Final Project: Media Representations of Koreans

In this blog, I will explore the portrayal of Koreans in four television shows that have come out in the last eight years. The shows I discuss offer four very different representations of Koreans: a fictional Korean couple on “Lost,” a fictional first generation Korean-American family on “Gilmore Girls,” a fictional Korean adoptee on “Arrested Development” and a Korean-American family on the reality show “Jon & Kate + 8.”

LOST

"Lost" is a science fiction drama currently in its fifth season on ABC. It tells the story of the survivors of a plane crash in the South Pacific. The show makes use of an ensemble cast, and tells the story of their survival on the mysterious island as well as makes use of flashbacks and flash forwards to develop character and plot.

Two of the survivors are Sun and Jin, a married couple from Korea. In the first episodes of Season 1, Sun and Jin are portrayed as the stereotypical Korean couple. Jin is possessive, domineering, unwilling to associate with the other passengers and Sun is his submissive wife. Despite the language barrier they face, Jin and Sun find that they have survival skills that make them indispensable during their time on the island. Jin, the son of a fisherman, provides fish for the other survivors to eat and Sun plants a garden and demonstrates her knowledge of medicinal plants. In a way, this is another stereotypical portrayal of Koreans; it suggests that they are somehow "closer to the land." In fact, it is never explained how Sun could have obtained her botanical knowledge because she is revealed through flashbacks to have grown up in a wealthy family in urban Seoul.

But as with all characters on "Lost," people are never who we think they are at first. Flashbacks complicate each character, including Jin and Sun, by showing their lives off the island. Over the course of several seasons, it is revealed that Sun's domineering corporate father disapproved of her marriage, and that the couple was on the plane in the first place to escape from Jin's crushing life as a hit man for Mr. Paik's company. Sun is shown to have been secretly learning English from a man she was having an affair with, and planned to leave Jin for. The reason for Jin’s possessiveness is explored, Sun is shown to have more agency that was originally thought, and the couple's rocky marriage is brought to the forefront on the island.

One of the primary themes of "Lost" is that on the island, outside of their usual contexts, people tend to express their true nature. The show's use of flashbacks highlights characters' previous lives off the island and contrasts their behavior to life after the crash. On "Lost" there are no "good guys" or "bad guys"--each character shows evidence of being both incredibly exemplary and incredibly flawed. The writers consistently point out that human beings are complicated, dynamic, multidimensional and that human behavior is mostly rooted in context.

I believe that Jin and Sun's portrayal of the stereotypical Korean couple is a good example of presenting characters as flat, predictable people at first and then complicating them considerably through flashbacks and the events on the island. The island itself, a new context for life outside of Korea, offers Jin and Sun a chance to break from stereotypes and build new identities. In the process, Jin and Sun come to know each other's true selves and begin a process of reconciliation.

The clip below (from Season 4, Episode 7) shows one of the final conversations between Jin and Sun in which they negotiate life after Sun's affair, Sun's pregnancy and a chance to leave the island forever:





GILMORE GIRLS




“Gilmore Girls” is a dramatic comedy show that aired on the WB from 2000 to 2007. The show is focused on mother Lorelai and daughter Rory Gilmore, but Rory’s best friend Lane Kim and her mother are also considered main characters throughout the run of the series. Lane’s family is Korean as well as Seventh Day Adventist, and enforces their traditional values in their household. Because her parents would not approve, Lane is forced to hide her obsession with rock music under the floorboards of her bedroom and seems to lead a double life. Lane loves her parents and wants to please them, but she is constantly dealing with the fact that her mother believes junk food, dating, and non-Christian music are the work of the devil.

Lane: Well, I wore a bracelet to school today. My parents were called. There was a special service in chapel, and I've been ordered to a soul-searching seminar next week. I'll be sitting between the nail-polish-wearing girl and the spicy condiment user.

Amy Sherman-Palladino, the creator of “Gilmore Girls,” based Lane’s character on the stories her friend Helen Pai (a producer on the show) told her about her family and childhood. “Initially, it was very weird,” says Pai about the experience. “I’m not a limelight kind of person. During the first season of Gilmore Girls, we had a panel, and there were a lot of questions about Mrs. Kim and Lane and the stereotypes. And, Amy would then explain, ‘Listen, these are real stories. They’re based on a real person.’”
While some might argue that the portrayal of the Kim family on the show reinforce stereotypes of Koreans as strict, oppressive households, many Asian viewers have identified with the personalities on the show.




“Gilmore Girls” takes place in the fictional small Connecticut town of Stars Hollow, and the people who live there are a collection of quirky, memorable characters. While the show’s protagonists are Lorelai and Rory Gilmore, the strange behavior of minor characters in Stars Hollow are just as important to the development of the story. In this way, the Kim family is just one odd family in a town full of odd families. While their Korean-ness and religious faith make them stand out, they don’t stand out any more than Taylor does for his love of the rules or Jackson does for sleeping in the vegetable patch. In many ways, the show’s setting actually normalizes the Kim family.

Many of Lane’s storylines on “Gilmore Girls” highlight the conflicts between the traditional values of Lane’s parents and the largely white, secular values of Stars Hollow and the world at large. These conflicts are done with equal amounts of humor and emotion, and they almost always show Lane mediating the two cultures. This conversation about gifts shows the regular miscommunication that goes on between Lane and her family:

Lane: You have to look at what a gift says to the other person, not to you. Remember two years ago, I got my mom that perfume?
Rory: Yeah.
Lane: Okay, to me that said, "Hey Mom, you work hard, you deserve something fancy". Now to my mother, it said, "Hey Mom, here's some smelly sex juice, the kind I use to lure boys with", and resulted in me being sent to Korean Bible camp all summer.

While Lane does eventually find a way to tell her family about her true passions, drumming in a rock band and her relationship with the band’s white guitarist, Lane does continue to find herself at the center of both conflicts with her mother and internal conflicts. Without knowing it, Lane finds that she has internalized her parents’ values about premarital sex and must admit that her family and culture has influenced her after all. Mrs. Kim actually helps organize a tour for Lane’s band and consults with her boyfriend on his songwriting. These conflicts bring Lane and Mrs. Kim closer together throughout the series, and portray them as complex and authentic characters rather than caricatures of a Korean-American family.

ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT

“Arrested Development” is a mockumentary-style situation comedy that aired on the FOX network from 2003 to 2006. The show is about a wealthy, corporate family in Newport Beach, CA. George Bluth Sr, the patriarch and president of the Bluth Company is arrested and his wife (Lucille Bluth) and children (Michael, Gob, Lindsay and Buster) are left to clean up the mess.



In Season 1, Episode 14, a fourteen-year-old Korean child shows up on Lucille Bluth’s doorstep. A year earlier, Lucille filed papers to adopt a child from Korea because she was frustrated with Buster for not finishing his cottage cheese. At first, Lucille tries to get rid of the child, but after seeing Buster’s jealousy, she decides to keep him. The family assumes his name is Annyong (hello in Korean) because that is all the he says.

Annyong is consistently underestimated throughout the series. To Lucille, he is at best a pawn to make Buster jealous, and at worse she uses him as a human purse. In the adoption letter Lucille receives, the “Korean Consulate of Child Services” treats him as an object to deliver, asking that someone “Please be home between 9:00 and 5:00.”

In his school’s play, he is “typecast” in an Asian role. He volunteers to play Uncle Sam because it’s “better than the part I have now—guy who orders attack on Pearl Harbor.”



In fact, the family’s underestimation of Annyong turns out to be their downfall. He learns English quickly, plays on a soccer team (which shows he is blending in with other American children), works at the banana stand, falls in love with his cousin (just as his other cousin George Michael does) and begins to surprise the Bluths with his insights on their family dynamics:

Michael: What? What's going on?
Annyong: Okay. Mother want someone to go to my soccer game with. She don't want other soccer moms think that she is single mother. She old school.
Michael: I liked it better when he just said "Annyong."

It is revealed in Season 1, Episode 16 that he is actually eighteen-years-old, foreshadowing that there is more to Annyong than meets the eye. In the series finale, it is revealed that Annyong (whose real name is “He-loh”) has been collecting incriminating data on the Bluth family and orchestrating an SEC raid in order to avenge George, Sr. for stealing his grandfather’s idea for a frozen banana stand. The picture shown of Annyong’s grandfather, a grainy shot of his grandfather in front of his banana stand in Korea, portrays Korea as a bleak landscape.

Ultimately, “Arrested Development” portrays Korea as a desolate place with so many children up for adoption that one could be “accidentally” adopted by a family as self-centered as the Bluths. In addition, it portrays Korean people (Annyong and his grandfather) as smart individuals with good ideas who are underestimated and have their ideas stolen by rich and powerful white people.

JON & KATE + 8


“Jon & Kate + 8” is a reality documentary show currently airing on the TLC network. It’s a “day in the life” style program that follows Jon and Kate Gosselin, a Pennsylvania couple who have 7-year-old twin girls and 4-year-old sextuplets. Jon’s mother was Korean and grew up in Honolulu and his father is “a total white dude”, and Kate is white, so the Gosselin children are “a quarter Korean.”




While Jon and Kate’s parents haven’t been involved in the day-to-day lives of their grandchildren, Jon’s Korean grandmother does spend time with the children and cooks for the family. In Season 4, Episode 5, Jon decides to use his grandmother’s recipes to cook a Korean-style dinner (Bulkogi, Chinese fried rice, kimchi and mochi for dessert) including for the family. His goal, he explains to the camera, is to teach his children about their Korean heritage in an age-appropriate way.



In this episode, Jon and Kate explain their kids’ habit of getting into arguments about who in the family is the “Asian-est.” During dinner, Mady (one of the 7-year-old twins) says “I’m the most Asian-est person in the whole family, except for Daddy!” She often talks about her Asian heritage on the show. In Season 1, Episode 3, Mady is wearing Jon’s jacket and she says “I look just like Daddy! I’m wearing his jacket and I have an Asian face!” Kate and Alexis, one of the sextuplets, are determined by the family to be the only “non-Asians in the family,” to which Kate replies “Of course, that isn’t true.”

“Jon & Kate + 8” is the only non-fiction program I’m exploring in this study of media representations of Koreans, so my interest lies in how a real family with Korean heritage might choose to represent themselves on television. While the episodes are unscripted and designed to capture the Gosselin family’s daily life, Jon, Kate and the producers often choose a theme or event for the episode, such as a trip the family is taking. Jon must not only have chosen to prepare Korean food for his family, but to show an aspect of his family life on television as well.

“Jon & Kate + 8” portrays the Gosselin family as proud of their heritage. Both Jon and Kate have spoken to the importance of creating family traditions, many of which have been chronicled on the show. The family has also chosen to capture moments on film where they celebrate their heritage, not only in the Korean dinner episode but in the episode where Jon and Kate renew their marriage vows in a Hawaiian-style ceremony. Kate, who is white, related a story in one episode about her pregnancy with the twins. A relative of Jon’s asked her if she was disappointed that her children would not look like her, because they would likely look Korean like Jon. Kate’s reply was that she thinks her children are beautiful, and she’s just as proud of their Korean ancestry as Jon is. Ultimately, Jon and Kate seem to have made a conscious decision (one they choose to share with their viewing audience) that their Korean heritage is something to celebrate with their children.

Week Ten: Advertising

I realized this kind of parody advertisement has been done to death on the internet, but I've been seeing so many Christmas related diamond ads that I decided to choose inspiration over originality. Sorry.

The ad I put together is a parody (obviously) of the ads by jewelry retailers to sell diamonds. The message of those ads, often, is that the only way to show you love a woman is with diamond jewelry. In the end, these advertisements put pressure men to only use their finances to show how they feel (thereby reinforcing their societal roles as unemotional males) and portrays women as only interested in money and frankly, as I show in my spoof, stupid for not "understanding" different ways people show each other love.

Most diamond advertisements are aimed at heterosexual men who are in pretty new relationships (less than 2 years, probably). The advertisements often draw on the heavy symbolism of diamonds as a physical object; they are the hardest mineral and likely to survive anything. I saw one ad on television recently that used the slogan "There are only two things that last longer than time..." implying that one is love, and one is a diamond. That television commercial, oddly enough, seemed to be aimed at women rather than men. It is just as important for diamond retailers to convince women of the importance of diamond jewelry as a physical sign of love so the men in their lives feel pressured to buy them.

