Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Online Resources for Studying Media Culture/Texts

This is an archive for writing students that are researching media culture and pupular culture papers. To the students these are all resources that I have chosen to demonstrate what I think are academic sources available online--so think about why the site is chosen: verifiable source/author of the materials; able to identify the worldview/framework/discipline of the organiztion/collective/individual; quality of the materials--my and your judgment; archive of other visual sources (for instance the Gender Ads site). Remember this is just some prompts that can get you "started."

Here are some beginning sites:

What is a What is a Thesis Statement?

Washington State University: American Popular Culture

Media Literacy Clearinghouse

Critical Media Studies

How to write a film paper:

British Film Institute: Film Researching Resources These are actually teaching resources but very useful for researching papers. BFI is one of the most respected film organizations; a resource for schools/colleges in the UK; they publish many books and the excellent film magazine "Sight and Sound."

Film Analysis Resources This incredible site is hosted by Yale University Film Studies department

Viewing and Watching Film Critically I'm not sure who Tim Dirks is but the materials covered here are either straight-forward understandings of concepts, some genre analysis on other pages, and links to other sites. It helps that this site has received commendations from other trusted sources (like the film critic Roger Ebert)

More films studies resources from Yale Library

Advertising Issues:

Gender Ads Resources for Dr. Scott A. Lukas' Gender courses as well as his introductory social science courses at Lake Tahoe Community College and Valparaiso University. Extensive website, with huge archives of primary and secondary sources.

Gender, Race and Ethnicity in Media Advertising University of Iowa's Communication Studies dept. has compiled this huge archive of links.

How to Read an Ad Dr. Scott A' Lukas put this together.

Gender Advertiosements Aimed at African Americans Originally published in the journal Sex Roles: A Journal of Research (Jan, 1999)

Female Gender Images in Adolescent Magazine Advertising Originally published in Australian Marketing Journal (11.1: 2003)

About-Face: Body Activism "About-Face's mission is to equip women and girls with tools to understand and resist the harmful stereotypes of women the media disseminates. There are three components to About-Face's program, Education into Action: media-literacy workshops, action groups, and this resource-filled web site. About-Face is based in San Francisco, California. Our workshops and action groups reach throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. Our web site, of course, is available the world over." This website includes many primary (the actual ads) and secondary sources (intepretative/evaluative resources).

A Sociological Analysis of Children's Television Advertising Put together by two senior sociology majors at St. Lawrence University in NY.

Popular Culture: Advertising
From Washtington State University's American Popular Culture Archive.

The Persuaders PBS Frontline documentary hosted by media theorist Douglas Rushkoff; includes many other resources.

Merchants of Cool PBS Frontline documentary hosted by media theorist Douglas Rushkoff; includes many other resources.

Reading Advertisements Newsweek Magazine Education

The Language of Advertising Claims John Padgett's University of Mississippi guide for his ENG 102 course.

The Language of Advertising Peter Sells and Sierra Gonzale on the Stanford University Website.

Adbusters' Spoof Ads Canadian magazine that is a center of culture jamming.

Tobacco Spoof Ads

Analysis of Advertisements (Daniel Chandler's semiotic guide to understanding ads)

Beauty and Body Image in the Media (Media Awareness Network guide)

The Devil Wears Prada:

Story Analysis of the Film

Sympathy for the She Devil Salon magazine article.

Fairy Tales:

Wikipedia: Fairy Tales Wikipedia is an online collection of articles which is authored and edited by many people (and includes critiques of the pieces when someone finds the objectionable/misleading). Should be used solely as a guide to thinking about a broad subject/theme, followed by your own research.

Fair Tales, Myths and Legends Francie Quaas-Berryman's for her Cerritos College ENG 100 courses

Fairy Tales and Script Analysis Very academic analysis mapping the structure of fairy tales.

Fairy Tales A. Waller Hastings's website for his students.

Theory & Method Written by Kevin Yee and hosted by Disney. Good intro to the various theories/methods used to analyze fairy tales.

Psychoanalysis and Fairy Tales Hosted by the Romanian Association of Pyschoanalysis--intro to this theoretical perspective.

Artist: Alex Grey

The Artwork of Alex Grey His personal/professional website.

The Visionary Art of Alex Grey

Alex Grey on YouTube

Alex Grey: Art and Spirit (an interview)

Alex Grey: Art, Love, Family, and Psychedelics

Marketing of Diet Pills/Prescription Drugs

Medicating Kids PBS Frontline documentary available online and more resources.

