COM200 Final Project: Role of Film in Communication — PowerPoint & Research Paper Guide
A section-by-section breakdown for COM200 Interpersonal Communication students at ECSU completing the Terrance Brumsey final exam project — covering how to build every slide, write every section of the MLA research paper, select film case studies, develop a defensible thesis, and source the assignment correctly.
The COM200 Interpersonal Communication final project requires two distinct deliverables — a 10–12 slide PowerPoint and a 4-page MLA research paper — both examining how film shapes and reflects communication in society and culture. Students lose marks on this assignment for three consistent reasons: they treat the PowerPoint as a summarized version of the paper rather than a standalone analytical product, they select films without analyzing them in terms of interpersonal communication theory, and they write body paragraphs that describe plot rather than analyze communication dynamics. This guide addresses each component in sequence, identifies the specific errors to avoid, and explains how to build an argument that meets the assignment’s grading criteria.
This guide explains how to approach, structure, and develop the COM200 final project — it does not write it for you. The films you analyze must be your choices, grounded in your own analysis. The thesis must reflect your argument about film and communication, not a generic template. Assignments submitted without genuine analytical engagement are identifiable, and this guide exists to help you produce work that demonstrates real understanding of the course content.
What This Guide Covers
Understanding Both Deliverables and How They Relate
The assignment has two components that assess different skills. The research paper tests whether you can build and sustain a scholarly argument using academic sources, analyze specific films through a communication lens, and write in formal MLA-formatted academic prose. The PowerPoint tests whether you can communicate complex ideas visually and concisely, organize your argument across a structured slide sequence, and present findings in a way a general academic audience can follow without having read your paper first.
The most common structural mistake is treating the PowerPoint as a condensed version of the paper — reading blocks of text off slides and paraphrasing the paper’s sentences. The presentation should stand on its own. A person who has not read your paper should be able to follow your argument from the slides alone. This means each slide needs a clear takeaway, visual support where relevant, and language that is precise but not dense.
How to Build a Thesis for This Topic
The assignment asks you to examine the relationship between film and interpersonal communication in society and culture. That framing is broad by design — it gives you room to take a specific position. Your thesis should not restate the assignment prompt. It should make a specific, arguable claim about how film functions as a communication medium, which you will then support through your analysis of specific films.
The sentence above is an example of a thesis with an arguable position. It claims something specific (film is constructive, not just reflective), it signals the analytical categories the paper will address (relationships, race, gender, identity), and it makes a claim that requires evidence (the “without recognizing” component, which connects to media literacy research).
Weak Thesis
“Film is an important medium of communication in society and culture.” This states the obvious and takes no position. There is nothing to argue against it, which means there is nothing for your paper to prove. It cannot organize a four-page argument.
Stronger Thesis
“Hollywood films have historically reinforced racial and gender stereotypes that limit how marginalized communities communicate and are perceived, while contemporary films increasingly challenge those norms by centering authentic interpersonal communication across identity lines.” Specific, debatable, signals structure, points toward case studies.
Your thesis needs to do three things: state a position about film’s role in communication, name the specific dimension of communication your paper will examine (stereotypes, identity, gender dynamics, power, relationships), and imply the structure your body paragraphs will follow. Write your thesis before you select your films — then choose films that support it rather than selecting films first and retrofitting a thesis to them.
Selecting the Right Films to Analyze
The assignment specifies that two slides analyze specific films and their impact on societal communication. Your research paper also requires specific film examples. You need films that give you substantive material to analyze in communication terms — not just films you liked or that deal loosely with social issues.
Choose films that do at least one of the following: model or distort interpersonal communication patterns in ways that connect to a course concept; construct or challenge a stereotype related to race, gender, or identity; shape cultural norms around relationships, authority, or conflict; or demonstrate how communication changes across cultural contexts.
