FOA Reflection

I recently completed my first further oral activity which was based around the question of "What does advertising reveal to us about society?". The topic I chose to explore for my FOA was racism against African Americans in advertisements throughout history. To explore this topic I chose four different advertisements from varying time periods. The first advertisement I chose was a recent advertisement from computer technology company Intel. The second advertisement was from a recent Nivea advertising campaign. The third and fourth advertisements were both from many years ago, one being an ad for Cream of Wheat and the other advertising Aunt Jemima pancakes. My presentation analyzed the racist aspects of these four advertisements and proved that throughout the years racism against African Americans has remained a part of advertising.

            In my presentation I was able to meet the learning outcome of "Analyze how audience and purpose affect the structure and content of texts" through the analysis of my advertisements. For example I looked at how pre-existing stereotypes of the target audience may have an effect on the design of the advertisement.

            Overall I feel like my presentation was rushed and not as thorough as it could have been. While I was able to complete an accurate and detailed analysis of the advertisements prior to the presentation, I was unable to communicate all of my ideas in my actual presentation.  I feel like I was somewhat successful in my presentation however it was definitely not as successful as I would have hoped.

            While I feel like I performed decently in all the criteria, there were some criteria that I did better in than others. I felt I was weak in criteria D as I sometimes had trouble communicating my ideas in my presentation. I feel that in my initial analysis I was quite strong in criteria A and B however I feel that much of this analysis was not carried over into my actual presentation.

            From this further oral activity I learned that preparation truly is the key to a great presentation. For future presentations I will be sure to prepare more thoroughly than what i did for this presentation.