MCS005 UCR FINAL EXAM 2025
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
What is critical analysis? What is its purpose? - ANS 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? - ANS - 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
Copyright ©2025 BRIGHTSTARS ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 1
,What is rhetoric? - ANS 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? - ANS - Meaning making
- Myth
What is meaning making? - ANS 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? - ANS 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? - ANS Semiotics
Copyright ©2025 BRIGHTSTARS ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 2
, Signifying system
Semiotics - ANS 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 - ANS sign consists of two components:
- Signifers(the components:red/octagon/"STOP")
- Signified(together these things point to the idea of stopping)
"The gaze" - ANS - 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) - ANS the love of looking.
Copyright ©2025 BRIGHTSTARS ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 3
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
What is critical analysis? What is its purpose? - ANS 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? - ANS - 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
Copyright ©2025 BRIGHTSTARS ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 1
,What is rhetoric? - ANS 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? - ANS - Meaning making
- Myth
What is meaning making? - ANS 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? - ANS 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? - ANS Semiotics
Copyright ©2025 BRIGHTSTARS ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 2
, Signifying system
Semiotics - ANS 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 - ANS sign consists of two components:
- Signifers(the components:red/octagon/"STOP")
- Signified(together these things point to the idea of stopping)
"The gaze" - ANS - 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) - ANS the love of looking.
Copyright ©2025 BRIGHTSTARS ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 3
