Project Five:
Cultural Analysis
Description
This project entails three essential objectives:
- That you engage a phenomenon (an event, movie, individual, television show, consumer object, etc) as enmeshed in American culture,
- That your analysis shows some insight into American (popular) culture,
- That you present your analysis/argument on a web presence of your own making (such as a wiki, blog, or website).
Invention
Think about the audience you've chosen to address and about what impact you want to have. Imagine them as a friendly but skeptical audience, willing to be persuaded by a reasonable argument. Perhaps they are familiar with the topic or image you have selected but less conscious of its implications than they realize. Can you show them new connections and interpretations? Can you give them a new perspective?
Next, gather information about your subject. What aspects of an American mythology or cultural mores are the audience asked to identify with, and how are its characteristics embodied in the topic? What do most people seem to think about the topic? What else might it mean? Try to remain open as you gather more information about your subject: consider its parts; look at details; compare a variety of examples of it; look for evidence about the causes and effects of images; consider contrasts too. Think also about similar practices or artifacts in the culture and common factors that might account for them as well. Then, think about how this information can help you shape a thesis—an interpretation you wish to argue.
Composition
This project can be done in groups, and I encourage to collaborate.
As you develop you argument, start with the questions you have about the topic. Consider also questions that the audience may ask; decide how your responses can be organized around a particular claim and support for that claim. Try to assess the strengths of your evidence and the changes or modifications your thesis may need.
As this project is done in an online register, you may decide to vary the form and structure you usually use (such as by composing a number of blog posts rather than a straightforward essay), or you may decide to use the usual (essay) format and simply add visuals, etc., to make it more interesting for a reader.
Web Tools
Examples
This former student decided to make a blog pitching a book proposal about young conservatives in America
While this one started a blog about harmful images of women in advertising and popular media.
This student started a blog about something almost equally as harmful - the popularity of American Idol
And this one focused on the cultural conflicts at play in "remembering" 9/11
Examples of cultural analyses by students that were not posted online are also available:
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