Find a suitably ambiguous television advertisement and record how at least 20 people respond to the question: 'What is going on in this ad?'. Report on the key differences and similarities between their responses, with extracts from the responses and a commentary of your own.
Guidance
For general guidance about what is expected in your essays for this module, see the general criteria.
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What Key Features Do I Look For?
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Please remember to avoid footnotes and to include an alphabetical list of 'References' which have been cited in the text (not a Bibliography of anything you have read for the essay). This list should include author's names, date, book titles (in italics), place of publication and publisher. Within the text always cite author's surname, date and page number. Double-space your text and number your pages. For more detailed notes on writing essays in this department, click here.
Advice for this particular assignment: Don't forget to include a brief synopsis of the ad. The inclusion of sample screenshots in your essay is also highly desirable. Clearly you need to have access to a video-cassette or DVD recorder to undertake this task! If the basic question does not generate sufficient material you may need to ask further questions. You may also need to ask far more than 20 people - this depends partly on how effective your questioning is. Ideally you will have an audio recorder to record responses; otherwise take careful written notes.
Focus on both the extent to which the viewers agree and on the ways in which they disagree (this is, after all, the central focus of this module). Try to identify what nearly everyone agrees about and what some people disagree about. Agreement is likely to be on matters such as what is depicted (although even in this respect, Sonia Livingstone found diversity in relation to viewers' descriptions of a soap opera episode). Disagreements may be revealed by answers to a further question such as 'What is this ad trying to say?' In exploring differences between viewer interpretations you may find the following links useful:
In your commentary, try to refer back to some of the reasons listed in lectures for why people may differ in how they interpret an image (this assignment is meant to involve some analysis of apparent patterns as well as description - although clearly your sample is too small for you to generalise).
Use this consent form: Consent Form for Interviews, Photography and Recording
Note that this is an assignment for which the inclusion of relevant stills (or even a shot-by-shot as an Appendix) is likely to be an advantage. Incorporate illustrations electronically into your text (e.g. by scanning or downloading from the Internet) rather than literally cutting and pasting. For guidance on capturing stills, click here.
Some suggested reading
Note: Treat with extreme caution sources labelled with this symbol!
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