Directions: This assignment will ask you to utilize what you learned from the News and Image readings. You will write a critique of any news magazine cover story (that includes reading the story and analyzing the cover images and the story images inside).
You can choose any back issues from Newsweek, Time, The Economist, Rolling Stone, Sports Illustrated... or other (If you can find the cover of the magazine online, that would save you a lot of time later). Please attach the cover story along with the cover to the paper (you can either photocopy it or attach the actual story. Please DO NOT attach the whole magazine).
Here are some questions that will guide your critique, though keep in mind that your paper should be a coherent essay written in narrative form:
1. What is the topic? What/Who is portrayed? Which publication, date, place, byline...?
2. Talk about the headline and/or photo caption. Do they change or influence the meaning of the image?
3. What is the context of the image (if it is evident or implied)? Describe the elements of the picture.
4. Discuss the person or situation portrayed (gender, age, attire, camera angle, colors, lighting, body position, background...).
5. Consider the implications of using this image rather than another one. Why was this one chosen? Think about the
magazine's audience.
6. Reflect on what the image "means" to you... and consider how others might interpret the photograph differently.
7. Ask yourself: What are the underlying values, messages and stereotypes embedded in this graphic?
8. Are there any emotions revealed in this image? Does the image provoke any emotions?
Finally, generate three alternative image ideas for the cover along with three alternative headlines (on the same story). Explain how those 3 different images/headlines would have differently skewed readers' immediate understanding of the story and how they might have appealed to (or alienated) a different reader demographic...
Note that these are only a few questions you can ask. You should also be able to come up with
your own questions and observations. Be creative!
PLEASE INCLUDE YOUR NAME IN THE DOCUMENT FILE NAME (e.g. jadmelki_powerpoint.ppt)