Emily's Adventures in Popular Culture + Education

Final Project: What Makes a Scary Story?

2009-04-26T10:25:00.000-07:00

PURPOSES

My final project will be a teaching unit that explores the question "What makes a scary story?" It will be geared toward 7th and 8th grade students and it will use Edgar Allan Poe stories as its anchor texts. I plan to bring in scary movies, shows and books from popular culture, including parodies, to break down which elements make a story scary. The unit will lead up to a project in which students will write their own scary stories.

My goal with this unit is to do a genre study. I have seen Edgar Allan Poe units taught before as an author study, and I find the approach to be very ineffective. Asking students to find links between Poe’s life and his writing is very limiting and does not allow students to explore an essential question or create their own work. Instead, I would like students to look at Poe's stories (as well as other scary stories, films and television programs) and study the craft of writing a scary story and apply the techniques to their own writing.

The challenge I anticipate is creating a unit about scary stories that is not too frightening for 7th and 8th grade students. I will try to find ways to incorporate media in ways that teach the genre while still making my students feel safe.

LESSONS

1. Anticipatory Guide and Introduction to Edgar Allan Poe

The class will begin the unit by taking inventory of their ideas and opinions about scary stories by using an anticipation guide. It will be some version of this anticipation guide, which I borrowed from the ReadWriteThink website:

http://www.readwritethink.org/lesson_images/lesson407/anticipation.pdf

After completing the anticipation guide, the class will watch a clip from "The Simpsons" (Season 2, Episode 3) which is a take on Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven." It features an excellent dramatic reading by James Earl Jones and Homer Simpson, but the poem is introduced by a great conversation between Bart and Lisa Simpson about whether or not Poe's stories are still scary.

I might also include a SHORT PowerPoint presentation about Poe and his life and writing career.

2. Which one is the scariest?

In groups of 3-4, students will read three to five short stories from Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz. After reading, they will have to rank the stories (#1 is the scariest, #5 is the least scary) and write a paragraph justifying their choices. The results will be compiled as a large group and the class will try to answer the question "What makes a scary story?"

3. Choosing a Topic: Scary Movies

This activity will be a webquest done in the computer lab. Each student will have a list of iMDB's Top 50 Horror Movies (as compiled by user ratings). Students will have to run web searches of each title and determine what the "scary part" of the movie is. For example, for the movie "Jaws" a student could write "Shark attacks." After compiling their data, the class will try to split the topics in to categories (i.e. monsters, etc.). The purpose will be to get kids thinking about what to include in their own scary stories.

http://www.imdb.com/chart/horror

4. Horror Movie Parody: What do we expect?

The class will view an episode of the family sitcom "Boy Meets World" which does a great job parodying horror movie conventions (plus, it's hilarious). The episode is very self-aware, and characters practically call each horror movie convention by name, which is good for middle schoolers attempting to break down the genre. As students watch, they will be responsible for making a list of the horror movie conventions mentioned explicitly and parodied in the action. Whole class discussion will follow.

5. Edgar Allan Poe's Stories

At least 3 of Poe's stories will be read in class (including, but not limited to, The Telltale Hear, The Cask of Amontillado, The Monkey's Paw, Fall of the House of Usher, etc.). Students will discuss and "map" the elements of fiction used in these stories, and use them as references when writing their own stories.

http://www.poestories.com/

6. Elements of Fiction

This unit might easily be used to teach the elements of fiction (and how they can be manipulated to create a scary story), but it might also be used as a review. Students will "map" the elements of fiction in Poe's stories as well as their own stories as a pre-writing activity.

http://www.readwritethink.org/materials/lit-elements/overview/

7. How to Write a Scary Scene

This lesson will provide practice for translating scary scenes into words. To accomplish this, the class will watch several suspenseful scenes from films and television shows that have written versions (for example, "The X-Files" and "Harry Potter"). Students will watch a scene and have time to write that scene as a short story. Students will be given a transcript of the scene to help them along. Several students will share, then the class will look at the actual book versions and compare the ways they chose to present the story.

8. Ghost Hunting Articles

This is a great lesson plan I found that examines two journalists' experiences ghost hunting.

http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/lessons/19991029friday.html

9. Scary Movie Review

After looking at a few mentor texts (film reviews from magazines and newspapers) students must complete a review of a scary (or suspenseful) film that they watch outside of class.

