Park University Media Criticism Paper

Step one in the creation of your Media Criticism Final Paper

This paper includes an introduction to the paper topic and gives us the background we need to understand what is going on. Because each person’s project is different, the instructions are broad. Please ask if you don’t know what something means.

Use only library sources—books from the “catalog;” magazines, journals, newspaper stories—from library databases like Masterfile, Communication Source, and Lexis Nexis. Do not “google” for sources for this assignment.

Use a minimum of five sources. Write at least three pages.

Here is a sample of the organizational structure of a paper:

A. First, write an introduction to your project.

1. Include an attention getter—a story, quote, statistic, relevance to us—something to get us interested in your topic

2. a statement explaining what your topic is and why it’s important. Say something like “Media coverage of violence may not seem important, but it seems to reinforce negative perceptions of minority groups.

3. Tell us what you plan to analyze in a bit more depth—for example you might talk about news stories from X date to Y date from A, B, and C, newspapers. Or you might say you’re analyzing X film and give us a one-sentence summary of the movie. You might start with “This paper will examine Crazy Rich Asians through a Marxist Lense.” It’s OK if you don’t know what method you’ll used to analyze the artifacts you will examine. That can be filled in later.

4. Preview the points you’ll make in this section. Look at the points for the section and be sure your preview covers them in the order you plan to talk about them in the paper.

B. In the body of the paper, discuss the following items:

1) the situation—what else is going in in the culture at the time the artifact(s) was/were created? Is there some event that led to the creation of this artifact? Can you make a timeline for us if the artifact was created in response to an event? Use library sources to substantiate your points.

2) The artifact itself (movie, news stories, etc.)

Describe it – what occurs in it, give quotes from it, who created it, who starred in it (if it has stars), who directed it (if it has a director), who published it (if it’s written), who wrote it……Use library sources here.
Focus on who created/published/wrote/directed/starred and give some information about those people or organizations—where did they grow up, what else have they done, what is the organization (if, for example, it’s a newspaper)….. Remember those library sources in this section
3) The audience – for whom was this designed? Who was intended to read/view this? Why? Often this will be found in interviews about the artifact, especially is it’s a movie or television show. Again, library sources are helpful here. Check out Lexis news database. Newspapers often have interviews with the creators of movies, etc.

4) Critical responses to it—find 3 or four reviews or commentary on the artifact. Try searching in Masterfile for “review of X” if it’s a movie or tv show. If it’s newspaper stories you’re analyzing, skip this unless you can find criticism of the coverage (you often can on news issues—look in Lexis news database).

5) Why was/is it important? What can we learn from looking at this artifact? Can we learn how the media shapes public opinion, how the movies glamorize sexual assault, etc. This section doesn’t need sources