The audience of my spoof is the group of men described above, but I wrote the copy as if it were coming from the perspective of not just the jewelry retailer but also the stereotypical greedy women. It drives home the point that the symbolism and cash value of diamonds are the only way to express feelings of love, that relationships without this particular physical symbol are meaningless, and that both these facts seem to work out for jewelry retailers just fine, thank you very much.

Week Nine: Popular Music

This week, my task is to identify an "undervalued" pop song and find a new way to evaluate that song that will assign it more cultural "value." Rather than address the question "Who is doing the evaluating?" I am going to assume that most people agree that my chosen song, "Wannabe" by the Spice Girls, is not widely considered to be an important contribution to the world of music.

Instead, my argument here is that "Wannabe," as well the music and image of the Spice Girls in general, provide an important influence on female adolescent development.

The Spice Girls arrived on the scene in 1996 with "Wannabe," the first single from their album "Spice." "Wannabe" became number 1 on the charts in 31 countries. The group, made up of five young British women, was formed as competition to the era's popular "boy bands" and was marketed directly to preteen girls.

Part of the marketing strategy was to give each band member a "personality" or nickname. Victoria became "Posh Spice," Melanie B became "Scary Spice," Melanie C became "Sporty Spice," Emma became "Baby Spice" and Geri became "Ginger Spice." The idea of these "personalities" is brought out to the point of parody in "Spiceworld," the Spice Girls' feature film which was released in 1997.

(from imdb.com)
Scary Spice: [as they are talking about being stereotyped] You know, I think it's the same with fish
[points out fish in tank]
Scary Spice: I mean, look at this, you've got the spotty one, that's *wacky*. You've got the fluffy one, that's *cute* And then you have this... ugly loser one. That reminds me of my ex boyfriend, Steven
Scary Spice: Ugh
Ginger Spice: Did you *know*, that the largest fish ever is the manta ray?
Posh: [continuing] And then you've got the little *ginger* one, which is full of *useless* information, about *manta rays*!

Ultimately, though, this marketing decision works in concert with adolescent development. Because adolescents form their identities by comparing themselves with others, young girls could pair themselves with each of the Spice Girls flat "personalities" and choose the one most like themselves. Once they'd made their choice, young girls often called themselves a "Baby" or a "Sporty," and dressed like the Spice Girl of their choice. This "trying on" of personalities, as well as "music's ties to identity" (Powers) in general, make the Spice Girls an important part of identity formation in preteen girls.

Another marketing decision made by the Spice Girls was their overall message of "girl power." The band's credo seemed to be that equal rights between the sexes and outward displays of femininity and sexuality are not mutually exclusive. This challenges and extends the typical response to media representation of femininity that "frames achieving an ideal, beautiful appearance as central to defining one's identity as a female" (Beach, 2007). The typical response to this is to disregard the outward feminine appearance altogether, but the Spice Girls promote embracing outward appearance IN ADDITION rather than INSTEAD OF equal rights based on inner traits.

The content and voice of many of the Spice Girls' songs show women asking men for what they want and making their relationship expectations explicit, challenging representations of women as passive members of their relationships. During the time the Spice Girls were popular, feminists had a lot to say about them and their "girl power" message. Using feminist analysis (Beach, 2007), I find that the Spice Girls portray women as sexually confident and assertive in their relationships.

Wannabe

Yo, I'll tell you what I want, what I really really want,
So tell me what you want, what you really really want,
I'll tell you what I want, what I really really want,
So tell me what you want, what you really really want,
I wanna, I wanna, I wanna, I wanna, I wanna really
really really wanna zigazig ha.

If you want my future forget my past,
If you wanna get with me better make it fast,
Now don't go wasting my precious time,
Get your act together we could be just fine

I'll tell you what I want, what I really really want,
So tell me what you want, what you really really want,
I wanna, I wanna, I wanna, I wanna, I wanna really
really really wanna zigazig ha.

If you wanna be my lover, you gotta get with my friends,
Make it last forever friendship never ends,
If you wanna be my lover, you have got to give,
Taking is too easy, but that's the way it is.

What do you think about that now you know how I feel,
Say you can handle my love are you for real,
I won't be hasty, I'll give you a try
If you really bug me then I'll say goodbye.

Yo I'll tell you what I want, what I really really want,
So tell me what you want, what you really really want,
I wanna, I wanna, I wanna, I wanna, I wanna really
really really wanna zigazig ha.

If you wanna be my lover, you gotta get with my friends,
Make it last forever friendship never ends,
If you wanna be my lover, you have got to give,
Taking is too easy, but that's the way it is.

So here's a story from A to Z, you wanna get with me
you gotta listen carefully,
We got Em in the place who likes it in your face,
we got G like MC who likes it on an
Easy V doesn't come for free, she's a real lady,
and as for me..ah you'll see,
Slam your body down and wind it all around
Slam your body down and wind it all around.

If you wanna be my lover, you gotta get with my friends,
Make it last forever friendship never ends,
If you wanna be my lover, you have got to give,
Taking is too easy, but that's the way it is.

If you wanna be my lover, you gotta, you gotta, you
gotta,
you gotta, you gotta, slam, slam, slam, slam
Slam your body down and wind it all around.
Slam your body down and wind it all around.
Slam your body down and wind it all around.
Slam your body down zigazig ah
If you wanna be my lover.

The song "Wannabe," above, portrays a woman asking for what she wants in a relationship and making her expectations explicit. The speaker also initiates a dialogue, asking her partner what he wants from the relationship. My interpretation of the lines "If you wanna be my lover, you gotta get with my friends/Make it last forever, friendship never ends" is that the speaker expects her partner to act like a friend as well as a lover, which suggests equality in the relationship.