10. Writer's Workshop: Mini-lessons

As students begin the process of writing their stories, I would give a daily mini-lesson on the following topics:

effective leads
dialogue conventions
snapshots and thoughtshots (writing description and including characters' thoughts)
building suspense
illustrating the story
characterization

EVALUATION

This unit's focus is discovering what makes a story scary because the final assessment is for students to write their own scary stories. The links below are another teacher's take on the assignment and resources I might borrow in creating my own assignment. The process would involve several days of writer's workshop, including pre-writing, drafting, and significant peer revision and conferences with the teacher. I might also include a day where students are invited to read their stories to the class (with the lights low and scary music playing, of course!) My hope is that students are able to find ways to write scary stories without putting all the emphasis on gore, but instead making the fear psychological.

http://www.readwritethink.org/lesson_images/lesson407/write-scary2.pdf

http://www.readwritethink.org/lesson_images/lesson407/rubric-writing.pdfhttp://www.readwritethink.org/lesson_images/lesson407/reflection.pdf

Extensions/Extra Credit: Students could do a study of a scary novel (such as one of the books in the Goosebumps series by R. L. Stine or a Stephen King novel). This might include completing journal entries about each chapter, charting the elements of fiction, writing a review, etc.

Week Nine: Food

2009-04-19T12:19:00.000-07:00

This week's chapter from Tooning In, "Popular Culture and the Dark Side of Food," turned out to be one of the most interesting chapters we've read so far. Much of the chapter focused on historical changes to the perception of the ideal body images and the disordered eating that has resulted from it. I've never read a historical analysis of body images linked to power structures before, but it makes total sense. The essay argues that as women gained more power in society (such as the right to vote and leadership positions in the workplace), "popular culture demanded that women show they were in control of their lives by being in control of their weight, the lower the better" (White 134). While I've heard the link between personal control/power issues and eating disorders, I'd never heard it explained at the societal level.

Another part of the essay I found especially interesting was its discussion of processed foods. Women, especially in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, were expected to define themselves by their ability to nurture their families. As the Industrial Revolution brought the rise of the processed food industry, advertising worked to "convince women that processed food was not only healthier for their families but brought rewards to the busy homemaker" (133). Women had to come to grips with the claims that formula was better for their babies than the breastmilk that came from their own bodies. Essentially, "the traditional role of nurturer was taken away" (133).

It was fascinating to me reading about how advertising of a particular product can completely change the societal roles as well as the physical and emotional health of a group of people. Research now tells us that natural foods and breastmilk are far healthier than formula and other processed foods. The organic and natural foods movement is doing its best to reverse the trend Heinz and other companies started a century ago, but I'm beginning to be convinced it's too late.

In the July/August 2008 issue of my very favorite nerdy magazine, Mental Floss, there was an article that explained how advertising spurred a similar shift in thinking. The article is called "Just Add Milk: How Cereal Transformed American Culture," an it's equally fascinating. Before the invention of cereal, "most Americans subsisted on a diet of pork, whiskey and coffee" (Lendler 54). A group of Christian fundamentalists blamed most health problems on meat consumption, and introduced a cereal called Granula "offered consumers a sin-free meat alternative that aimed to clear both conscience and bowels" (54). Dr. John Kellogg knocked off the product, dropping the religious message but promoting cereal's health factor.

Soon other companies like Post had picked up the idea of breakfast cereal because it's easy to produce and selling well. Because all the companies were selling essentially the same product under different names, advertisers realized they had to add a little something extra to get their brand off the shelves--cartoon character mascots. Soon, cereal advertising became geared almost entirely to children and something clicked in advertisers minds: "kids don't care about their colons. They want sugar. Lots of sugar" (57). The sugar cereal was born, and within 50 years the entire idea of the American breakfast had been completely transformed.

I think the cereal example is the perfect lesson to use in the classroom because it demonstrates how much food is linked to popular culture. Kids especially want to eat certain things because of their image more than health or even taste. The power of advertising to change society's values is a real thing that should be critically explored with young people.

Week Eight: Popular Music

2009-03-29T12:32:00.001-07:00

This week's readings, from Tooning In, made a great effort to convince that protest music and music that offers social commentary is not dead. The chapters go on to say that "if we are interested in a relevant social studies that facilitates active participation and problem solving in society, then contemporary popular music offers many possiblilities and can play a vital role in instruction" (White 112). Including music as a text in our curriculum offers the possiblity to engage students, reveal a more personal perspective of a social or historical issue and develop students' critical thinking skills.

