Web exercises direct both instructors and students to useful and current web sites, along with creative activities to extend and reinforce learning or allow for further research on important chapter topics.

• Advertising and Ideology
  Read the blog post “Advertising and the Eskimo” at Sociological Images: http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2011/02/04/advertising-and-the-eskimo/

• How have images of the Inuit people been used in advertising over time? What is the ideology underlying these images?

• Why does looking at older advertisements sometimes help us see ideology better than looking at contemporary ads? Does this mean such depictions have disappeared? Why or why not?

• Can you think of other ads that use images of foreign or “exotic” people or lands? Who are these ads directed at and what is the message?

• News Media and Ideology
  Look at the current front page for the New York Times (www.nytimes.com) or your favorite online news source. Examine the headlines, links and major stories of the day for the way in which ideology shapes what is regarded to be newsworthy. What assumptions about our society are presented as “normal” and common sense? Who are the people who receive the most focus? How can you apply Croteau & Hoynes description of economic news in Ch. 5 (p. 165)?

• Rap Music as Ideological Critique
  Read these articles on the state of political hip-hop today, and watch the examples of political hip-hop.
  http://www.globalresearch.ca/why-does-the-music-industry-keep-underground-hip-hop-music-underground/5351084
  http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/09/did-the-decline-of-sampling-cause-the-decline-of-political-hip-hop/279791/

• What sorts of ideological critiques does political hip-hop music still make today?

• Why does political rap music often remain “underground”? How does this relate to the mainstream music industry and their ideological interests? Why would it be hard for a political hip-hop artist to find mainstream success?

• How has the space for critical hip-hop changed according to these articles? Is it still possible for rap music to have a critical and political edge? How? Discuss with your classmates.