(This is an assignment for my ENG 102 writing course--it will be up here on the top through thursday--any regular posts will be below)
Remember you do not have to use any of these, they are simply examples to help give you ideas--these 9 are the first ones I am putting up, more will follow over the next 24 hours as I get them done (hopefully), so check back. Also the links are not functionaly yet, will get those done and might update the info/sources some. The key though is that you start to get the sense of developing a proposal for writing about media culture. Of course, as always, feel free to develop your own project!!!
2nd Major Essay Assignment
Eng. 102, Spring 2007
Instructor: Michael Benton
Grading Criteria:
1) A focused topic with a clear thesis.
2) Relevant, concrete details that support your thesis.
3) An effective pattern of organization; unified paragraphs; smooth transitions from one idea to the next.
4) Respect for and acknowledgement of opposing positions.
5) Credible voice adopted to your subject, purposes, and audience.
6) Accurate, well-documented use of at least four academic sources
The basic requirements for this essay: 6-8 pages—at least four academic/print sources. I will look for the development of an authorial voice, successful communication of a statement/argument about your subject, and an awareness of your intended audience. Most important in my assessment will be the student’s overall effort in presenting their statement/evidence of research through successful integration of outside sources into the body of the essay, evidence of reflection on key concepts/terms, awareness of one’s own position, and attempt to communicate a perspective. The final draft will also include—attached to the front—a “statement of sources” which will detail what outside sources were used, why they were chosen, and how they fit into the body of your essay. All sources must be documented both in the text and in the works cited page at the end of the essay—consult your St. Martin’s Handbook for a refresher on MLA documentation.
Minimum Requirements:
6-8 pages (double-spaced, 1 inch margins, 12 pt. Font)—this means at least 6 full pages, not four or four and a half—approximately 1800-2400 words.
-Include a Works Cited Page.
-Minimum of four academic sources.
-Correct MLA Format.
-Turn in one of your rough drafts with the final paper copy of your essay.
-Statement of sources attached to the front of your paper
-Hand in a signed copy of the honor code pledge with your paper.
1) Go to these sites to start:
Piracy and Copyright Issues and
Journalism and the Press: Ethical Issues “Piracy isn't a new idea, but copyright is—little more than 200 years have passed since laws were enacted to protect the ownership of words and images. The last half of the 20th century saw publishers, filmmakers, and now e-providers struggling to adapt laws that have become quickly outmoded. The question of who ‘owns’ material today is increasingly complex, and very much up for debate. And of course, there are those who just won't play by the rules—as well as those who think that the whole concept of rules is ancient history.”
Read some of the essays at the sites, research the issue on your own, include at least two more “academic sources” (not included at the websites—requirement of 4 academic sources) in your paper, and write an argumentative paper in regards to the current legal battles concerning “piracy and copyright issues”.
Something to keep in mind in your argument is a careful framing of where to draw the line of ownership, for example, peruse this online mapping of Google’s attempt to control usage of the word “google” as a “verb”:
Verbing Weirds Google 2) MIT professor and media critic Henry Jenkins writes “Masculinity has often constructed itself as the invisible gender, the norm against which "femininity" gets defined. As one critic notes, masculinity in the cinema gets "tested" while femininity gets "investigated." Yet, increasingly, [as demonstrated in the documentary
Tough Guise Dir. Sut Jhally. Narrated: Jackson Katz. Media Education Foundation. 2000.] "masculinity" has been investigated and called into question, first by feminism and later by queer theory and politics. What do we mean by "masculinity?" What roles do film, television, and other forms of popular culture play in shaping and reshaping masculine identities? Are all men "masculine" or is "masculinity" something which we need to prove to ourselves and each other as we go through our everyday lives? How do we learn "masculinity" and how does it shape our relations to important people in our lives? Can we change what it means to be "masculine" within American culture and if so, what might a transformed masculinity look like?”
