INTRO TO SOCIOLOGY - ONLINE MEDIA QUESTIONS
Professor Reymers - Fall 2022

from the syllabus:
"Most weeks, an online media assignment will be posted on the course website and you must send your individual responses to questions regarding the assignment directly to the professor by email. Emailed answers should not be attachments and should have the proper subject heading of the week. Questions regarding online media will be based on the supplemental information from the website (they are “open book” questions). Online media are due Friday at 5pm (see the course schedule), unless otherwise indicated. They CANNOT be made up after the due date; there are no exceptions to this rule. They will be graded on a pass/fail (1/0) basis, and you are likely not to receive feedback to your email. Your lowest online media grade will be dropped at the end of the semester."

All assignments should be e-mailed each week by 5pm Friday to: reymers@morrisville.edu

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OPTIONAL Online Media B2: The Limits of Growth

This assignment is optional.

Watch this video on The Limits of Growth and answer the following questions:

 

1. In what year did the 1972 report on The Limits of Growth argue that society might collapse?

2. What tools did the MIT scientists use to model the variables related to how the future of society might be calculated?

3. What five factors did the scientists use to estimate the stability of society?

4. What were the three hypotheses posed by the scientists regarding innovation versus productivity in the future?

5. Which of the three scenarios -- comprehensive technology, stabilized world, or business-as-usual -- did the scientists suggest is most likely going forward?

6. Thinking past the video, what things need to change to avoid the business-as-usual scenario in the future to extend the health of society beyond 2040?

 

Due on or before Friday, 12/2 end of day

DO NOT send answers in an attachment.

OPTIONAL: E-mail your completed answers to: reymers@morrisville.edu with SUBJECT LINE: SOCIB2

 

This online media assignment will replace one missed assignment from earlier in the semester (or in the case that you have done them all, it will add one [1] additional point to the online media portion of your final grade).

 

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OPTIONAL Online Media B1: Overpopulation

This assignment is optional.

VIDEO: Watch The Overpopulation Myth (YouTube, ~50min long), featuring Hans Rosling and answer the following questions:

1. When did human population reach 1 billion people? What is it now? (~3 min)

2. What is happening in Bangladesh with respect to the family institution? (~4 min)

3. What has happened with respect to average number of babies in the world in the past 50 years? (~9 min)

4. What has happened in terms of infant mortality (death of children) over the past 200 years? (~19 min)

5. What will the predicted world population be in 2100? (~21 min)

6. How have hospitals in Mozambique changed in the last 30 years? (~30 min)

7. What is the difference in income from the poorest to richest among the world population? (~36 min)

8. What percent of adults in the world today are literate? (~43 min)

9. In terms of the proportion of the world in extreme poverty, how has world income distribution changed in the last 50 years? (~ 46 min)

10. What is the energy-related problem with ending the world's extreme poverty? (~52 min)

Due on or before Friday, 12/2 end of day

DO NOT send answers in an attachment.

OPTIONAL: E-mail your completed answers to: reymers@morrisville.edu with SUBJECT LINE: SOCIB1

 

This online media assignment will replace one missed assignment from earlier in the semester (or in the case that you have done them all, it will add one [1] additional point to the online media portion of your final grade).

 

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Online Media 10: Political Protest

Watch this 15-minute videoand take notes, then respond to the questions below for this week's online media.

Race is a hard topic to talk about in the U.S. because it has such a long and contentious history. The country was founded at the height of the period of global colonialism, where European powers were competing to "take over the world." It was a time prior to industrialization, so labor was done primarily on the backs of animals and humans (not machines, as we live now). And ideas about other cultures were hardly sensitive, often demonizing and dehumanizing those who did not look, act, or conform to the colonizers standards, those typically of European cultural descent. This led to immoral and highly questionable practices like slavery and indentured servitude (a practice that has repeated itself endlessly throughout human history since the Agricultural revolution). There were those who fought against these practices at the time -- the Abolition Movement -- and there has always been racial strife regarding the systematic way African Americans have been disenfranchised from representation in our American democracy. Every few decades this animosity boils up to the surface and reignites tensions. The last such period was the late 1960s when race riots broke out in many American cities. Fifty years later we saw it happen again in America 2020.