| Film | Communication Angle | Relevant Themes |
|---|---|---|
| Do the Right Thing (1989) | Conflict communication, racial identity, power dynamics in community discourse | Race, representation, interpersonal conflict, nonverbal communication |
| Moonlight (2016) | Nonverbal intimacy, identity formation, silence as communication | Identity, masculinity norms, LGBTQ representation, relational communication |
| Crazy Rich Asians (2018) | Cross-cultural communication barriers, face-negotiation, family communication patterns | Culture and communication, gender roles, class and identity |
| Hidden Figures (2016) | Workplace communication, race and gender in institutional settings, assertiveness | Race, gender, professional communication, systemic barriers |
| Get Out (2017) | Microaggressions, racial performance, communication and power | Race, subtext in communication, social identity, anxiety and nonverbal cues |
| The Farewell (2019) | Intergenerational and intercultural communication, disclosure and deception | Cultural norms, family communication, East-West communication differences |
How to Narrow Your Film Choice
Pick two films that represent different communication phenomena — do not analyze two films that make the same point. If both films are about racial stereotyping in Hollywood, you are repeating the same argument twice rather than building it across two angles. Pair a film that shows how communication constructs identity with one that shows how communication can challenge or subvert norms. That contrast strengthens the analysis and gives your conclusion something to synthesize.
The Four Key Themes and What They Mean for This Assignment
The assignment brief identifies four major themes for the PowerPoint’s key concepts slides: representation, stereotypes, communication methods, and cultural norms. These are not just categories — they are communication concepts with academic literature behind them. Understanding what each term means in a communication studies context will determine whether your analysis reads as scholarly or as general observation.
Representation
In communication and media studies, representation refers to how different groups, identities, and experiences are depicted — and whose perspectives are centered or marginalized. Stuart Hall’s work on representation established that media images are not neutral reflections of reality but constructions shaped by ideological choices. For this assignment, representation asks: which communities appear in the films you analyze, and how is their communication portrayed?
Stereotypes
A stereotype in communication research is a simplified, generalized belief about a group that shapes how members of that group are expected to communicate and behave. Walter Lippmann coined the concept in 1922; decades of media research have documented how stereotyped film portrayals influence audience perceptions. For the assignment, analyze how specific films either reproduce or disrupt stereotypes about communication — not just character behavior.
Communication Methods
This covers verbal communication (what characters say and how), nonverbal communication (body language, eye contact, proxemics), listening behaviors, conflict styles, and relational communication patterns. Films are rich sites for analyzing these because every scene involves deliberate choices about how characters communicate — choices that reflect real-world norms or challenge them. Your analysis should identify specific scenes and name the communication concept they illustrate.
Cultural Norms
Cultural norms in communication refer to the shared expectations about how people should speak, relate, express emotion, and manage conflict within a given cultural context. Films both reflect existing norms and construct new ones — research on cultivation theory (Gerbner) shows that heavy film and television exposure shapes audiences’ beliefs about how normal communication looks. Analyze which cultural norms your chosen films present as universal when they are actually culturally specific.
Identity
Identity — racial, gender, cultural, sexual — is communicated through film in explicit and implicit ways. Communication scholars examine how identity is performed (Goffman’s dramaturgical model), negotiated through interaction, and shaped by media exposure. Films can validate or delegitimize identity expressions. For this assignment, connecting a film’s portrayal of identity to interpersonal communication theory is what distinguishes a communication paper from a film review.
Social Issues
The assignment asks you to analyze films that illustrate the impact of communication on social issues including identity, race, and gender. The analytical move here is to show the directional relationship — how does the film’s depiction of communication (not just its subject matter) engage with these issues? A film about race is not sufficient; you need to examine how communication within that film reflects or shapes racial dynamics.
Slide-by-Slide PowerPoint Structure
The assignment requires 10–12 slides not including the title and references slides. The structure below provides a workable 12-slide sequence that satisfies every content requirement. Adjust where your specific thesis and film choices demand it — the structure is a scaffold, not a rigid template.
Consistent fonts and color scheme means choosing two fonts maximum (one for headings, one for body) and two to three colors used throughout. Every slide should look like it belongs to the same deck. Avoid slide templates that look like standard PowerPoint defaults — they signal minimum effort. Choose a template or design your own, and make sure it does not compete with the text for attention. Images should serve the argument — if an image does not illustrate a point, remove it. Every visual choice should have a reason.
MLA Research Paper: Section by Section
The research paper requires four pages of double-spaced text, excluding the Works Cited page. At approximately 250–275 words per double-spaced page, that is roughly 1,000–1,100 words of actual content. Every word needs to earn its place — there is no room for padding, plot summary, or ungrounded generalization.
