Analyzing Media’s Impact on Society

FULL PROMPT:
Writing Project #1: Analyzing Media’s Impact on Society
Objectives:
• Write an arguable thesis statement, one that does not merely summarize the images or video.
• Pay special attention to the context and/or language of the text, focusing on specific words, images, or metaphors. What do these specific details mean?
• Note clear patterns or themes that are presented in the images or video.
• Make a clear interpretation or judgement using evidence from the images/video.
Why Write a Textual Analysis?
Analysis writing is a fundamental component of college writing. “You may be asked to analyze candidates’ speeches in a political science course or to analyze the imagery in a poem for a literature class. In a statistics course, you might analyze a set of data – a numerical text – to find the standard deviation from the mean” (98). Beyond the college classroom, it will be important for you to analyze the texts in the world around you. You will analyze the advertisements, speeches, and other political contributions of future candidates for president, mayor, etc. You will analyze different reviews to select the best products for you. You might even analyze social media accounts of future friends and acquaintances to determine whether they might be someone you want to be associated with. Analysis is fundamental to understanding the world around you.
The purpose of this writing project is to hone your abilities to effectively analyze arguments while communicating your understanding and purpose of the ongoing conversations occurring in your day to day lives. That means not only being able to explain to others what an argument, but also being able to analyze it, contributing something to that conversation yourself, even if it is only a call for more inquiry or research.
Assignment Description:
Our most recent class reading has focused on the role of media in shaping who we are, what we want, and how we see others. Hannah Berry’s “The Fashion Industry: Free to Be an Individual” analyzes advertisements from clothing companies, Clarks and Sorel, to understand how these companies represent – and how they create expectations – for particular groups of people, both those in the groups and those who have expectations for those groups. This example and analysis of media positions us to ask how media informs our lives, shapes our decisions about who we are and how we respond to or expect others to be, and situates us to associate with these media in different ways.
For this writing project, consider what patterns you see in popular images or videos. You will need to select at least 2 images or 1 video and connect what you see in this media with social ideas about who people are or who they should be. You can select two advertisements or social media posts or you can use a commercial or music video. The purpose of this analysis is to analyze a very common kind of argument in our culture: a visual argument; to make claims about patterns you see in those visuals with social expectations – or challenges to social expectations – that you are aware of and want to highlight or critique; and to come up with your own ideas or implications for the role of the visual media in relation to the social world. You should use the techniques we have been practicing in class and your class notes about these images to help you with this analysis.
This is not an argument paper in the traditional sense; that is, you don’t necessarily have to take a stand in your thesis. Instead, you should describe a pattern you see in the text, discuss why this pattern matters using sources to support you, and then consider the implications of this pattern for your audience. Your thesis should not merely critique the work (it is a good advertisement because ______ or it is a bad advertisement because _______), but your thesis should instead present a clear interpretation of the text. Your thesis should not merely summarize the work (the images are about __________), but your thesis should instead present an explanation of what the advertisement specifically has to say about this topic (the images tell us ___________ about __________).
Assignment Components:
• Craft an original title to your essay that provides your audience with some hint as to what your essay is about.
• Include an introduction and thesis that establishes your clear interpretation of the text. What theme/pattern do you plan to discuss? What method of analyzing the text will you use? Are you focused on the text itself? Your own response as a reader? Context around the book?
• Use the body paragraphs to highlight your main points. Use topic sentences to establish the connection between your main point and your thesis. How does this body paragraph expand on your thesis? In these body paragraphs, include careful attention to language of the text and specific examples that support your main claims.
• In your conclusion, you might readdress your main points, look to future readers of the text, or establish some clear gaps in your thinking or Sachdeva’s writing.
• Read, understand, and integrate the outside text(s) in your body paragraphs. How does the short story collection support your main claims? Use signal phrases to introduce the primary source and any secondary sources that you plan to use.
• Present a finished writing product, that is proofread, sources cited, and free of errors.
• Understand and follow through with the directions of the assignment.
Specifications:
• 3-4 pages (900-1200 words), double-spaced, 12-point font, works cited page, and author’s note. Include two additional sources: Your visual text does not count as one of your sources. As this is an analysis of a visual-media artifact, your other sources can come from other texts in our textbook, newspapers, TED Talks, documentaries, or magazines.
• Please remember to cite ALL sources using MLA formatting. These citations must include proper in-text citations and an entry in your works cited page. Proper in-text citations, in our classroom, means introducing every author by first and last name, providing credentials, summarizing the body of text that you are citing, providing the full name of the text, and including paraphrases or direct quotations where needed with page numbers. You are welcome to include MORE than three sources.
Due Dates:
Please submit your first draft to the Project 1: Workshop Discussion Board no later than Tuesday, March 23rd, before 11:59 PM.
Please submit peer feedback to two students on the Project 1: Workshop Discussion Board no later than Thursday, March 25th, before 11:59 PM.
Please submit your final draft to the Project 1: Final Draft file on Canvas no later than Monday, April 12ht before 11:59 PM.