A weblog for Pete Ellertsen's mass communications students at Benedictine University Springfield.

Saturday, May 02, 2009

COMM 390: Final exam, Monday, May 4

COMM 390: Advertising/Gender Images

Spring Semester – May 4, 2009

Final Exam


Write four to five pages (12pt Times New Roman or Verdana) on this question:

Is advertising as terrible as Arthur Berger and Jean Kilbourne seem to make it out to be? In “Ads, Fads & Consumer Culture,” Berger says advertising helps create a culture in which we try to go out and buy our identity. In “Can’t Buy My Love,” Kilbourne says the portrayal of women in advertising has a negative impact on society and societal relationships. Are these critiques accurate, or do they give advertising too much credit by exaggerating its impact on society? Consider Berger’s argument and Kilbourne’s independently of each other and in combination. (You may decide to accept parts of their reasoning and reject other parts.) Throughout the course of this class have your views changed regarding advertising? Positively or negatively? If so, how?

Quote from the books, from specific ads and from other sources to support the points you make. While this is not a documented essay, you should attribute quotes to their sources and give page numbers, when appropriate, in parentheses after the quote. The essay is due during our regularly scheduled final exam Monday, May 4, in Dawson 220.

Pete Ellertsen, instructor, 211 Beata Hall, pellertsen@sci.edu

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About Me

Springfield (Ill.), United States
I'm a retired English, journalism and cultural studies teacher at Springfield College in Illinois (acquired by Benedictine University and subsequently closed). I coordinate jam sessions for the "Clayville Pioneer Academy of Music" at Clayville Historic Site and the Prairieland Strings dulcimer club, and I sing in the choir and the contemporary praise team at Peace Lutheran Church in Springfield. On Hogfiddle I post links and video clips for our sessions and workshops on the mountain dulcimer (a.k.a. "hog fiddle"), as well as research notes on folklore and cultural studies, hymnody and traditional Anglo-Celtic and Scandinavian music. I also posted assignments and readings in my interdisciplinary humanities classes. The Mackerel Wrapper (now on hiatus), carried assignments and readings for my mass comm. students. I started teaching b/log when I chaired SCI-Benedictine's assessment committee, and reopened it as the privatization of public schools grew increasingly troubling and closer to home.