Relying on independent research and Steven Johnson’s definition for “platform,” what platforms are changing your world, and what should be done about them?

Steven Johnson defines “platforms” as the infrastructure required for innovation and change. He identifies them in the natural world as coral reefs and beaver dams and in the social world as global positioning systems and social media. Such platforms according to Johnson are capable of great affect, fostering changes in such things as the creative arts, micro and macro climates, international relationships, and even how people decide to have lunch (177-210). While Johnson identifies the positive contributions enabled by platforms, however, it is just as easy to see the harm they permit as well.

For this final essay, you will create your own argument—replete with devices and rhetorical appeals—that identifies the current cultural, media, or technological platforms affecting an issue you care about. You will approach this issue by researching and developing arguments about how platforms contribute to the problem or are helping to bring about beneficial change. So, for example, if you focus on pollutants that harm marine life, your research might identify and criticize the platforms that encourage consumers to use and discard plastic bags. If you focus on abortion, then you will identify the political and ideological platforms that define the debate to show which platforms promise to bring about the most significant change.

Your job in this essay, then, is to identify the current platforms that promise to solve and/or make worse a significant issue affecting your community, your nation, or your world, and compose an argument that calls for or incites change.
Your argumentative, research essay must rely on your understanding of how we have defined strong, effective writing this semester. Be creative, but be clear and concise. The essay must reach 2700 words and feature MLA format, citations and works cited.

Sources: Use at least 8 credible, relevant, and substantive sources to develop your thesis. You may begin researching your topic with “wiki” sites, but note that most “.com”s are not considered substantive.

Where Good Ideas Come From should be included as one of the 8 and used to define ‘platforms.’

Banned Topics and Arguments: That’s right! You have limited academic freedom in this class. Your argument may not purposefully disenfranchise or assail the fundamental rights or beliefs of a definable group, and you may not rely on xenophobic appeals to persuade your audience.