Your assignment in this option would be to explore media representations of masculinity and address one of the above questions. The paper must be framed as an argument in which you present your position/perspective on the topic of masculinity. For more ideas and readings visit this website on
“gender” issues and/or
Beauty (Re)Discovers the Male Body (This assignment can also be used to explore femininity as we discussed in class--and I can supply you with many resources to get you started. Good places to start would be
Growing Up Female in a Media World and/or
About-Face: Body Activism;
Eating Disorders: A Feminist Issue;
The Gender Ads Project )
3) Develop an essay in which you argue a position in regards to the possibilities/problems of “Writing in the Age of the Image”. Possible texts to consult would be John Berger
“Ways of Seeing” and Scott McCloud
“Understanding Comics.” For more ideas/inspiration you might want to visit
Dr. David Blakesley’s website and
Dr. Lori Landay’s website You might also be interested in checking out Daniel Chandler’s essay
“Biases of the Ear and Eye” and Vannevar Bush’s
“As We May Think”. This argumentative essay will require you to read the positions of some of the authors and develop an understanding of your position in regards to the future of writing or reading or art.
4) Develop an argumentative position regarding the need for an “ethics” of media. Visit this
Media Ethics Resources to begin an understanding of various positions. Visit
Adbusters (culture jamming periodical) and
Benetton (business perspective) for more statements. Watch the documentary
Merchants of Cool and visit the
PBS website Visit a mapping of
media mergers Develop an understanding of the
history of the Internet and how it impacts upon the discussion of the
Global importance of an ethics of media. For a massive resource site and various histories/standards of new technologies visit Duke University’s
“Techno-Cultural Resources” Your essay should be framed as an explanatory argument in which you demonstrate an awareness of the issues and in which you clearly state your position on the requirements of (or no need of) an ethics of media.
5) Dr. Barbara Welch Breeder states that “Whether we regard advertising as the spiritual force of commerce or as the source of insatiable, soul-deadening desire, we all have opinions about it which range from amusement to resigned tolerance and condemnation of its pervasive chants of material abundance, permanent pleasure and physical perfection. It is hard to deny the centrality of advertising as we start the new millennium. It motors the economy; it provides the financial foundation of our mass media system; it has found its way into our films, our clothing, and our environment. Advertising provides a constant visual and verbal backdrop to our experience -- endless epistles from the captains of industry and the lords of leisure selling not only products and experiences but frameworks of meaning: notions of what is good/bad, right/wrong, desirable/undesirable, thinkable/unthinkable, normal/perverse.” First read John Harms’ and Douglas Kellner’s essay
“Illuminations: Towards a Critical Theory of Advertising” and visit Robert Goldman/Stephen Papson’s websites:
Landscapes of Global Capital and/or
Representations of "work" in television advertising and/or
The Landscapes of the Social Relations of Production in a Networked Society, you might also want to check out some of their important and helpful
his books. Also take a look at
Commercial Alert. Your assignment will be to study contemporary advertisements and produce an argumentative analysis in which you expose the underlying message/s that you find. What morals/ethics are being expressed in your chosen advertisement? What worldview is being expressed? Are there any dangers/problems associated with the underlying messages of the advertisements?
6) Develop a theory of TV (or other popular forms) entertainments based upon an understanding of storytelling/narrative. Why do we need “stories”? What is the contemporary role of “myth”? How do entertainments frame our understanding of the world? What is the role of narratives in our indoctrination into a
worldview/ideology? Start by visiting Dr. Helena Sheehan’s essays
“Story, Myth, Dream, Drama” and/or
“Television as a Medium of Drama” and/or
“Criteria For Judging TV Drama” and/or
“Television in the 1990s”. Write an argumentative essay responding to and expanding on Sheehan’s ideas.
7) Develop an argumentative paper in which you present a critical interpretation of a film. Step 1: Choose a movie that you would like to critically analyze. This can be a new movie that you have been interested in seeing or an old favorite that you have a desire to understand better. Start by investigating descriptions, reviews and clips of the movie online. Write out your expectations for the movie before viewing—map out the influences for these expectations (including previous viewings—our experiences of a movie change as we develop as persons). Follow the guidelines at Daniel Chandlers
Introduction to Genre for an understanding of genre expectations. Do any of the actors or the director influence your expectations of the film (do their reputations and prior roles/movies influence you). Think about any other intertextual influences: is it a remake, is it reminiscent of other movies, what is the genre of the film, what was the era and society in which it was made. Step 2: Watch the film. Keep a journal and detail what surprised you and how your expectations were met (or were not met). Step 3: Visit
Dr. Michael Goldberg’s website to learn the specialized language/concepts that film scholars use to understand a film. Read and learn these concepts/terms—now watch the film a second time and record in your journal your experiences of the viewing. Step 4: Read at least two essays on the movie or a related subject represented in the film. How does this new information influence your interpretation of the film? Step 5: Watch the film with some friends, make it a social event and encourage discussion of the film. Record the understandings of these new viewers and how it influences your interpretation of the film. Step 6: Re-visit Goldberg’s site and begin to write your essay. You now have deep, documented, complex experiences and understandings of your chosen film. Use these to develop a thorough argumentative interpretation of the film.