I believe the most valuable way to include music into a unit of study is to include songs that represent alternative or minority voices. If anything, finding authentic voices that address the issues being studied in a personal way could really add to the curriculum. While I appreciated White's suggestion of using song parodies to help students memorize important facts (I once heard of a teacher rewriting "The Thong Song" to help his students learn the presidents or something) I think using music as text that actually adds something new to the curriculum is a more valuable application.

Here are a couple of ideas I've been thinking about:

As an English teacher, I often think about ways to pair poetry, especially less contemporary poetry, with more modern texts. I had a professor in college that paired Walt Whitman's poetry with Sufjan Stevens, and we discussed both the style and the view of America that Whitman portrays in "Leaves of Grass" and in Stevens' "The 50 States." It was one of the most interesting lessons on poetry I can remember (and not just because I LOVE Sufjan Stevens) because it reminded me that there are artists that continue to write about America in the same way that long-dead poets did.

Another idea I've considered is looking at the perceptions of war and the role of the soldier. If teaching a unit on The Things They Carried, for example, which deals with soldiers in Vietnam, I might pair it with poetry (like "Dulce es Decorum Est") that portrays what being a soldier is actually like. "Soldier Boy," a song by my favorite artist Mason Jennings (who writes many songs that include social commentary) would fit in quite nicely, as it is another text written from the perspective of a soldier that satirizes a soldier's attitude. These texts would feed into a discussion of the demands of war, and whether it's okay for a country to ask its citizens to take on the role of soldier.

Week Seven: Fake News

2009-03-22T17:28:00.000-07:00

For me it was just exciting to see fake news catching on like that. We don't… you know, it's interesting. I think we don't make things up. We just distill it to, hopefully, its most humorous nugget. And in that sense it seems faked and skewed just because we don't have to be subjective or pretend to be objective. We can just put it out there.
--Jon Stewart

Jon Stewart from The Daily Show has been scrutinized quite a bit over the last few years, and not necessarily because of his content. It seems like every day the six o'clock news reports the results of another survey that claims most young adults get their news primarily from satirical shows like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. Often, Stewart gets "blamed" for this, told his news program is skewing the opinion of millions of impressionable young adults.

His response, in a nutshell? It's fake! As you can see in the quote above, Stewart does not believe his satirical news show is obligated to follow the same journalistic standards as 60 Minutes or the Nightly News. Because The Daily Show airs on Comedy Central, Stewart argues, viewers should expect entertainment, not objective journalism. Fake news anchors do not have to swear to whatever version of the Hippocratic oath journalists take when they vow to be objective reporters of current events. "We don't consider ourselves equal opportunity anythings," says Stewart, "because that's not - you know, that's the beauty of fake journalism. We don't have to - we travel in fake ethics."

It seems to me that the problem is not with the show itself and its obvious lack of objectivity. The problem is that, allegedly, people are watching The Daily Show and The Colbert Report instead of getting their news from a source that is expected to report objectively (whether they actually do or not). I'm still working through this argument. Even if it is true that there are young adults who watch fake news and nothing else, are they really laughing as hard as those who've seen the material being satirized? If I've never seen The View and I watch an SNL skit that parodies the program, will it be funny to me? And even if it isn't, will I never be able to take The View seriously after seeing Tracy Morgan dressed up as Sherri? My thought is that the responsibility is in the hands of the viewer, not the writers of satire, but it's true that SNL satire has forever changed my impression of Sean Connery.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SK1jpywBQLM

It is my feeling that lessons on satire are very important in the classroom for two reasons. First, teaching students to read satire is very important. Students should know what they're getting as viewers of a satirical news show, and what they're missing. One of the articles from this week explained that those who consider satirical news shows to be their primary source of current events knowledge are left with fewer facts and deeper impressions about public figures or events. Kari's blog this week compared articles from The Onion to headlines in the Star Tribune, which might be a good activity to help students compare the information and impressions transmitted by two different sources of news.

Another important way satire could be used in the classroom is to have students write their own parodies of news stories or other works. To understand and write effective satire, one must have a thorough understanding of the original source material. Asking a student to analyze or write a satirical version of A Christmas Carol, for example, both requires a high level understanding of the novel and calls on other critical thinking skills.

