Paper Three—Explaining an Image
“Some have labeled the late twentieth century as the ‘age of the image,’ and it’s not hard to understand why. Today, images crowd in from all directions, not only from television, video, film, and the Web, but from traditional print texts as well—from the graphs and charts in a financial report to the daily newspaper to the textbook you hold in your hand. And far from being mere decoration, these images carry part or most of the message readers are intended to receive. As a result, critical readers pay very careful attention to the visual in any text they read, understanding that these have a significant impact on how readers interpret and respond to those texts.”
-The Presence of Others, page 8
Today in class, we explored the power of pictures and images to convey messages and information to readers. You will do a similar exercise on your own for Paper Three. For this assignment, you must find an image that has been published somewhere in society. The image could be an advertisement from print media, a photograph from a newspaper or other publication, or an illustration from a book, for example. Once you find the image you want to use, you must analyze it and make claims about the overt and often times hidden messages that it is sending to readers. You must use three sources to back up your claims about the image. You may include authors from The Presence of Others in your source material. Some examples of ways to approach this assignment include evaluating your image in regard to:
Gender roles. How is the woman presented? How is the man presented? What messages is the image sending about gender in today’s society?
Politics. How is the American (or other country’s) government presented in your image? Is the image sending an overt political message? What is the image saying about political issues in society?
Institutions and Trends. Is the image critiquing or making a statement about an institution(marriage, organized churches, etc) or a trend in society? Evaluate and challenge the statement or message it sends.
Race. How are different racial groups presented in your image? What is the image saying about race in American society today?
Class. How does the image present people from different economic classes? Does the image make assumptions about class that you could evaluate and challenge?
There are many other ways to approach this assignment, as well. Come talk to me if you have another idea.
Requirements:
3-5 pages, double spaced, 12 pt. Times New Roman font
Minimum 3 sources to back up your claims
Use MLA citation format
Include your image with the conference draft
Writing Center: not required, but 5 extra points if you go