Research Proposal

Dear Meagan,

            I am writing this letter to let you know that I will inquire about the how perceptions, identities, and stereotypes of students (minority or not) are represented in pop culture and how it effects them in school. I am interested in this topic because pop culture (film, music, social media, politics, television, etc.) has a great influence on the youth and I was wondering if that effects how the students are viewed in society and how well they do in school. I listen to a lot of music as a student and different music has different effects on me. So music gives me motivation to type a paper while other music gives me ideas and inspiration to get me out of writer’s block. I also watch a lot of movies that have school scenes or that are centered around education for minority students and they portray them in ways that may be true to the real world or just as how society sees them.

            I plan on starting this process by analyzing each component of pop culture (movies, music, and politics) and find examples of how society views the student and how they use that point of view to influence the media and I will illustrate how the media affects the students in school. I will use sources that are current and that everyone is familiar with. When I use music as an example, I will look at how the artists use lyrics in their song to show how they view education and they portray it to their youth listeners. In movies, they mostly show minority students having a hard time in school and show how they improve their education throughout the movie so it is not always a negative impact on students in school.