Alienation Goal The goal of this assignment is to explore the...

Alienation

Goal

The goal of this assignment is to explore the various causes of alienation in our society today, as well as some possible solutions to the discontent that it causes.

Role

Imagine you are an analyst or researcher who has been charged with looking at the many ways people tend to put themselves or others into situations of isolation and alienation.

Audience

The audience is other people who are concerned about the problems arising not only in our schools and communities, but across our nation as a whole.

Situation

Many of the news reports today revolve around issues of alienation: citizens' distrust their local police force, political arguments that drive families apart, and record numbers of Americans overdosing on prescription painkillers or heroin. We are becoming an increasingly polarized and detached society, and a government panel wants to try to understand these problems by getting to the source. Therefore, the panel has hired you, among others, to identify and describe some of the reasons that people in your own community feeling alienated from each other or from the rest of the country.  
 

Product and Performance

Your job is to investigate where the sense of isolation originates and to produce either an informational brochure or a 1-minute radio or television commercial that describes what you see as the primary kinds and causes of alienation in your community. Consider groups who seem to think the same way about almost every subject, and use online news sites to identify categories of thought that seem to be driving a wedge between people in your area. Examples at the national level include arguments over displaying the Confederate flag in the South, police handling of peaceful demonstrations in towns and cities, and debates around immigration. However, you should feel free to pursue any other issues you see as divisive in their effects.
 

In explaining the causes of alienation--the kinds of experiences and feeling that make people feel isolated from others, think about the reading you did for this module--the poems by Poe and Kipling, and the song by Johnny Cash. How were the characters in those works singled out or separated from society? What caused that separation? Are there similar forces at work in your community?
 

If you choose to make the television commercial, it must fit within the 1:00 time constraint while packing as much information in as possible. If you choose to make the brochure, you can use a publishing program such as Microsoft Publisher, or you can simply use one of the "brochure" templates found within Microsoft Word to help you with general set up and organization. The brochure should be filled with the information you deem necessary to share, and it should contain vibrant and helpful visual aids. The tone of the project should not be accusatory, but it should offer a possible solution to the problem.

You selected : The commercial script