Week Five Analysis Refresher Seminar I Dr. Richard Nowell ¨Structure ¨ ¨Your Experience of Analysis ¨ ¨The Mechanics of Analysis ¨ ¨The Tarantino Interviews ¨ ¨Targeted Learning Outcome ¨ ¨Sharpening our Analytical Skills 1. ¨ ¨ ¨What is analysis? ¨ ¨What have you been taught about analysis? ¨ ¨What types of analysis have you conducted? ¨Analysis can be considered a concerted and focused effort to uncover the meanings or the significance of something under examination ¨ ¨Analysis is often contrasted to “description”; it is common for weak student work to be accused of being descriptive rather than analytic ¨ ¨Description is considered to fall short of illuminating submerged meanings or significance, because it simply conveys surface meaning ¨ ¨However, in reality description is always a part of analysis: it is the evidence that we cite in order to support a position we are taking up ¨ ¨In humanities and social-sciences, analysis is a process that leads to the articulation of a position about a text, supported with relevant evidence DEVELOPMENT TEXTS CIRCULATION Human Contributions Formats/Genres Distribution/Delivery Corporate Agency Auterism Promotion/Publicity Social Influence Aesthetics Engagement/Memory Cultural Influence Structures/Narration Consumption/Fandom Political Influence Inter-textuality Journalistic Reception Institutional Influence Modes of Address Academic Reception Technological Influence Themes Political Reception Market Influences Representation Adaptation/Seriality Cognition/Affect Industrial Impact ¨1. ANALYTICAL POSITION ¨2. DESCRIPTIVE EVIDENCE ¨Old Hollywood films encouraged women to accept being looked at ¨ ¨Scary movies have tended to be racist against black people ¨ ¨The culture industries generate similar output to their hits ¨ ¨Stars/celebrities are not really real people but clusters of information ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨They pictured men looking at women; women being looked at ¨ ¨Black folks are presented either as monsters or disposable victims ¨ ¨It reduces risk to ape commercial successes like superhero movies ¨ ¨We encounter these individuals via media texts rather than first hand ¨The analysis of media boasts a rich history in the humanities and social sciences, focusing on coverage generally and media coverage of media ¨ ¨It is helpful when analyzing such commentary to ask if you are interested in the coverage per se or its roles in something much bigger ¨ ¨Regardless of which, there are some tips to approaching such work that help us to generate insightful analysis and avoid recycling the coverage ¨ ¨Perhaps the most important thing is to approach these as performative acts driven by concealed agenda and underpinned by key assumptions ¨ ¨It is also helpful to try and identity the key topics, the assumptions that underpin them, and to consider why the speaker(s) chose to “go public” ¨Based on this video, how is Tarantino constructed? In other words, what type of person does he come across as? ¨ ¨Can you distil his persona to a single term: “Mr. …” ¨ ¨Do you have any thoughts as to why he is doing this? ¨ ¨How would you go about testing these suspicions? ¨ ¨ ¨QUENTIN TARANTINO Interview 1997 ¨https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DotEDHKLnVM ¨ ¨Quentin Tarantino Interview (2003) - Jane ¨http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7k4GQSGvx8 ¨ ¨Tarantino Interview ¨http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7kQK4cbzWU ¨ ¨Quentin Tarantino Interview (2009) ¨http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jz03ntGVEUs ¨ ¨Each video may seem like a natural conversation providing entertaining access to a public figure who we are unlikely to ever meet in person ¨ ¨In reality, we are viewing a professional actor representing a corporate brand, one who is promoting multimillion dollar audiovisual software ¨ ¨In each case, this professional actor performs a distinctive aspect of a personal brand, one that invests himself and his products with values ¨ ¨In each case, this performance is carefully choreographed to calibrate Brand Tarantino in a way that promises to appeal to specific audiences ¨ ¨Oftentimes, Tarantino is clearly playing a role that either actively promotes his films for this audience or protects the films from criticism ¨Humanities and social-science work is presaged on the conducting and presenting of analysis, as opposed to just describing something ¨ ¨Analysis is a process whereby we seek to tease out the logics, values or significance of a text’s surface content; i.e. we excavate its meanings ¨ ¨There are myriad different forms of analysis in the Humanities and Social-Sciences, but all can be seen as a form of discourse analysis ¨ ¨Here we critically examine texts less as windows onto inarguable truth (empiricism) than as avatars of possible meanings (conclusions) ¨ ¨Presenting our conclusions involves taking up a position on something, and then describing its relevant aspects as a means of supporting them ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨Date: 27.10.222 ¨ ¨Instructor: Sarka ¨ ¨Topic: Work-in-Progress Seminar 1 ¨ ¨Outcome: The Strengths and Potential Issues of Our Provisional Research Projects ¨ ¨Preparation: Prepare a brief overview, to be delivered in class, of the current state of your research project.