media analysis

For this assignment you will provide a critical analysis of a piece of media in relation to key course themes such as gender, sexuality, representation, identity, colonisation, or globalisation. Your analysis should be 1000 – 1200 words and draw on course readings and other relevant academic literature/sources to evidence your thinking and claims. To write your assignment, follow the three steps outlined below: 1) Select one example of recent media (last 10 years) to critically analyze Examples of media include: • Recent films and movies • Television episodes • Magazines/newspapers adds or articles • Books • Songs/Music videos • Billboards, posters, and advertisements • Websites, Internet groups, Mobile applications 2) Begin your analysis with: 1. A brief summary of the media 2. Its mode of representation (e.g. written, visual, musical) 3. Where it is/was located 4. The target audience of the selected media. (This should be approximately 150-200 words) 3) Discuss your chosen media piece in relation to the way it depicts, discusses, and/or represents gender, sexuality, representation, identity, colonisation, or globalisation or any of the other themes explored in this course. In your media analysis, you will need to interrogate the selected media in relation to the way it engages in, or addresses the above themes. Examples of questions that can be used to interrogate the chosen media are listed below. Please note that in a 1000-1200 word assignment, you will need to chose a specific avenue for investigation (for example 1 of the bullet points listed below). Do not try to answer/investigate too many questions as you will not be able to engage sufficiently critically if your questions/interrogation is too broad. • How are gender and gender roles presented? How are men and boys or women and girls visually portrayed? How are they described? What roles do they perform in the media? How are these portrayals and descriptions different from how member of the opposite gender are portrayed? What are the social implications of these portrayals? • How are BIPOC women portrayed? Are they included in the media? What stereotypes regarding them are enacted in the media? Does the media challenge stereotypes? Does this media participate in the historical oppression of BIPOC women? How might it participate in the emancipation of BIPOC women? Is there evidence of micro-aggressions or violence towards BIPOC women? Is there evidence of colonial legacies or colonisation in the presentation of the media? • How is the body portrayed? What types of bodies are shown as desirable? Undesirable? Is the body a site for pleasure? Pain? Control? Freedom? • Are LGTBI+ people depicted, portrayed, or represented in your media? What stereotypes regarding are enacted in the media? How might the media challenging stereotypes? Does this media participate in the historical oppression of sexual minorities? How might it participate in the emancipation of sexual minorities? • How is sex depicted? Who is portrayed as having sex? Who is not portrayed as having sex? What assumptions about sexual acts underlie this media? Is sex portrayed as being pleasurable? Something that needs to be controlled? • How is the job of parenting represented? What does parenting seem to entail? Who is shown as doing the job of parenting? What type of children seem to need the most parenting? What messages does this media send to children about the work of parents? *Note that this is a non-exhaustive list of potential avenues for analysis. You are welcome to investigate any of the themes explored in this course. If you plan to investigate a non-listed topic/idea, please discuss this with me prior to beginning your analysis. When engaging in your analysis, you should make meaningful connections to concepts, topics, and findings in academic literature relating to women’s and gender studies. Your essay should have at least 6 references, from recent books and academic journals. Your profile should be single spaced, 1000-1200 words. As per academic writing guidelines, you will need to provide an intext reference and reference list entry for all the sources (research) you have used in writing your analysis. For this assignment, you should use only academic literature (books, peer reviewed articles etc.) to evidence your thinking and claims. In-text citation and reference list entries must follow APA 7 formatting. Any paper with plagiarised material (material that does not correctly reference to source of the information) will receive a zero as per the CapU academic integrity guidelines. Please see the course eLearn page for further writing and referencing resources and assignment rubric.