Academic Essays
A selection of academic essays written by Zach Dallas while at Royal Roads University. References for each essay can be found at the bottom of each essay's page.
How Sesame Street Revolutionized Television
A research essay, 2014
In its 45 year history Sesame Street has become one of the most popular and easily recognized children’s television show. The show was built around a single, breakthrough insight: that if you can hold the attention of children, you can educate them (Gladwell, 2000, p. 100). And educate they did. By the show’s tenth anniversary, approximately seven million children under the age of twelve watched Sesame Street every week. (Sesame Workshop, 2014, 40 Years and Counting). By its 40th season in 2009, Sesame Street had an audience of over 9 million children in 120 countries. With its success of teaching millions of children around the world, Sesame Street rivals the methods used in traditional classrooms, while continuing to grow and advance.
The Filtered Internet
A research essay, 2014
When Tim Berners-Lee proposed the World Wide Web in 1989 no one would have guessed how far it would expand in 25 years. As of the end of 2013, 39% of the world’s population has consistent access to Internet in some form. (Internetworldstats.com, 2014.) The Internet has evolved so much that it has started to impact how we communicate. It is nearly impossible to go about your daily life without having some interaction with the Internet. Realizing the Internet has become a daily interaction, Internet giants have started tracking our online movement. Many people have started to ask, with all this tracking, has the Internet gone too far?
Surveillance in the Digital Age
Newspaper article and academic journal review essay, 2014
Use of the Internet has become a daily routine for millions of people around the world. These people access and share information by the gigabyte every second. With so many transactions it is easy to forget that your Internet footprint is being monitored- maybe not at that exact moment, maybe not even until two years in the future, but the government will read your Facebook status update, and you employer will read that risqué joke email circulating the office.