Why is it important to deconstruct media messages

Deconstructing Media Messages

Deconstructing Media Messages

(10 points)

Due Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2018

Submit to drop box for Assignment 1 in PDF FORMAT

Instructions:

The objective of this assignment is to apply the media literacy skills addressed in Segment 1 to real world examples. An important aspect of media literacy is understanding how media messages are constructed, with what purposes, and for whom they are constructed.

In the age of the Internet, however, advertising messages can be tailored specifically to you by a number of machine-driven algorithms that track your movements online and make assumptions about what kinds of advertising content you would most likely be engaged with. Think of the last time you searched for something on Amazon—for example, an office chair—and seeing advertisements for office chairs on other websites. This is the work of advertisement tailoring using consumer-driven data.

With social media, however, more information can be learned about you: your age, your gender, your race/ethnicity, your political affiliation, and a lot more. This makes it even easier for companies to tailor their advertisements to you more specifically.

In this assignment, you will be analyzing how an advertisement is constructed for different audiences. However, we are asking you to analyze an advertisement within the context of social networking platforms like Facebook or online video streaming services like Hulu or YouTube (since Netflix has no advertisements).

To find an advertisement targeted specifically to you, go to any of your social media platforms or watch something on Hulu or YouTube that will show advertisements. You can also find an advertisement from your Facebook account, Instagram account, Twitter account, Weibo account, or any other social networking site or service you use that you have seen advertisements on. The advertisement can either be a video advertisement or a “print” advertisement that only has words/pictures and no video.

Include a screenshot of the advertisement in your assignment as a separate page. The advertisement does not count in the page count. You must have have one to two pages of written content and include the advertisement on a separate third page.

If you use an AdBlocker or use incognito browsing on your web browser, disable these temporarily to see advertisements that have been tailored specifically for you.

After you find an advertisement on your social media feed, answer the following questions:

1. What is the advertisement for? Who made the advertisement?

2. Describe the advertisement. What techniques are being used to attract your attention?

· For example, are there any celebrities in the advertisement? (If there is, what is their fan base?) is there a lot of color? What is the music like (if there is music)? Are the people in the advertisement young or old, men or women? Are there cute animals? Are there any text messages in the advertisement? (If there is, what do they mean?) And any other elements that have captured your attention.

3. What kind of lifestyle and values are being represented in the advertisement?

· Is it trying to appeal to a certain group of consumers?

· Why do you think this advertisement is being shown to you?

4. What does this advertisement reveal to you about your own Internet presence?

· Why do you think this advertisement is being shown to you? What about your browsing history (e.g., recent searches) may have helped the advertisers to identify you as their target audience?

· Was the advertisement accurate in terms of your interests? Are you persuaded by the advertisement to purchase the product now or in the future?

Requirements:

Essays must be a minimum of one (1) page and a maximum of two (2) pages of written content. Text must be in Times New Roman, single spaced, and 12pt font. One inch margins are required. Page numbers must be included in the top right corner of the page. Essays must address each of the aforementioned questions.

Put your full name and student ID number at the top left corner of the first page in 12pt Times New Roman. Example:

Jane Smith

Assignment 1

A12345678

Submit your assignment as a PDF. If you do not know how to convert things to PDF format, Google it. Plagiarism will not be tolerated.

Assignment Resources:

· Advertisements are media messages . We are most familiar with companies such as Nike or Apple as making advertisements to sell their products like footwear or mobile phones and computers. However, advertisements are not restricted to companies. In fact, there are a number of different institutions, organizations, and companies that make ads. For instance, government institutions such as Health and Human Services may construct public service announcements (PSAs) regarding the risks of drinking and driving. Such PSAs present the media message that drinking and driving is bad, and should be avoided at all costs. There are also organizations that produce advertisements for political campaigns, as well as ads to promote wildlife conservation or to adopt pets from the Humane Society. Due to the diversity of advertisers, we define an advertisement as a media message that is constructed to persuade people to buy a product or service or to adhere to a certain worldview. The advertisement you choose for this assignment must fit this definition. If you have any confusion regarding whether or not your example fits this definition then email the TA (Christopher) at least 72 hours before the assignment deadline for clarification.

· Reading and Viewing Opportunities:

· The Atlantic - How Powerful is Advertising?

· The Atlantic - When Algorithms Don’t Account for Civil Rights

· The Atlantic - I'm Being Followed: How Google—and 104 Other Companies—Are Tracking Me on the Web

· TED Talk: What if there was no advertising?

· Stanford University - When does culture matter in marketing?

· Plagiarism will not be tolerated. Review of MSU’s policy on plagiarism can be found here. All assignments will be automatically checked for originality (i.e., plagiarism). You will be able to see your own originality reports on D2L. If you have a high score when you originally submit the paper (which suggests you have plagiarized another author), then you should use the originality report and update your paper. After you have updated the paper to decrease the appearance of plagiarism, you can resubmit the paper. You can submit a paper multiple times on D2L. Excessive quotations (e.g., more than 60 words) will result in large grade deductions and will have to be reported to the university administration.

· References are how you avoid plagiarism. When you reference a source, you give credit to the author of the original work for their ideas as presented in your paper. There are many different styles for presenting your references. Most common within the discipline of communication, media studies, and social science disciplines are APA and the Chicago Manual. You may use either.