Modern Media Project

The 18th Century is sort of a "mini-unit" in lit made up of 3 pieces:

"To the Ladies" by Lady Mary Chudleigh
"The Rape of the Lock" by Alexander Pope
"A Modest Proposal" by Jonathan Swift

"To the Ladies" deals with the topic of Women's Rights
"The Rape of the Lock" deals with the trivial priorities of the upper class
"A Modest Proposal" deals with poverty and overpopulation issues


You have 2 options for this assignment:

1.  You must choose some element of modern culture (a song, tv show, movie or book) that highlights one of the three above issues. Explain why you chose this particular example of culture and explain what social issue (women's rights, apathy of the rich, poverty) that it draws attention to, and HOW it effectively conveys the message.

Questions:

a) What type of media is used?
b) What social issue is highlighted in the video/song/book etc?
c) Give 2 specific scenes/words/lyrics that make a powerful point about this issue?
d) Who is the target audience for this work?
e) How does the media specifically portray the message?
f)Why is this an effective way to get the message across?

OR

2. You must find an example of SATIRE that highlights an issue in society. Please explain what the issue is that is being highlighted and what SPECIFIC techniques are used to draw attention to the issue.
Please answer the following questions:

a) What type of medium is this?
a) What issue in society is being ridiculed?
c) Give 2 specific scenes/words/lyrics that make a powerful point about this issue.
d) HOW is satire being used (exaggeration, sarcasm, irony, etc.)
e) Who is the target audience?
f) Why is this an effective way to get the message across?

Satire: "Stupid Girl" by Pink

a) Music Video


b)The social issue this video is drawing attention to is that society turns women into objects that are supposed to have a certain body type and who are supposed to behave in certain ways to attract guys. Young girls are pressured to conform to certain stereotypes.


c) One key scene is where there is a shot of Pink as the President (formal dress, wearing glasses, and giving a speech) then directly followed by the scene of her dancing like the typical back-up dancers in rap videos (with very little clothing and suggestive moves.) The woman has gone from being a PERSON with an identity and ideas and power-to an OBJECT with only a body. A second key part of the song is the section that goes:


"I'm so glad that I'll never fit in
That will never be me
Outcasts and girls with ambition
That's what I wanna see"


This is important because the speaker is rejecting the stereotypical expectations for the way women are supposed to look and behave.


d) Specific techniques of satire are:
Exaggeration: the scene of girls sharing a toothbrush to vomit in a public washroom, the scene of the spray on tan where she is completely orange, the scene of her hitting a pedestrian as she is driving, the scene of her inflating her chest to get the attention of her boyfriend etc. etc. are all exaggerated and humorous but still making a point. She also highlights points from many actual music videos (where women behave in a "slutty" way like the scene of her dancing beside a rapper and the scene of her on the car and of the video she's making with her boyfriend).
Sarcasm: "Oh my god you guys, I totally had more than 300 calories/That was not sexy, no...I WILL BE SKINNY"
Caricature: The video exaggerates and distorts some characteristics of female celebrities like the sunglasses, little dogs, no brain etc.




e) The target audience is likely mostly female ages (?) 10 to 35?


f) What makes this video effective is the humour because many of the scenes are quite funny but a little realistic too. Many women feel pressured to look a certain way and act a certain way because of TV and music videos and advertisements. The visuals in the video are constantly changing and it is an interesting video to watch so it is a good choice of medium to try and get this message across. Music videos are very popular with young people (including girls) so it is likely that they would see this video and it would make them think.

Chase: The Majestic Plastic Bag

This video is a mockumentary

The social issue is that the people of the world are using too much plastic and it is ending up in the wrong places such as the pacific garbage dump when it could be recycled to keep the environment healthy.

A key scene is when the bag finally makes it to the pacific dump and the narrorator states that the bag will never actually degrade and instead it will only break down into smaller pieces which will eaten by animals which can kill them. Another key scene is when all the bags are trapped in the aqueduct and it ends up looking disgusting and there is a massive deposit of not only bags but other trash as well. This is important because it doesn’t glorify the planets situation and shows it how it really is.

Specific techniques that are used are using professional narrators that sound very official. Using humor and sarcasm as well as stating facts and sounding glad about it when inn reality the consequences are horrible.

 The target audience is 5-100 as long as people are aware of their surroundings and what impact they can have either positively or negatively on the planet then they are the target audience.