The Spice Girls were popular when I was a preteen girl, and I found myself buying albums, making collages of their pictures and choreographing my own dance moves along with thousands of other girls. As much as I am reluctant to admit it, because of the timing of the Spice Girls' success and my age at the time, the Spice Girls likely did have an impact on my development as a young adolescent female. I identified with Baby Spice as an11-year-old, which made me identify as more innocent, slightly less sexualized as the other members of the band. As I watched the film "Spiceworld," however, I began to see myself in Geri, who was the most articulate and was the "ideas" girl (see the manta ray quote from imdb, above). While many might see the Spice Girls and their music as danceable, slightly trashy pop from the late 90s, there are many young women today who can trace at least part of their identity development back to the first time they heard "Wannabe."

Week Eight: News

Local TV News Log:

WCCO 4 News at 10
November 10th

INTRO/TEASERS :20
NEWS Fake guns banned 1:57
NEWS Senate Recount :55
NEWS Body exhumed for crime investigation :21
NEWS Green Jobs :18
FEATURE Holiday Shopping/Economy 1:50
NEWS Obama/Bush meet, Obama family puppy :35
NEWS Teen drowns in MN lake :55
NEWS Bus accident in WI :18
NEWS Military battalion home from Iraq :18
NEWS Child hero :25
TEASERS :34
//commercial break//
FEATURE "Good Question: Are teens good drivers?" 2:42
NEWS Full length movies on YouTube :19
FEATURE BWCA birthday (a Don Shelby story) 3:55
WEATHER 2:40
EDITORIAL Good to Know w/Don Shelby (gas prices) 1:05
//commercial break//
SPORTS Vikings & Twins 2:34
//commercial break//
SPORTS Gopher football :53
//commercial break//
FEATURE Chimpanzee cuddles w/tiger babies :47

Reflection:

This mantra of this newscast seems to be "make it relevant to the viewer." In many ways, this broadcast takes viewers' interest and feedback into account. First of all, not a lick of international news was covered in this broadcast. The Bush/Obama meeting story was the only national news story, while the rest of the stories were concentrated at the state or local level.

The "Good question" segment, which this broadcast does each evening, takes a question e-mailed in from viewers. The show also reported on on online poll which asked viewers which breed of dog the Obama family should get when they move into the White House. Even the language used by the weatherman reflects the needs of the viewers; he often starts sentences with things like "at the bus stop tomorrow, you should wear" and other things to make the weather personal to the viewer.

This station, more than others, is covers more "progressive" material than I've seen on other networks. There is an "environmental" story almost every night, for example. Also, this broadcast seems to capitalize on the familiarity the viewers have come to have with anchor Don Shelby over the years. In fact, Don Shelby's stories (his editorial and his BWCA story) were given 5 entire minutes of the half-hour news cast. His seniority and "belovedness" allow him more airtime as an individual than most stories combined.

An activity for teaching critical analysis of news:

Working in groups, I would have students find coverage of a certain news event from a variety of sources. One group might look to local news, another might look at a 24 hour news network like CNN, another might look at BBC news or news from another country, another group might look to blogs, another might find political cartoons, the list could go on and on depending on the number of students.

After doing their research, each group would report back to the large group, and using a graphic organizer or just class discussion, the class would discuss which aspects of the story covered by each source. And, most importantly, the teacher would lead the discussion to WHY each source decided to cover the story the way they did, and their agendas in general.

Week Seven: Minnesota on YouTube

I've chosen to start with a clip that's been in the news lately. This is a clip from a McCain rally that took place in Lakeville, MN during the last couple of weeks. In it, a woman says she is afraid of an Obama presidency because "He's an Arab." My reaction, and most likely the reaction of many around the country, is "Where did this woman crawl out of? The land where all forwarded e-mail goes to die?" This is the brief picture the country got of a Minnesota resident, and I'd like to explore these questions: Are we, as Minnesotans, surprised to see this woman as our representative? Or do we know deep down that this is a typical Minnesotan? For viewers outside of the state, does this picture align with their idea of what Minnesotans are like?

Week Seven: Minnesota on YouTube

Other than its entertainment value, I think this video highlights an important point about both Sarah Palin's campaign and media representations of Minnesota. This video highlights a connection between Margie from "Fargo" and Sarah Palin: their accent or way of speaking. The creator of the video hear the connection in their voices, as do the viewers and that is what makes this video funny. But the connection in the video reveals two things. First, an association is being made all over the country between Minnesota and Sarah Palin, even though none necessarily exists. Second, because many Minnesotans might hear Sarah Palin's speech patterns as familiar and comforting, it might be easier to feel an affinity with her and, therefore, cast their votes for her. I had not deeply considered before I watched this video how accents might have an effect on people's political decisions.

Week Seven: Minnesota on YouTube

This video got me thinking about whether there is such a thing as a "Minnesota consciousness." The content of this video was familiar to me because I grew up in Minnesota, and have seen similar shots of State Fair-goers on the local news for years. It also made sense to me to hear the German music because that is the heritage of many Minnesotans. The comments other YouTube users left on this video seems to suggest that this is a uniquely Minnesotan experience. One says "lol, only in Minnesota." The representation of Minnesotans this filmmaker chose to use is familiar to those "inside."However, would this content be completely foreign, even odd, to viewers outside of Minnesota? How does this video make us look to those "outside"?

Week Seven: Minnesota on YouTube

The unique thing about the movie "Fargo" is the juxtaposition between the "Minnesota Nice" of the William H. Macy character and the cops and the crime, gore and killing that goes on right alongside it. Dark moments of murder and blood are followed by the bright spots of "Oh, sure" and "You betcha." The overall impression of Minnesota is "Crime does not belong here."

Week Seven: Minnesota on YouTube

Week Seven: Minnesota on Youtube

The interesting (and relevant) part of this clip is how the man introduces himself. He says "My name is Henry Gale. I'm from Minnesota!" Later episodes reveal that "Henry Gale" is actually Benjamin Linus, leader of the others and television's greatest villain, and that he stole his identity from a man named Henry Gale from Wayzata, MN who crashed on the island in his hot air balloon (yes, "Wizard of Oz" references abound on this show). The question, though, is why choose a Minnesotan as his false identity? The answer, this clip seems to suggest, is that Minnesotans are gentle, innocent, and unlikely to be villainous island-dwellers out to kidnap plane crash victims.

Week Seven: Minnesota on YouTube

Week Six: Media Ethnography

Sorry for the tardiness of this post; I was out of town this weekend and my bus was delayed coming in last night.