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Introduction: Thesis Statement and Scope (approximately 200 words)
Begin with a sentence that frames the cultural context — the role film plays as a mass communication medium — then narrow to your specific argument about how it affects interpersonal communication. State your thesis in the final sentence of the introduction. Identify the two films you will analyze and name the communication concepts your paper will examine. Do not waste the introduction on general statements about how film has existed since the 1890s or how communication is important in society — every sentence of the introduction should move toward the thesis.
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Body Paragraph 1: Film as a Medium of Communication and Cultural Expression (approximately 225 words)
This paragraph establishes the theoretical basis for treating film as a communication medium. Cite at least one scholarly source that addresses film’s role in cultural communication — academics like Stuart Hall (encoding/decoding theory), George Gerbner (cultivation theory), or communication scholars who have written about media and interpersonal norms. Do not start this paragraph with a quote — start with your analytical claim, then bring in the source to support it.
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Body Paragraph 2: Film Case Study 1 — Communication Analysis (approximately 225 words)
Analyze the first film in communication terms. Name a specific scene or pattern in the film, connect it to a communication concept from the course or your scholarly sources, and explain what it reveals about communication in the social context the film depicts. Cite the film itself in MLA format. Avoid plot summary — any sentence that only describes what happens in the film without making a communication point is wasting your word count.
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Body Paragraph 3: Film Case Study 2 — Communication Analysis (approximately 225 words)
Same structure as paragraph 2. The analysis of the second film should extend or complicate the argument from paragraph 2 — not simply repeat it with a different film. Identify what the second film adds to your understanding of film’s role in communication that the first film alone could not provide. This is where comparison strengthens the paper. Cite this film in MLA format as well.
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Body Paragraph 4: Film as Reflection and Shaper of Cultural Norms (approximately 225 words)
This is the synthesis paragraph that steps back from the individual films to address the assignment’s third body requirement: film’s role as both reflection and shaper of cultural norms and interpersonal relationships. Connect your two case studies to a broader pattern. Cite at least one more scholarly source here — this is where cultivation theory, agenda-setting theory, or media representation research is most useful. The claim should go beyond what you analyzed in paragraphs 2 and 3.
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Conclusion: Implications for Contemporary Communication (approximately 200 words)
Do not restate your body paragraphs. Synthesize what your analysis reveals about the relationship between film and communication in contemporary society — why it matters that audiences understand the communication dynamics films construct. Connect to the present: what does this mean for how we interpret the media we consume, how we form expectations about interpersonal relationships, or how we think about representation in mass communication? End with a forward-looking sentence about what changed or more equitable film communication might look like.
How to Write the Case Study Analysis — Paper and Slides
The case study analysis is the section where most students lose marks, because they describe films rather than analyze communication. The distinction is precise: description tells the reader what happens; analysis explains what the communication dynamics in those events reveal about broader patterns.
Description (Insufficient)
“In Hidden Figures, Katherine Johnson is not allowed to use the same restroom as her white colleagues. This shows that racism was a problem in the 1960s.” This summarizes a plot point and states an obvious historical fact. It contains no communication analysis and makes no connection to interpersonal communication concepts.
Analysis (What the Assignment Requires)
“Hidden Figures (Melfi, 2016) depicts workplace communication as a system of exclusion enforced through nonverbal and spatial means — Katherine Johnson’s segregated bathroom functions not only as a physical barrier but as a daily communication of her institutional standing. Goffman’s concept of stigma as a ‘discredited attribute’ is legible here: her competence is continuously undermined by spatial arrangements that communicate subordination regardless of her verbal contributions.”
Notice what the analysis version does: it names the film with its director and year in the text, identifies a specific communication phenomenon (nonverbal and spatial exclusion), connects it to a named theoretical concept (Goffman’s stigma), and makes a claim about what the film reveals about communication dynamics. That is the standard each body paragraph needs to reach.
A Reliable Case Study Analysis Structure
Identify a specific scene, pattern, or dynamic in the film → name the communication concept it illustrates → cite the scholar or theory behind that concept → explain what the film’s representation reveals about communication in the real social context it depicts → connect to your thesis. Repeat this logic for your second film, but make sure the second analysis builds on rather than mirrors the first.
MLA Formatting Requirements for COM200
The assignment specifies MLA format throughout. MLA (Modern Language Association) format is standard in humanities and communication studies. The key formatting rules for this paper are not complicated, but they are specific, and deviating from them costs marks on a criterion the assignment explicitly flags.
