Select an artifact for ideological analysis. This can be an advertisement, TV show, news article, artwork, sporting event, computer game, consumer object, film, website, song, music video, museum display, building, park or architectural environment, article of clothing or fashion trend, TikTok dance, etc.

Drawing on Fosss Ideological Criticism,

Procedures Using the ideological method of criticism, a critic analyzes an artifact in a four-step process: (1) selecting an artifact; (2) analyzing the artifact; (3) formulating a research question; and (4) writing the essay. Selecting an Artifact Virtually any artifact can serve as an artifact for ideological criticism because ideologies exist everywhere. Every artifact takes an evaluative position on various subjects simply by the rhetorical choices that the rhetor made in creating that artifact. Although you may be tempted to select a political text for an ideological analysis, other kinds of artifacts often can produce less obvious insights. Artifacts of popular culture such as advertisements, television shows, basketball games, concerts, coffee houses, computer games, lawn ornaments, films, websites, and songs are sites where ideologies are rhetorically packaged and sold and where ideological conflicts are played out. Audiences are often less resistant to ideological messages in such artifacts because they do not expect to see them there; as a result, such artifacts are often more productive and interesting to analyze. Ideological Criticism 243 Analyzing the Artifact A critic who explores an artifact for the ideology it manifests does so in four steps: (1) identifying the presented elements of the artifact; (2) identifying the suggested elements linked to the presented elements; (3) formulating an ideology; and (4) identifying the functions served by the ideology. Identifying Presented Elements The first step in an ideological analysis is to identify and focus on rhetorical aspects of the artifact that provide clues to its ideology. The critic seeks to identify the assumptions, presuppositions, or premises behind the artifact that constitute its ideology. Your task here is to examine individual signs that point to ideological tenets in the artifact, working back to the often implicit ideology through the rhetorical content and form of the artifact. An easy way to begin the process of identifying the assumptions that construct a particular ideology for an artifact is to code your artifact for presented elements.53 Identification of presented elements involves identifying the basic observable features of the artifact. These might be, for example, major arguments, types of evidence, particular terms, or metaphors. In visual artifacts, physical features such as shapes and colors constitute presented elements. Whatever form your artifact assumes, you are looking for observable aspects of the artifact that provide clues to its ideology. Make a list of these major elements or features of the artifact. A stanza from Meghan Trainors song Dear Future Husband provides an example of what to identify as presented elements if your artifact is verbal or discursive. One stanza from the song is this: You got that 9 to 5 But, baby, so do I. So dont be thinking Ill be home and baking apple pies. I never learned to cook, But I can write a hook. Sing along with me Sing, sing along with me. The presented elements in this stanza would be these argumentative claims: Both I and my future husband work from 9 to 5. Do not expect me to bake apple pies. I do not know how to cook. I know how to write a song. I invite my future husband to sing along with me. There also might be some musical features of the song you would want to identify as presented elementsan unusual chord progression, an upbeat melody, or a particular key, for examplethat seem relevant to the ideology of the song. Some aspects of Trainors voice also might function as presented elements. In a nondiscursive or visual artifact, the presented elements are shapes, materials, and objects. Take as an example the Humana Building in Louisville, Kentucky. This building is the headquarters of the Humana Corporation, a healthbenefits company, and it was designed by architect Michael Graves. In this building, you might identify the major presented elements as follows:54

Identify the key presented elements of the artifact. Depending on the artifact, these may be

Major arguments, types of evidence, key terms, or metaphors

Physical features, such as shapes, colors, materials, dimensions, etc.

Plot structure, characters, key events, narrative features, etc.

Rhythm, instrumentation, arrangement, melody, lyrics, etc.

Identify key suggested elements linked to the presented elements. These may be

central or peripheral themes

allusions or references to ideas external to the artifact itself

concepts deployed or implied by the artifact

Formulate an ideology. That is,

What does the artifact urge us to believe, understand, feel, or think about?

What values, characteristics, roles, attitudes, and/or behaviors does it aim to promote?

What principles or norms ought to predominate?

main goal is to state as clearly, fully and convincingly as possible what you take to be the ideology at work in your chosen artifact, as well as which elements of the artifact support and lend expression to this ideology.