This week I have the privilege of examining my very favorite blog, "Nik at Nite," which is written by a woman whose job I would like in another life. Nikki Stafford writes companion guides to television shows (her "Finding Lost" guides are the ones I'm familiar with), as well as blogs about television shows.

"Mostly, I write about television. Stick around if your favourite shows are Lost, Pushing Daisies, Buffy, The Office, Battlestar Galactica, 30 Rock, Veronica Mars (sniffle), or anything on HBO. I'll also talk about my toddler daughter, my infant son, some celebrity gossip, music, what books I'm reading, and how someone SERIOUSLY annoyed me today. But mostly television."

Here, I plan to explore the intense social interaction that occur on Nik at Nite's comments section, especially the posts that concern the television show "Lost."

The most recent blog post that generated a spirited discussion was posted on August 9th, 2008, shortly after this year's ComiCon was held in San Diego. Each year, the "Lost" writers (as well as several other SciFi shows) are known to release special content at the annual comic book convention. This summer they released a video which showed a "typical 'Lost' fan" unexpectedly able to tape secret footage of the Dharma Initiative, a fictional organization on the show, with an handheld camera. The secret footage appears to be a man recording a message 30 years ago for the purposes of warning people of the future. There is evidence of time traveling as well.

Here is a link to the original post:
http://nikkistafford.blogspot.com/2008/08/latest-dharma-orientation-video.html

Stafford offers her take on the video, bringing up some questions and offering a few theories, then opens it up to comments. As Stafford usually does, though, she offers personal responses to people who leave comments. The dynamic on this blog is that everyone is welcome to voice their theories and comments, but it is a big deal to be recognized by Nikki Stafford herself, because she is considered to be the well-respected authority on the topic of "Lost." However, Stafford is very welcoming and respectful to anyone who comments on her posts, as well as very glad to hear theories other than her own.

Of course, the exception to that rule is her response to the third comment, posted anonymously:

Blah, blah, blah. You're Canadian, you're politically liberal. What a surprise.

How is that remotely relevant to the topic of the post, which is otherwise quite interesting?

Stafford's reponse?

Anonymous: Blah blah blah. You're taking a potshot at me and posted anonymously. What a surprise.

I'm constantly amazed by the fact that if I make an off-handed comment against Herr Bush in any of my posts, someone no doubt jumps all over me for it, in a rude and abrupt way. That's quite the insecurity.

As to your comment about liberal Canadians, you do realize the Canadian prime minister is Conservative, don't you?

This seems to be the end of Stafford's response to the interruption of the "Lost" discussion, but several other posters tack on their own reponses to their theories and discussion of the show. A poster named Kristin says:

**As for the president comment, I just roll my eyes and go on. Everyone has their opinion...but sometimes it surprises me to find them in blogs about non-political topics.**

This echoes the feeling I had when I first read this set of comments: I was offended that this blog, a "safe space" to talk about a television show with a community who shared my love of it (even if we didn't share other things, like political beliefs) had been invaded by someone and that both Stafford and her readers had to veer away from the discussion to attend to it. This made it clear to me that people choose the blogs they read based on specific, personal reasons. Unlike getting information from television news or print media, blogging allows a space for response. If commenters break the unspoken agreements of that space (like, "When Nikki Stafford posts about "Lost," we all agree to discuss "Lost") people begin to feel uncomfortable with the experience.

The discussions of "Lost" theories continue, with the last comment posted over a week after the original post. When new episodes of "Lost" are airing, Staffords "recap" posts are known to generate over 100 comments, with discussion continuing for week's afterward. In addition, Stafford and the other posters begin to get to know one another in a limited kind of way. For example, we all look to one particular poster for his knowledge of physics during discussions of time travel related episodes. But mostly readers look to Nikki Stafford for her brilliant, comment generating posts about a show it's worth getting together in an online forum to discuss.

Week Five: Media Representations: Jessi Ramsey, the only black girl in YA lit

Since the first book was released in 1986, the Babysitter's Club series by Ann M. Martin became a worldwide children's literature phenomenon. I personally devoured these books as a preteen, and confess to have a continued fascination with them to this day.

The premise for the book series was simple: a group of middle school aged girls from Stoneybrook, a fictional Connecticut suburb, form a babysitting club. Each book is told from the perspective of one of the girls, and the plot is both about babysitting and what is going on in the girl's personal life. The girls are characterized as smart and responsible, and the problems they face (divorce, death, disabilities, etc., etc.) are meant to reflect picturesque suburbia.

This blog will focus on Jessi Ramsey, the only black girl in the club. She is introduced in book #11, when her family moves to Stoneybrook from New Jersey. During her first day of school, she is described through the eyes of her soon to be best friend Mallory:

"I wondered what being the only black student in your grade would feel like. I guessed it would feel no different from being the only anything in your grade. I was the only one in our grade with seven brothers and sisters...But I knew that wasn't quite the same. The kids couldn't tell that just by looking at me" (Martin, p. 14).

As Mallory gets to be friendly with Jessi, she hears about how Jessi's family has been received in Stoneybrook:

"'I don't belong in this school, or even this town. Neither does my family.'
'You mean because you're, um...'
'You can say it," Jessi told me. "Because we're black."
'Have people done things to you?' I asked.
'Nope.' Jessi shook her head. 'Well, a few things. Like Benny Ott shooting rubber bands at me in class. And I've overheard Rachel Robinson and her friends talking about me. Mostly, though, it's what they haven't done. The neighbors haven't introduced themselves to us, haven't paid any attention to us. Except my dad. His company asked him to take his job, so the people he works for are okay. But do you know you're the only kid who talks to me?" (Martin, p. 69-70)

These are the tensest moments in the series in terms of conflicts over race. In later books, the problems Jessi faced here are portrayed as already resolved:

In book #17:

"The Ramseys moved to Stoneybrook very recently...The Ramseys are black, and there aren't many black families around here at all, and non in Jessi's neighborhood. Jessi is the only black kid in the sixth grade, if you can believe it. However, things are setting down and getting easier for her family" (Martin, p. 17).

