Identification of Audience, Issue, Medium, Content

30 questions, 1 point per question

Instructions: By writing detailed answers to the following questions, describe a time when
you felt concerned about someone you care about (sibling, cousin, friend, associate,
random person, etc.) consuming media in a way that you thought was negative or even
dangerous
Examples:
 Someone singing along with sexist lyrics
 Someone yelling racist and/or violent comments while playing a video game
 Someone using Snapchat or Facebook while driving
 Someone telling people their PIN at an ATM to try to get help
 Someone following an unhealthy diet regimen on Instagram
 Someone gambling online beyond their means

IMPORTANT: Use a real-life event that you have witnessed.

DO NOT make up a story.

For questions that have lists below them, simply delete the points that are not relevant and
leave the correct answer(s).

1. How do you perceive the person's gender? (gender=how we appear to act in terms of
masculine/feminine societal norms)
 Cisgender female (body and identity match)
 Cisgender male (body and identity match)
 Queer male (male body, feminine behavior)
 Queer female (female body, male behavior)
 Gender Fluid (changes, not bound by conventional roles or body types)
 Transgender (changes appearance to match gender identity)
 They do not fit a category listed here. (Note their gender identity in theirs or
your own words)

2. How do you perceive the person's sexuality? (sexuality=physical preferences in sexual

activity)
 Lesbian (women who prefer women)
 Gay (men who prefer men)
 Bisexual (man or woman whose preference may be either at any given time)
 Transsexual (individual who prefers engaging in sex as the opposite identity to
their born physical sexual identity, may be bisexual, or adopt any other sexual or
gender identity)
 Heterosexual male (men who prefer women)
 Heterosexual female (women who prefer men)
 The way I perceive their sexuality is not listed here (Note their sexual identity in
theirs or your own words)

3. How do you perceive their age?

 0-12 Child
 Identification of Audience, Issue, Medium, Content
30 questions, 1 point per question
 13-18 Teen
 19-24 Young Adult
 25-40 Adult
 41-60 Middle Aged
 61-75 Old Aged
 76+ Elderly

4. How do you perceive their racial identity?

 White
 Asian
 African-American, Black
 Pacific Islander/Native Hawaiian
 American Indian/Native Alaskan
 Mixed race (choose all that might apply above)
 Racial identity not listed here (Describe their racial identity in theirs or your
own words)

5. How do you perceive the person's ethnicity? (i.e. their cultural background)
 African American
 Asian American
 Hispanic American
 White American
 Indigenous (Native, Indian) American
 Middle Eastern
 Jewish
 Asian non-American
 White non-American
 African non-American
 Muslim American
 Muslim non-American
 Inuit (American Eskimo)
 Pacific Islander (including Hawaiian)
 South Asian (India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia)
 Hispanic non-American
 European non-White
 African non-Black (Arabic, White)
 Persian
 Their ethnicity is not listed here (Describe their ethnic identity in theirs or your
own words)

6. Choose all of the words you think describe the person's appearance
 Height: Tall, Medium, Short
 Physique: Heavy, Average, Slim or skinny, Athletic, Soft
 Visible disability and/or physical challenge
 Identification of Audience, Issue, Medium, Content
30 questions, 1 point per question
 Obvious mental disability and/or challenge
 Skin color: Brown, White, Other (describe)
 Hair Color: Bald, Grey, Black/Brown, Red, Blonde, Colored (dyed),
 Hair Length: Short, Medium, Long
 Disheveled (rumpled, loose, relaxed)
 Well-kempt (ironed, tailored, alert)
 Impression and mannerisms: Clumsy, Clean cut (nails cut, hair trimmed), Rugged
(nails uncut, hair messy), Quick (anticipates, moves fast), Relaxed (responds,
moves efficiently)
 Additional descriptive words should be noted elsewhere for future use

7. How do you perceive the person's style (fashion, mannerisms, tastes)?

 Mainstream
 Preppy
 Hipster
 Rocker (incudes punk, goth, emo, rockabilly)
 Urban, Hip hop/Rap
 Western (Cowboy)
 West Coast (surfer)
 Hippie
 Sporty
 Ethnic (traditional clothing of an identifiable ethnic group such as Muslim, Sikh,
Native American etc.)
 Professional (business attire)
 Formal (dressy)
 Their style is not listed here (Describe their style in theirs or your own words)

