Suggested media topics for presentations related to Chapters 7, 10 and
12 (scheduled for Classes 20 and 21)
Media Technology:
1. Choose two traditional media organizations that specialize in different
media products, for example, a newspaper company and a movie company. Look
at their official websites. What image are they trying to create? What
are the main functions of their websites? How are they related to the media
product that they are traditionally associated with? Compare the ways in
which they are adapting to the Internet.
2. Compare the online and ordinary editions of either a newspaper or a
magazine. What are the differences/similarities between the two? What are
the advantages/disadvantages of each type from the point of view of a)
producers and b) audiences? In the future, are audiences likely to stop
buying the print versions and rely completely on the online editions?
3. Choose a media device or another aspect of media technology that has
been introduced in the past five years. Examine how it has been marketed
and/or its impact on media audiences. For example, how has it been advertised
(see below), who uses it, and how? How has it changed the production and/or
use of the media? Has it had more, or less, impact than people anticipated
when it was first introduced? How is it likely to develop in the future?
You could do a survey of how it is used by the people in your second-language
class.
Advertising:
1. Select at least two television commercials for similar products. What
audience is being targeted by the commercials? (It may be the same audience
or a different one.) How have the commercials been constructed to appeal
to the audiences? (Examine the use of sound as well as visuals.)
2. Select two advertisements or TV commercials for products aimed at children
of elementary school age or below. Are they aimed at the children or at
their parents, or at both? What techniques are being used? Should advertisements
and TV commercials for products aimed at children be regulated more strictly
that those for products aimed at teenagers and adults? (You could do something
similar with advertisements or TV commercials for alcohol. What image do
they create of drinking? Since a) people under 20 are not legally allowed
to drink alcohol in Japan, b) women have a lower tolerance for alcohol
than men, and c) alcohol has a potentially harmful effect not only on drinkers
but also the people around them, are the messages of the advertisements/commercials
acceptable?)
3. Choose a product/type of product that has been available for a long
time. Find advertisements for the product from, for example, 1948, 1968,
1988 and 2008. In what ways has the marketing of the product changed, and
in what ways has it remained the same? Why? (Alternatively, you could choose
a product that is globally available and compare the way it is advertised
in a range of countries, both developed and developing, and in different
continents.)
4. Choose at least one complaint that has been handled by the Japan Advertising Review Organization. (This page has many examples.) Evaluate the organization's decision(s). Is such an
organization necessary? Should its powers be weakened or strengthened?
(Of course, there are other ways in which you could use examples of the
complaints.)