Blog Post Assignment for Monday, Feb 8

Your blog post assignment for Monday, February 8th is to write a 3-5 paragraph short ideological analysis of one of your artifacts from last week. Based on our class and group discussions, if you have found that your artifacts may not generate the analysis you wish for, you may change your artifact-- if you do, your blog post should include a brief note in the beginning that identifies the change in your artifact and explains why you changed it.

To help you with writing your short analysis of your artifact, review the chapter on ideological analysis again, and follow the steps. Briefly:
*Describe your artifact (you will use this in your introduction)
*Look at observable aspects of the artifact that provide clues to its ideology (i.e., “traces of ideology”). Remember the forms we can find those traces: major arguments, types of evidence, images, particular terms, or metaphors. Note all the major features of your artifact down, and make a list of them.
Keep in mind that, as you do this, if you want to focus on identifying an ideology related specifically to a particular subject (e.g., environment, gender, or any other difference that is often denigrated- race, class, sexual orientation, religion), you are looking for an an ideology of X or the ideology around X. In that case, look at key presented elements related to the X.
*Then identify suggested elements-- ideas, references, themes, allusions, or concepts—- the meanings suggested by the elements that will serve as the basis for your artifact's ideological tenets (see p. 216).
*Transform your findings into an ideology, by grouping them and organizing them into a coherent framework around the major themes that have emerged in your artifact. (The presented elements in the artifact will be your support.) State the major themes in your thesis in one or few sentences (i.e., the core idea of the ideology).
*In 3-5 paragraphs, explain these themes briefly, with examples and support from your artifact.