8) Analyze a current global/world issue. You need to use two sources from each of three different news groupings:
American News Sources:
The Los Angeles Times and/or
The New York Times and/or
CNN and/or
Time Magazine and/or
Newsweek Magazine and/or
Associated Press Global News Sources:
World Newspapers and
World Press ReviewAlternative American/World News Sources:
IndyMedia and/or
AlterNet or
Open Democracy or
Global Voices This assignment will have multiple steps. Step 1: Explain your reasoning for choosing this issue and your beginning position—before any research. Step 2: Visit the American sources and research the issues. Step 3: The World News Resources Step 5: Visit two alternative news sources Step 6: Develop a thorough, argumentative essay in which you seek to explain the multifaceted nature of this global issue (using the various sources) and come to a conclusion about the problem/s.
9) First read Henry Jenkin’s
“The Genres of Entertainment” and Daniel Chandler’s
“Do-It-Yourself Genre Analysis" and
“The Meaning and Significance of Stereotypes in Popular Culture”. Now browse a few of the descriptions of
film genres In this option attempt to define how a film succeeds or fails in challenging standard representational stereotypes and genre formulas.
Some examples off the top of my head:
Joe Somebody (comedy that explores masculine anxiety about the tough guise pose)
Bamboozled (Spike Lee’s brilliant drama that skewer’s contemporary reproductions of black minstrel stereotypes—why was Damon Wayan’s cast as the lead actor?)
Romeo and Juliet (Baz Lurhman’s contemporary remake/updating of Shakespeare’s tragedy for the corporate 90s)
Foxfire (Angela Jolie turns the bad-boy, stranger-in-town, cliché upside down, in this high school drama—pay particular attention to the reversal of the male gaze in the beginning of the film)
Matrix (Fin de siecle nightmares are brought to life in this apocalyptic fantasy)
Juice (the self-reflective critique of the movie in which it demonstrates the lead character’s obsession with gangster movies)
But I Am a Cheerleader (satire that explores and challenges rigid gender and sexuality roles)
Be original, choose your own film and develop a thorough understanding of Chandler’s theory of genre in order to ground your critique of the film. In the development of your critique of the film you should also address the genre as a whole (a good idea would be to find a book or essays that define/introduce the formula of your chosen genre). This option could also be applied to some specific examples of television: Sopranos (Gangster genre), Twin Peaks (Soap Opera), OZ (prison drama), Deadwood (western), or Sex in the City (sitcom), but they definitely will require much more work (so consider this) and must be currently available on video/DVD.
10) Here are some options for the ad paper--you could take a series of ads from one of these sites (or if you find another one that works better you could use that site--after discussing it with me) and write your paper examining the tactics used in the ad campaign. Of course another good tactic is exploring particular types of magazines for their ads.
Please discuss these options with me and any other questions you may have.
Please be warned all of these sites have images that may offend because of adult subject matters and graphic images (in some cases). You are not required to view or read any of these materials.
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These are two sites on the PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) website. Examine the way in which they appropriate the tactics of the mainstream media to sensationalize and eroticize their campaign—do you think that these ads are effective? Are there any problems with them? Have you seen them before?
PETA Print Ads PETA Media Center One of the most famous/notorious global advertisers is Benetton Colors. Their clothing campaign was headed by a famous European avant-garde artist and employed the tactics of what had long been considered the province of avant-garde art … shock the middle-class in order to get their attention. Benetton’s various ads have been banned all over the world … but that is the value because when an ad is banned in one country it is highly publicized in another. After watching Jean Kilbourne's documentary
Killing Us Softly 3 and its critique of the representation of women in the media, many students suggested that the media is just giving us what we want … pay attention how Benetton justifies and excuses their intentional tactics of shocking the public. Do you agree with them that they are “just” bringing serious issues to the attention of the public? Are there any problem with their justifications of the ads or with the ads themselves? Is an image of a problem enough? Do we do justice to the problems of racism, violence, oppression, starvation, etc… by turning them into ads for clothing?
