Objectives:
-Develop media literacy.
- Learn to identify and critique everyday facets of our culture(s) that are usually unseen because they are "normal."
- Apply scholarly knowledge to mundane life.
- Develop an ability to explain deeper meanings (and problems) to an audience beyond your instructor as well as identify who an audience is for different social/cultural phenomenon.
- Understand and be able to use citations and references.
Steps:
1- Choose a movie or tv show.
2- Analyze how the artifact reflects or does not reflect mainstream ideas about different identities
and statuses, using the questions below as a guide.
3- Final product: Your assessment should apply course concepts and answer the questions on the next page. You need to integrate at least two academic (peer reviewed) articles within your analysis to support your argument- these may be from the syllabus or you may find them elsewhere. Ideally this will be a cohesive, 3-4 page paper. If you need to work up to that, you may answer each question in its own paragraph.
Note: You should start your paper with a one paragraph summary of the movie/show so I have some idea of what is going on.
Questions:
What message does the artifact send9 What stereotypes or distortions does this artifact rely on to impart its message? What are the values or beliefs reflected in the artifact?
What message is it telling about the society it represented? Does it reflect the real lives and real people in your communities?
How does this artifact perpetuate and/or subvert myths and/or misperceptions regarding gender, race, class, sexuality, or other identities and statuses?
Who is the target audience for this artifact? In other words, who is it aimed at? Why/for what purpose?
How might the messages present in the artifact impact your own or others' attitudes about different types of people?
What is an alternative way this artifact could have been done that would be more holistic or accurate or less stereotypical? If it is fairly realistic or less stereotypical, explain.