Today’s Further Oral Activity was
an exploration into what advertisements reveal to us about society. I chose to investigate
the topic of ‘racism’ and, more specifically, how advertising reveals to us our
changing perceptions of racism (not race). I chose ads from a range of
different time periods in order to reflect a changing view of racism. In my
presentation, I analyzed 3 adverts – from the 1920s, 2008 and 2013 respectively.
The learning outcomes from Part 2
that I believe I have met are an awareness of the potential for political
influence of the media and the way media uses language and image to persuade
people. The first outcome was fulfilled as I linked the central themes of ads
and their usage of racism to real world politics of the time, for example in
the connection between the 2008 ad and the American Presidential Election at
that time. The second outcome was fulfilled through the rest of my
presentation, as I analyzed language in terms of persuasive words, pathos,
ethos, logos, advertising techniques; and image through stereotyping and color
theory. By applying these concepts to my ads I was able to analyze how language
and image was used to persuade.
Although the initial analysis I
completed for the ads was very thorough, encompassing details like the
positioning of the figures and the fonts used within an advert (see script),
not everything made it to the final cut of the presentation due to the time limit.
For each advert, I made sure to discuss language (Criterion B) and the general
theme of the advert (understanding of text, Criterion A). The choice to focus
on these topics was based on the rubric, and they guided how much I discussed
other factors of the advert (e.g. detail in analyzing color, figures, etc.)
based on how the details related to theme and language.
Although I focused my analysis on
Criteria A and B (to guide the content), the areas I feel most confident in are
B and D. My strengths lie in D as I spent a lot of time practicing how to word
what I wanted to say, and was very confident in using language effectively. I
also mentioned the language used in all three ads, as part of Criterion B. Additionally,
since my analysis of the adverts was so much more detailed than what I presented;
it ensured that I always had content to say. However, I do not feel as strong
in Criterion A since I had to gloss over the theme of the third ad as I was
running out of time.
Time was the biggest problem I
had with the FOA. In the future, I will make sure to time myself giving the
full presentation and make sure it is comfortably within the time limit. By
getting more practice before hand, I may also be able to structure my
information better in order to fit more into the same time frame. All in all, in
the future I need to focus on finding the most efficient order to say my
information (to avoid unnecessary explanation) in order to squeeze as much
useful analysis as I can into the presentation, relating back to Criterion C of
Organization. In terms of analysis, I think I’m good at picking up subtle
details of the ad, which was helpful in connecting them to the learning
outcomes. I believe this was a successful start to my FOAs that clearly showed
me how I can improve my skills in the future.
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