McMaster University American Studies Question PPT

This Cultural Studies Media Analysis Paper/Presentation is not due until the end of Module 8, but I want you to have plenty of time to work on it! The Freedom Writers Discussion was a small practice for this activity. Also, we will have an assigned group Discussion soon, where we share ideas with each other about this assignment (as we did on the School Reflection paper). Be sure check the Calendar here in Canvas. Keep an eye on the due date, and plan your time accordingly.

Learning to critique texts is fundamental to the learning objectives of EDL 204. For your text analysis, you are going to conduct a media analysis using a popular film related to education (list provided) or musical album related to social issues (and more broadly education). The main goal of this assignment is to practice analyzing a text using basic terms introduced in class (i.e. ideology, hegemony, etc.). through a critical lens. For this assignment, you will provide a critical analysis of the cultural and ideological assumptions behind a “text” in a 3-5-page paper OR an 8-10 minute audiovisual presentation (video, narrated PowerPoint, Screencast-O-Matic).

Closely review these assignment instructions before you get started.

• This paper/presentation is an analysis. Do not just walk through retelling the movie in your paper.
• This paper/presentation should show that you are understanding and applying course terms/concepts and course readings!
• This is how you should think of your paper/presentation. Put on your EDL 204 glasses!
• Introductory paragraph—brief plot line, brief description of main characters, setting, etc.
• Paragraph #1, Course Term #1:
  Select a course term from the “Course Terms & Readings” chart (under Syllabus tab in Canvas).
  Clearly define this term, using course texts (presentations/PowerPoints and/or readings). This should be a detailed definition, showing that you have a deep understanding of this concept.
  If you used a definition from the presentation/PowerPoints, you might also use a quote from course reading/text that is an example or discussion of this concept.
  Then, describe the scene or aspect of the movie that we can understand differently now, that is an example of this concept.
• Paragraph #2, Course Term #2:
• Repeat
• Paragraph #3, Course Term #3:
• Repeat
• Concluding Paragraph—What have you learned about this movie, when looking at it with your EDL 204 glasses on?
• See Rubric!
• Need at least 3 course terms.
• Need at least 2-4 quotes from course readings/videos (presentations/PowerPoints not included in count).
• Need at least 2-3 outside sources talking about the film.
• APA Quick Guide Actionslinked here.
• See the 2 sample papers (on The Blind Side) in the Assignment, linked below.
• Please read my feedback in your recent small Discussion assignment.

Here are two sample papers, which you may peruse to get a better idea of what is expected in this assignment. Both are on The Blind Side, so you may not do your own paper on this movie. 🙂 These papers are not perfect, but are pretty good.

Sample Paper #1

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Sample Paper #2

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Cultural Studies Media Analysis

A text is more than just written print in traditional vessels such as books and articles. Text can include words but also can represented through images or interactions. Literacy encompasses our ability to read such texts and might be contested within both “high” culture” and “low” culture. Learning to analyze texts is fundamental to the learning objectives of EDL 204. For the first text analysis, you are going to conduct a critical media analysis through popular culture either through film related to education (list provided) or through a musical album related to social issues (and more broadly education).

The main goal of this assignment is to practice analyzing a text using a critical lens and concepts introduced in class, such as:

• ideology
• hegemony
• critical pedagogy/progressive educational philosophy
• hidden curriculum
• cultural capital
• Eurocentrism/Western canon
• social reproduction
• social justice
• inequality
• deficit narrative/thinking
• oppression (prejudice + discrimination + power)
• institutional/systemic racism
• opportunity gap.

This is not a movie or album review; you should not include your opinion on these texts. Rather, your paper should demonstrate your ability to take concepts and ideas discussed in EDL 204 (Course Terms & Readings

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chart) and use these to analyze and be critical of broader societal structures and to make connections to education. This should not be a paper you could have written before taking this course. Start with a few of these concepts to use as lenses to look at the movie in a new way.

You might include additional background research around the film /music itself. Who are the writers, artists, directors, producers? How does their positionality influence the text created? What about the historical moment of cultural production? (i.e., what was transpiring historically at the moment of text production that could have influenced the text and its authors, producers?) What larger discourses (messages) surround the text? How have some others criticized or critiqued or problematized this text? These are some guiding questions to get you thinking deeply.

You should plan to watch the entire movie at least twice along with multiple times for certain passages, or to listen to the album multiple times as you work on this assignment.

