Problem: Media Analysis
In this assignment, you are required to select one OR two media articles/social media from the news (from within the last two years) that are related to the weekly themes of this course (i.e., immigration, religion, human rights and freedoms, sexual orientation, discrimination, policing issues etc.), identify the concepts that are conveyed, and construct a critical analysis.
Students should first identify the dominant narratives/ideas/images, and then discuss the importance of the lens through which they have been presented, and the consequences of such framing for policing. Your presentation should identify the meanings that are privileged, such as race, gender, sexuality, class, and/or location (for example), as well as meanings that are absent. You are also required to discuss the social and political significance of the power structures at work in these various settings (e.g., the legacy of the past in the present; assertions of the declining significance of race and racism, and so on). Finally, the implications in policing and law enforcement should be explored.
I. What kinds of meanings does each article offer? What cultural meanings are presented or are dominant? What meanings are left out/downplayed in these narratives? Whose views count, and what does this presentation accomplish?
II. What is the broader context in which these narratives/images appear? What else is going on politically and socially, both/either locally or (inter)nationally? (I.e. politics)