Week Six: Toys

2009-03-08T13:08:00.001-07:00

Like many girls, my favorite toys growing up were dolls. I asked for new ones every Christmas, and we had huge boxes full of dolls and their "stuff" in the basement. I still remember many of them as if they were dear friends: Joyce, my Cabbage Patch Kid; Sean, my Dreamland Baby; Megan, my "Teeny Tiny Preemie." I also had a whole array of Barbie dolls, including a really cool one my mom bought me when she was pregnant with my brother which had a tiny baby you could hide in her retractable belly. "House" was absolutely my favorite game as a kid, and my friend Shelly and I played it daily. Dolls gave us the freedom to play endless iterations of the same game. While playing "House" Shelly and I took care of kids and pets, sent them to school, and survived tornadoes.

According to this week's reading from Tooning In, as well as other articles I have read, play is an important learning process for children. Often play is in imitation of adult activities, which allows them to have imaginative rehearsals for their later life. There is an evolutionary factor at play here: children like me who played parenting games as kids are historically more likely to raise healthy children who are also good parents, continuing their line of decendants. Playing kickball on the playground helps kids learn the important skill of negotiating rules, a skill they will use daily later in life. Play "enables children to make sense of their world, develops social and cultural understandings, provides opportunities to meet and solve problems, fosters flexible and divergent thinking, allows children to express their thoughts and feelings, develops language and literacy, and develops concepts in all academic areas" (White 145).

While the more "modern" toys definitely have the potential to increase cognitive development (video games, as discussed earlier, help develop spatial reasoning among other things), I would argue that it is the more low-tech, open-ended toys that have the greatest potential for learning. Parents often joke that their children are more interested in the box the toy came in than the toy itself, and I believe there is definite wisdom in that statement. While modern toys often come with "one way to play," there are hundreds of possibilities for engagement with a cardboard box. As an experienced babysitter who has spent more than her fair share exploring toys with kids, I can tell you that my kids will have toys with the greatest number of ways to engage: dolls, blocks, play food, musical instruments, toy cars and ramps, bats and balls. As the article discusses, children need "an environment in which children have the freedom to construct their own dramas built out of their own interpretations of reality" (147).

Vygotsky and other learning theorists have argued that there is definitely a social component to learning. I truly do not believe that the noisy toys with lots of buttons that claim to teach your children the alphabet will actually live up to their claims. Children need to explore literacy with their parents, teachers and peers. Literacy and numeracy will not just come to kids without the scaffolding and social support of an actual person. In addition, computer games should be considered learning supports to a school curriculum, not school itself. In my own classroom, I believe it is important to incorporate toys (are there any language arts toys? Magnetic Poetry, maybe. I'm open to suggestions), games and play, but not at the expense of actual teacher interaction and teaching.

Week Five: Avatars

2009-03-01T12:25:00.001-08:00

The clip below, from The Office, is a matter-of-fact but amusing commentary on online avatar programs like "Second Life." Dwight claims he joined "Second Life" because his life was so great he "literally wanted a second one." For Jim and Dwight, designing an avatar is an opportunity for identity exploration and perspective taking in big and small ways (for Dwight, everything is the same except he can fly; for Jim, he imagines himself as a sportswriter in Philadelphia).

As teachers, and especially as language arts teachers, we look for ways to help our adolescent students make sense of themselves and the world. Identity exploration and perspective taking are important parts of development, and skills that interaction with literature and writing help to build. The primary questions I asked myself this week was "Can the use of avatars or agents in the classroom help students build these type of skills? Can they aid in other types of learning? Do they have affordances that no other teaching tool offers?" and most importantly "Would I actually use them in my classroom?"

The articles assigned for this week discuss using online avatars as teaching tools. Rather than looking at a list of FAQs on a topic, an online avatar could speak and interact with our students. If pressed, I could think of a few reasons why this would be helpful. Students who are visual or auditory learners might prefer to experience a lesson with a "human" face on it, rather than reading a text to get the information. It also opens up possibilities for differentiation, because students working on a computer with "teacher agent" could be able to work with different parts of the lesson at the same time, have information repeated, etc.

