MODULE 1, UNIT 6
Putting it Together: Critical Essay

Goal: to write a long form analysis of a media message drawing upon the entire module of discussions, readings, and viewings having to do with composition, semiology, ideology/hegemony, and residual, dominant, and emergent discourses.
Length: 6-8  pages, double space, Calibri font.

1. PICK A GOOD ONE. Ads (whether a full page magazine ad, a 30-second TV commercial or music video) are excellent “short stories” to analyze because they have high production values and pack a lot of culture and meaning into a short amount of time or space. Find a media artifact that are rich with meaning. The ads must have people in them, and should be aesthetically provocative, with lots of rich elements for you to demonstrate what you understand about picture composition, plot, characterization, semiotics, narrative, discourse analysis (ideology and hegemony) and interpretation.

The media artifact you choose also displays a distinct ideological framework that you will write about. You will want to demonstrate what you have learned through the first weeks of this course.

2. MEDIA ANALYSIS. Critically analyze your media artifact/representation in this ORDER, with the following sub-headings in your paper:

1. Denotative meaning: In one to two paragraphs, describe the image or video in terms of its baseline characteristics:

How many people?

What are they doing?

What are they holding?

What direction are they looking?

What colors appear in the photograph?

Are there any objects surrounding the people?  

Where are they?

2. Composition: color, form, line, movement, frame magnetism (pulling power), vectors and motion vectors, and rule of thirds. In one paragraph, almost as if you’re an art critic explaining the image or video, consider how the image is guided by the “principles of composition” (color, form, depth, movement).

Was disunity or discomfort intentional?

How is depth suggested?

How is space arranged on either side of a human subject?

How often and how deliberately are people and objects placed at the margins of the frame so you have to imagine what is cut off?

Why were all these choices made by the person who created this image or video?

How do these aesthetic choices affect the viewer?

Overall, how is the image/video constructed? What does the composition of the ad tell us about what we are supposed to feel and who the ad is directed to?

Show that you understand the concepts revolving around:

• Color (red, blue, etc) as an accent point
• Frame magnetism
• Rule of Thirds
• Powerful shapes (square, rectangle, circle, triangle)
• Human figures (as forms)
• Lines (verticals, horizontals, diagonals, parallel lines)
• Line direction
• Vectors (graphic, index, motion)
• Motion vectors (convergence, divergence, continuous)
• Depth (high and low angles, foreground and background, )
• Punctum
• Feel free to analyze the artifact according to textures, visual weight, light and shade, or the headroom or talk space/look space given above a person in a frame. (The text didn’t cover these items but perhaps your instructor did).

NOTE: Do not take the areas listed above and go through them methodically in the same order (recreating that list in paragraph form). Instead, write a well-crafted analysis that reads like an informed art review. Pick the most relevant or important compositional elements to analyze.

3. Semiology: In one paragraph, identify the signs (iconic, index, or symbolic) present in the ad

What are their connotations and codes?

If a model has blond hair, what does blond hair mean in our culture?

If a male figure is buff or has super abs, what does that say about the culture of masculinity?

Analyze the cultural codes and symbols. Dig deep down into the core cultural symbols of shared culture and explain what these symbols mean–a model of car, a watch, a certain kind of halter top. Just saying "she is a white and skinny and that's a typical look for women in our culture" is not a semiotic analysis–you have to explain what white and skinny and female means culturally.  

Remember, culture is constructed; nothing is "normal." You're an anthropologist, and you're acting as if you are explaining your culture to aliens from Mars.

Think about:

Representations of bodies

1. Age. What is the age of the figures in the image/video meant to convey? Innocence? Wisdom? Senility?
2. Gender. Ads very often rely on stereotypical images of masculinity and femininity. Men are “active” and “rational”; women are passive and are associated with domestic activities.
3. Race. Again, ads often depend on stereotypes. To what extent does an ad do this? Or does it normalize whiteness by making it invisible? Why?
4. Hair. Women’s hair is often used to signify seductive beauty or narcissism.
5. Body. Which bodies are thin (and therefore often represented as desirable and attractive) and which are not thin? Are we shown whole bodies, or does the photo show only parts of bodies? (Women’s bodies are often treated in this way, especially in cosmetic ads.)
6. Size. Ads often indicate what is more important by making it big.
7. Looks. Again, ads often trade on conventional notions of male and female beauty.
8. Style. What do people’s clothes represent?  What do tattoos mean, or an ankle bracelet, or a baseball cap? (Be bold and daring on this one.)

Representations of manner

1. Expression. Who is shown as happy, haughty, sad and so on? What facial and other expressions are used to convey this? Why?
2. Eye contact. Who is looking at whom (including you) and how? Are those looks submissive, coy, confrontational? Why?  What is the purpose? Do you see evidence of a male gaze within this media artifact?
3. Pose. Who is standing and who is prone? Why?
4. Interpellation: who is being hailed in this media representation? Who is the imagined spectator?

Representations of Activity

1. Touch. Who is touching what, with what effects?
2. Body movement. Who is active and who is passive?
3. Positional communication. What is the spatial arrangement of the figures? Who is positioned as superior and who is inferior? Who is intimate with whom and how? How are they standing, sitting, squatting, and why?

Props and Settings

1. Props. Objects in ads can be used in a way unique to a particular ad, but many ads rely on objects that have particular cultural significance. For example, eyeglasses often connote intelligence, golden light indicates tranquility, and so on.
2. Settings. Settings range from the apparently “normal” to the supposedly “exotic,” and can also seem to be fantasies. What effects does its setting have on an ad?
   

4. Narrative: In two paragraphs, describe the story being told in this image or video (the implied narrative).

How is the story told? (constructed as a series of shots)

How might one be able to relate to this story?

How is the story culturally powerful?

What is the plot? Does it participate in one of the six master myths (hero myth, the victim myth, the flood myth, the good mother myth, the scapegoat myth, the trickster myth, and the other world myth)?

How are characters developed?

What in the story is advanced as common sense?

Is this story big enough to be a myth? How?

5. Ideology: In one to two paragraphs, define ideology and describe the possible ideological meanings of the advertisement. Does the story/myth behind the media artifact represent residual, dominant, or emergent discourses?
6. Hegemony. In one to two paragraphs, define hegemony.

What is hegemonic about this image/commercial/video?

Or counter hegemonic?

What about this media message can pass as common sense?  

7. Interpretation: In one to two paragraphs, identify any polysemic possibilities in the ad. What sort of oppositional readings are present or might be possible?

3. CONCLUSION: In one paragraph, describe what the ad does ideologically (not just what it represents, but what it wants you to believe or do). What have you learned about yourself or the media around you?

Writing: Keep your introduction short and clear. Offer specific, compelling details as you analyze and reference the media artifact. Give abundant evidence of your understanding of the readings and research (referencing the course material you’ve studied in this unit). Carefully include and define key terms and core concepts.

References: Submit a bibliography of all sources you mention using APA style.

RUBRIC:  100 points

MEDIA ANALYSIS

• A well written, comprehensive analysis of the media artifact that covers all aspects of media analysis studied this semester with introduction, conclusion, with no grammatical errors and handed in on time – 20 points

• Denotative meaning and understanding of Composition 10 points
• Semiotic analysis 25 points
• Narrative analysis 10 points
• Ideological analysis 10 points
• Hegemonic analysis 10 points
• Interpretative analysis 10 points
• References 5 points