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>> Congratulations,
you have made it

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through the content
modules of this class,

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00:00:07,960 --> 00:00:09,880
and now you get

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to create your own
media criticism.

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So you have been reading

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the criticism of
other scholars,

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00:00:17,680 --> 00:00:20,240
and now it is your turn,

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00:00:20,240 --> 00:00:23,705
so congratulations for
making it this far.

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Your goal in Modules
7 and 8 is to select

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a media artifact
to analyze and an

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appropriate
critical lens to

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use in analyzing it,

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and then to produce that

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polished piece of
media criticism.

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So we will do this
in two steps.

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The first step is to
write a proposal,

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and you can find

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this document that
I'm referring

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to linked from the
online classroom.

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So before you can begin
writing a proposal,

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you have to decide what

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it is that you'd
like to write about.

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And the goal of
your proposal is

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to tell me what

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your planned topic is

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and what you expect
your argument might be.

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And then I can give you

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some feedback on whether

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that sounds like an
argument that can work,

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or maybe I have

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some suggestions
for resources

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you could read to

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help you make
that argument,

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or I might have some ways

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to clarify the argument

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or make the
argument better.

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So that's the goal

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of turning in
the proposal.

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So first, you
have to decide,

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what am I going
to analyze?

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So you could
select a film,

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and we saw a couple
of examples of this,

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the Kristy Maddux article

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on Iron Jawed Angels
would be one example.

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The Celeste
Lacroix article

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analyzed several films,

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looking at a common
theme across the films.

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So those are some examples
of that approach.

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You could analyze
a television show,

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and it might be
a whole series

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that you analyze, it
might be a season.

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You may have an argument

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that leads you to focus

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a special attention on

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just a couple of
key episodes.

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That just depends on
what your argument is.

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You could analyze an
advertising campaign.

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You could analyze
news discourse

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about a particular topic.

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So the Jamie Landau
article that

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you read for the module on

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queer criticism looks at

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lesbian and gay
families as

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covered in the media
as an example.

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You could analyze
an activist

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or social movement
use of the media.

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You could select another

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media text altogether.

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So we saw an example in

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the Thomas Leslie
article of

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an analysis of
popular science books

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and science textbooks.

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So it's up to you
what you select.

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I really think you should

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select something that you

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find interesting or
provocative in some way.

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So if you think about
why any of the authors

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that we read for

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this class wrote the
pieces that they wrote,

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and you can think

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about this for the
articles we read,

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you can think about
it for the book

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review that you conducted.

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It really just depends

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on what you're
trying to do.

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But think about why did

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these people write

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the articles
that they wrote?

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And I would argue that

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they saw in those media

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texts something
that struck

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them as unusual
or noteworthy.

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So Thomas Leslie is

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reading a popular
science book,

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and he sees this
story about Galileo,

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and he knows from his
historical reading

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and his historical
research,

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he notices that
the story he

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finds in these
popular science books

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does not match up
with historical fact.

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And he begins to wonder
if this is a pattern.

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So he starts to look
for other books,

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and he notices a pattern.

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And then based
on his research

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and based on his own
creative thinking,

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he comes up with an
argument about that.

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First, he argues that
science is a culture

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and that it can have
a folklore about it.

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And then he argues

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that historical
inaccuracies in

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folklore resonate and they

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hold even though
they aren't true,

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and finally, that
the function

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of these stories is to

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link science to
intellectual morality.

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So he offers several
examples from

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the books to
substantiate his claim.

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And then in the
end, he makes

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this conclusion
about the Cold War,

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if you will, in
his language

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between science
and religion.

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So it all began
with his noticing

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this story that struck

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him as unusual because it

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didn't match up
with what he

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understood the
facts to be.

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And I could work through

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that same example with

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any of the other articles

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that we read or

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with any of the
books that you

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read for your book
review projects.

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In every case, the author

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said, "Wait a second.

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Something isn't
right here."

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Or, "Wait a second.

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This is really
interesting."

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And I wonder
what it means to

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think about this in a
new or different way.

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So you certainly can pick

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something of which
you are a fan,

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but the point of your
paper should not

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be this book is
really great,

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or this movie
was terrible,

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or I love this
television show.

