Journalistic Criticism – Assignment 1 Solution
Short Paper #2 / Journalistic Criticism: Film Reviews (value: 20 points)
Instructions;
In Chapter 4, Vande Berg, Wenner, and Gronbeck make a distinction between academic and journalistic criticism. In this Short Paper #2, the focus is on journalistic criticism (movie reviews published in mainstream media). The bulk of the writing you will be doing in upcoming papers—critical essays and research paper–will be academic criticism. Therefore, it is important that you review the differences between these two types of criticism as presented on pages 58-60. By analyzing published film reviews, you will learn about how professional film critics write their reviews and what makes for a good (or not so good) review.
Suggestion: if you are a movie fan and enjoy this kind of writing, you could become a film critic for the Daily Lobo or other media venue.
Goal of this assignment: This assignment requires you to choose any movie released since November 2021 and briefly summarize, compare, and contrast two professional critics’ reviews of that movie, using criteria introduced in VWG’s first four chapters. Selecting a film you have watched may help you assess the reviews more effectively, but it is not required to select a film that you have already watched.
Length: 2-3 pages (for format and style, read the document titled Technical Guidelines for All Written Assignments included in the module)
Sources:Â The two reviews you select must come from two different source categories of the three I’ve listed below:
Category A: major US newspaper
New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Baltimore Sun, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, etc.
Category B: general consumer magazines
The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, Time magazine
Category C: magazines that specialize in covering the movie industry
The Hollywood Reporter, Variety
In other words, you will compare/contrast either
– a newspaper review and a consumer magazine review, or
– a general consumer magazine review and a movie-industry magazine review, or
– a newspaper review and a movie-industry magazine review,
as long as the two reviews you choose are about the same movie.
Structure of the Paper and Grading;
Get Experimental Design Assignment Here!!
To obtain full credit for the assignment, you must address these parts in the paper:
1. In the first paragraph, identify the movie you selected. Provide the movie’s title, names of its director and lead actors, and a very brief (no more than two sentences) synopsis of its story (value: 1.5 points).
2. In the second paragraph, identify the media sources you will be analyzing. Names of the magazine(s) and/or newspaper(s), the names of the reviewers, the dates their reviews were published, and the titles of their reviews. Insert links to the two reviews (value: 1.5 points). See Technical Guidelines for style (e.g. use italics for the titles of movies and newspapers/magazines).
3. Paragraphs 3 & 4: Summarize each review. What is the main argument(s) 1 and overall evaluation of the movie presented by each reviewer (3 points).
4. Develop your own critical analysis and comparison of the reviews (12 points). Compare any similarities and differences. You may use the characteristics of journalistic criticism—timeliness, vocabulary, length, proofs, and style as part of your comparison.
5. For each review, address the central question and any contextual issues (4 points):
–Did you find the (implied or explicit) central question the critics raise and answer in their reviews? (read “the centrality of the question†in VWG, p. 45 bottom)
–Did the reviewers include any “contextual†issues (outside the content of the film) to build the assessment of the film? Consider contextual issues like technological aspects, economic and political issues, historical references, audience consumption, market forces, or artistic trends (VWG, p. 40) (6 points).
6. Wrap-up. In one or two final sentences, provide an overall assessment of the main strength and weakness of each review (2 points).
