Y376 International Political Economy

Podcasting Project Assignment

Fall 2009

This assignment calls for the creation of an original podcasting episode that includes audio, still photos, and moving images. You should work with the instructor quickly to fix a topic. You will have to do some library research as part of this assignment. The reference rooms in the Main Library and the Business/SPEA Library are likely to be your best sources of library information. You may want to use online information sources like ABI/Inform, Ebsco Academic, and Infotrac to get lists of journal and magazine articles on your subject.

The course web site at http://www.indiana.edu/~ipe will be updated throughout the semester to provide additional information on how to create podcasts. You may want to borrow from the library or purchase a book that explains podcasting methods, such as Podcasting for Dummies.

This project can be divided into components (see below). I want every student to acquire as many podcasting skills as possible and you should start with the simplest skills first and work your way up to the more complex.

Component	Task
1	Create an original MP3 audio file using Audacity; tell us about yourself in 5 minutes of audio or less.
2	Capture 10 still photographic images that are related to the content of the course. The images should be visually striking.
3	Capture or download a video relevant to the content of the course on the World Wide Web.
4	Conduct a 10-minute video interview with a friend or a local expert on a topic related to the content of the course in a standard digital video format.
5	Produce a PowerPoint presentation that contains at least 12 pages and provides an outline of your podcast project.
6	Use Camtasia Studio or some similar software to produce a preliminary version of your podcast episode using the PowerPoint of component 5.
7	Complete final version of your podcast episode.

Possible Topics

The podcasting project should deal with some issue in international political economy. Issues in international political economy include (what follows is not an exhaustive list):

• globalization
• the relationships between economic wealth and political power
• who wins and who loses in monetary, trade, and investment regimes
• the politics of U.S.-Japanese, U.S.-European, or U.S.-Chinese trade disputes and trade negotiations
• the "greening" of the multinational corporation and the growing importance of environmental concerns in the world economy more generally
• crises and the management of crises such at the sub-prime mortgage crisis in the US (or the crises in Argentina, Mexico, Russia, or Brazil)
• the political economy of Russia and its relationship to the development of Russian democracy
• international economic summits and international economic coordination efforts,
• North-South economic relations and remnants of the debate over the Doha Development Round
• the rise of Wal-Mart as a globalizing multinational corporation
• the international political economy of international trafficking in drugs, sex, slaves, etc.
• the European concept of the "precautionary principle" and its adoption by anti-globalization advocates
• anti-globalization movements around the world
• the impact of new technologies (e.g., the Internet, biotechnology, nanotechnology) on the global economy
• economic and social problems of the Fourth World (the poorest countries) and proposals for how to solve them.

It is strongly suggested that students discuss their topic ideas with the instructor as early in the semester as possible.

Some examples of podcasts from last year can be found on YouTube at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8bYe18_sqc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrG5aro15Ws

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSv_1v8JfFU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yv18bv46sqE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgWzD1o2kNQ