Imagine that you are a consultant who is hired by a media institution (e.g. advertising firm, TV network, film production company, etc.) or artist to evaluate and provide feedback on media they produced that generated backlash. You have been tasked with explaining to the organization/individuals that hired you, why a specific media artifact (e.g. advertisement, TV show, film, music video, news story, etc.) is problematic or insensitive and thus potentially marginalizing to a specific group of people.
Your task:
•Select a media artifact that was/is either widely viewed as controversial/ problematic or one that could be interpreted as such
•Impact statement: Write an introduction that provides information about the social demographic that is key to the media artifact under discussion. What challenges has that group faced when it comes to representation in media?
•Media artifact description: Provide a brief description of the media artifact. For this, focus on the denotative meaning.
•Identify problematic elements: Highlight the specific problem areas within the media artifact and draw upon relevant concepts and scholarly readings introduced in the course—or elsewhere, with approval—to explain why those features are counter intuitive towards efforts at diversity and inclusion and/or marginalizing to a specific group.
•Advice: Provide advice on what should be done to avoid future mishaps, while also being attuned to diversity and inclusion
•References: Include a list of the sources you used.
Since this a report aimed at a non-academic audience, your task is to explain concepts and ideas in your own words and minimize the use lengthy direct quotations. However, you should make sure to attribute the concepts and ideas you use to their appropriate source.
Media artifact perimeters:
•Must be a media artifact from the last 10 years
•Must be a media artifact that hasn’t been used as an example in class
•It can be a print or video ad campaign, television episode/show, film, or music video
Mechanics:
•Length apprx. 1100words (3-5 pages)
•Double-spaced
• 12 font
•Use subheadings
•APA citation style (7th edition)
Skills to be evaluated:
•Writing clarity, organization, grammar, spelling, punctuation
•Critical thinking: ability to analyze and identify meaning and practices within the media text that concern issues of gender, race, sexuality, class, nationality and/or disability
•Comprehension of concepts
•Use of APA
Optional:
•Inclusion of images or screen shots for audiovisual mediums.
Sources:
•Minimum 4 (You can use the sources that your recommend to the group that hired you. However, while this is a minimum, you can do more to strengthen your report by including more sources.)
•Your “Impact Statement” should make reference to sources. For instance, if you make a claim that “Asian Americans continue to be stereotyped in media,” you want to follow this with a source (academic or relevant organization) that has made this same claim. Example: “Asian Americans continue to be stereotyped in media” (Ono & Pham, 2009). Or “According to a 2012 report from [name of advocacy group], Asian Americans continue to be stereotyped in media.”
Example:
[Title] Report on Ariana Grande’s “7 Rings” Music Video
Representation of Asian American’s in Media (This is the heading I’ve chosen for my “Impact statement”)
This is where I would write a paragraph describing the lack of visibility and stereotyped representation of Asian Americans within U.S. media. I would make sure to draw on scholarly sources and other data to support my claims. (If you need assistance on locating sources, this is where you can work with the GEs in the class.)
“7 Rings” Music Video (This is a subheading for the specific media artifact I will describe) Provide a brief description of the music video in terms of its content.
Orientalism and Cultural Appropriation in “7 Rings”
Then identify the specific problematic elements of the MVV and then draw upon the specific concepts to explain what those elements are problematic. In this case, I have selected “Orientalism” and “cultural appropriation.”
Future Steps
Provide advice as to how the media producers could be inclusive while not marginalizing a specific group. You also might want to re-iterate why this is important for their bottom-line, brand, etc.
References This is where you include all the references you have cited in your report. (This is a separate page) There may be sources in your paper that you do not place in the “suggested readings” section so all the sources you do use, should be indicated here.
Sample Solution
