Cultural Analysis

Free Trials of Adobe Products

Here are the links to 30-day trials for Adobe products (just click on the "free trial" tab):

• Photoshop (image editing/manipulation) http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop.html 
• Premiere (video editing) http://www.adobe.com/products/premiere.html
• Audition (audio editing) https://creative.adobe.com/products/audition

Other links that Ty showed us:

• The Noun Project https://thenounproject.com/
• Free Sound http://freesound.org/
• Save From http://en.savefrom.net/?rmode=true

Final Paper/Project + Presentations

The final project will be your opportunity to express your own informed, critical view on the media artifact of your analysis. This can take many forms, from a traditional project (final paper, appx 6-8 pages) to a non-traditional project (performance, play, music video, digital campaign, physical artifact like a poster, clothing, installation) that illustrates a.) what the social, cultural, historical and media context is of the artifact you are analyzing b.) 3-5 key concepts from class (think core bullet points from the lectures), appropriately chosen, defined and applied to your artifact and c.) the use and application of at least 2 critical lenses using intersectionality or a treatment of how various lenses intersect and interact. Papers and projects will have different rubrics assigned, so please see the appropriate rubric for your approach.

ALL finals will be accompanied by a 3-4 minute presentation on Tuesday, June 2. Students doing projects will show what they have finished so far and what their vision is, and students doing papers will outline what their argument is and how they will support it in the paper. ALL presentations should identify:

• The media artifact + background/context
• What concepts from class have been incorporated
• What critical lenses have been utilized
• A thesis statement that gives a critical assessment of the media artifact being analyzed.

You will ONLY be graded according to the rubric that pertains to the form of the final you turn in (i.e. if you did a project, you will only be graded according to the project rubric, and the paper assignment grade will be a dash ("-") in your gradebook, indicating that you are exempt from this grade). Rubrics are linked to below:

Paper: https://canvas.du.edu/courses/11373/assignments/97614

Project: https://canvas.du.edu/courses/11373/assignments/97615 

Tutorial - ripping videos from YouTube and Creative Commons

http://communicationinthedigitialage.blogspot.com/2015/02/visual-tutorial-ripping-youtube-videos.html

Video Game Analysis

Final Topic Media Response Paper

Final Topic Media Response Paper (150 pts): Find a media piece (article, blog post, comment, tweet, etc.) that addresses your cultural object and write 3 pages responding critically to it. Things to address: whether you agree with the point of view of the media piece (you may qualify your agreement, meaning you may agree with part but not all of it), what point of view the media piece was written from, whether the author exhibits any cultural “blind spots”, what issues the author adequately and inadequately addresses, and additional points of view that you would like to add to the dialogue. You may also find multiple media piece and bring them into conversation with each other. Use your creative freedom.

Rubric: https://canvas.du.edu/courses/11373/assignments/93981

Queer Analysis

Bud Lite Pulls Labels that Promote Rape Culture

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2015/04/29/403030019/bud-light-pulls-label-with-message-that-sparked-backlash

Assignment: Social Media Post Series

Final Topic Social Media Series (150 pts): You must either create a social media account for this project or use an already-existing account if you are comfortable with that. You can use any social media platform (i.e. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Reddit, etc.). Create a series (3-5) social media posts that use hashtags and replies to specific accounts that intersect interests with your final project - these posts must build upon your proposed final topic in an effort to engage in or begin a dialogue with the online community. The goal is to be as interactive as possible. Submit on Canvas either: the link(s) to your posts (if publicly available) and/or screenshots of your social media interactions.

**The person with the most social media engagements (replies, favorites, shares/retweets, etc) will receive 10 extra credit points. Please note that this extra credit component is the only place where QUANTITY matters, however, QUALITY of engagements is a (small) part of the grading rubric.

Rubric is available on Canvas: https://canvas.du.edu/courses/11373/assignments/91791

Due Tuesday, May 12 at the start of class. Please come to class that day prepared to discuss any insights to your topic you gained from this exercise.

Gender Stereotyping Marketed to Babies

http://boingboing.net/2015/05/05/sexismbegins.html