Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Vote for Me! Elections Unit Study Supplement: Interpreting Promotional Media

Hello again! This lesson is about interpreting the videos created by the political parties to promote their candidates. I thought the videos used to introduce Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were particularly interesting in a compare-and-contrast way, and having had this conversation with my eight-year-old, I can tell you that he had observations that went beyond what I had already thought I was going to use in the lesson. So, here is the discussion. Some of these questions will again become relevant when we create our own campaign commercials:

Promoting the Candidate: The Biographical Video

Watch these videos first.

Barack Obama Intro:



Hillary Clinton Intro:



Discussion Questions:

Immediately after watching the Clinton video: List three things you remember seeing in the video.

Immediately after watching the Obama video: List three things you remember seeing in the video.

How would you describe the music in the Barack Obama video?

How would you describe the music in the Hillary Clinton video?

Barack Obama is the nominee for President from the Democratic Party. What is the purpose of this video? What were the people who made the video trying to accomplish by making it?

Hillary Clinton almost won the nomination instead of Barack Obama. Many of her supporters were really angry and were there at the convention. What do you think the purpose of this video was? What were its creators trying to accomplish?

The Clinton video had clips from comedy TV shows. It pointed out that she is a bad singer and has a funny laugh. Do you recall seeing any laughing in the Obama video?

Why might the Clinton video be more upbeat and funny, and the Obama video be more serious?

What are three moments from your life that you would want to include in a biographical video about you?

What are three songs you’d like to include?

Link to the PDF for this lesson: Interpreting the Promotional Videos

Link to the updated Week 2 set: Unconventional Conventions

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