Page Setup and Header
- 1-inch margins on all sides
- 12-point Times New Roman throughout
- Double-spaced — no extra space between paragraphs
- Header in top-right corner: your last name followed by the page number (e.g., Johnson 1) — insert using Word’s header function, not manually typed
- No title page — your name, instructor name, course, and date appear on four separate lines at the top-left of page 1
- Title centered on a new line after the heading block — not bold, not underlined, not in quotation marks
In-Text Citations
- Author’s last name and page number in parentheses at the end of the sentence: (Hall 23)
- If no page number (common with websites and films): use the author’s last name only or a short title
- Films are cited by director’s last name: (Melfi) or (Lee) in the text
- When you mention the author’s name in the sentence itself, the parenthetical includes only the page number: Hall argues that representation is never neutral (23)
- No “p.” before page numbers in MLA — that is APA convention
Works Cited: Films
- Format: Director Last Name, First Name, director. Film Title. Production Company, Year.
- Example: Melfi, Theodore, director. Hidden Figures. 20th Century Fox, 2016.
- If you are citing a specific performance or element: lead with that contributor — e.g., Bassett, Angela, performer. Black Panther…
- Streaming platform can be added at end: Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc.
Works Cited: Scholarly Sources
- Journal article: Last, First. “Article Title.” Journal Name, vol. #, no. #, Year, pp. ##–##.
- Book: Last, First. Book Title. Publisher, Year.
- Website: Last, First. “Page Title.” Website Name, Date, URL.
- Works Cited is alphabetized by the first word of each entry (usually author last name)
- Hanging indent: second and subsequent lines of each entry are indented 0.5 inches
The Purdue OWL MLA guide referenced in the assignment brief is the definitive resource for formatting questions. Use it for every citation you are unsure about rather than guessing. The URL is: owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/general_format.html — this is the external resource the assignment itself directs you to, and it covers every formatting question you will encounter on this paper.
Finding and Using Scholarly Sources
The assignment requires at least four scholarly sources in addition to the films. In communication studies, “scholarly” means peer-reviewed journal articles, published academic books, or chapters from academic edited volumes. It does not mean magazine articles, Wikipedia, IMDb, film review sites, or general news coverage — even high-quality publications like The Atlantic or The New York Times do not count as scholarly sources for this assignment.
Where to Find Scholarly Sources
- JSTOR — searchable archive of peer-reviewed journals; ECSU library access likely included
- Communication Abstracts — specialized database for communication research
- Google Scholar — free search tool; filter by date and look for .edu or journal links
- ECSU Library databases — your library has subscriptions to EBSCOhost and similar platforms; use them before paying for access elsewhere
- ProQuest — strong for both communication and film studies journals
Search Terms That Return Relevant Results
- “film and interpersonal communication”
- “media representation race gender”
- “cultivation theory television film”
- “stereotypes film media effects”
- “film and cultural norms communication”
- “Hollywood representation identity”
- “encoding decoding Stuart Hall film”
- “nonverbal communication film analysis”
Aim to have sources that cover: (1) the theoretical framework you are using (e.g., cultivation theory, representation theory), (2) the specific social issue your films address (e.g., race and media, gender and film), and (3) the broader relationship between film, media, and communication. A paper with four sources all on the same narrow topic is weaker than one that triangulates across theory, issue, and medium.
Key Scholars and Works Commonly Cited in Film and Communication Research
- George Gerbner — cultivation theory: long-term film and TV exposure shapes viewers’ beliefs about social reality, including norms around race, gender, and violence
- Stuart Hall — encoding/decoding: media producers encode messages that audiences decode in dominant, negotiated, or oppositional ways; central to any discussion of representation
- bell hooks — Black Looks: Race and Representation (1992): analysis of how Black people are represented in mainstream media and the communicative effects of those representations
- Erving Goffman — The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life: dramaturgical model of communication applicable to how film stages identity performance
- Patricia Hill Collins — controlling images: how stereotyped media representations of Black women communicate social expectations and constrain identity
- Richard Dyer — Stars and White: analysis of whiteness as a default communicative norm in Hollywood cinema
Where Students Lose Points on This Assignment
Plot Summary Instead of Analysis
“In Get Out, Chris goes to visit his girlfriend’s family and discovers something disturbing about the town.” This tells the reader what happens, not what it means for communication. Every sentence in the paper must make an analytical claim, not recount a scene.
