Same action, different portrayal

Intention

In the United States, the media has been a dominant source of information and has shaped the perception of their consumers in many ways. However, there are a lot of cases where they have not done that responsibly. An example of this is when The Chicago Tribune published an article about the Olympian, Corey Cogdell-Unrein, winning her bronze medal, headlining it with "Wife of a Bears' lineman wins a bronze medal today in Rio Olympics." This irresponsible headline lends towards the misogynistic views that are very prevalent today. Other examples include when teenagers commit crimes or go through something tragic and far too often the media will portray a white person as a "troubled teen" and a black one as a "thug". So my project will explore these differences in portrayal using a readymade assist. I plan to have a few pairs of different people and in each pair the two people will be doing the same action in the same context. Above each of them will be a shrunk version of an article about the action in their context (big enough to see the headline or picture but small enough to not focus on the article itself). The background will transition the context from pair to pair so that one can see the many different groups that this problem occurs with.

Context

Include references and discussion of artists, artworks, movements or aesthetic frameworks/techniques/approaches that inspired your outcome, process or approach. What has informed your outcome? How does your outcome relate to other artists and their work? What ideas, styles, or themes did you draw on any why?

Process

Describe how you translated your concept into the outcome. How did you approach the exercise? What were the design choices? What challenges were encountered and how did you resolve them? What ideas did you generate and how did you refine or reject them? What approaches did you reject?

Product

Describe the outcome. What did you create, how, etc.? How did you compose your image? What styles, methods or techniques did you use? What tools and technologies were involved?

Critique

Critically evaluate the success of your own work. What does your inner critic say about this work? Did you match intent and outcome effectively? (note: use the framing questions to guide your response!)

Personal Reflection

Briefly reflect and outline what you took away from this project. What did you learn? What would you do differently?

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Found In

beg-borrow-steal

Courses

62-150 Intro to Media Synthesis and Analysis

· 28 members
New creative industries are empowering new modes of collaborative consumption, creation and reuse of media. This often relies on successful collaborations between cross-trained artists, designers a...more

About

Using a readymade assist, this project aims to show how the media portrays underrepresented or discriminated against groups and how that contributes to the stereotypes that surround them in society.