This week, we will focus on protests and riots as related to politics and inequality. How do protests change our politics? How can we best explain and understand the history-making events from the summer of 2020? There is typically a focus on the disorder and anarchy related to the protests, and riots often are seen as something remarkably deviant, abnormal, irrational, and just plain bad. (But remember what we said about deviance, that sometimes it is positive, despite being seen as bad by some). And, certainly, the innocents who are caught in the midst of it, who may lose life or property, are tragic victims who require restitution and justice as well. And sometimes the political institutions need a "push."

Should we see all protest as "bad" behavior on the part of irrational and self-interested individuals? How can a riot be seen as a more complicated phenomenon than just a few "bad apples"? Watch this 15-minute video and take notes, then respond to the questions below in your discussion this week.

After watching this video, discuss your take on "law and order" with respect to crowd behavior:

1. What is the difference between the conciliatory and the repressive response of police toward protesting crowds?

2. What is the role of trust and respect in relation to compliance with the law?

3. What is the role of fear in the same (how does "suppression beget aggression")?

4. What is looting really about?

5. How does "order" become a fluid concept?

6. Are there proper and improper uses of police action when it comes to dealing with a protest?

7. How does this relate to the political life of the country at the moment, after an insurrection at the Capitol building on January 6th?

 

Due on or before Friday, 11/18 end of day

DO NOT send answers in an attachment.

E-mail your completed answers to: reymers@morrisville.edu with SUBJECT LINE: SOCI10

 

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Online Media SOCI9: Theories of Inequality

Watch Crash Course Sociology, Episode #22, Why Is There Social Stratification, and answer the following questions as you watch:

1. What is social stratification?

2. What is an ideology?

3. What sociological perspective (SF, SC, or SI) does the Davis-Moore Thesis follow, and what is the basic idea of the thesis?

4. What is one problem with the Davis-Moore Thesis?

5. In Marxist social conflict theiry, what is the relationship between the two classes of the bourgeiosie and the proletariat?

6. Why has a proletariat revolution not yet occured in the United States?

7. What three caegories define Max Weber's symbolic interactionist perspective on social stratification?

8. What is an example of an assumption we make regarding signs of status NOT used in the video?

Due on or before Friday, 11/11 at 5pm.

DO NOT send as an attachment.

E-mail your completed assignment to reymers@morrisville.edu, with the SUBJECT line to read: SOCI9

 

 

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Online Media SOCI8:
Crime, Deviance, and Social Status

Watch Crash Course Sociology, Episode #20, Crime, and answer the following questions as you watch:

1. Using the raw numbers from 2017, explain why they aren't useful and why we should use the rate of violent crimes. Then compare this rate to the 1991 rates and draw the logical conclusion.

2. Who is more likely to be arrested for a crime and why?

3. In what way(s) is race a factor in crime rates?

4. What are the three parts of the criminal justice system in the U.S.?

5. What are the problems with the bail system in the U.S.?

6. What is a plea bargain and how are the incentives for taking one unbalanced?

7. What is mass incarceration and why/how has it developed over the past 40 years?

8. What are the approaches to and reasons for punishment of convicted felons?

Due on or before Friday, 11/4 at 5pm.

DO NOT send as an attachment.

E-mail your completed assignment to reymers@morrisville.edu, with the SUBJECT line to read: SOCI8

 

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Online Media 7: Social Networks

Watch this video (46 minutes) and answer the following questions:

1. What is the meaning of the term "six degrees of separation"?

2. Why were Cornell researchers Strogatz and Watts studying crickets?

3. What is the paradox of "small world problem" and how is it solved?

4. How was actor Kevin Bacon used to study the six degrees of separation?

5. What is a network hub?

6. What are some other examples of small world networks?

7. Who are society's "hubs"?

8. How can the reality of social networks lead to negative outcomes?

9. How can our undertstanding of networks help to ward off these problems?

10. How many of the forty packages made it back to Marc Vidal in Boston and how many connections did they take to get there?

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Due on or before Friday, 10/21 at 5pm.

DO NOT send as an attachment.

E-mail your completed assignment to reymers@morrisville.edu, with the SUBJECT line to read: SOCI7

 

 

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Online Media SOCI6: Teaching the Self

Watch this After Skool video featuring the ideas of Alan Watts on the egoistic self as a social construction, then answer these questions:

1. What do you think Watts means by "real silence"?

2. Explain what Watts meant by the statement "Money represents wealth in exactly the same way that the menu represents the meal."