In book #25:

"I might as well be straightforward...and say right out that Jessi's family is black. They moved to Stoneybrook near the beginning of the school year and they're one of the few black families here. A lot of people gave them a hard time at first, but things have gotten better" (Martin, p. 9).

In book #26

"[Jessi and Mallory are] similar in some ways and different in some ways. The biggest difference is that Jessi is black and Mallory is white" (Martin, p. 12)

In book #83

"Jessi moved from a racially mixed town in New Jersey...I'm sorry to say that the Ramsey family faced some really stupid prejudice when they arrived here. Fortunately things have smoothed out since then" (Martin, p. 19-20).

What interests me about these descriptions of Jessi is that they are really the only mention of race or racism that appear in the books. Of course, there is no need for Jessi's function in the books to be solely based on her racial identity (in the books she is also characterized as a babysitter, an avid reader and a talented dancer). But the Ramsey's experiences of prejudice are extremely abbriviated in the series. Almost every one of the quotes above describe racism to have been a problem once, but not anymore.

In addition, no mention is made about Jessi's personal experiences moving from an entirely black neighborhood in New Jersey to a practically entirely white town in Connecticut. The series discounts the fact that Jessi might have needed to learn a new set of social codes in becoming part of an all-white social group, or that her life (other than how others in town treated her) has changed. There is no mention of her feeling like the odd girl out in a club full of white girls.

Looking at this phenomenon from a sociology perspective, Gordon Allport's Theory of Contact seems to apply. According to the theory, the idea that contact between two groups that hold prejudices against each other will get rid of those prejudices is FALSE. In fact, when two opposing groups make contact, levels of prejudice will actually rise. The writers of the Babysitter's Club series seem to be operating on the myth that if the town of Stoneybrook just gets to know the Ramsey family, tensions will decrease. This is the value assumption the writers are working with--they believe prejudice is a simple problem that will go away with simple contact. Not only that, but they value the Ramsey family's ability to slide right into majority white culture. As long as the neighbors come to see the Ramseys as a family "just like us," they have no trouble erasing the prejudice.

When I searched a few online blogs about Jessi's character in the Babysitter's Club books, I found at least two perspectives. The first challenges the fact that Jessi's primary character trait is her race. One blogger says "i REALLY hated reading bsc because everytime they mentioned jessie, they’d say. “Jessie is black.” that’s the whole sentence, then proceed to explain how cool she is despite that start reality. ugh."

The second perspective, though, acknowledges the absence of black protagonists in adolescent lit, and is appreciative that at least there is a black character in the series, period. One blogger describes it this way: "Jessi, the only black member of the Babysitters Club, was one of my girl idols back when I was a nerdy tween who had yet to blossom into full teenagehood." She also says "I related to Jessi’s struggles just to be a normal girl in a lily-white reality, with a white dominated hobby," even though I would argue those struggles weren't explored nearly enough. This blogger makes the point that the series of books popular with teenagers today (the Gossip Girl series) don't have a black protagonist at all.

Week Four: Critical Approaches

This week in my blog post I will be summarizing eight critical lenses one can use to look at a text, and doing my best to use the TV show "Lost" as an example for each. Here we go...

1. Audience Analysis

This approach assumes that "audiences are more than simply passive targets or dupes of media texts" (Beach, p. 35). Instead, readers or viewers come to a text with their own prior knowledge and experiences, and that prior knowledge and experience interacts with the text and allows each viewer to construct their own unique take on that text. Because each person brings different things to their reading or viewing experience, each person will get different things out of the text.

In the first season of "Lost," a plane crashes on a mysterious island in the South Pacific, leaving 48 survivors to attempt to live their. Two of the passengers are a married couple from Korea. Jin, the husband, is very traditional, and asks his wife Sun to cover herself up and not interact with the other survivors. Sun, who secretly learned English while in Korea, must hide her ability to communicate with the other passengers for weeks because she knows her husband will not approve.

Not knowing much about Korean culture myself, I took these characters at face value. Many people with more knowledge on the subject have complained that Jin and Sun are stereotypical characters, and that their behavior does not coincide with very many modern Koreans. Because of my lack of prior knowledge, I was not prepared to question the show in that way, and thus I had a very different viewing experience.


2. Semiotic Analysis

This critical perspective deals with the meaning of signs and codes. Culture determines meaning what certain images have, so "an image or sign can have multiple meanings depending upon the different codes used to interpret the sign" (p.36).

Rain is one image that is often used on "Lost" Based on the context, however, this sign can have a variety of different meanings. Most often it is used to show tension, like when the survivors are running from the monster. Several characters have been shot in the rain. In other scenes, the rain has been used to show renewal or rebirth. In the Pilot episode, Locke, who was paralyzed before the plane crash but can now walk, sits happily in the rain as if it's washing away his past. Mysterious apparitions also happen in the rain; Walt appeared to Shannon after he'd tried to escape the island on a raft, and Harper, who is dead, appears to Juliet in the rain. Viewers understand the various things one sign can signify based on knowledge of other texts.

3. Narrative Analysis

One can also look at particular texts with an eye for "narrative structures or patterns employed in genres" and to "identify archetypal story patterns" (p. 36, 37). Audiences have learned to expect structures and patterns they've seen over and over again, and those patterns can be analyzed to reveal ideological assumptions in the text and the culture as a whole.

In the dramatic mystery genre, for example, foreshadowing and other audience clues are a regular literary technique. On "Lost," foreshadowing is used so often that fans have lengthy lists of unanswered questions going into each new episode. In the first season finale, Locke, Jack and Hurley are attempting to blow open a hatch Locke discovered on the island. On the door, Hurley spots a series of numbers he believes to be cursed, and attempts to convince the others to leave the hatch alone, which foreshadows the trouble that comes after the hatch has been opened.

4. Poststructuralist Analysis

This angle looks at language categories and how they "influence characters and audiences' perceptions" (p. 37). Binary oppositions are an easy way to look at this type of analysis; what are the limitations of looking at the world through the viewpoint of good/evil, black/white, right/wrong?