Institutional CampaignsColors: Benetton's Magazine About Benetton Once again I highly recommend checking out Adbusters to understand how activist are reacting to the coporate control of media culture. Are adbuster's techniques effective? Are there any problems with there tactics or ideas?:
AdbustersSpoof Ads Also important is how and why some companies respond to critiques of advertising and develop more positive campaigns designed to address these problems. A recent example is Dove' campaign whih tries to challenge beauty/image issues in our culture. Are these effective? Are they real attempts to address these problems?
Dove CampaignAlso visit the links in option 2
Last, but not least, a recent company that has made much of their controversial advertising techniques is Abercrombie & Fitch. While I can understand some people’s reservations about the adult subject matter of the ads, I wonder if perhaps the way in which they depict men as sexual “objects” rather than the dominating subject (like Jean Kilbourne demonstrates in her documentary of women in ads) is what is offending many people? What do you think?
Abercrombie and Fitch Gallery of Images------------------------------------------------------------
There is no doubting that advertisers seek to appeal to the broadest number of people possible. In order to stay competitive, and to attract large groups of consumers, marketing and advertising professionals are constantly picking at our popular psyche. These experts are the psychoanalysts of our collective consumer subconscious. Their livelihoods depend on their ability to keep their finger on the pulse of our desires and they have become very adept at not only interpreting our dreams, but also, at creating new ones that were not previously presenta and convincing us that they are really "our" dreams/desires.
So advertisements can be viewed as fascinating cultural documents that allow us to decipher an era's zeitgeist (German for "spirit of the times"), societal fears, and cultural obsessions. Advertisements are the repository for a vast and wide collection of psychic appeals, or cultural codes (cues that produce desires): these include symbols, myths, and stereotypes. Generally these cultural codes are designed to be very familiar (but not so familiar that they appear banal) so that they can strike a chord within the largest amount of consumers. Like the fish who swims in the fishbowl, we often have a hard time recognizing these cultural codes for what they are because they comprise the atmosphere in which we live, breath, eat, and defecate.
Your assignment is to adopt the role of a cultural anthropologist or archeologist who will attempt to excavate the meanings associated with a particular advertisement, marketing scheme, or political campaign. We are going to approach our chosen advertisements as ripe onions which may be pealed in order to understand the different layers of meaning, or, to put this into a capitalist perspective, we will approach these advertisements as a rich soil that, in order to be fully exploited, we must sift through the sedimentation of its accrued meanings. Only by gaining a full understanding of its layers may we then begin to understand, resist, or exploit this cultural resource.
Beginning to critically analyze advertisements can prove difficult at first. We, as consumers, are often like the deer caught in the headlights of the speeding Mack truck, we are frozen by these codes because although inherently familiar to us on an unconscious level they are designed to freeze us in our tracks when we process them. In general, our society doesn’t encourage us to consciously recognize and describe the deeper codings of advertising. We may be unaware of these advertisements inner workings--but this does not make us ignorant or stupid--we have the inherent capabilities to understand the cultural processes in which these codes work All it means is that we have not previously attempted to consciously recognize and describe how ads are constructed. This is just another intellectual muscle that must be developed in order to become culturally fit, critically aware and democratically active.
Methodology:
Art historian
John Berger argues that advertising
“proposes to each of us that we transform ourselves, or our lives, by buying something more.” Gather a stockpile of images and, following the cultural critic Arthur Asa Berger, choose a single image, or thematic grouping of images, and ask: “What is the fantasy? And how is it induced? and what is the intended result/s?”
Using my guidelines (inspired, adapted/altered and extended from suggestions from
Arthur Asa Berger) as prompts, begin a step by step process designed to familiarize yourself with the possible tactics that a cultural investigator (think of yourself as
Sherlock Holmes) could use to decipher the cultural codes in an advertisement. Use these as guides to begin to delve deeper into the cultural context of the ad and to begin to bring to the surface some of the subtextual meanings of the ad.