Diet Wars Frontline documentary.

Prescription Drug Ad Marketing Media Literacy Clearinghouse

Prescription Drugs: Concerns and Controversies of Direct-to-Consumer Advertisements Article posted at the American Medical Student Association site--originally published in Cornell Political Forum (May 1998)

Pornography:

American Porn PBS Frontline documentary online and more resources.

History of Sex in Cinema

Barbie Dolls:

Barbie Liberation Culture Jammers subverting Barbie and GI Joe.

Barbie Liberation Organization

Wikipedia: Barbie

War Movies

War and Anti-War Films Film Site overview of the genres.

Wikipedia: War Films

How to Evaluate War Movies and Questions to Help You Evaluate War Films and War is Hell Pass the Popcorn Center for Media Literacy

Remind me I have essays on this subject that I hand out to my film classes.

Music Piracy/Downloading Issues:

Recording Industry Association of America statement about piracy

American Federation of Musicians statement on music piracy

MUSIC PIRACY AND THE AUDIO HOME RECORDING ACT Duke Law and Technology Review (2002)

Is Music Piracy Stealing? Applelinks

‘Golden Age of Free Music’ vs ‘Copying is Stealing’ Published at The Register (2003)

The Music Piracy Myth Tim O' Reilly is founder and CEO of O'Reilly Media a computer book publishing company.

Music Piracy Defendents Fighting Back The National Law Journal (2005)

Cultures of Music Piracy International Jouirnal of Cultural Studies (2004)

Celebrity Culture:

Wikipedia: Celebrity Culture

World History Site: Dysfunctional Celebrities

Media and Rise of Celebrity Culture Amy Henderson is a historian at the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. First published in OAH Magazine of History 6 (Spring 1992)

The Culture Celebrity Essay by Joseph Epstein in the Weekly Standard. Good introduction to some of the people writing and thinking about it.

Hypertrophic Celebrity MC Journal (2004)

The Culture of Celebrity: An Annotated Bibliography Compiled byy students at the College of New Jersey. Very helpful!

Alcohol Advertising:

Yahoo Collection of Alcohol Ads

Alcohol Advertising and Youth Also visit the main site of The Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at Georgetown University

Stanford University online collection of 55 Alcohol Ads

SUNY Potsdam University: Alcohol Advertising

Analyszing Alcohol Advertisements and Marketing Frank Baker for Media Literacy Clearinghouse

Alcohol Advertising and Youth Marin Institute

Wikipedia: Alcohol Advertising

Adbusters: Spoof Ads Has a section spoofing/critiquing alcohol ads.

Online Communities:

Wikipedia: Social Network

Social Networking Blog Survey of the culture online

Howard Rheingold New Media theorist

Smart Mobs Website inspired by Rheingold's book.

Taking the "You" Out of YouTube Critique by media theorist Henry Jenkins.

Who Profits from User Created Content By Rheingold

DIY Media Weblog Hosted by the USC Annenberg Center

Wikipedia: Virtual Community

Online Community Toolkits Full Circle Associates--a consulting group.

News/Journalism Issues

Columbia Journalism Review Important magazine that covers the world of journalism

The News War PBS Frontline documentary available online and more resources.

Critical Media Studies: Journalism Resources

Project Censored An essential archival guide to the major news stories that are regularly censored or ignored by mainstream/corporate media news agencies. They do an annual collection of the year's top 25 censored news stories. Check out the 2007 edition and the archive of of past annual reports They also have a good archive of Alternative News Sources available online

Wikipedia: Topics in Journalism


Propaganda:

Propaganda Critic Very useful guide to the basic concepts from The Institute for Propaganda Analysis.

Public Relations (PR) Watch and SourceWatch and Public Relations Industry and Propaganda Techniques and Propaganda Hosted by the Center for Media and Democracy

Wikipedia: Propaganda

Nancy Snow Leading critic of the American cultural and political propaganda techniques used worldwide. Check out her Ten Things Everyone Should Know About Propaganda and Propaganda News

Propaganda, Pop Culture and Public Diplomacy

More Critical Resources

Orwell Rolls in His Grave

Cultural Intelligence and Social Control

Impropaganda

Freud’s Nephew and the Origin of Public Relations

Using Story as Strategy/Politics of Storytelling

On "Deceit"

The Role of the Mass Media

Do We Need a Strong Public Media

Language/Politics/Composition

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