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You need to make a
critical argument,

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and that doesn't
necessarily mean negative,

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but it needs to be
an interpretive,

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critical argument based on

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evidence in the text from

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which your reader will

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learn something that the

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reader did not
know before.

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So that's the focus
of the paper.

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You need to be able
to make an argument

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about what you see.

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So you notice that Leslie
does not just say,

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this story is bad

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or this story is
poorly written,

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he has a much

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more nuanced
argument than that.

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And the same is true of

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the other articles that we

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read for this class.

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They don't just say this
news coverage is bad

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about gay and
lesbian families or

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the movie Iron Jawed
Angels is awful,

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or that it's really great.

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In fact, Kristy Maddux

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begins her article
by saying,

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"I really like the movie,

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but I notice that

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it has some troubling
implications."

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So she does begin by
stating she's a fan,

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but then she goes
off and makes

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an argument
about the film.

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So think about that as you

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think about selecting
an artifact.

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You need to do
more than just

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a critical review of it,

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the way that
Roger Ebert might

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do a review of a film.

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You need to do something
more than that.

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You're making an argument

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in a scholarly
conversation.

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So you have to think

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about what critical lens
do you plan to use?

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How are you going to read

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00:08:01,380 --> 00:08:03,180
this particular text?

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00:08:03,180 --> 00:08:04,660
And so you have several

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examples from the class,

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the rhetorical,
the cultural,

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the feminist, the queer,

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and the activist
applied lens.

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So you just need
to determine

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which lens would be
most appropriate for

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helping you to make
an argument about

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00:08:25,940 --> 00:08:30,020
the text and to do that,

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you go back to the
question I posed before.

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What about this media

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artifact stands
out to you?

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And if you're not

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certain exactly
what argument

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you'd like to make,

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you might think
through the lenses

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and apply them to
the particular text.

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So you might say,

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I'd like to analyze
this particular film,

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what would a queer lens
say about this film?

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00:09:01,840 --> 00:09:03,320
How would that be
different from

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what a cultural
lens would say?

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Or a rhetorical lens.

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00:09:07,920 --> 00:09:09,620
And so if you think about

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what these lenses
would offer

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00:09:11,680 --> 00:09:16,080
to reading or analyzing
your artifact,

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00:09:16,080 --> 00:09:18,920
you can determine
which one might be

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00:09:18,920 --> 00:09:20,580
the most appropriate for

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00:09:20,580 --> 00:09:22,780
the work that you're
trying to do.

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00:09:22,950 --> 00:09:26,290
Once you have done that,

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00:09:26,290 --> 00:09:28,470
you need to think

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00:09:28,470 --> 00:09:30,190
about what your
argument is.

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And along the
way, you can find

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00:09:33,370 --> 00:09:34,690
a substantial amount of

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00:09:34,690 --> 00:09:37,470
help in other
scholarly sources.

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00:09:37,470 --> 00:09:38,870
So you're welcome to cite

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00:09:38,870 --> 00:09:40,890
the work that we've
read in class,

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00:09:40,890 --> 00:09:42,410
and you should also do

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other research about work

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00:09:45,180 --> 00:09:47,595
from the lens that
you're using,

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00:09:47,595 --> 00:09:49,600
and even perhaps work

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on the media artifact
that you are studying,

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00:09:53,720 --> 00:09:55,360
or perhaps if
you're studying

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a brand new movie or
something like that,

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there isn't going
to be previous

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00:09:59,300 --> 00:10:01,000
research on that
exact movie,

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00:10:01,000 --> 00:10:02,960
but there will be
previous research

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00:10:02,960 --> 00:10:04,560
on that kind of genre.

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00:10:04,560 --> 00:10:07,440
So if you're going to
analyze a horror film,

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00:10:07,440 --> 00:10:11,520
you may want to look at
previous analyses of

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00:10:11,520 --> 00:10:16,285
horror films to help
you make your argument.

