MediaSpace Wiki

Media Crit Spr2010 Session28

Its a final exam party. I'll bring cookies of some sort and some diet soda. You can bring something too if you want.

The Exam

• I will post questions I have used in past exams here.
  • I probably won't use those questions again as written.
  • But they should give you a flavor for the kinds of questions I'm likely to ask.

Questions I have used in the past

• How does semiotic analysis differ from narrative analysis? Write only one or two paragraphs that focus on the most important differences.
• How does Ideological Analysis differ from cultural analysis? Write only one or two paragraphs that focus on the most important differences.
• How does Genre Analysis differ from Auteur criticism? How is it similar? Write only one or two paragraphs that focus on the most important similarities and differences
• How does semiotic analysis differ from narrative analysis? What are the most important things that each form of analysis contributes to our understanding of content?
• How do Production-Oriented Approaches to media criticism differ from Audience-Oriented approaches to media criticism? What assumptions are made in each approach that are different? How are the results of the two generalized sets of analytic techniques different?
• Contrast Genre Analysis with Auteur criticism? How are they similar? How are they different? What can we usefully learn from each approach?
• Discuss the concept of a microgenre using your body of content as an example. What is a microgenre? How does it relate to the broader genres that it is associated with? What role does the audience play in the evolution of a microgenre?
• Discuss the idea that "The Medium is the Message" by comparing the messages of two different media (examples might include radio and television, telephone conversation and instant messaging or photographs and paintings). What is the relationship of the message of the medium to the messages that people construct using the medium?
• Discuss the ways in which the unconscious, in Psychological approaches to media criticism, is related to normalization in ideological approaches to media criticism and "gap filling" in audience oriented approaches to media criticism.