a-few-easy-humanities-writings

Please complete these in separate documents

1) ANALYZING A COMMERCIAL

Introduction

You can use your critical thinking skills to analyze any text, including commercials. Analyzing commercials helps you think critically about your response and enables you to make better judgments regarding the products and services you pay for.

The Assignment

Pick a commercial and analyze its content. Consider the following components:

1. The purpose of the commercial (what is being sold)
2. Its audience (to what market is the piece directed)
3. Its length (how much information does the piece contain)
4. Its organization (in what order is the information presented)
5. Its design (what images, colors, sounds, and juxtapositions are used)

After determining the information above, question why the creator(s) of the commercial decided to make the rhetorical decisions they did and identify what some of their other options were. Comment on the effectiveness of the commerical by relating whether you would buy the product, service, or idea being sold, and whether the goals of product identification and memorability were achieved. Also provide insight as to how you would change the strategy if you were the director: what images or text should be modified and how? Should the piece be shortened or lengthened and why? Should the music and the background be changed and for what effect?

Resource Use the following website, your lecture notes, and textbook reading assignments to help you complete this writing assignment.

Center For Media Literacy

Specifications

1. Acceptable Length: 1-2 pages
2. Formatting Requirements:
   1. Doublespace
   2. Use size 12 Times New Roman font
   3. Place your name and page number at top right of every page
3. To get a top score, your paper should be clear, precise, and in-depth and should include:
   1. A purpose statement
   2. Sufficient details that relate to your analysis
   3. A closing which indicates the value of your position

2) TEACHING: THE MEDIA AND CRITICAL THINKING

Introduction

Teaching is the best way to fully understand a concept or issue. Therefore pretend you are teaching a seminar on critical thinking and the media and develop a lesson plan laying out at least two issues/concepts you determine to be essential to the field of media studies, providing core information, and justifying your choices to your students.

The Assignment

Use the following questions to guide your lesson plan development:

1. What is Media Literacy?
2. Why is it important that media output be monitored?
3. What standards/criteria should be used to assess the quality of the output?
4. What are some of the consequences/implications of not monitoring what we hear, read, and see?

Resources
Refer to the following webpage, your lecture notes, and textbook reading for guidance.

• Center for Media Literacy

When you arrive at the site, click on the “Best Practices” on the left for definitions of Media Literacy. The links at the bottom of that new page will help defind Media Literacy!

Specifications

1. Acceptable Length: 1-2 pages
2. Formatting Requirements:
   1. Doublespace
   2. Use size 12 font
   3. Place your name and page number at top right of every page
3. To get a top score, your paper should be clear, precise, in-depth and should include:
   1. A purpose statement
   2. Examples to support your position
   3. A closing which indicates the value of your position

3) MEDIA EVENT

Introduction
The media affect our lives daily, causing us to make decisions that could be either harmful or beneficial, or a combination thereof. To be a wise and safe media consumer, we all need to consider how we are affected by rhetorical techniques and content in which we hear, read, watch, and determine which of those techniques and material are likely to sway us and lead us to satisfying and productive thinking and behavior in all aspects of our experience and interaction with others.

The Assignment
Write an essay in which you describe a specific media event that has had a significant impact on the quality of your life, your self-image, your relationships with others, etc., either for the better or the worse (for example, an episode of a t.v. show, such as the coverage of bulimia on Oprah, an advertisement for substance abuse counseling or a dieting method, or a presentation on race/gender relations in the U. S. which modified your attitudes and behavior toward someone else.)

1. Describe the event.
2. Discuss how the mode/style of presentation influenced you.
3. Explain whether the influence was short- or long-term.
4. Determine whether the event had a positive or negative impact on your life or the life of someone you know.

Resources

• Center For Media Literacy

Specifications

1. Acceptable Length: 1-2 pages
2. Formatting Requirements:
   1. Doublespace
   2. Use size 12 font
   3. Place your name and page number at top right of every page
3. To get a top score, your paper should be clear, precise, and in-depth and include:
   1. A purpose statement
   2. Examples to support your position
   3. A closing which indicates the value of your position