Pat Kennedy Round Robin

F: Explicit displays of nationalism ought be eliminated in professional sports events.

SF: The United States federal government should nationalize social media platforms in the United States.

Sems notes:
-        Over the last several years, Facebook has become a public good and an important social resource. But as a company, it is behaving badly, and long term, that may cost it: A spring survey found that almost half of Americans believe that Facebook will eventually fade away

-        Currently, the FTC has in place a consent decree with Facebook, which seemingly was violated during the 2016 election. As a result, the U.S. government has the power, authority, and resources to fine Facebook into nonexistence.

-        Hacking has reached world war potential, and technology vendors like Intel have become their -- and our -- worst nightmares.

-        Facebook is not a public good, which economists define as goods or services that are nonexcludable and nonrivalrous. Access to such goods cannot be easily controlled, and charging for such services can be challenging and sometimes even impossible

R4: Transnational media corporations are a threat to global, cultural diversity.

Round 4 Notes:
-        Traditionally, the political economy of communications has critically addressed the structural and cultural dominance of the West and the ensuing power inequalities through the production hubs and circulation networks of its culture industries

-        Today, the Arab Spring, ISIL recruitment, and protests against sexual violence in India are examples where media usage works to counter power inequalities yet they are still constrained by imperil and colonial media structures.

-        As Lawrence Grossberg notes, globalization of media produces identity on top of differences by linking identity to cultural texts and then to larger structuresR3: The United States federal government should pass and enforce new restrictions on consumer advertisements in the United States.

Round 3 Notes:

-        When consumers see or hear an advertisement, whether it’s on the Internet, radio or television, or anywhere else, federal law says that ad must be truthful, not misleading, and, when appropriate, backed by scientific evidence.

-        In recent years, calls for time limits and also conscientious forms of advertising have arose as a result of potential harm to body image, sexuality, and race.

-        As Stuart Hall notes, identification and disidentification as a result of rhetorical framing, can result in feelings of otherness. 

R2: Protests such as #OscarsSoWhite are an effective challenge to representational homogeneity in popular culture.

Round 2 Notes:
-        Representative diversity in media is increasingly low. Up until 2015, just 1.1 percent of non-white females and 6.8 percent of non-white males won the coveted awards the Best Actor and Best Actress awards.

-        African Americans, in particular, are concerned about movie stereotyping, with 70 percent of respondents in a survey stating that Hollywood films often give into stereotypes when portraying racial minorities.

-        In the publishing industry as a whole, the latest figures show that 88 percent of employees were white, in comparison to only four percent Hispanic and two percent African-American.

-        In her article “Monstrous Femininity: Constructions of Women of Color in the Academy” Bernadette Marie Calafell draws parallels between popular culture stereotypes and her experiences in the academy to demonstrate how the construction of Others is often as monsters. 

R1: Social media platforms harm political discourse and discussion more than they help.

Round 1 Notes:

- Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are increasingly used for political discussion.

- With the proliferation of “unverified users” there has been an increasing call for regulation with censorship of some users as well.

- Applying Kenneth Burke’s concept of representative anecdote to President Trump’s tweets, or media in general, aids in understand of the usage of social media in a present day context.

Prep Rooms

DUC 211 A- Pacific/Merced

DUC 211 B- Chabot/Reno

DUC 213- CCSF

DUC 214- SFSU

DUC 215- RICE

DUC 216- SJSU

Winters Pool

Rice

SJSU

Chabot

Merced

Kennedy Pool

Pacific

SFSU

CCSF

Nevada

At this year’s Pat Kennedy Round Robin, we are using a new format. The teams will be divided into two pods of 4. Each team will debate the other three teams in their pod in rounds 1-3. After these preliminary rounds, the top seed in each pod (wins, head-to-head, Hi/Low, Total, Double Hi/Low, coin flip) will be advanced directly to the semi-finals. Round 4 will be a cross-pool debate between the 2 versus 3 seed. After round four, the third and fourth seeds will advance to the semis to meet the top 2 seeds.