This is a theme often explored on "Lost." As a viewer, it is tempting to constantly sort characters into the "good guys" and "the others" or "the bad guys." The "Lost" narrative is constantly adding more background and psychological insight into each character, which challenges the binary oppositions the audience is attempting to use. For example, Benjamin Linus, the leader of the "others," is, in my opinion, the greatest villain of all time. However, he consistently claims that "We are the good guys." We also are shown flashbacks to his childhood, where we see that his father constantly blamed him for his mother's death because she died during childhood. While I am still convinced he is the story's villain, humanizing details keep me from sorting him into the evil category while others fall into "the good guys." In the photo below, half his face is cast in darkness while half is lit, symbolizing his dual nature.
5. Critical Discourse Analysis

Critical discourse analysis deals with the way people communicate in different situations or roles. The way we speak reveals our identities or roles, and "define what is considered to be 'normal' in a social world" (p. 38). They also reveal the larger ideology of a culture.

For example, Oceanic Airlines, the fictional carrier of the plane that crashed on the "Lost" island, uses its own language conventions to communicate about the crash and its aftermath. Because it is a business, it uses business discourse to tell its side of the story. Their response:

“We are very eager to resume flying and apologize for any inconvenience our temporary closure may have caused our loyal customers,” said Michael Orteig, President, Oceanic Airlines. “Oceanic Airlines is proud to be a top tier flight provider and looks forward to providing travelers with many more years of unparalleled service.”



6. Psychoanalytic Theory

Not only do viewers bring prior knowledge and experience to their viewing experience, but, according to psychoanalytic theory, they bring their "subconscious desires, needs, and fears defining one's identity" (p. 40). All of those things affect how audiences decode the meaning of images, which are subjective.

For example, I imagine their is a lot to be discovered about a person by asking them their favorite "Lost" character. According to this theory, we choose our favorite characters by the ones we identify with or aspire to be. My brother Jack, for example, says Daniel Faraday is his favorite character. Faraday is a physicist, a little socially awkward, but very brilliant. He is also quite hilarious. My brother, I feel, is close to this character, but it also reveals his desire to be more brilliant and nerdy than he is.


7. Feminist Analysis

Often, this lens examines "the sexist portrayals of females and males" (p. 40). Analysis includes a look at "cultural constructions of myths regarding gender differences (p. 41).

On "Lost," there is no shortage of ass-kicking female characters. In fact, most female characters have shown themselves to be adept at "male" behavior such as gun-wielding. However, of the group of characters dubbed by fans as the "A-Team" (Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Sayid and Locke) who are the characters who most often make treks into the jungle to "save the day," only includes one female.

8. Postmodern Analysis

Postmodern analysis "challenges and even parodies traditional forms" (p. 41).

The best example of this on "Lost" is the episode "Expose." In the third season, the writers introduced Nikki and Paolo, two survivors who came out of the background. Fans were livid, wondering why time was being wasted on these random characters at the expense of storylines about the main characters. The "Expose" episode is a response to the fans' outcry--it not only shows (through flashbacks paralleling previous episodes) what Nikki and Paolo have been doing all this time, but it directly comments on fans' cognition. Here are a few "postmodern" things in this episode, written by Nikki Stafford her book Finding Lost (2007):

-There was no "Previously on Lost" segment at the beginning, as if writers knew many people wouldn't remember [Nikki and Paolo] being on Lost previously.
-Hurley, the avid television viewer, knows exactly who Nikki is [the star of a television show called Expose]. Sawyer, representing the casual viewer, is constantly saying "Who the he's Nikki?"

Week Two: Justifying film, television and media studies in the curriculum

The following are the 7th Grade OUTCOMES for students at Richfield Middle School:

Demonstrate ability to read with accuracy and fluency

Expand vocabulary through reading, listening, and speaking

Increase comprehension of written materials through a variety of strategies

Strengthen ability to actively read and interpret a variety of literary works

Develop and strengthen expressive, narrative, and research writing skills

Actively demonstrate understanding of writing as a process

Apply standard English conventions in formal writing

Demonstrate ability to locate and cite information in reference materials

Strengthen ability to communicate effectively through listening and speaking

Develop awareness of how to evaluate accuracy and credibility of sources


On the surface, it seems that the curriculum developers at RMS primarily hope their students to improve their literacy skills in print media. The curriculum primarily asks teachers to use books as texts and the writing is to be done on paper. However, I believe that the curriculum should introduce students to the skills they will continue to use later in their education and later in life. It seems many of the outcomes discussed here involve the retrieval and evaluation of information: research. While it is still relevant for students to be able to use libraries, encyclopedias and dictionaries to find information, training students to use online resources will afford them the most relevant and important skills for future research projects, formal or informal.

Therefore, the definition of "reference materials" (above) could be expanded to include online resources. The last outcome, "evaluate accuracy and credibility of sources," is an incredibly important skill to have when doing internet research, and without that outcomes direct application to online sources, students may not be able to apply it to that avenue. The process of research is fundamentally different than it was ten or twenty years ago, and we must give our students the skills to keep up with the retrieval and evaluation of information.

I would also seek to expand the definition of "literary works" (above) to include film and television texts. Because we seek to teach students to "actively read and interpret" printed texts, I imagine we want to encourage our students to actively think about and analyze all the "texts they come into contact with, not be passive recipients of information and narrative. By including film and television in the curriculum, we teach students the importance of being actively involved in our environments. In addition, any analysis skills students learn in relation to film and television can only strengthen, not take away from, the skills we want them to apply to printed texts.

Week Three: Film Techniques

For this assignment, I'm going to look closely at a scene from NBC's hit show "Heroes." In case you are unfamiliar with the program, "Heroes" is a show about people around the world who find out they have extraordinary abilities.

In the scene I will be looking at (from Season Two, Episode Four, "The Kindness of Strangers"), Matt Parkman, an NYPD detective who is able to hear people's thoughts, is interviewing Angela Petrelli, the mother of two sons with special abilities, about a suspicious death.

The first shot is a long shot of Parkman and his supervisor standing around Mrs. Petrelli's hospital bed. The camera swiftly moves in on Mrs. Petrelli's face and she delivers the line "I killed Kaito Nakamura." I believe this camera movement focuses our attention on Mrs. Petrelli and adds drama to her already surprising statement.

As she explains herself, the camera captures Mrs. Petrelli in profile. Also in the frame is her heart monitor, and we hear it beeping. The inclusion of this image makes the audience feel that she is confessing to the murder of Mr. Nakamura to keep herself alive.

