(If possible use Wonder Woman or a popular movie)You will choose one media source–a film, television show, cartoon, video game, or another media source of your choice–and watch it with a critical eye for the way it portrays a specific community. Then, you will need to form an educated opinion about whether you think that media accurately portrays the community or whether it inaccurately portrays the community, perhaps perpetuating stereotypes.
You should spend some time getting to know the film, TV show, cartoon, video game, etc. Watch it multiple times and take notes as you watch. Look at the different aspects of the portrayal: clothing, environment, choice of actors, set design, music, and more.
You will direct your paper, its argument, and your language (rhetoric) toward someone who holds a viewpoint opposed to yours. If you felt the film merely perpetuated the stereotypes of a particular community, then you will be writing to an audience who felt that the movie accurately depicted all community members. And if you felt the portrayal was accurate, then you will write to an audience who felt the media misrepresented a particular community. Thus, you will need to alter your language in an attempt to persuade those with differing viewpoints to agree with you. This will be an exercise in tactful rhetorical language (rhetorical sensitivity), persuasion, firmly grounded opinions, and logical ideas/evidence to support those opinions.
Also consider:
It usually helps to provide a brief and succinct summary of the film, TV show, cartoon, video game, etc. you are examining in order to set a context for your audience. Make sure you are not only summarizing, however. In this paper you should be making an argument and analyzing the evidence presented in the film, TV show, etc.
It is probably wise to address your opponents’ viewpoint so as not to appear as if you are ignoring their better points. Usually, this happens towards the end of the paper but before your conclusion.
It is usually more persuasive if you reference specific concrete moments/scenes from your media which help to illustrate or corroborate your point.
It is important to have a “so what” factor in your paper. It is one thing to point out a stereotype, but you need to push further. So what? So what effect does a film like this have? Why are the stereotypes there? What affect might they have on the audience? Ok, so there are or are not stereotypes in the media…so what?
