Good example of lesson 4 activities essay

Reader’s Log

For the purposes of this analysis, I chose to look at a Wikipedia article for one of my favorite television shows, the British science fiction series Doctor Who. Naturally, for a Wikipedia article about a sci-fi show with a large fanbase and more than 50 years of history, the article itself is quite large with a great number of sources. Of the nearly 200 citations made on the Doctor Who Wikipedia page, many of them are links to awards the show has won, including Hugos, forum posts from Doctor Who fan forums such as “ Outpost Gallifrey,” print and online publications such as the Radio Times, the Sunday Telegraph and The Independent, and official BBC website material (the network which airs the show).
Many of the numbers cited about the show’s ratings during its airing are taken from unofficial Doctor Who forums like Outpost Gallifrey, and many of the links themselves are dead, making them somewhat unreliable as they are now very difficult to check. Another source that is cited to verify the show’s status as an important British cultural icon is an editorial in The Economist, which merely cites “ Dr Who” (sic) as a show that the previous generation of Britons were able to enjoy (without citing numbers or any objective facts).
There is quite a bit of missing information on aspects of the show that are mostly descriptive and subjective, such as the concept of the main character ‘ regenerating’ to accommodate the replacement of the lead actor of the show. Descriptions within the show’s canon as to what to call regeneration are followed by [citation needed] flags, and an explanation of the unconventional justification for the Doctor’s numbering scheme is also flagged for missing references and information. Anecdotal information, including quotes from theme music composer Ron Grainer, are not given citations.
One section that I found particularly useful was the rundown of the “ spoofs and cultural references” of Doctor Who over the years. Detailed descriptions of the number of shows and comedians who have made fun of the show and its fans during its history are included in the section, with some solid citations of specific television show episodes – one sentence in which The Simpsons is said to have a Doctor Who parody is cited with the specific Simpsons episode, as well as the timecode in which the event occurs, making it easy to check that information. Citations follow the vast majority of the shows mentioned as having sections paying homage to Doctor Who, as well as a citation for the inclusion of the show-centric term “ TARDIS” in the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary. I found this information quite fascinating and interesting to know, and I feel comfortable in believing it due to the reliable citations provided.
All in all, I feel as though the Wikipedia entry for Doctor Who is reasonably fact-checked and backed up with appropriate data, particularly given its lighthearted nature as a television show and piece of pop culture. The sheer encyclopedic nature of the article itself (broken down by sections of cast, character, episode and other cultural links) has quite a few reliable, official sources from television networks and fan sites – the latter of these are the least reliable, but they themselves seem to back up information taken from historical documents and publications of greater reliability.

Ad Assignment

For the purposes of this assignment, I found a television commercial for a kind of English cider called Frosty Jack’s, called “ Midnight Snack.” In the ad, a young man sneaks into the kitchen while his girlfriend sleeps, so he can get a beer and a midnight snack. As he tries to keep quiet to not wake his girlfriend up, he bumps into a variety of things since he is clumsy, and opens the fridge to grab a Frosty Jack’s. In the process, most of the fridge’s other contents spill out, which he then scrambles to pick up, filling his arms with the groceries. As he tries to open the fridge again, his foot slips and he falls backwards onto the bottle of Frosty Jack’s, which is pointed upward. The commercial cuts to the girlfriend, who wakes up and sees the boyfriend, who freezes; the commercial cuts to a wide shot showing the bottle sticking out of the man’s backside. The phrase “ Anti-Excuses” is shown on the screen, and the ad is over.
The ad is attempting to sell Frosty Jack’s as something that you should not have to apologize for; the crime the man perpetrates is trying to sneak a bottle of beer from the fridge while his girlfriend is asleep, which clearly has negative consequences for him given the ending of the ad. The bottle of Frosty Jack’s is prominent throughout the scene, making it the clear focus, and the man goes to great lengths to get to it, making it clear that the beer is meant to be worth the effort.
It is admittedly difficult to find issues with credibility in the ad, given that it is meant to simply showcase a broad appeal for the drink itself and not any specific price points or benefits to the drink. However, there is a decidedly pro-masculine spin to the audience the product’s ad is targeting; the ultimate goal of the ad is to shock viewers into paying attention to the ad through the comedic nature of the bottle getting stuck up the protagonist’s rear end. The implication, therefore, is that trying to be apologetic for drinking Frosty Jack’s leads to you getting penetrated, and implicitly feminized. Instead, one should be proud of drinking Frosty Jack’s instead of trying to hide it – Frosty Jack is “ Anti-Excuses,” meaning you shouldn’t need them to drink it.
There are many instances of generalization, exaggeration and scare tactics in the ad. First and foremost, the exaggeration of the bottle going up the man’s behind is used for comedic effect; obviously, that kind of thing would not happen as easily as falling down and slipping on a bottle, and the man simply stands there pathetically instead of groaning out in pain (in order to hold on the comedic image). The bottle incident also serves as a scare tactic – if you choose to go about drinking Frosty Jack’s the wrong way, or being ashamed of doing so, you will end up in a compromising and painful position. Furthermore, there are generalizations being made about the woman having a negative reaction to such an event happening to her boyfriend, the hen-pecked nature of men in relationships, and so on. All of these factors contribute to a humorous, albeit somewhat sexist and homophobic ad that implies that, as a man, if you do not freely and unapologetically consume Frosty Jack’s, you will pay for it with humiliation and feminization.

Works Cited

“ Doctor Who.” Wikipedia. .
Frosty Jack’s television advert. (2014). < https://www. youtube. com/watch? v= jy64yvNkZFM>.