After Mrs. Petrelli makes her case, Parkman attempts to read Mrs. Petrelli's thoughts. As is characteristic of the mind-reading scenes on "Heroes," there is a particular sound of electronic static and the character's voice echoes a bit. The camera also provides several shots of the character's face from different angles. These are signals that help the reader distinguish between spoken language and thoughts being heard by Parkman.

Also, for the first time that I've noticed on the show, camera angles alternate between shots looking down on the character's forehead and shots that zoom in on the character's mouth. I think this is a brilliant way to highlight a main theme in this scene: People often say very different things than what they think. In this case, Mrs. Petrelli is confessing to a murder, but in her mind she is telling Officer Parkman that even though she is innocent, he should just "Take her confession and let it go."

In general, this scene is built on close-ups of the actor's faces, because seeing each character's reaction to spoken words and thoughts are very important to the story. The lighting in the scene is low and dramatic, without a lot going on in the background to distract from the characters' expressions. The music is soft but builds to a crescendo at the climax of the scene. Ultimately, this scene, though short, is very effective in establishing larger themes as well as conveying new information about the characters in a dramatic way.

In my classroom, I would show two clips side by side because it is sometimes easier for students to identify techniques using comparing/contrasting measures. I would either choose two clips that show the same theme or subject matter, or choose the same scene from different versions of a film (such as the two film versions of Romeo and Juliet). Then I would ask my students, using the vocabulary discussed, to find the elements in each. After identification, we would discuss "the underlying purpose for why filmmakers are using these different techniques" (Beach, p. 23).

I do agree with Beach when he says "students are most likely to learn to understand and critique use of film techniques through engaging in their own digital video productions" (Beach, p.21). If resources are available, I would love for my students to create short films to share with the class. At the very least, I think the process of planning/storyboarding an idea is a valuable project for the class to try.

The text mentions comics as a good way to teach storyboarding. Because "Heroes" draws a lot on comics and comic book art, I think it would be a valuable lesson to look at the "Heroes" comic and compare it to the actual "Heroes" program.

The following is an analysis of a favorite commercial of mine which may be viewed here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3Zma2_n5CA&feature=related

Shot 1: Long shot, shows Tim sitting at his desk, co-workers approaching him
This shot establishes the setting and characters
“Hey Tim, show Joel how everything you touch turns into Skittles.”

Shot 2: Medium shot, shows Tim and his co-worker’s hand offering him a stapler. He pokes it and it crumbles into Skittles.
This shot allows a closer look at Tim’s sadness, as well as a close view of the crumbling stapler.

Shot 3: Medium shot of co-workers in amazement.
This shot allows us to focus on the co-worker’s reaction to Tim’s talent. “That’s awesome!”

Shot 4: Medium shot of Tim looking up at his co-workers.
This shot puts us on Tim’s level, allowing us to sympathize with him.
“Is it awesome when you can’t hold your newborn baby boy in your arms?”

Shot 5: Long shot of Tim and his co-workers, who are eating the Skittles off Tim’s desk.
This shot allows us to see both Tim’s sadness and the casual Skittle-eating behavior of his co-workers.
“Did you feed and dress yourselves this morning? I didn’t.”

Shot 6: Medium shot of Tim, slow zoom in.
This shot is gets us the closest we get to Tim’s face, allowing us to see the emotion in it.
“I met a man on the bus today. I shook his hand. He’ll never see his family again.”

Shot 7: Medium shot of the co-workers, whose hands drop to their sides.
We see a closer view of the co-worker’s reaction and sympathy here, and watch their softening body language.

Shot 8: Medium shot of Tim from the co-workers’ POV.
From this point of view, we mirror the sympathy of the co-workers.
“I guess that’s pretty awesome”

Shot 9: Close up of Tim as the phone rings.
“Excuse me.”

Shot 10: Close up of Tim as he touches the phone, then the phone turns to Skittles.
This close angle lets us see the surprising results of a simple action like answering the phone.

Shot 11: Close up of Tim as he grunts in frustration.
A close view on his reaction.

Shot 12: Long shot from the opposite angle of Tim and his co-workers as Tim touches his desk and it collapses into a pile of Skittles.
This is the climax of the commercial, so we are able to see the full weight of the collapse, all the characters and the setting with Skittles all over the floor.

Shot 13: Shot of a pack of Skittles and the text.
This reinforces the name of the product.
“Touch the rainbow, taste the rainbow.”

Week One

This weekend I watched a video made by one of the students at Phillips Community Television:

http://www.mediathatmattersfest.org/mtm05/

Doing an internship with PCT is an option for the Service Learning course my brother and I took during our time as undergraduates, though neither of us took advantage of it. The video this particular student made, “Battleground Minnesota,” was really fascinating. He conducted interviews with many politicians, lawmakers and others associated with the upcoming election.

What interested me most about the film was the way this student chose to draw his interviewees into his own experience as a young person, rather than ask his subjects to immerse him in the life of a politician. The scene where he gives Mark Dayton some “bling” comes to mind, as well as the use of rap music throughout. His intent with the meetings with Minnesota lawmakers is to introduce the priorities and interests of young people like himself, as well as to introduce the political process to his viewers.

As a viewer who doesn’t have a lot in common with the filmmaker, this struck me as an unorthodox way of creating a “get involved” documentary. My expectation was for the filmmaker to try to make the political process more accessible to young people. I thought his interviews would involve more questions and fewer scenes with uncomfortable politicians. But once I got over feeling uncomfortable with them, I understood that the filmmaker chose to make the people with the power feel awkward so young people like him could gain a little power.

I know that Phillips Community Television’s program has many of the same goals discussed in Chapter 1 of the Beach textbook. For example, this filmmaker uses the music and filmmaking skills from his “bedroom culture” to make this project. In addition, the film itself indirectly comments on the lack of voice young people have in the political process and in the media, and encourages other young people to be engaged. Without education in media literacy and the opportunity to express lessons learned through media, I don’t think the filmmaker could have made the connections he did with this project. Watching his film, I think, is a good argument against the statements of the Eden Prairie school board member, because I think important learning did take place.