Research Paper #2: Advertising Analysis

DESCRIPTION: For this assignment, you’ll select a print advertisement. We highly recommend full-page advertisements in print magazines, but other print ads can work as well. (Don’t use an online ad.)

Your task is to assess the effectiveness of the advertisement, paying close attention to its likely purpose, its context (the media product it appears in), its content, and its likely target market.

You should make a case about what the aim of the ad was, and whether it achieved that aim.

One challenge of advertisement analysis today is that advertising campaigns are spread over a variety of media. Consider looking at the broader context of the campaign of which your ad was a part; you might mention how your ad was like, or unlike, others in the campaign in your essay.

In your analysis, use at least two outside, authoritative sources in the development of your argument. (Apart from lectures and required readings, especially from Week 11, which you’ll also use.)  In choosing the articles to help you analyze this ad, remember: you don’t have to agree with the authors of the articles you use, but you have to show that you understand how those authors would interpret the advertisement you’ve chosen. For help finding journal articles, please see our Writing Resources page.

REQUIREMENTS FOR BOTH DRAFTS:

• 1400-1600 words
• Times New Roman, 12pt font, double-spaced
• A title
• A clearly stated thesis that is underlined in your text
• Evidence to support your thesis
• APA style for in-text citations and reference list
• Include the ad you’ve selected as an appendix to your paper. You can scan it, take a photo, use an app like Turboscan to digitize it, or search for a digital version. If color plays an important part in the ad, make sure your TA has a color version.
• At least two outside, authoritative sources (outside, meaning in addition to readings and lectures from class; authoritative, meaning scholarly, so a media kit isn’t one of your two — see our Writing Resources page for help with this)
• A heading that is formatted like this at the top-left of your paper and has all the same components:

Annie McStudent
J201 – Section 307
February 22, 2018
Word Count: 1565

DEADLINES: First draft is due to Turnitin and to your peer reviewers by email on Thursday, April 12 by midnight. (Depending on the size of your section, these will be different peers than those you had for your first research paper. Your TA will assign them sometime before April 12.)

Final draft is due to Turnitin on Thursday, April 26 by midnight.

DETAILS: To make your case, consider these questions:

•  What was the ad’s intended function? Why do you think this?
  • This will require a little bit of detective work: consider thinking about the nature of the product being advertised, and whom the marketers might be trying to reach.

• How well does the ad perform that function? What is your evidence for this?
• Where was it placed? Why was it placed there? (To learn about the magazine the ad appeared in, look for the magazine’s media kit, which will contain information about the audience of the magazine.)
• What principles of persuasion were utilized in the ad? What might be the effects on the audience? (Be sure to use lecture content from April 6).
• Would you say that this ad addresses some of the challenges that strategic communicators and marketing professionals are facing today? (Professor Douglas McLeod’s guest lecture on April 2 might be very relevant here)

HONORS STUDENTS: If you are taking this course for honors (you’d know if you were and you’ve already completed library training), you have a different assignment sheet that you got via email from me and that we discussed. Don’t do this assignment!

• Exam 1 Study Guide
• Sample ID Questions

Point breakdown:

• Multiple choice: 12 questions, 0.75 point each = 9 points
• IDs: 3 terms (out of 5 options), 2 points each = 6 points
• Total: 15 points

Class, as we’ve discussed, the midterm is now on Wednesday, March 21st at 9:55am in Humanities 3650 — our regular lecture time and regular lecture room. This is also reflected on the corrected syllabus. (Too many of you were already going to be gone for spring break, which means also no lecture on Friday 3/23; no sections that week.)

Absolutely no makeups for unexcused absences.

I’m still hearing from people who think the midterm is on that Friday. If you think you know someone like that, please, please help them out!

We’ll have an optional review session Monday, March 19th from 6-7 p.m. in Humanities 3650. We’ve reserved the room for you until 8 p.m. if you’d like to stay and continue to study and exchange notes.

Instructions Below are only for Students with McBurney Visas

If you have a McBurney Visa that affects testing, please make sure you do the following by Tuesday, March 13th at 4 p.m.:

1. Go to this page to register for accommodated exam service (You will need to log in with your netID to register)

2. As you register, you’ll need the following information

• Instructor information:
  • First Name – Kathryn
  • Last Name – McGarr
  • NetID – kmcgarr
• Exam information
  • Course: J201 Introduction to Mass Communication
  • Date: March, 21, 2018
  • Time (Please choose a start time between 9:05 – 9:55 a.m., depending on your accommodation and your schedule before and after the exam)
  • Duration: In accordance with your accommodation

3. To have your request approved, if you haven’t given a copy of your VISA to either professor McGarr or your TA, please send it to msu26@wisc,edu.

Hi students,

You are invited to participate in an online study testing an online database. Our team of researchers is evaluating a database on climate change related issues prior to its launch. We are interested in getting feedback on what specific information or topics should be included in the database, based on people’s interests and opinions. And you could help us! 

And participation in this study will involve viewing some sample content in the database and filling out an online questionnaire. In total, we expect your participation to take approximately 15 minutes.

