COMMUNICATION STUDIES

COMMUNICATION STUDIES 141 Paul Von Blum Spring Quarter 2024 Films of Persuasion Take-home mid-term 2 Due: Monday, June 10, by 8 pm, as previously. Please don’t ask for extensions. ANSWER ANY ONE OF THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS. THERE ARE NO “CORRECT” ANSWERS PER SE. EFFECTIVE, WELL-SUPPORTED, CLEARLY WRITTEN ESSAYS MAY BE CONSTRUCTED FROM A VARIETY OF PERSPECTIVES. THE PROMPTS RELATE TO BUT USUALLY GO BEYOND THE SPECIFIC COURSE MATERIAL IN ORDER TO STIMULATE BROADER AND DEEPER ANALYSIS AND APPLICATION RATHER THAN MERE FACTUAL RECALL. THE OBJECTIVE IS TO ANALYZE THE PROBLEM CAREFULLY, SYNTHESIZE MATERIALS EFFECTIVELY, AND EXPRESS YOUR VIEWS AND CONCLUSIONS COHERENTLY. BE SURE TO MAKE APPROPRIATE REFERENCES TO FILMS, DISCUSSIONS, AND EXTERNAL SOURCES WHEREVER RELEVANT AND APPROPRIATE TO YOUR RESPONSE. THE ESSAY SHOULD BE TYPED AND BE APPROXIMATELY 6-7 PAGES IN LENGTH. WRITING MATTERS: AS NOTED IN CLASS, ESSAYS SHOULD ADHERE TO HIGH STANDARDS OF CLARITY, CONCISENESS, ORGANIZATION, GRAMMAR, AND PUNCTUATION. BE SURE TO PROOFREAD YOUR PAPERS CAREFULLY. 1. We start with a broad prompt that ties everything together: It is late June, 2024. You are presenting a paper at the massive, week-long Student Conference on Human Rights in Los Angeles. Among the international and national presenters are student representatives from major human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, the American Friends Service Committee, the Children’s Defense Fund, Doctors Without Borders, the Human Rights Campaign, the NAACP, Reporters Without Borders, Southern Poverty Law Center, and many others from various nations. Some presenters plan to focus on specific regions like Sudan, Iran, Burma, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, North Korea, Cuba, Russia, the U.S., and now, Gaza, Israel (October 7, 2023), or Artsakh/Nagorno Karabakh or on specific topics like torture, the denial of civil liberties, child labor, sexual trafficking and forced prostitution, female genital mutilation, racial discrimination, absence of health care, and several others. THE ABOVE EXAMPLES ARE JUST THAT: EXAMPLES. THEY ARE NOT THE SPECIFIC OR EVEN MAJOR FOCUS OF THE ESSAYS AS A WHOLE, AS SHOWN BELOW. Your paper is different. Your perspective is to show the value of film in raising public consciousness about human rights issues and abuses. You will use at least four of the Communication Studies 141 films to reveal the historical record of human rights abuses and their contemporary implications and significance. You will show why (or why not) films are a valuable way to raise broad public knowledge and consciousness of worldwide human rights issues. In your essay, offer a basic thesis about the value of film for this purpose and use details (scenes, characters, and themes) from at least four films we have discussed (OR ASSIGNED TO VIEW) this term. Discuss how these films would be useful in promoting educational awareness and to what audiences. Your range of topics is broad, so you will need to be selective in what you select. PLEASE DON’T REPEAT WHAT YOU MAY HAVE WRITTEN IN THE FIRST PROMPT; THIS QUESTION IS DIFFERENT AND REQUIRES A DIFFERENT FOCUS. 2. To start this prompt, read the following quotations carefully: A. “He is a lover of his country who rebukes and does not excuse its sins.” Frederick Douglass B. “We have destroyed their [Vietnamese] most cherished institutions: the family and the village. We have destroyed their land and their crops…We have corrupted their women and children and killed their men.” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. C. “The Oriental doesn’t put the same high price on life as does a Westerner. Life is plentiful. Life is cheap in the Orient.” General William Westmoreland, quoted in “Hearts and Minds.” “Hearts and Minds” is a powerful critique of American participation in the Vietnam War. Yet as James Loewen writes in Lies My Teacher Told Me, many, even most, undergraduates know very little about that tragic history. He notes pointedly, “As we college professors get older, we grow even more astonished at what our undergraduates don’t know about the recent past…It makes little sense and surely does no good to blame the students. It can hardly be their fault.” Those observations, in some ways, have been mirrored in our class discussions. Loewen goes on to argue that “[h]igh school graduates have a right to enough knowledge about the Vietnam War to participate intelligently in debates.” This prompt gives you the opportunity to follow up on another major theme of the class: the role of film as a historical corrective. That means the way that film, specifically “Hearts and Minds,” can provide knowledge and education fundamentally missing in standard textbooks, classes, and other conventional instructional settings. How do you think that this film serves that function? Use specific scenes and elements from the film in composing your answer. The quotations at the top of the prompt may be helpful in composing a broader response. The first by Frederick Douglass reiterates a point made throughout the class: calling out what is wrong with the country and its history is in fact a high form of patriotism and perhaps a key function of education. The second by Dr. King represents a powerful critique of the War. The final by General Westmoreland reflects the racism and imperialism of that war. Your answer does not imply any particular position on the war itself. You may be pro or anti-war or anywhere in between. The focus of this prompt is on the value of “Hearts and Minds” as valuable historical source material. Your task is to show how “Hearts and Minds” in particular, and other films in general, can serve to fill in gaps in historical knowledge. You need to use specific themes and scenes from the film itself and then briefly address some of the themes and scenes from other films we have seen and discussed. You don’t necessarily have to reference any of the specific quotations, but of course you may if you find any or all of them useful in your essay. But “Hearts and Minds” is the main focus of this prompt. You may also use “Missing” or other class films as supporting material. 