Communication Analysis
“Get Out (Peele, 2017) dramatizes racial microaggressions as a communication system — the constant, superficially positive commentary from white characters functions as a form of surveillance that communicates to Chris that his identity is being evaluated, not engaged.”
Unsupported Claims
“Films have always shown women as weak and dependent.” This is a broad claim stated as fact without citation. Even if generally true in a historical sense, it requires evidence — a scholar who has documented this pattern, or data on the prevalence of particular portrayals.
Supported Claims
“Research on gender representation in Hollywood documents a persistent pattern in which female characters are defined primarily through their relationships to male characters rather than their own agency (Smith et al., 2019). This relational framing communicates to audiences that women’s interpersonal roles are secondary and dependency-oriented.”
PowerPoint with Too Much Text
Slides that reproduce full paragraphs from the paper. The audience cannot read a dense block of text and listen to you simultaneously. Slides with 150+ words per slide signal that the student has not separated the slide’s function from the paper’s function.
Slides That Support the Verbal Presentation
Each slide contains a headline claim and three to five supporting bullet points of no more than one line each. The detail lives in what you say, not what’s on the screen. The slide anchors the audience’s attention; your spoken explanation carries the analysis.
Missing MLA Format Details
Submitting a paper with APA-style in-text citations (Author, Year), a “References” page instead of “Works Cited,” or a title page instead of MLA’s first-page heading block. The assignment explicitly requires MLA — using a different format signals you did not read the brief carefully.
Correct MLA Throughout
Author-page in-text citations (Hall 45), “Works Cited” as the final page title, heading block on page 1 instead of a separate title page, hanging indent on Works Cited entries, header with last name and page number in top-right corner of every page.
- PowerPoint: 10–12 slides not including title and references slides
- PowerPoint: title slide includes name, course title (COM200 Interpersonal Communication), and date
- PowerPoint: at least 4 key concept slides covering representation, stereotypes, communication methods, and cultural norms
- PowerPoint: 2 case study slides analyzing specific films in communication terms — not plot summary
- PowerPoint: conclusion slide synthesizes main points and connects to interpersonal communication
- PowerPoint: references slide includes all cited sources in MLA format
- Research paper: 4 pages double-spaced, 12pt Times New Roman, 1-inch margins
- Research paper: MLA heading block on page 1 (name, instructor, course, date); title centered, not bold or underlined
- Research paper: last name and page number in top-right header of every page
- Research paper: at least 4 scholarly sources beyond the films analyzed
- Research paper: thesis states a specific, arguable position about film and communication
- Research paper: body paragraphs analyze communication dynamics, not plot
- Research paper: Works Cited page with entries in alphabetical order, hanging indent
- PowerPoint submitted as .pptx, research paper as .docx
- Both files submitted by May 7, 2026, 11:59 PM
Frequently Asked Questions
Why Interpersonal Communication Courses Assign Film Analysis
COM200 courses assign film analysis because film is one of the most pervasive channels through which cultural communication norms are transmitted, reinforced, and contested. This is not a recent insight — George Gerbner’s cultivation theory, developed across decades of research beginning in the 1960s, demonstrated that heavy exposure to mass media shapes viewers’ beliefs about social reality, including what constitutes normal communication in relationships, families, and communities. Film is not simply entertainment — it is a communication system that teaches audiences how to interpret interpersonal behavior, what expectations to hold about different social groups, and which communication styles are coded as authoritative, deviant, desirable, or dangerous.
The assignment’s focus on representation, stereotypes, cultural norms, and identity is not arbitrary. These are the specific dimensions along which film’s communicative influence is most documented and most consequential. Research by the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative — one of the largest ongoing studies of representation in Hollywood film — has consistently documented disparities in the frequency and quality of representation for women, people of color, and LGBTQ characters across decades of mainstream film. Understanding how those representational patterns function as communication is central to media literacy, which is itself a core competency in contemporary interpersonal communication education.
When you analyze how a specific film constructs or challenges communication norms around race, gender, or identity, you are doing exactly what the course is designed to teach: applying communication theory to media you encounter in everyday life, identifying the dynamics operating beneath the surface of ordinary cultural consumption, and developing the critical awareness that distinguishes informed media engagement from passive reception. That analytical skill is transferable far beyond this assignment — it applies to every film, television program, advertisement, and social media communication you encounter as a participant in contemporary cultural life.
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