Oh my (thesis)

Warning: This is another of those blogs you don't want to read. It's just me going on about possible thesis topics...

Man oh man. Senior year is tough, huh. I've been barely sleeping and still I'm running ridiculously behind on everything, most notably a decision on a thesis topic. The one professor who knocked my socks off in my two semesters at Pomona is on sabbatical, so the search for readers hasn't been so hot either. But hey, how bout I outline my various ideas for ya and maybe everything will come together. By the by, my major is Social Activism through Media & the Arts (MS/Politics/Theatre), so my thesis is gonna be leaning in that direction:

1) Apathy is Domesticated Madness:
Counterculture Arts as the Fuel of Empowered Youth Activism (yes I copied this straight from my Watson app)

Apathy, defined for the purpose of this exploration as indifference to one’s surrounding society, is a concept closely associated with youth in many areas throughout the world. Yet some of the most passionate and powerful movements in history have been spearheaded by youth, from the Civil Rights movement in the US to the Soweto riots in South Africa. The foundations of these movements were not built from dry political debates that apathetic youth ignore, but rather from artistic protest: musical and theatrical demonstrations rejecting subordination and seeking justice. I propose to study countercultural arts produced and consumed by youth in several cultures, focusing on whether youth deeply involved with subcultural arts are also likely to be more politically and socially active. I will concentrate on communities that span the spectrum from the apathetic to the most active – from areas where there is a perceived dearth of counterculture art, to communities that thrive on artistic protest. (Focus on hip hop in Brazil, protest theatre in South Africa, and the hikikomori of Japan. That's too many focuses isn't it?)

2. Changes in views of femininity with changes in media representations of women. This has to do with one of my earlier posts, where I discussed the recent increase in cosmetic surgery procedures, chronologically accompanying findings of lower self esteem in adolescent girls, increases in computers owned by adolescents and lessening media censorship.

3. Consequences of the Deregulation of the Communications Industry. This also has to do with a previous blog post: ten years before the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the number of major media companies was around 80. Nearly a decade after the Act was passed, the number is closer to five. The Act was ostensibly passed in order to foster competition, but clearly has resulted in vast monopolies. The Act promised billions of dollars in consumer savings, though the past decade has seen increases in long-distance telephone and cable television costs (http://www.mega.nu:8080/ampp/PEGB/chap04.htm#metatop). While (to my knowledge) this act is not often mentioned in the media, it must have had a huge impact on the radio, television, and internet.