For this 3-4 page essay, you will analyze how the media represents people from different ethnic/racial/cultural backgrounds on television shows or movies of today. The group that you choose to analyze should be a group that you, in some way, are a part of. In other words, choose an aspect of your culture/social identity and discuss how people who are part of that group are depicted through mass media. However, despite the fact that you are choosing a group that you’re a part of, you should not include your personal experience within this essay directly. You shouldn’t use ‘I’ or ‘me.’ Keep your writing academic in nature. You are simply using your experience as an inspiration or jumping point to build your perspective. Your goal is to discuss the details of how this particular group is represented and how these depictions have the potential to effect social thinking and behavior. In other words, you will be discussing the mass media effect (influence that the media has on people’s everyday lives) of the representations of the cultural group you’ve chosen to analyze. You are going to play the role of ‘rhetorical critic’ (an informed consumer of rhetorical discourse who is prepared to analyze rhetorical texts). Messages in mass media (TV shows and movies specifically) are meant to ‘say something.’ There is a clear message, sometimes even an argument at the foundation of even the most lighthearted shows and movies. Your goal is to uncover aspects of these arguments and find out how they have the potential to affect society in large and small ways. Some possible questions to consider: Are the representations overwhelmingly positive/negative? Do you notice a mix of accurate and inaccurate representations? Does is clearly sway to one side or the other? Do they implement the ‘zoo approach’? How if at all are the depictions relying on stereotypes? Does the fact that the depictions are dramatic or comedic in nature effect the potential ways audiences will perceive the representation of this cultural group? You will highlight at least 5 different examples from different TV shows or movies that depict people from the same cultural/social group. Choose one aspect of cultural group membership to focus your research on. This could be based in: Race Ethnicity Nationality Physical or cognitive ability Sexual orientation Gender/gender identity Religion Or any other aspect of cultural group membership that you’d like to focus on (ask me if you’re not sure you’re on a good path) Include at least 3 academic sources to support your discussion and include the textbook as well. Your research should help you with your discussion and perspective regarding the ways that mass media in general is depicting people of the cultural group you’ve chosen to discuss. Explanation & Answer: 1 Page Tags: media nature Cultural Representations User generated content is uploaded by users for the purposes of learning and should be used following Studypool’s honor code & terms of service.
Reference List: Basic Rules
Note: This page reflects the latest version of the APA Publication Manual (i.e., APA 7), which released in October 2019. The equivalent resource for the older APA 6 style can be found here.
This resource, revised according to the 7th edition APA Publication Manual, provides fundamental guidelines for constructing the reference pages of research papers. For more information, please consult the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, (7th ed.).
Note: Because the information on this page pertains to virtually all citations, we’ve highlighted one important difference between APA 6 and APA 7 with an underlined note written in red.
Formatting a Reference List
Your reference list should appear at the end of your paper. It provides the information necessary for a reader to locate and retrieve any source you cite in the body of the paper. Each source you cite in the paper must appear in your reference list; likewise, each entry in the reference list must be cited in your text.
Your references should begin on a new page separate from the text of the essay; label this page “References” in bold, centered at the top of the page (do NOT underline or use quotation marks for the title). All text should be double-spaced just like the rest of your essay.
Basic Rules for Most Sources
- All lines after the first line of each entry in your reference list should be indented one-half inch from the left margin. This is called hanging indentation.
- All authors’ names should be inverted (i.e., last names should be provided first).
- Authors’ first and middle names should be written as initials.
- For example, the reference entry for a source written by Jane Marie Smith would begin with “Smith, J. M.”
- If a middle name isn’t available, just initialize the author’s first name: “Smith, J.”
- Give the last name and first/middle initials for all authors of a particular work up to and including 20 authors (this is a new rule, as APA 6 only required the first six authors). Separate each author’s initials from the next author in the list with a comma. Use an ampersand (&) before the last author’s name. If there are 21 or more authors, use an ellipsis (but no ampersand) after the 19th author, and then add the final author’s name.
- Reference list entries should be alphabetized by the last name of the first author of each work.
- For multiple articles by the same author, or authors listed in the same order, list the entries in chronological order, from earliest to most recent.
- When referring to the titles of books, chapters, articles, reports, webpages, or other sources, capitalize only the first letter of the first word of the title and subtitle, the first word after a colon or a dash in the title, and proper nouns.
- Note again that the titles of academic journals are subject to special rules. See section below.
- Italicize titles of longer works (e.g., books, edited collections, names of newspapers, and so on).
- Do not italicize, underline, or put quotes around the titles of shorter works such as chapters in books or essays in edited collections.
Basic Rules for Articles in Academic Journals
- Present journal titles in full.
- Italicize journal titles.
- Maintain any nonstandard punctuation and capitalization that is used by the journal in its title.
- For example, you should use PhiloSOPHIA instead of Philosophia, or Past & Present instead of Past and Present.
- Capitalize all major words in the titles of journals. Note that this differs from the rule for titling other common sources (like books, reports, webpages, and so on) described above.
- This distinction is based on the type of source being cited. Academic journal titles have all major words capitalized, while other sources’ titles do not.
- Capitalize the first word of the titles and subtitles of journal articles, as well as the first word after a colon or a dash in the title, and any proper nouns.
- Do not italicize or underline the article title.
- Do not enclose the article title in quotes.
- So, for example, if you need to cite an article titled “Deep Blue: The Mysteries of the Marianas Trench” that was published in the journal Oceanographic Study: A Peer-Reviewed Publication, you would write the article title as follows:
- Deep blue: The mysteries of the Marianas Trench.
- …but you would write the journal title as follows:
- Oceanographic Study: A Peer-Reviewed Publication
- So, for example, if you need to cite an article titled “Deep Blue: The Mysteries of the Marianas Trench” that was published in the journal Oceanographic Study: A Peer-Reviewed Publication, you would write the article title as follows:
Please note: While the APA manual provides examples of how to cite common types of sources, it does not cover all conceivable sources. If you must cite a source that APA does not address, the APA suggests finding an example that is similar to your source and using that format. For more information, see page 282 of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th ed.