8. How do you perceive the person's economic class? (i.e. the income level they grew up
with, NOT necessarily their current economic condition)
 Working class (living in poverty or on the financial brink, may have chronic
unemployment issues, including trouble finding full time work, purchases are
driven by necessities and luxuries are rare)
 Lower middle class (steadily employed with sufficient income to survive and
withstand minor financial issues, but not able to save or accumulate much
wealth, does without many comforts but may occasionally spend on small
luxuries)
 Middle middle class (steadily employed with comfortable income, able to save
for the future, can purchase necessities and small luxuries without fear of ruin)
 Upper middle class (steadily employed with more income than is needed to
survive, able to save and make investments to accumulate wealth beyond their
income, does not live in fear of everyday financial catastrophe, considers small
luxury purchases normal and makes them frequently)
 Upper class (affluent to the point of not having to worry about material issues,
may have inherited a family fortune, or family head is a corporate management
 Identification of Audience, Issue, Medium, Content
30 questions, 1 point per question
elite such as President or VP, manages capital investments rather than working a
'regular' job)
 Super Rich (the top of the upper '1%' category, unlikely to be seen among
regular people without causing a sensation, politically powerful figures, includes
royalty, family dynasties such as the Hiltons and Kennedys, and occasionally
entrepreneurs)
 Underclass (people with little or no prospect for employment or any legal
method of acquiring wealth, dependent on assistance or nontraditional methods
of survival)

9. What is your relation to the person?

 They're my sibling
 They're my parent
 They're my cousin
 They're my aunt/uncle or in-law
 They're my grandparent
 They're a personal friend
 They're a friend of my family's (ie. friend of parent or sibling etc.)
 They're a classmate
 They're a teammate or other organizational group member
 They're a coworker
 They're a complete stranger
 My relation to them isn't listed here (note elsewhere for future reference)
 They're my spouse

10. Where and when did the incident take place?

11. Describe in detail exactly what you saw that you felt was not right. DO NOT explain why
(that's a separate question)

12. Explain how you felt when you witnessed this incident.

13. Describe how you reacted to the incident at the time. (For example, did you say
something to the person? Did you ignore it? Etc.)

14. Describe some of the thoughts you have had about the incident since that time.

15. Describe why you think the incident was negative for the person and society.

16. Who else was involved in the incident, and how? Include everyone you can think of.

17. Describe any consequences you are aware of related to the incident you are describing,
that happened to the person involved, or to someone else in society who has suffered
from a similar incident.
 Identification of Audience, Issue, Medium, Content
30 questions, 1 point per question
18. Identify the issue at the heart of the matter in its simplest description
 Racism (discrimination based on perceived racial identity)
 Sexism (discrimination based on perceived sexual identity)
 Ableism (discrimination based on perceived disability, physical and/or mental)
 Ageism (discrimination based on a disadvantage due to old or young age)
 Ethnic chauvinism (discrimination based on evaluation of another culture as
inferior)
 Gender discrimination (based on evaluation of a perceived gender as inferior)
 Classism (discrimination based on evaluation of poorer people as inferior)
 Incitement of Violence (encouragement of violence as a way of settling issues
between people)
 Addiction and substance abuse (encouraging the use of addictive and possibly
illegal substances known to have harmful effects)
 Irresponsible consumerism (spending money and going into debt for frivolous
reasons)
 Negative esteem issues (devaluation of oneself for not living up to a standard of
someone else's definition)
 Homophobia (discrimination based on fear of non-heterosexual preferences,
such as homosexuality)
 Political disempowerment (revocation of citizen's right to engage in the political
process)
 Religious intolerance (discrimination based on the judgement of another's
religion as inferior or invalid)
 Freedom of speech (not allowing an individual to express their unique
perspective)
 Bullying (terrorizing and tormenting of a person online and/or face to face)
 Anti-Semitism (discrimination against people of Jewish origin)
 Lookism (discrimination based on judging people's physical attractiveness)
 Sizeism (discrimination based on the size of a person's body)
 The social issue is not listed here (note elsewhere for future reference)
 Xenophobia (fear and/or hatred of difference in people)
 Islamophobia (discrimination against Muslim people)
 Obsessive/compulsive behavior (inability to stop doing something, though not
an addiction)
19. What was the MEDIUM the person was using when this happened? The medium MUST
be a machine (i.e. The actual mechanical device, such as a gaming console, a TV, an iPod,
a cell phone, an ATM etc.)

