COM 102 Intro to Mass Media Bringing it all Together

Sarah Prewitt

COM 102 Learning Outcomes

1. Demonstrate the ability to critically analyze and evaluate mass media.

2. Differentiate strategies that media use to influence consumer thinking.

3. Develop an awareness of how to approach personal media consumption from a Christian worldview.

Critically Analyze and Evaluating Mass Media

● Film: Citizen Kane 1941

● Plot: Citizen Kane was about a man who desired control and power and how the desire for power and control will eventually corrupt a person. Kane is the embodiment of this as he desired to be happy. Therefore, he tried to find this in women, money, power over people, and taking control of his newspaper business. However, in the end this all passed away and did not last. It was all destroyed and he with it. The very thing that made him happy was a small sled with the name “Rosebud” on it. This, to him, brought back the memories of his younger life when he was a boy and lived with his family.

Citizen Kane (cont.)

Analysis:

● The music score throughout the film depicts the symbolic aspects of the film and emphasises the cinematography and what is going on in the story.

● The cinematography at the beginning of the film along with the score depicts the aspect of power looming over people and how much people desire it.

● There was quite a controversy surrounding the film on another journalist named William Randolph Hearst and how he tried to give other newspaper companies a bad name.

● The cinematography and the music score were intentionally put together in such a way to depict what it needed to. The opening scene depicts looming buildings with music behind it which captures even more the mystery and suspense of what is to happen next. The big broad minor chords in the low-brass also capture this luminosity. The dissolves in the transitional cinematography help to capture the dark tones as well.

How Media influences Consumer thinking

● Print-ad Analysis:

● Microsoft Cloud ad in Popular Mechanics

● What it does: Microsoft Cloud is a service for businesses and other organizations which is supposed to connect them across distances and be able to move forward in productivity.

● Ad technique: The ad technique of the bandwagon approach is the technique primarily used for this ad due to the people in the picture appearing to be uniting for a single purpose and then the four arrow logo which surrounds them. These pictures all indicate that the ad wants to encourage other businesses to join this company and buy their product so that they can have this kind of productivity and better Public Relations which the Microsoft Cloud claims to be able to deliver through the various tools it offers.

● Use of words and pictures shows the attempt to unite people together for one purpose and that this very software will do that.

Print Ad picture

Developing an awareness of how to approach Media from a Christian Worldview

● Newspaper Analysis: Wall-Street Journal

● The newspaper attempts to present a non-biased appraoch to various kinds of articles.

● There was one article which can be found here online and in print about Christians being persecuted.

● I thought the artilce was presented very professionally, but it basically told the facts of the situation and notthe story behind the facts. As a Christian I want to tell stories with whatever medium I use- books, music, film- and tell stories which matter. Stories are important to all of us which is why Jesus used them so much in His Word.