MCS005 UCR Final Exam Study Guide

MCS005 UCR Final Exam Study Guide What is critical analysis? What is its purpose? - Analysis means to break down and study the parts. The purpose for writing a critique is to evaluate somebody's work (a book, an essay, a movie, a painting...) in order to increase the reader's understanding of it. A critical analysis is subjective writing because it expresses the writer's opinion or evaluation of a text. What kinds of things does critical analysis pay attention to? - - Identify the author's thesis and purpose - Analyze the structure of the passage by identifying all main ideas - Consult a dictionary or encyclopedia to understand material that is unfamiliar to you - Make an outline of the work or write a description of it - Write a summary of the work - Determine the purpose which could be - Evaluate the means by which the author has accomplished his purpose What is rhetoric? - the art of persuasion; use of symbols by humans to influence and move other human What are two ways that we have approached rhetorical analysis? - - Meaning making - Myth What is meaning making? - Without realizing we are constantly being appealed to by messages that each attempt to make us feel, think, and act in a certain way. These meaning their ubiquity, their dominance, their ability to slowly retexture the way we think. They seem so natural, we stop thinking about how meaning is made. What is myth? - Notions that become normalized that we barely think to question them. Notions that become so normalized that we feel compelled to aspire to them. Normativity is key to myth-making. When messages are so normalized, they become normative. Normativity governs that we think is right and wrong. They dictate social standards, the way we understand the world and how we fit / don't fit. Methods in analyzing a media text? - Semiotics Signifying system Semiotics - A method by which we can analyze social myths. It is therefore a strategy by which we can initiate social critique because if we understand how meaning is made, we can begin to analyze some of the values and hopes that we as a society hold to be worthy. Signifying systems - sign consists of two components: - Signifers(the components:red/octagon/"STOP") - Signified(together these things point to the idea of stopping) "The gaze" - - woman as passive object of the male gaze. - pov of much of film/media culture structured to place audience in the position of male protagonist. - power imbalance characterized by "voyeurism" - Mulvey's theory; there are structures of power at play in the simple act of looking Scopophilia (Voyeurism) - the love of looking. The term refers to the predominantly male gaze of Hollywood cinema, which enjoys objectifying women into mere objects to be looked at. The term, as used in feminist film criticism, is heavily influenced by both Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalysis. Four aspects that Ott and Mack use to characterize 'culture'? - collective rhetoric historical ideological Collective (as an aspect used to characterize culture) - The collection of artifacts, practices, and beliefs of a particular group of people Rhetorical (as an aspect used to characterize culture) - culture is not something we are born with. It is something we learn as the upshot of our shared symbols and socializations that allow us to communicate meaning values to one another. Word and images, and the dissemination of information and stories thru them are largely the means thru which we create and perpetual cultural cohesion. Historical (as an aspect used to characterize culture) - Cultures change, evolve, mature, sometimes they disappear. When we analyze a particular moment in culture, we are trying to understand something that is happening