinese government is that the act of censorship itself only serves to weaken the country’s democracy as opposed to strengthening it. The author argues that the ordinary citizens have relegated themselves to a level in which they have failed to thoroughly question the government of China on the appropriateness of a blanket censoring regime. Moreover, the constitutionally safeguarded rights and freedom of the ordinary citizens have remained at the risk of infringement or violations and perhaps it is time for the ordinary folks to mount some level of objection towards this insensitive practice.

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