What makes this video effective is the serious tone that it is presented in aswell as using humor and not talking down to the people who are considered to be they problem. It has a mature stance on the topic and uses logic and sarcasm in a symbiotic relationship to get the point across.

"We are the World" Lindsay

a).  The type of media used is a song

b).  The social issue highlighted is Poverty.

c).  Lyrics that portray powerful points include "There are people dying, and its time to lend a hand to life." and "Let us realize that change can only come when we stand together as one."

d). The target audience is for teens and older.

e).  This song specifically illustrates the message of poverty in many ways.  The song "We are the World" contains many big names such as Michael Jackson, Tina Turner, Stevie Wonder and Cyndi Lauper which brought and continues to bring awareness about people in Africa.  This song is easily relatable to virtually anyone making it emotionally appealing and the fact that proceeds from the single were going to charity satisfied buyers.  Powerful lyrics send an inspirational message to listeners on how they can help poverty stricken individuals.

d).  This is an effective way on getting the message out because bringing many big names together for the first time to create a single for "USA for Africa" a charity captures the interest of many people.  A catchy song really helps to get the message out on poverty and many other issues because it can be played anywhere and in different countries.

Satire "Where is the Love?" Colin hansen

A) the media is a music vidieo
B) the song i picked covers poverty in the song where is the love by black eyed peas
C)this song basicly talks about the men and women and kids in india that dont have any thing. It also talks about a part in the song where is the love basicly saying why dont people love and help it portrays the message by what is going on over there because some people dont relly now.it is a good way to get the point across because thats the main spot that sorta thing is happening.
D) the main target is all the men and woman in india that are poor and have nothing
E)it portrays the message because alot of people go on to youtube and it well tell people whats happing over there and make them do somthing about it.

Desi - "Another Day In Paradise"

1. A video from youtube
2. The social issue highlighted in this song is poverty
3. 1. "She's got blisters on the soles of her feet, she can't walk, but she's trying"
-It's a powerful image, shows the girl tired, can't walk but she still trys.
2. "Oh, think twice, it's just another day for you, you and me in paradise. Just think about it"
-Although we think we have it hard somtimes, we really don't compared to other places in the world. Sometimes we take it for granted.
4. Older people would because it's an older song
5. 1.It shows powerful images in the music video at 1:17 of homeless kids
2.At 3:58 it shows a bunch of homeless people all laying on the sidewalks trying to stay warm.
3.It compares the rich and the poor. "She calls out to the man on the street, sir, can you help me? It's cold and I've nowhere to sleep" Shows a poor girl asking a richer man for help.
4.The images in the music video are touching and can play with peoples emotions making them feel sad for the less fortunate.
6. It's a good music video that shows powerful images of kids and adults who are homeless and just barely getting by and it makes the audience sad and it gets the message across to them.

Shandi (TO THE LADIES!)

This video shows satire. It is a parody of womans rights and how woman shouldnt be aloud to speak there minds or share there opinions to men because only "men" are aloud to do that, but woman are slowly progressing and starting to take action by doing it anyway. The scene that caught my eye is when the woman at the dinner table gives her opinion about politics to the men. That right there is a very big step in the history of women. Back in the day woman wouldnt dare get involved in politics but now we are not afraid to voice our opinion about it. The next scene that caught my eye was when the husband of that woman drags her away from the table after she spoke her opinion, because hes embarassed that she tried to take part in a "mans" conversation. This is powerful because it shows that men are afriad of woman being independant and powerful. They over exagerate the part where the woman speaks up about politics and then men give her an angry glare, and her husband drags her away from the tableThey dont want us females to have any sort of control or domination. That same scene is also exagerated, because in modern day a man would never dare put his hands on a woman like that in front of other people because she spoke her opinion.They showed parody when they had the male brain and the female brain. They made it seem as though the male brain was taking in lots of knowlodge while the womans brain was not, and was just confused and scrambed. Its funny because men often say that womans minds are everywhere and that we are very "confusing". Parody again pops up when the woman says she doesnt know anything about politics, and starts talking about children. Now a days woman have a very high rank in politics. Some of the best politicians are woman. The target audience for this clip is definately men and woman. Mainly teens to adults. This is an effective way to show woman that yes they can speak out. Men may not like it but we can. GO GIRLS GO!!!!