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00:10:16,285 --> 00:10:20,940
And so for the purposes
of the proposal,

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00:10:20,940 --> 00:10:22,380
you should include at

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00:10:22,380 --> 00:10:25,220
least three
annotated sources

244
00:10:25,220 --> 00:10:28,965
from scholarly work,

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00:10:28,965 --> 00:10:31,660
so peer-reviewed journal
articles, books,

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00:10:31,660 --> 00:10:33,440
or book chapters that

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00:10:33,440 --> 00:10:35,700
you plan to use
in your paper.

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00:10:35,700 --> 00:10:38,740
And if you look on
the online classroom,

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00:10:38,740 --> 00:10:41,540
you will see links to

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00:10:41,540 --> 00:10:44,760
the reference
librarians page for

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00:10:44,760 --> 00:10:48,930
this class to help
you determine

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00:10:48,930 --> 00:10:51,570
how to find
scholarly sources

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00:10:51,570 --> 00:10:53,670
that will be appropriate
for this project,

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00:10:53,670 --> 00:10:57,070
and you'll also find
links to APA style

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00:10:57,070 --> 00:10:59,190
to help you with

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00:10:59,190 --> 00:11:02,250
citing those sources
appropriately.

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00:11:02,250 --> 00:11:05,350
So for the three sources

258
00:11:05,350 --> 00:11:07,750
you use in your proposal,

259
00:11:07,750 --> 00:11:09,310
you should annotate them,

260
00:11:09,310 --> 00:11:11,910
and an annotation
as described here,

261
00:11:11,910 --> 00:11:14,230
is simply one or
two sentences

262
00:11:14,230 --> 00:11:16,670
where you summarize
the argument in

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00:11:16,670 --> 00:11:18,210
your article and

264
00:11:18,210 --> 00:11:20,450
then another sentence
to explain how

265
00:11:20,450 --> 00:11:22,430
the article is
going to help

266
00:11:22,430 --> 00:11:24,920
you in making the
argument in your paper.

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00:11:24,920 --> 00:11:29,130
So again, to look
at the proposal,

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00:11:29,130 --> 00:11:31,550
what you need in
the proposal is to

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00:11:31,550 --> 00:11:33,030
tell me what
media artifact

270
00:11:33,030 --> 00:11:34,150
you're going to analyze,

271
00:11:34,150 --> 00:11:36,330
what critical lens
you plan to use,

272
00:11:36,330 --> 00:11:38,970
what argument you expect
that you will make,

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00:11:38,970 --> 00:11:40,470
and you're
welcome to change

274
00:11:40,470 --> 00:11:42,890
this or to develop
it a little bit,

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but at least what you're
thinking right now.

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And then at least three
scholarly sources,

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including
annotations. And you

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can see here how I'm

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going to grade
the proposal.

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You can then read the
rest of the guidelines

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for what the full paper
should look like,

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but it really shouldn't
be a surprise.

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You are doing a
shorter version of

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the books and articles

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that you have read
in this class.

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So by now, you know what

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a good media
criticism looks like,

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and your goal is to
produce your own with

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an original argument that

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I will learn
something from.

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So at some point,
after you have

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turned in your proposal

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and received
feedback from me,

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you should set up
a meeting with me

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either face to face or
via Google Hangout,

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and we can talk in

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specific about your
paper and your progress,

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and I'd be happy to answer

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any questions
that you have.

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And again, use

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the articles that
we've read in class,

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as well as the books
that you've read for

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the book review
for help in

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terms of a model for what

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a good piece of media
criticism looks like.

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You're also welcome to

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ask questions of the
reference librarian.

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He is here to help you,

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and he's embedded
in the class,

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and he's also created
the class page for us.

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So I hope that you will
talk with Mark and

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thank him for
being with us

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and also ask him any
questions that you have.

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So I am helpful
and willing to

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00:13:24,330 --> 00:13:26,780
be a resource,
he's very helpful,

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and he's here to be

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00:13:27,740 --> 00:13:29,520
a resource so that
you have a lot

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of support if you need
it along the way.

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So the goal of

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this video was
just to give you

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a sense of what
the guidelines

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are for the final project,

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as well as the

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first step of the
final project,

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which is the proposal

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that you're turning
in in this module.