The Dark Side of Rap: XXXTentacion’s Final Album, ?

Chris BeecherFilm and Media

Editor’s Note: For those unfamiliar with XXXTentacion’s musical stylings, you can listen to the album that informed Regala’s paper here. When suicide and depression come up in a discussion, what are some immediate reactions? When openly discussing a person’s mental health, speaking up and being honest is not easy. Television shows and other media outlets often portray depression through the …

“Formation” to Unite the Nation

Chris BeecherFilm and Media, Responding to a Text, Social Criticism

Editor’s Note: If you would like to see the music video for Beyoncé’s “Formation,” you can click here. In 2005 of August, Hurricane Katrina forced around 1.5 million people to evacuate and around 700 people are still missing today. Recovery for this incident took years and many citizens have not recovered financially. Many believe that the government neglected the citizens …

Women in Films: Sidekick or Equal

Chris BeecherArgument, Film and Media, New Voices, Responding to a Text, Social Criticism, Visual Rhetoric

Analyzing images helps deconstruct the message the image is trying to convey and helps us understand why everything is portrayed the way it is. As Jack Solomon explains in his article, “Reading Visual Images Actively,” “In analyzing images, you will develop the ability to identify specific telling details and specific evidence” (33). Supremacy is the quality of being superior and …

How Hepburn Sells Chocolate

Chris BeecherAdvertisement Analysis, Film and Media, New Voices, Responding to a Text, Visual Rhetoric

It is very common for an advertiser to use a celebrity to affect a product’s value, such as in Galaxy’s 2013 chocolate bar advertisement [aka Dove Chocolate], which included a digital re-creation of Audrey Hepburn. In several days, most news outlets scrambled to report this new Galaxy girl; the ad touched off a heated discussion in the public. This chocolate …

Black Women’s Empowerment in Beyonce’s Lemonade

Chris BeecherFilm and Media, Literary Analysis, New Voices, Visual Rhetoric

Beyoncé’s second visual album, Lemonade, is a masterpiece at its finest. Lemonade was created to reveal Beyoncé’s responses to the infidelity of a significant other, the empowerment of African American women, and police brutality. The most important theme is black women’s empowerment. Lemonade addresses black women’s empowerment by placing black women of different shapes and sizes into her visual album; …

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Chris BeecherCreative Writing, Film and Media, Visual Rhetoric, Wings

Matthew 10: 38-39 It’s been 3 years since that day. Almost everything before that is a blur. Numerous moments have been forgotten inside my mind. I can’t even remember what I did the day before that. Everything that I had done on that specific day is all pencil shavings: meaningless and without a purpose. Everything lacked purpose. It was the …

Seeing More Broadly

Chris BeecherArgument, Film and Media, New Voices, Previous Editions

Individuals always have a tendency to criticize from first impression without acknowledging the full outlook of the situation. On January 7, 2015, Sia debuted her music video “Elastic Heart.” In the music video, Sia uses Maddie Ziegler, a 12-year-old girl in a nude leotard who is locked in a bird cage battling a thirtyish Shia LaBeouf who is also wearing …

Till Eternity

Chris BeecherArgument, Film and Media, New Voices, Previous Editions, Responding to a Text

On January 2013, Justin Timberlake announced his 20/20 experience album, which was released on February 11th, 2013. It was nearly 7 years since the pop star artist released an album, and on it was a song called “Mirrors.” Imagine being a newlywed and wanting to write a fascinating song for your partner. Well, that’s where the song “Mirrors” comes in. …

American Ingenuity: The Car Company Made by You  

Chris BeecherAdvertisement Analysis, Argument, Film and Media, New Voices, Previous Editions, Visual Rhetoric

American-made cars are often seen as inferior in the automobile market. However, the “Imported from Detroit” Chrysler 200 commercial seeks to change this idea. This commercial first aired in 2011 during the half time of Super Bowl XLV, which saw the Pittsburg Steelers go against the Green Bay Packers. The Chrysler company paid the hefty price of $12 million to air this …

Men Who Are Miles High

Chris BeecherFilm and Media, New Voices, Previous Editions, Responding to a Text, Visual Rhetoric

    In the 1930s,  during the Great Depression, many union workers would do anything to put food on their plates. During this time, skyscrapers were under construction, and union workers would work unharnessed on a steel beam above the city. A photograph of these men was taken on September 20th, 1932 and is enough to make the viewer anxious. They are miles …