However, the Science Direct article was a reminder that there are possibilities for abuse when using robots as teachers. Students are much more likely to view an avatar as a toy than as a legitimate, human teacher, and as such are likely to spend more time "messing with the robot" than learning from it. As much as I support finding ways to incorporate play into the classroom, it concerns me that it's so much more fun to see what the avatar will say when I call the robot a whore than any classwork could ever be. I believe it is not true play when the affordances of fun a technology offers does not contribute to learning. For example, in a science lab that explores the concept of waves by playing with a Slinky, the play does contribute to learning about the concept of waves. Technology like Gizmoz.com and "Second Life" is too much like a toy, and not a toy that supports learning.

Also, I can't discuss the idea of online avatars without mentioning the concept of the Uncanny Valley. This became an issue for me as I was exploring the Gizmoz.com site (see my finished product in the post below). The Uncanny Valley is a theory in the field of robotics which posits that "when robots and other facscimiles of humans look an act almost like actual humans, it causes a response of revulsion among human observers" (from Wikipedia). The truth is, the avatar I created through the Gizmoz site, as well as those I've seen my classmates make, are creepy and frankly I would be too distracted by their creepiness to let them teach me anything. There simply has to be something to be said for genuine human interaction in the world of teaching and learning.

Ultimately, I decided I would be willing to use avatar programs like Gizmoz.com not as a teaching agent, but as a possible tool for developing identity exploration and perspective taking skills. The assignment I imagined was for students to design an avatar that represents a character in literature. It requires a student to synthesize information from the text to represent the character visually. In addition, the assignment could ask students to do any number of things with the spoken text their avatar could say. For example, a student might make an online avatar of Lady Macbeth, exploring what she would look like in a traditional or modernized interpretation of Hamlet, and the student could record a soliloquiy to go along with the visual image. The assignment could also be to record an interview with the avatar, or any number of other permutations.

My Online Avatar Nightmare

2009-02-25T17:40:00.001-08:00

Express Yourself with Gizmoz Video Clips

Week Four: Shopping Malls

2009-02-15T17:27:00.001-08:00

"I like it here. Everything is so...perfect. You walk around feeling like all your problems can be solved by the right nail polish or a new pair of shoes."
---Marissa, "The O.C."

"The O.C." is one of those guilty pleasure shows because it is, yes, incredibly vapid, but it has those moments when it makes genuine insights on the world we live in. On of those moments is shown in the video above--an entire episode called "The Mallpisode," which taps into a fantasy you probably never knew was in the collective unconscious of American consumers: being trapped inside a mall overnight. This clip made me laugh because it not only plays out the fantasy of being alone in a mall(getting to play hockey in a department store, eat mall food, sleep in the mattress showroom), but there's this great "consumer moment" when Summer and Marissa stop to check out a new product. "Hey, it's the new body shimmer. Ooh, shimmery." They're unable to occupy the space without shopping.

While the characters on "The O.C." represent the wealthiest of the wealthy, people with lower incomes still have a relationship with the shopping mall. A woman I babysat for once asked where I lived, and when she didn't quite know where in the metro I was talking about she asked me which mall it was near. "Oh, Ridgedale," she said, "I know where that is." The mall had become sort of a geographical marker for her. It's possible to map out the Twin Cities metro by the "Dales" (Brookdale, Ridgedale, Southdale, etc.), and apparently some people do. The top movie of the last month or so, "Paul Blart: Mall Cop" takes place in a mall, which suggests to me that the mall has become practically a mythical setting.

As in the quote above, I think malls serve a problem solving purpose in our world today. I live near the pretentiously named "Shoppes of Arbor Lakes" in Maple Grove, which is a fairly new mall-like development that's rapidly growing. There are so many different stores (mostly chain stores, but not all) that if you live nearby, there's no reason to venture anywhere else if you need to buy something. It becomes an all-purpose destination, one that is likely to solve any "consumer problem" you might have. It doesn't take much of a stretch in thinking to come to the conclusion that shopping centers might solve your other problems as well.

I'm not much of a shopper, so the mall isn't my favorite place to be, but I've been spending more time in malls lately in my quest to build up my "teacher wardrobe." After awhile, you start to tune in to the things marketing teams must study to know end: what about the mall environment makes people buy stuff? The most obvious example is the "shopping music" that plays loudly in most clothing stores. Besides building the "identity" of the store (and therefore the consumer that should shop there), it seems to be meant to raise the heart rate, keep energies up and inspire purchases. The perfumes that are sprayed regularly in stores like Abercrombie (yes, there are store policies on perfume spraying, and yes, it does smell HORRIBLE) are most likely meant to do the same thing. A discussion of the research that goes into environmental "shopping cues" would be an interesting one to have with young people.

