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Analysis of a Print Advertisement, due 09/29/09
1200 - 1500 words (4-5 pages, double-spaced)
Choose an ad from a magazine and analyze both the copy and the image. What is shown, and why? How do the words and pictures serve to encourage using this product? What seems to be the desired effect of the ad? In your opinion, does the ad achieve its desired effect? Identify the target audience of both the source magazine and the ad. Is there a difference between the two? Would the target audience react differently than the general population? Would anyone be put off by this ad, i.e. does it not appeal to, or alienate, a certain segment of the population? Compare it to other ads for the same type of product. Please attach a copy of the ad to your essay, and try to avoid spending too much time describing it. You might consider using a historical ad from Duke's Ad*Access Project.
Photography in My Life, due 10/20/09
1200 - 1500 words (4-5 pages, double-spaced)
Discuss the history of your interaction with photography. Who took the pictures in your family? How were they stored and displayed? What was your relationship to them? Did you take your own photographs? What was recorded (vacations, holidays, scenes of everyday life)? What are your earliest memories of photographs? What would an independent observer learn from an examination of your/your family’s photographic record? What did the photographer intend in the taking of the photographs, and what is actually accomplished? Has your relationship to photography changed over time? What is the difference between photographs and other methods of recording history (video, audio recording, writing, retelling)?
Electronic Communication in My Life, due 11/17/09
1200 - 1500 words (4-5 pages, double-spaced)
Discuss the role electronic communication has played in your life. How do you stay in contact with friends and family? What has changed in you, and in the world, since you first learned to talk on the telephone? Have your preferences evolved along with the technology you use to interact? Do you use different methods for different people? Are the rules different depending on what method you choose? Do you "archive" your answering machine messages, voice mails, emails, instant messages, etc.? Have you inherited or acquired any of these behaviors, or did you develop them on your own?
The Television Interview, due 11/30/09
1200 - 1500 words (4-5 pages, double-spaced)
Choose a person over fifty-five years of age, or one born outside the U.S. Interview that person about his or her experience with television. Here are some questions you might ask, but please feel free to come up with many more on your own. What is his earliest memory of television? How does that differ from what she sees today? How have his viewing habits changed? What are some television milestones she recalls? Who does he typically watch television with? Present the interview in the form of a report or an article, not as a question & answer session.
Final Presentation
Prepare a 5-6 minute presentation based on a biography or autobiography of an important media figure. You should focus not on the subject’s personal life, but on his or her contribution to the media landscape and the field of communications. You are free to use any and all media – photographs, recordings, the internet, etc. – to supplement your presentation. Please submit your topic for approval (title and author of book) by 11/17/09.
You will be graded on your presentation's effectiveness - how informative, organized and relevant it is - as well as how successfully you answer questions about the material.