For this assignment, you will provide a critical analysis of the cultural and ideological assumptions behind a “text” in a 3-5-page paper, Times New Roman, 12-point font, 1-inch margins, APA, OR an 8-10 minute audiovisual presentation (video, narrated PowerPoint, Screencast-O-Matic). The first page/part should begin with relevant background information that you researched related to the film/album (including 2-3 outside sources). Use the guiding questions below to aid in your analysis. You should conclude by making a direct connection back to education. Additionally, you must use at least 2 readings from class to aid in your critique.

Guiding Questions for Film

You might consider these, along with using terms and concepts. Do not just answer these questions, but you might use one or more of these to guide your thinking. Most of these are connected with course terms, and not all will apply to each movie. See the suggested paper outline above.

1. How is the “teacher figure” constructed? How are the students constructed? How are families and neighborhoods constructed?
2. How are stereotypes both reinforced and/or deconstructed? Is deficit thinking at play in this film?
3. What hidden curriculum is at play throughout the film?
4. How is this a (mis)representation of education and/or schooling?
5. What kind of knowledge construction is represented in this film? Are certain knowledges privileged over others? Are certain knowledges dismissed?
6. What are the implications for this film for education and broader society?
   1. Are there any detrimental messages within the film that could be construed as problematic?
   2. Are there any empowering messages in the film that could be construed as resistant?
7. Consider the sounds (musical tracks) and imagery used in the film as a part of your analysis.

Film Choices

• Green Book
• Straight Outta Compton
• The Help
• Hidden Figures
• The Kindergarten Teacher
• If Beale Street Could Talk
• BlacKkKlansman
• The Hate You Give
• Dangerous Minds (1995)
• Remember the Titans (2000)
• The Blind Side (2009). May not use this movie because 2 sample papers were done on this (see links in this assignment).
• Lean On Me (1989)
• Won’t Back Down (2012)
• Dead Poets Society (1989)
• Stand and Deliver (1988)
• Mona Lisa Smile (2003)
• Ron Clark Story (2006)
• Mr. Holland’s Opus (1996)
• Akeelah and the Bee (2006)
• Finding Forrester (2000)
• Precious (2009)
• To Sir With Love (1967)
• School Daze (1988)
• Pump Up the Volume (1990)
• Higher Learning (2005)

Guiding Questions for Song/Album

You might consider these, along with using terms and concepts. Do not just answer these questions, but you might use one or more of these to guide your thinking. Most of these are connected with course terms, and not all will apply to each movie. See the suggested paper outline above.

For a musical album you might focus on 1-2 songs. Include song lyrics as a part of an Appendix.

1. What larger messages are depicted on this album?
2. What larger social knowledge is being depicted, if any? What voices are included?
3. What might be socially influencing this music and why?
4. How does music lend itself to the message of the album?
5. What are some implications of this album for broader society and education?
6. Consider the tone, beat, layers of intensity instruments uses, sampling of songs/speeches, themes and variation as a part of your analysis.
7. See any of the applicable questions above about Film.

Album/Song Choices

• Chance the Rapper
• Kendrick Lamar – “To Pimp a Butterfly” (2015)
• Kendrick Lamar – “DAMN” (2017)
• Bob Dylan – “The Times They Are A Changin” (1964)
• Beyonce- “Lemonade” (2016)
• Solange – “A Seat at the Table” (2016)
• J Cole- “Be Free” (single song) (2014)
• Macklemore & Ryan Lewis- “White Privilege” and “White Privilege II” (2005/2016)
• Common (choose songs)
• Mos Def (choose songs)
• Nas – Nas (2008)
• Talib Kweli- “Hip Hop For Respect” (2000)
• Jasiri X “American History X” (2010)
• Jasiri X “Ascension” (2013)
• Jasiri X “Black Liberation Theology” (2013)
• Erykah Badu- “New Amerykah Part One” (2008)
• Lauryn Hill- “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” (1998)
• Green Day- American Idiot! (2004)
• Marvin Gaye- What’s Going On – (1971)
• Kanye West- “Late Registration” (2005)
• N.W.A. “Straight Outta Compton”(1988)
• CIRCA MMXI: The Collective “High Society Collective” (2012)
• The Wailers- Burnin’ (2001)
• Flobots
• Rise Against- “Appeal To Reason” (2008)
• The Clash – The Clash (1977)
• The Coup- Genocide & Juice (2006)
• Steppenwolf – Monster (1969)
• The Roots- Things Fall Apart