Analyzing Ethnicity and Race in the United States Media: A Contemporary Approach

Students must choose any one example of mass media to analyze ethnicity/race in the United States. This might include a link to social media content, newspapers, magazines, film, television, art, advertisements, games/toys, etc.

Your example should not be a film or other form of media we have already used in this course. If you are unsure if a source qualifies, please ask the instructor. Students will use this contemporary media source to analyze race and/or ethnicity in the United States.

This source and your analysis should also connect directly to at least one reading and one lecture from this course (any week).

You may wish to examine how this source represents stereotypes, assumptions, or helps us understand the social construction of race and/or ethnicity. You may wish to address one or more of the following: what is missing from the source? what is normalized based upon the source you chose? Are any assumptions made related to race/ethnicity in the source?

Note: This is a reflection assignment. You main goal is to answer the questions with evidence from your chosen media source and additional course materials. There is room for many different interpretations. Think about the assignment in terms of depth (“How do I show Dr. Johnson that I completed the materials and worked to understand them to the best of my abilities?”).

Be thorough and thoughtful. I am always most interested in how you are engaging with the materials. Your response should be turned in via a Word doc and should be at least 1-1.5 pages double-spaced.

Please use Times New Roman Font, 1 inch margins.

Your first and last name, but no other formal heading is required.

Please include a screenshot or link to your chosen media source.

An essential element of this assignment is that I must be able to see and/or listen to the media content of your choice.

As such, the media content you are engaging with must be from a public account (in other words, if you share a link for content created by a private account, I won’t be able to see it!).