20. Answer if applicable: What software program or app was the person using? The
software or app MUST be a browser of some kind that delivers the messages, not the
messages themselves (i.e. Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, etc.)
Note: this question may not be applicable if the person was watching TV or reading
a book, for example.
 Identification of Audience, Issue, Medium, Content
30 questions, 1 point per question
21. Choose the categories appropriate to describe the medium that was being used and the
program/app/software used on the medium. It may be more than one, but cannot be
all, as some are contrary to each other.
 Traditional print (printed books, newspaper, magazine etc.)
 Traditional broadcast (over the air radio, television, movies etc.)
 New media (digital devices including DVR, computers, cell phones, mp3 players,
etc. Includes electronic texts such as e-newspapers and e-magazines)
 Located media (devices that require you to go to them, such as Livingroom TV,
desktop computer, ATM, game console etc.)
 Mobile media (devices that you take with you, such as laptops, tablets, cell
phones, Gameboy etc.)
 Networked media (media that connects with a network, such as cell phone,
browser enabled computers/laptop, networked game consoles, iPods etc.)
 Social media (media that uses an app or software program/browser to create
social networks and communities in virtual space, such as Instagram, Vine,
Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn etc.)

22. Describe the GENRE of content the person was consuming. A genre is a category of
style, subject matter, or format that is used to package a program's content.
 Some common TV genres, for example, include sports, reality TV, game shows, soap
operas, news etc. These can often be further broken into sub genres, such as, for
sports, NFL Football, College Basketball, etc. You can even choose a particular
program, and go even further and choose a specific episode or airing of a TV show.
 Some common genres of content for social networking includes selfies, news feeds,
status updates, tweets, memes, etc.
 Certain musical genres are very familiar to most people, but the subgenres are less
so. For example, Hip Hop as a genre is very complex, with subgenres like Conscious
Hip Hop, Rap, mainstream, old school etc. And many of these subgenres can be
broken down even further.
 Narrow down the genre of content as much as possible. It will help you later to be as
specific as you can be right now.

**For the next 5 questions, draw keywords from your above answers and conduct
preliminary research on your topic, audience, and genre of content. Browse 5 credible
online sources to get a sense of the issue in a broader social context.
a) Post the link to the source below, and…
b) Briefly summarize how it describes the issue, who is affected and how, what they
attribute as the cause of the problem, how the problem is seen in the medium/genre
of content, and what they advocate as a solution.
(Note: this preliminary research is VERY rough, just to assess the viability of the topic, and
may include non-scholarly sources that directed your concern to this research focus. News
and magazine articles are typically preferable to blogs and other non-evaluated sources)

23. Review 1 of 5
 Identification of Audience, Issue, Medium, Content
30 questions, 1 point per question
24. Review 2 of 5

25. Review 3 of 5

26. Review 4 of 5

27. Review 5 of 5

28. Stop and think for a moment about all of the above information. Consider what you
have learned from the course readings so far, from your preliminary research, and what
you feel you know about the issue from witnessing it first-hand.
 Now, briefly write a paragraph stating what you understand the problem to be,
what you believe contributes to it and causes it, what you believe is the best way
to address the situation.

29. Consider the preliminary assumptions you just wrote, and think about what you have
learned about audience behavior and the power of media throughout your education in
Communication. Remember that NO study of media use has ever conclusively related
media consumption with direct behavioral effects.
 Write a short response paragraph to the one above, stating what you might be
missing or overlooking in your assumptions and preliminary thoughts on the
issue. What other factors might also contribute to or explain the audience
behavior?

30. Create a draft of a preliminary research question for your project by replacing the
bracketed words in the following:

How do [user demographics (age, gender, sex, etc.)] experience, reproduce, and
contend with experiences of [social issue] in their consumption and use of [genre of
content (and program name if applicable)] through [medium (and program or app if
applicable)]?