If you complete the study, your course instructor will grant 0.5 percentage points that will be added to your final score for your participation. To receive the extra credit, you will need to complete this study before March 26^th , 2018.

You can participate in this study from any computer equipped with a Web browser (e.g., Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, or Mozilla Firefox) and a high-speed Internet connection.

To participate in the online study, simply click on the following link and follow the directions: 

https://uwmadison.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6zZ1uFgnACqGmSF

Once you complete the survey, you can enter your name to receive the extra credit.  All the information you provide will be kept confidential.

If you have any questions about the study, please contact Ran Tao at rtao27@wisc.edu .Thank you in advance for your help with the study! 

Principal researcher, Ran Tao

Short Essay #3: Hostile Media Phenomenon

DUE: On Thursday, March 22nd by midnight to Turnitin (NOTE: This is a week later than it says on your syllabus. You will be able to turn in the assignment starting March 15th, the original due date, if you want to get it out of the way before the midterm. But everyone has been working so hard on their research papers, take the extra week if you want it!)

DESCRIPTION

In this assignment, you’ll run your own (slightly unscientific) experiment to test the hostile media phenomenon. You will be interviewing two people–someone who is against immigration restriction and someone who is for immigration restriction–after having them read this article:DACA_NewsArticle. It’s formatted so you can send it to your subjects as a Word document with nothing to identify its source and with the British spellings eliminated. Do identify it as a published news article.

If you’d like to see the original article yourself, it’s from the BBC and is here: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43053805

The interviewees cannot be other students in 201 and should live in the U.S.

FORMAT

Your essay will be divided into three labeled sections that look like this:

I. Hypothesis  (100-150 words)

Before you conduct interviews, form a hypothesis. That is, based on the hostile media phenomenon, what do you think the pro-immigration restriction person will say? What do you think the anti-immigration person will say? Make sure you define hostile media phenomenon in your answer and cite the readings from Week 6 as necessary.

II. Method  (100-150 words)

For everyone, the general method will be the same:

1. Choose subjects, having ascertained the views of your subjects on immigration restriction. (If you don’t know anyone who feels strongly about it, you can interview subjects with more moderate opinions, but the stronger they feel, the more likely your results will be interesting.)
2. Tell them you are conducting an interview on media bias.
3. Ask your subjects to read the article.
4. Then ask them how they would rate the article, on a scale of 0-10, with 0 being the article shows great bias against restriction (in other words, pro-Daca); 5 is the article is perfectly neutral on immigration; and 10 shows great bias for restriction (anti-Daca). For example: if someone who is against immigration restriction thinks the article is also pro-Daca, they might rate the article 0 through 4 depending on how biased in their favor they find it; if that person thinks it’s perfectly neutral, they would rate a 5; if that person thinks the article is biased against their own views and towards immigration restriction (anti-Daca), they would pick between 6 and 10.
5. After that, ask whatever follow-up questions might help you better understand their reasoning. You might choose to discuss hostile media phenomenon, but only after they have finished rating the article.

Because everyone has the same general method, in this Method section, state how you chose your interview subjects, their names, what their relationship is to you, and include any pertinent information on how you conducted your interviews (phone or in-person) and decided on follow-up questions.

You may record your interviews if your subjects give you permission and if you think it will help, but it’s not a requirement of the assignment.

III. Interpretation (300-350 words)

Explain the results of your experiment. Was your hypothesis correct? Include a description of important takeaways from your interviews, paraphrasing those interviews and using quotes sparingly, as you did in short essay #1.

Be creative! You could analyze your results further, suggest an area of possible future research, point out any issues with method, perhaps address your own bias.

REQUIREMENTS

• See Week 6 readings and lecture notes from a review we’ll have Monday, March 12.
• 500-650 words
• Those 3 sections just described above, with section headings
• Times New Roman, 12pt font, double-spaced
• A title
• APA style for in-text citations and reference list
• A heading that is formatted like this at the top-left of your paper and has all the same components:

Annie McStudent
J201 – Section 307
February 22, 2018
Word Count: 539

Sincerely,

Hello students,

I am writing about an opportunity for you to earn extra credit for this course by participating in a study about your perception of a news story.

The survey can be completed online and may be taken on any computer with an Internet connection at a time and location of your convenience. The study will take approximately 15 minutes to complete. You must be 18 or older to be eligible to participate and you will need to complete the survey to receive extra credit points.

If you are interested in participating, you can follow this link: https://uwmadison.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_8AKPCB3kq5OGZNz

Once you complete the survey, you will be directed to a separate survey where you can enter your name and student ID to receive an extra credit.  You will need to complete your participation by March 9th to get credit so, if you plan to participate, please complete the survey this week. All the information you provide will be kept confidential.

If you would like to receive extra credit, but do not want to participate in the study, you may attend an alternate lecture on Wednesday March 14th 12pm-1pm, Vilas 2120. Please note that you cannot receive credit for both—you will get a credit for participating in the study OR attending the lecture.

If you have any concern about the research, please contact Professor Doug McLeod at dmmcleod@wisc.edu or Hyesun Choung at choung2@wisc.edu.

Thank you!