COM 110:  SURVEY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

                                           Prof. Len Assante                Spring, 2004

                                                           Project Proposal

Directions:

The first step in your project will be to prepare a proposal for my review.  The project may be an individual or team effort.  The proposal is a typed document detailing what you want to do your term project on and how you plan to do it.  The idea is for me to get an idea of what you want to do and why and also for me to approve of your topic.  All proposals (regardless of topic or modality) should include:

1.  A project goal statement.  (What do you want to do?  Or What question do you seek to answer?  Or What message do you want to send?)

2.  A discussion of methods.  This will vary from project to project, but will generally tell me HOW you will achieve your goal.  In a "message/medium construction" project (build web page, radio ads, etc…), you would discuss how you plan to research and develop your message, by what medium(s) will you send it, how you measure its success, etc.  In an analysis project, you would note the method you wish to employ, what research you will need to do, etc.  In a research paper, you just need to discuss potential sources, where you will get your information, what you hope to find out, etc.

3.  For any project that constructs a message or a medium (a new radio format or a web page for example), you will need to provide a quick rationale.  This is the "why".  Why do we need this new message or medium?  Who will use it/benefit from it?  Who will profit from it?  Why will it make money?  You will go into more depth in the actual project, just mention it in the proposal.

4.  A timeline.  This serves two purposes.  It lists what steps you need to do them and the order in which they need to be done.  For a straight research paper, this will be quite short, but for a message or medium construction project or a message analysis piece, this will be a larger portion of the whole proposal.  Think of it as a “storyboard” or planning chart of how the process will work.  Think “step by step”

The proposal must be approved by me before you begin work on the project itself.  I may ask for proposal revisions before you can start.  The proposal is due in one week!