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Rhetoric of Pop Culture

Justify Your Text Choice

Strategy:  Show your text is worthy of study as an artifact of popular culture.

What You Are Looking For                       

popularity of artist/genre

sales/box office/hit lists

prevalence in current culture

what makes it distinctive

 

 

 

The Internet and Wikipedia are very good at documenting pop. culture!

Other sites: chartmasters.org, billboard.com, Neilsen

Find General news

Screenshot of search using suggested words for popularity
Screenshot of search limited by date

 

 

  

Research Your Critical Framework

Strategy:  Find books about your method or theory, or about how it applies to your genre.

 

Subject:  rhetorical criticism

Research Your Text (Broadly)

Strategy:  Don't simply search for your text. Search for the bigger issues around your text.

Use a combination of narrower and broader terms to find research that can apply to your text.

 

Tips

  • Type your term, then enter the following search string:

criticism or culture or rhetoric* or analysis

  • Experiment with SUBJECT and ABSTRACT to adjust the relevancy
 Screenshot of search using suggested words for rhetoric

 

 

If you get nothing, broaden your main term.

example:

My Hero Academic

anime/manga

graphic novels

comics

 Screenshot of search using a broader term