Methods for analyzing ads (and visual images):
a) What is the product that is being pitched in the advertisement? (e.g. in a political advertisement the candidate is the product that is being pitched to the public or in an MTV music video the band is the product) What are some of the names of the competitors? (e.g. In the case of Budweiser--Miller, Michelob, various microbrews and imports, etc.....) Comparatively, how are the competitors faring? Where would you rank your advertisements product in relation to its competitors? (e.g. Although Budweiser dominates the world market, the corporation often expresses an uneasiness about increasing development of "taste" preferences amongst beer consumers) Are the competitors in the midst of any big advertising campaigns that could be influencing your advertisers? Have any of these products been in the news lately for any reason? (Think of Exxon's hyper-awareness--expressed in advertising campaigns--of their bad image in relation to environmental issues after the Valdez Oil-Tanker accident) Is the product's slot in the hierarchal ranking amongst the competitors expressed in the advertisement? (Burger King used to do this--we're number two, but gaining ground) Do they directly address their competitors? (Think of the recent Blink 182 music video--remember how they are mocking successful boy-band competitors?)
b) Where did this advertisement appear? Be specific about the magazine, show, landscape, etc...? What is the audience make-up for the particular vehicle of the advertisement? Was the ad campaign restricted to one medium, or is it part of a multi-media campaign? Does the time of day, or, season of the year play into the placement of the ad? (Think of all those "1-800 Dating" and "Psychic" commercials that are broadcast late at night) Why might your ad appear here (medium, date, or time) and not somewhere else or some other time/season?
c) Taking the first two exercises into consideration--what can be inferred about the intended audience for the ad? Attempt to describe this audience, be specific, perhaps you could imagine yourself as an marketing specialist targeting the audience. Step outside of your own personal positioning for a moment (a very important skill for clear critical analysis) and attempt to view the ad through the eyes of the intended audience.
d) What is the mood of the advertisement? What feelings or emotions are the advertisers seeking to evoke from its audience? How does the ad do this?
e) Once again, what, exactly, is the commodity being sold? Describe this product in a straightforward and factual manner. Once you have done this the product should be subtracted from your analysis of the ad for the time being. The pictorial material that is left constitutes the symbolic appeal. Of course in many of your advertisements the advertised product may already be missing from the ad—why?
f) Consider the aesthetics of the ad, consider possible reasons for the way it is structured. Describe the layout or scripted sequence. Why a particular typeface, or, particular voice/tone? What effects do the color patterns have? How are these components establishing a mood or attitude for the ad?
g) Is the artwork in the print ad photographed, computer-generated, or drawn? Why did the photographer or illustrators use the particular lighting, or, select the particular angle for their subjects? Why the particular shot or camera angle (long, medium, or close-up) or the particular focus (sharp or not-sharp).
h) In the image what is in the foreground, what is placed in the background? Why?
i) Create a list of all the objects, plants, animals, and humans in the ad.
j) Examine these items one at a time and think about what meanings they could hold for the intended audience. What does each signal regarding status (think of economic standing or respect in one's community), leisure/work, gender, attitude, sexual orientation, attractiveness, responsibility (or avoidance of), domesticity, age, vitality (or lack of), personality, mood, and so on? What desires, emotions, anxieties, passions, fears.... could be incited by these objects? Begin with the larger items and work your way through to the smaller ones.
k) What is the state of mind or moods of the beings portrayed in the ad?
l) What is the locale or setting of the ad? Could this particular setting carry any significant meaning for the intended audience?
m) Locate this locale in time. Past, present, or future? What is the temporal (of time) location suggesting? (e.g. depictions of the past could be attempting to associate a product with a nostalgic desire for a "golden past")
n) Think now of the narrative structure of the ad. Attempt to write down the story that the ad is portraying? Be creative--if your print ad is not exactly telling a story, think about what the story is behind the picture presented.
o) Sometimes, it is not what is in an ad that pulls in people in but what is missing. Is there anything missing from the imagery that the consumers could possibly feel moved to supply and thus feel more engaged with the portrayal?
p) Is the symbolic appeal in this ad idealizing (to regard or represent as an ideal form of perfection) anything?
q) Imagine what state of mind might the advertisers be hoping that the consumers are bringing to the ad (e.g. remember the "1-800-sex lines" that advertise on late night TV, they would be counting on male consumers who are feeling lonely or desperate).
r) Are there intertextual referents (e.g. think of the "Energizer Bunny" ads and how they always mock other popular culture icons) in this ad? References to historical events, places, or peoples?
s) Think about the framing of your ad--the framing of the advertisement (this is most explicit in print ads) in a conscious decision by the creators to include some thing and to exclude others. What are some things that are logically related to the themes of the symbolic appeal that the creative personnel have framed out?