3. Are you the same as your personality, or ego? Is ego-consciousness the only way to think of the self?

4. What is the meaning of life, according to Watts? What do you think he means by that final quote?

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Due on or before Friday, 10/7 at 5pm.

DO NOT send as an attachment.

E-mail your completed assignment to reymers@morrisville.edu, with the SUBJECT line to read: SOCI6

 

 

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Online Media 5: Social Interaction and Performance

Watch this Crash Course in Sociology video on Social Interaction and Performance (YouTube, 2017, 11:38) and answer the following questions below.

1. How are social interaction and social structure defined?

2. What is social status? Include the difference between ascribed and achieved status. Give three examples from your life.

3. What is a social role and how does it differ from a status?

4. What is the "Thomas Theorem?"

5. What is "impression management" and what are "sign vehicles"?

6. What's the difference between "front stage" and "back stage" performances?

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Due on or before Friday, 9/30 at 5pm.

DO NOT send as an attachment.

E-mail your completed answers to: reymers@morrisville.edu, with the SUBJECT line to read: SOCI5.

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Online Media SOCI4: The Elements of Culture

Watch this video about the elements of culture--symbols, language, norms and values, and artifacts--that sahape our ways of life in socieities around the world.

1. What is the difference between material culture and non-material culture? Give an example of each that is NOT found in the video.

2. How is language more than just the words people speak? Define and mention the "Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis" in your answer.

3. Define the difference and similarity between Values and Beliefs. Give an example of a Value you hold and a Belief that is founded upon that value.

4. What is the difference between "folkways," "mores," and "taboos"? What is the result of violating a "folkway"? A "more"? Give an example of an American taboo.

5. How do we evaluate whether values and norms are "good" or "bad" if we are caught up in the culture we belong to? In your opinion, is it possible to be unbiased and objective in evaluating these moral distinctions about cultural norms and values?

Due on or before
Friday, Sept 16 5pm

DO NOT send answers in an attachment.

E-mail your completed answers to: reymers@morrisville.edu with SUBJECT LINE: SOCI4

 

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Online Media Week 3:
Introduction to Critical Thinking

Watch this video featuring Professor Geoff Pynn of Northern Illinois University titled "Introduction to Critical Thinking" and answer the following questions:

1. What is critical thinking?

2. There are good and bad reasons for believing something. Is this a moral judgement? Explain.

3. What is an argument? 

4. What are the parts of an argument and how do they relate?

5. What is a deductive argument?

6. What is an ampliative argument?

7. Are ampliative arguments necessarily bad arguments? 

Due on or before
Friday, Sept 9 5pm

DO NOT send as attachment.

E-mail your completed answers to: reymers@morrisville.edu with SUBJECT LINE: SOCI3

 

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Online Media Week 2:
Is Your Mind a Master or a Slave?

Watch this video featuring a commencement speech from writer David Foster Wallace and
animated by the After Skool team, titled "Is Your Mind a Master or a Slave?" and answer the following questions:

1. What is the point of the fish parable?

2. What does David Foster Wallace mean when he says that the liberal arts education "teaches you how to think?"

3. What example does he give of the total wrongness of something he feels absolutely sure about (our "default setting")?

4. What are some examples of DIFFERENT ways of thinking that we could choose?

5. What is the only thing that is Capital-T "True", according to the speaker, Wallace?

6. What does Wallace mean by saying "In the trenches of day-to-day life, there is actually no such thing as atheism (not worshipping)"?

7. What will happen if you worship money, looks, power, or your intellect (the "default settings")?

8. What is the really important kind of freedom created by being educated and understanding how to think?

BONUS: How does this discussion relate to the S.O.C.I. mnemonic we discussed in class?

Due on or before
Friday, Sept 2 5pm

DO NOT send as attachment.

E-mail your completed answers to: reymers@morrisville.edu with SUBJECT LINE: SOCI2

 

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DO NOT send your answers as an email attachment.
(I recommend copying and pasting the questions into a document (Word, Google, Notepad, etc.) and then answering the questions as you watch and read; then copy and paste your answers in an email to me).

E-mail your completed answers directly to: reymers@morrisville.edu with the SUBJECT line to read: SOCI1.

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