Critical Research and Analysis Assignment
Choose ONE of the topics below and follow the instructions to develop it in a minimum 1000-to-1250-word essay. If you have another research topic in mind, or if you're not sure about how to narrow down a given topic, please contact me.
RESEARCH TOPICS:
1. Advertisement/commercial: Select any advertisement/commercial you like and analyze its (verbal & visual) language: how does this ad attempt at emotional manipulation? How does it make us feel? What does it make us desire? Physical or mental excellence? Social status? Sex appeal? A combination of distinct qualities? Does the ad simultaneously make us feel inferior to an ideal that it establishes? In what ways does the ad promise that the respective product/service will satisfy the desire that it inspires?
2. Political advertisement: Select any political advertisement you like and analyze its (verbal & visual) language: how does this political ad attempt at emotional manipulation? What is the explicit message (provide a summary)? In addition to the explicit message, what indirect messages (music, color symbolism, association with positive images, etc.) build up the candidate's character? What indirect messages cast doubts upon the opponent's character?
3. Case of activism: Select any well-known case of activism and analyze the role of communications in the unfolding of events: were journalistic networks used for government and/or activist propaganda during this time? What alternative channels of communication were used (think gra?ti, memes, jokes, videos, etc.)? Did a particular communication technology -Twitter, Facebook, SMS messages, etc.-come to the fore as a preferred means for disseminating propaganda? Was any type of communication technology used for mobilizing/organizing masses? Was a particular form/channel of communication censored or blocked-think, for example, of a state-imposed internet ban? What was the outcome of such censorship?
4. Case of corporate scandal: - Select any recent well-known case of corporate scandal and analyze the (verbal & visual) language used by the corporate communications department to manage the crisis. What overt and covert messages did the corporation use to restore the public trust in its brand? Did the corporation accept responsibility? If so, how long did it take before doing so? How did the messages prior to such acceptance differ from the ones that were released after the acceptance announcement? What sort of language could be interpreted as a possible attempt at shifting the blame from the corporate identity to a subgroup or isolated employees?
INSTRUCTIONS & GUIDELINES:
Whichever option you choose, start by formulating a speci?c research question: what is the main point you'd like your reader to learn from your paper?
Be sure to organize your essay well. Use clear chapter divisions, headings, etc. to guide the reader through your research.
A minimum of 1000 words and FIVE sources are required. Naturally, you may choose to write a lot more than 1000 words and/or use more than ?ve sources, which would probably produce better results for your research anyway.
Two of these sources must be from academic (i.e., peer- reviewed) journals (hint: use the Fanshawe Virtual Library). The other three may be anything from the internet (websites, blogs, videos, tweets, newspaper articles, etc.), but they must be of a high quality-that is, they must contain current, accurate, relevant and reliable information.
Feel free to consult the friendly librarians at Fanshawe Library to get reliable assistance for your research.
Be sure to use the appropriate APA format for all your in-text citations and your list of References at the end of your analysis. For detailed instructions about the APA format, please consult Purdue University's Online Writing Library OWL.
All submissions will be thoroughly checked for plagiarism. Submissions that contain any form/degree of plagiarism will receive a zero, and a chance of re-submission will only be conceded to ?rst offenders. Remember that you need to acknowledge ALL the sources you use in preparing your assignment--including the module lectures.
Keep in mind that a paraphrase excessively similar to the original text still counts as plagiarism. It is not enough to substitute terms with their synonyms; you need to radically change the sentence or paragraph structure.