University Identities
Today we'll be examining how a number of different Universities construct their identity online and in television commercials. Also, we'll be thinking about how American culture conceptualizes University and its students. Please record your answers today with OpenMind software.
- University Commercials.
We'll be watching a series of ads from the article "Those Weird College Ads" on Slate.com. For each school we watch, consider the following (Boise State, Florida Gators, Auburn, Florida State, Virgina Tech):
- Does the ad employ logos? Facts about the school? Logical arguments for why the school is best?
- How does the school construct its ethos? What would you say about the school based on the ad?
- Is there pathos? Does the ad attempt to conjure emotions?
- Finally, how does the school identify its students? What is the typical student like? What does s/he do?
- University Websites. While we could use the same heuristic as above, this time I'd like to ask some visual questions.
(Purdue University, Clark University,
Boston University)
- What images appear on the pages you look through? Can you make a generalization? Is their a significance to showing these images?
- What images aren't shown?
- Can you say anything about the colors that the site uses? (here's a link to a color theory refresher)
- Thinking through the questions above, what can we say about the school in terms of ethos? In terms of identification?
- Google Images Search