Media Exams
1. Briefly describe one recent media / pop culture text/event or trend. (An advertisement, a rock album, a news item etc.) that would lend itself to analysis of all four key concepts of media. Then apply the four key concepts to your example so that you demonstrate your grasp of these important ideas and thereby reveal your self as an astute media critic
2. ADVERTISING: Choosing one of the following products, write a detailed script and/or annotated storyboard for a 60 – 90 second commercial. Be sure to use your knowledge of film grammar and the conventions of script writing. You are welcome to provide appropriate details that will help your TV producer realize your ideas as well as showing what a brilliant media imagination you possess.
iii. new soft drink that will avoid the typical cliches of cola commercials
iv. a commercial promoting our school be shown on local cable
3. “How we are seen determines in part how we are treated; how we treat others is based on how we see them; such seeing comes from representation.” Using this quotation (you might try to put it into your own words to show you understand it) apply its insights by discussing three different categories of media representation and providing suitable examples for each . You can draw from: gender, race, images of teens or any other group e.g. teachers, politicians that are shown in the media.
4. Many media experts assert that there are connections between our consuming media images and their impact on people’s sense of self- worth. Discuss two important insights regarding the connections between real life and the media by referring to current ideas of male and female beauty and the pressure to have or acquire the ‘right look.’
On Violence and the Media
5. IDENTIFY THREE DIFFERENT BUT IMPORTANT ISSUES raised by media violence today. Discuss, with specific examples:
ii. how you would resolve any of the controversies surrounding them.
6. “Living in a culture of violence, the media have desensitized us to accept violent acts, words and extreme threats as the norm. Violence is often shown as attractive, necessary and even glorious. From hockey fights, ‘Rambomania’ and recent war films such as Saving Private Ryan ,violence is an extremely complex thing. While we profess to dread it and tend to denounce it, we also secretly enjoy it in some form; clearly, violence is a magnet for hypocrisy.”
Using this quotation, discuss three different and important issues raised by the topic.
