Block 2 2017 at the Raízes|Roots: Transformations in Contemporary Brazilian Art Exhibit with Guidance from Professor Naomi Pueo Wood (Co-Organizer and Host), Mitra Ghaffari, and Featured Photographer Ana Carolina Fernandes

FG212/RM200/FM205 Critical Media Studies teaches the competencies necessary for analyzing media codes and conventions and interpreting the myriad meanings and ideologies generated by media texts. Explores how gender, race, sexuality, class, citizenship, and other social, cultural, and political markers are constructed in media, including counter-hegemonic media texts. Examines the ways audiences resist and reproduce dominant media narratives.

Block 2 2017 during the #MatchtheAds Workshop

Final Project Index

For the final project in FG212, student groups produce final projects that critique existing media and present new media that resists/challenges the problems they’ve identified. Along those lines, please note that the student-created projects on this site do NOT represent research findings and/or generalizable knowledge. Rather, these projects represent these students’ pursuit of knowledge.

Block C 2021

• A Critique of American Eagle’s “Future Together! Jeans Forever!” Campaign
• An Intersectional Critique of Nike’s “Play New” and “Tomorrow” Campaigns
• A Critique of Ableism in Disney’s Girl Meets World
• A Critique of Sexism and Mental Health Discrimination in Elizabethtown

Block 4 2018

• Meghan Trainor’s in Treble: A Critique of Meghan Trainor’s Presentation of Body Positivity in “All about that Bass”
• Illegal for Whom?: White Privilege and Marijuana Use in Broad City
• Versace, Man!: Hegemonic Masculinity in Versace’s Dylan Blue Campaign
• #WhyChoose?: An Analysis of and Satire of Dove’s #ChooseBeautiful Campaign
• Sexpectations: Deconstructing Hegemonic Virginity Norms

Block 2 2017

• Welcome to Are Y’all the Ones?: Re-imaging Love and the Privileging of Heterosexuality
• About Ray: Preserving the Focus of Transgender Narratives
• Stay Educated My Friends: Subverting Hegemonic Ideologies in Dos Equis’ Advertising Campaign
• Danny the Douche: A Critical Analysis of Gender Representations in Grease
• Resisting Hollywood Faux Pas: Deconstructing We’re The Millers

Block 4 2016

• Daddies and Diamonds: Problematic Narratives Within Toddlers and Tiaras
• Animal Rights and Misogyny: The Problem with PETA Advertisements
• Straight Best Friend: Inverting G.B.F.’s Failed Attempt at a Political Statement
• Hints of Queerness in Mainstream Music Marketing: A Case Study of Sam Smith’s “I’m Not the Only One”

Block 5 2016

• 1-800-YouDoYou: Examining Drake’s “Hotline Bling”
• Get Off the Stage, Postfeminists!: Empowerment, Agency, & Pleasure in The To-Do List*
• The Production of an Enemy: Misrepresentations of Muslims in the News
• More than Friends: Subverting NBC’s Friends
• Tosh.N0: Challenging the Hegemonic Humor of Tosh.0

Block 4 2014

• Act Like A Man, Man!: An Examination of Old Spice Ads
• Leave the “Blank Space” Blank: Taylor Swift, Dating Violence, & Gender Role Performance*
• Some Relationships Should Never Die: A Feminist Critique of the Female Relationships in Twilight
• Reconstructing Netflix’s House of Cards
• Faking It—It’s Complicated*

Block 2 2012

• The Synonymy of Disease and Sick: A Critique of the American Diabetes Association*
• Love Prevails
• Tequila
• Snickers
• Noodle Juice
• Delectible
• Badass
• Cla$$