Ideological Analysis(Advertising Analysis)
Posted Nov 6, 2015 5:57 PM

Critical to understanding media, is understanding how images operate to convey meaning. We have encountered several texts this semester where authors have engaged in analyzing visual rhetoric – now is your turn to do the same.
For this assignment, you will find an advertisement for a product, retailer or association.
1 Start by summarizing the denotative meaning. (What does the advertisement depict?)
2 Draw your reader’s attention to the primary elements within the advertisement and explore their connotative meaning. (What ideas, beliefs, and concepts are represented in the advertisement?)
3 Combining these ideas into a body, articulate the dominant ideology being forwarded by the advertisement. (What particular perspective is being forwarded by the advertisement?)
4 Explain the author’s relationship to this ideology. (How does the author benefit from this perspective?)
5 Explain the reader’s relationship to this ideology. (How are the practices informed by this advertisement?)

Some thoughts: Make sure your argument continually connects back to the image in front of you. The evidence for your argument is the advertising itself and your reading of its meaning. Most of your advertisements will have copy (words). Of course, these will be important to note and the interplay between the copy and the image must be addressed in comprehending the advertisement’s functioning. Having said that, resist the temptation to only discuss/analyze the copy. You are probably more comfortable finding meaning in words than images. This is due to the way we culturally approach education. This assignment is asking you to discuss the meanings/arguments carried in images – undertake your analysis with this in mind. In analyzing the dominant discourses embedded in your advertisement, you may want to address those discourses outside of the advertisement that give your advertisement meaning. So, an ad about McDonald’s healthy new smoothies is operating in the face of those discourses concerning the unhealthy nature of fast food. Referencing these discourses or the larger context within which your advertisement exists may prove useful in your work.

This analysis should be three pages in length, when completed. I would like you to explore the basics of desktop publishing by embedding an image of your advertisement in the body of your analysis (for full credit, you must find a way of wrapping the text to the left or right of the image, as opposed to, breaking the text, inserting the image, continuing the text). If you are working with a print source, you will have to scan the image to achieve this. Add a caption with a proper citation of the source (MLA). If you are working from an electronic source, hyperlink the image to the site where it was found.

Ideological Analysis(Advertising Analysis)
Posted Nov 6, 2015 5:57 PM

Critical to understanding media, is understanding how images operate to convey meaning. We have encountered several texts this semester where authors have engaged in analyzing visual rhetoric – now is your turn to do the same.
For this assignment, you will find an advertisement for a product, retailer or association.
1 Start by summarizing the denotative meaning. (What does the advertisement depict?)
2 Draw your reader’s attention to the primary elements within the advertisement and explore their connotative meaning. (What ideas, beliefs, and concepts are represented in the advertisement?)
3 Combining these ideas into a body, articulate the dominant ideology being forwarded by the advertisement. (What particular perspective is being forwarded by the advertisement?)
4 Explain the author’s relationship to this ideology. (How does the author benefit from this perspective?)
5 Explain the reader’s relationship to this ideology. (How are the practices informed by this advertisement?)

Some thoughts: Make sure your argument continually connects back to the image in front of you. The evidence for your argument is the advertising itself and your reading of its meaning. Most of your advertisements will have copy (words). Of course, these will be important to note and the interplay between the copy and the image must be addressed in comprehending the advertisement’s functioning. Having said that, resist the temptation to only discuss/analyze the copy. You are probably more comfortable finding meaning in words than images. This is due to the way we culturally approach education. This assignment is asking you to discuss the meanings/arguments carried in images – undertake your analysis with this in mind. In analyzing the dominant discourses embedded in your advertisement, you may want to address those discourses outside of the advertisement that give your advertisement meaning. So, an ad about McDonald’s healthy new smoothies is operating in the face of those discourses concerning the unhealthy nature of fast food. Referencing these discourses or the larger context within which your advertisement exists may prove useful in your work.

This analysis should be three pages in length, when completed. I would like you to explore the basics of desktop publishing by embedding an image of your advertisement in the body of your analysis (for full credit, you must find a way of wrapping the text to the left or right of the image, as opposed to, breaking the text, inserting the image, continuing the text). If you are working with a print source, you will have to scan the image to achieve this. Add a caption with a proper citation of the source (MLA). If you are working from an electronic source, hyperlink the image to the site where it was found.