The Washington Post article (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/03/AR2008100301977.html) was, to me, the most interesting of the readings this week. I had never strongly considered the role the government's role in encouraging consumerism as a way to gain popular favor, but it makes perfect sense to me that preoccupation with stuff is the perfect weapon against the critical thinking of the masses. If the average American is more concerned with the latest whatever than they are with the decisions being made by our country's leaders, then it's easier for those leaders to make decisions that do not represent the values of the average citizen. It is that very issue that I would make a point to discuss with my students. Teaching a critical literacy curriculum is nothing without considering what things get in the way of our critical thinking, and I think a study of shopping malls is just the thing to illuminate that point.

Week Three: Video Games

2009-02-08T12:15:00.000-08:00

Although I have two brothers, my gaming experience up until this point has been pretty limited. My favorite game to this day is Tetris, but I remember playing Crash Bandicoot with my brothers on Playstation and taking it very seriously. However, my boyfriend is an avid gamer, committed not only to playing video games, but to analyzing and evaluating them. I must admit, dating him has been a little like going to nerd camp. This assignment to reflect on gender, gaming and education could not have come at a better time.

As a girl who admittedly does not have the patience or determination to get into a game with an extended storyline, I am drawn to games that offer more short-term entertainment--Tetris, Guitar Hero or racing games like Mario Kart. My boyfriend has put some serious thought into finding games that will appeal to me, especially after I expressed my dislike for fighting and shooting games in general. One game he had me try was Pokemon Snap, which is a variation on a shooting game that makes it non-violent. The premise is you are going on a "safari" of sorts, looking for Pokemon creatures to take pictures of. There are several criteria for good pictures, and points awarded for the best pictures. In fact, my boyfriend argues that the regular Pokemon games are a great example of games that appeal to both gender--for boys, it's a fighting/strategy game, for girls, it's a game about collecting cute creatures.

Of course, a game whose sole premise is "collecting cute things" doesn't entirely appeal to me either. Through my experiences babysitting, I've been exposed to several games that are marketed directly to girls. I have to tell you that in general, they totally suck. One is a DS game called Nintendogs whose entire premise is petting and bathing animated puppies. Another is a game that mostly involves choosing a preteen girl character and "buying" clothes for her to wear. Most of the "girl" games I've experienced tends to involve the collection and maintenance of "cute" things, with no real goal or challenge.

The articles for this week seemed to explore two possibilities for incorporating gaming into an educational setting. The first is to use games as a text to look at through a feminist lens. Because both most game developers and most game players are male, how does this affect the construction of video games? In the articles I read for this week (both of which feature the voices of female gamers), many video games alienate female players, either through their stereotyping of female characters, hypersexuality or because the type of game doesn't appeal to female players. Asking students to critically look at the construction of these games, then using the feminist lens to brainstorm ideas for improved games, seems to be a worthy assignment for adolescents. Below are two possible responses, the first from the "game girl advance" site and the second from my boyfriend's blog at Gametrailers.com:

Set up some rules and let the players play with both the gamespace and the genderspace, however they wish. Don't push girls away from games like Tomb Raider just because you're afraid boys won't like to identify with Lara. Don't insert gratuitous sex - or for that matter, violence. Make it *mean* something. Don't bind gender with too many built-in characteristics, but let girls be girls in your game. Allow a lot of different types of female characters, not just thin, pretty, busty ones.

As girls make a more and more powerful influence on the gaming market, will we see fewer damsels in distress and more female protagonists - with autonomy? I sure hope so. I think it's fruitless to try and convince people to boycott games that uphold gender norms, but I think it may be more reasonable to think that gamers as a culture may identify increasingly with flawed protagonists, skinny men, plain women, androgynous people, LGBT characters, and people on general transgressing from the norm instead of supporting it.

The second possiblility for incorporating video games in the classroom came from the second two articles, which suggested playing video games as part of classroom activities as a learning tool. The Labyrinth game described uses an internet-based puzzle game as homework to reinforce math and literacy skills taught at the middle school level. I won't address the issue of technology access here (though it is a concern) but I thought about motivation and engagement as the primary goal of using video games in the classroom. My question would be, aside from the "fun" factor, do video games increase learning and understanding of skills and concepts in ways that traditional pedagogy (worksheets, etc.) do not? To me, both of these possiblilities for using video games in the classroom should only be considered if they can offer a learning experience currently lacking in schools.