3. Dear Mom, It was terrific to see you last weekend! I really enjoyed getting together. And it was enjoyable to talk about my UCLA classes this Quarter. We had a wonderful discussions about my Films of Persuasion class because you had seen “Thelma and Louise” when it first came out. That scene where that monstrous sexist Harlan tried to rape Thema was horrifying. In the movie, Louise killed him after he made that attempt. You remember that after the two women started walking away, Harlan shouted some ugly vulgarities at them, and that’s when Louise took out the gun and shot him. I’m troubled by what Louise did even though I feel in my gut that she may have been right. But overall, I don’t think people should take the law into their own hands. It’s vigilante justice! So, if I were the prosecuting attorney, I would file charges against her. I’m not a lawyer, but that’s not the point here. This is, I think, a matter of ethics and social policy. I’ll send you a longer argument about why I think Louise should be prosecuted. It’s not an argument about any future sentence or punishment—that’s beyond the scope of my communication to you! It won’t be a legal analysis because I’m not competent to do that. Instead, it’s my view about why justice will be served if she’s prosecuted and the value to society for doing so. All my love! Your daughter/son Dear Mom, It was terrific to see you last weekend! I really enjoyed getting together. And it was enjoyable to talk about my UCLA classes this Quarter. We had a wonderful discussions about my Films of Persuasion class because you had seen “Thelma and Louise” when it first came out. That scene where that monstrous sexist Harlan tried to rape Thema was horrifying. In the movie, Louise killed him after he made that attempt. You remember that after the two women started walking away, Harlan shouted some ugly vulgarities at them, and that’s when Louise took out the gun and shot him. I’m troubled by what Louise did and I feel in my gut that she was right. And overall, I don’t see any compelling reason for the prosecutor to bring charges against her. So, if I were the prosecuting attorney, I would not file charges against her. I’m not a lawyer, but that’s not the point here. This is, I think, a matter of ethics and social policy. I’ll send you a longer argument about why I think Louise should be not prosecuted. It won’t be a legal analysis because I’m not competent to do that. Instead, it’s my view about why justice will be served if she’s not prosecuted and the value to society for refraining to do so, in this case with its specific facts. All my love! Your daughter/son Write one of the following letters to your mom, in any format you would like(a letter, a more standards essay, etc.). In either case, argue whether justice would be served with your decision and indicate why. Your response should be on issues of ethics and social policy, not law. Please don’t try to address more technical issues of self-defense, etc. Prosecutors have wide latitude in bringing criminal charges or not bringing criminal charges. This is a broader undergraduate essay, not a law school question. 4. Imagine another (over the top) scenario: After finals in June 2024, you are returning from a much needed vacation in New York. On the plane, you are sitting next to a man named George Babbitt, III, who is remarkably similar to the character Ed Horman in the film “Missing.” Like Horman, George is a middle aged businessman who is largely apathetic to the world around him and is almost entirely consumed by his family and his business concerns. While waiting for takeoff, your conversation consists mostly of small talk. You tell him that you’re a UCLA student and have recently completed your Spring Quarter, including “Films of Persuasion.” Then, suddenly, the pilot announces that a serious mechanical problem has forced an unscheduled delay and that everyone must disembark. She says that passengers will not be able to leave for a minimum of 5 hours and will be given vouchers for a meal and two drinks. She apologizes for the delay and says that when the problem is fixed, the flight to Los Angeles will take off. So, you and Mr. Babbitt decide to go for drinks together and “hang out” during the delay. He (“Call me George”) tells you that he has a son, George IV, who has just graduated from Torpor State in upstate New York (TS), with a major in business. He relates that he’s disappointed that his son George wants to take a gap year and is even thinking of going to Africa or Ukraine “or some other weird country” to help out with relief work. George says he should really be thinking about law school or joining his dad’s company, “Widget Pharmaceuticals.” “It’s a fine corporation. I’m going to LA to make a deal to buy some raw materials from China and outsource some of our work to some other place near there, Burma or Bangla something or other. We’re making lots of profits these days. Great place for a young person like George. He can start as a supervisor.” Then George the Elder asks you about your classes. You tell him that you’ve recently seen and discussed “Missing” in one of your classes. You mention that it’s about a murder of a young American man in Chile in 1973 by the new military Chilean government, with American help. George replies: “Hey, I don’t know anything about that! I wasn’t even born until 1974. How could I even know about events like that? I’m not even sure where that country is!” Then you have a revelation: you think that you might use that film to make George Babbitt more actively engaged in the world. You tell him that you have the film with you on your laptop and that you have time to show it while you’re waiting in Kennedy Airport in NY. He says to you, “Sure, let’s take a look. But like I said, I don’t know anything about Chile or what happened there in 1973. That’s such a long time ago! I don’t really care! I’ll buy you another drink!” You reply, “Okay, I’ll show you the film. I don’t want to persuade you to take any particular side about Chile or even take any particular side on any political or social issue. I just think that films in general, and this film “Missing” in particular, are useful in getting viewers to have a sharper and less apathetic view of their world and society and to become more engaged citizens. Let me try to show you by looking at this film and many of its specific scenes and its general themes! I can also make it very personal to you. Maybe “Missing” can get you to be more informed and involved in your society and the world, maybe even like your son George Jr., apparently.” So, you proceed to do it (and then you write it in a 6-7 page essay, with a careful analysis of whatever “Missing’s” themes, characters, and details that you believe apply to George’s present apathetic state of mind).

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