Reality TV

In this at least 8 page research paper, you will answer the question “why is x so popular?” from a cultural studies perspective. “X” can be any number of things, but you should focus on cultural production in the last decade:

a film genre (Examples: young adult dystopian, crime thrillers, modern reboots (Mad Max, Blade Runner, etc.), Pixar animated films, LGBTQ themes films, biopics)
a film series (Examples: Lego movies, Star Wars, Avengers, Transformers, Twilight, Saw, Pirates of the Caribbean)
a video game genre (Examples:first-person shooters, indie platformers, “metroidvania,” visual novels, dating sims, RPG/FPS crossovers, open-world games)
a video game series (Examples:Bioshock, Final Fantasy, Call of Duty, Mario, Zelda, Elder Scrolls)
A TV series (Examples: The Walking Dead, Big Bang Theory, American Horror Story, The Good Doctor, The Real Housewives, Man in the High Castle)
A TV genre (Examples: Reality TV where we get access to the lives of the rich, horror series, TV remakes of films, series about autism,
For a longer paper like this, it would be better to focus on a genre or series rather than an individual text. Once you’ve decided on your genre/series, you will then need a more specific research question that may eliminate some texts; for instance, you might write about the attempt to make animated film more diverse, and therefore focus on films like Coco rather than something like Wall-E.

In some cases, you may “create” a genre: for instance, there is no term to describe the increase in math/science biopic films (Hidden Figures, Imitation Game, Theory of Everything, etc.), but that would be an interesting constellation of texts to analyze. There are also increases in productions with majority African-American casts coming into the mainstream that, while based on very different subject matters, could be organized into a textual system (Hidden Figures, Fences, Get Out, the upcoming Lion King remake). Be creative with the topic you choose.