Post #4 is due by the class period on Tuesday, March 13th. Peer response on others’ blog is due by the end of the class period on Thursday, March 15th.
Based on your reading and our class discussions of ideological criticism:
1) Locate an artifact that (or a series of related artifacts) that’s somehow unique, original, and/or significant and that communicates to its readers/viewers a clear message. The artifact should come from a clear source and present clear verbal and/or visual content. You might choose one or a few representative examples of the following artifacts: public service announcements, movies, TV programs, songs, TV commercials, print advertisements and/or other print materials from a particular campaign, brochures, websites, public speeches, cartoons, comic strips, etc. Give some information about the rhetorical situation of this artifact (its rhetor, message/argument, audience, purpose, context). Post a link to the artifact, if possible.
2) Once you have identified the artifact(s), perform a preliminary ideological criticism of it by examining its content to identify and make a list of the following:
a) Presented Elements
b) Suggested Elements
3) Then, write down a few statements which begin to formulate an ideology evident in your selected artifact(s). Use the questions in our textbook (page 247) to guide you in formulating the ideology: you may just choose a few relevant questions from the list on p. 247 which you can answer in relation to your artifact(s).
4) Once you have made your own blog posting, you should go to at least three other classmates’ blogs to respond to their posting (try to respond to the peers who haven’t gotten any responses yet; if everybody has received a response already, you can respond to anyone). Read the posting and explore any links provided with it. Your response could be in the form of questions, comments, and suggestions. You may ask a clarifying question to make your peer further think about aspects of their selected rhetorical artifacts? You may make a comment about what you think about their analysis (what is good/interesting about your peers’ observations), about anything that personally resonates with you, etc. You may make suggestions for further development, should your peer choose to continue their preliminary analysis in their Critical Essay #2. The suggestions can include research-related suggestions (sources to look into for developing an analysis, etc).