Week Two: Fandom

2009-02-01T13:32:00.000-08:00

Resistant as I am to write ANOTHER blog entry related to "Lost," this week's topic (fandom) made it impossible for me to resist. I just finished reading the book Lost Ate My Life: The Inside Story of a Fandom Like No Other by Jon "DocArzt" Lachonis and Amy "hijinx" Johnston, which means I am now not only posess a large amount of knowledge of the television show, but I'm well versed on the topic of this particular fandom as well.

I became a fan of "Lost" in the summer of 2006, after the first two seasons had aired on ABC. My mother, who is strangely more tuned into the "hip new things" than her children sometimes, rented the DVDs and my family watched the first season on a family vacation. As far as I know, "Lost" still has the honor of the most expensive pilot episode ever produced for television, and it's the cinematic quality that money allowed, as well as the characters and mystery, that hooked my family immediately. We continue to get together every Wednesday night to watch new episodes, I bake a "Lost" related cake for season premieres, and we have plans to visit Hawaii someday to scope out filming locations.

Watching and discussing the show is one of the most fun things we do as a family, and it's pretty miraculous that all five of us enjoy the same show. Librarian Nancy Pearl describes four "doorways" people use to relate to a book: story, character, setting and language. People who value different doorways have different experiences with the same book. I believe people have the same experience with television as a text, and "Lost" is accessible to those who value story (often males, who look for action-packed programing) and to those who value character (often females, who value relationship-driven shows). So gender and individual tastes do play out in "Lost"'s fandom.

The interesting thing about "Lost," though, is that casual viewership is not allowed. The show is so complex and mysterious that it is just not accessible to those who haven't watched it from the beginning. Nikki Stafford, who writes the Finding Lost episode guide series and the blog "Nik at Nite," describes the look on people's faces "as I rave about Lost to people who’ve never seen it - “What is she TALKING about? Time traveling bunnies? Polar bears on the island? People coming back to life? I’ll stick to CSI…”" In fact, in a blog entry I myself posted in February 2005 (almost two years before watching the show myself) I mention "We talked about the show "Lost" and I reconfirmed my decision that that show is ridiculous and I'm glad I don't watch it." For that reason, when I meet another "Lost" fan, an instant connection is born. Recognizing that another person is "in it" as much as I am is a way to forge a social relationship where one doesn't exist.

One of the most interesting things I read about in Lost Ate My Life was that "Lost"'s fandom is pretty unique. Like many current shows, the internet explosion has nurtured connections between fans and encouraged the amount of internet material there is out there. But it's the connection between the fans and the writers, producers and actors who work on the show that has made "Lost" fandom most unique. "Lost"'s official fan website (www.thefuselage.com) allows fans to communicate with and question showrunners directly, and the writers make themselves available to fans at conferences as well (such as Destination L.A. and ComicCon). In fact, some aspects of how the show is run (no sweeps schedule, no repeats, an agreed-upon end date) are due mostly to fans asking for those things. No other television show has created such changes in broacasting just to appease the fans.

Another phenomenon that evidences the close relationship between showrunners and the fan community is the appearance of "Easter Eggs" in any given "Lost" episode. Easter Eggs are "anything that is more than what it seems to be within a frame of film, an episode of the show as a whole, and is intentionally put there by the creators" (Lachonis, p. 191). For example "Hurley's Numbers" (4, 8 ,15, 16, 23, 42) are a series of numbers with mysterious significance that show up in some capacity in almost every single episode. The show creators know that hardcore fans are up to the challenge of finding every single reference to any of those numbers, so they find ways to bury them within the narrative. It's a way of recognizing that "Lost" fans are some of the most intelligent and obsessed people around, and giving them a wink.

"Lost" fans are thinkers. They analyze each episode, dig out Easter Eggs, decode characters, and unravel complex narrative structures. They do outside research: if a character is seen reading Stephen Hawking, "Lost" fans are likely to pick up the book as well. Real science is often sought out to explain the science fiction. I've found myself digging out my psych textbooks to brush up on the Skinner Box and philosophy books to figure out the Locke's concept of Tabula Rasa. "Lost" fandom invites not just viewing, but reading, writing, discussion, comparison between texts, and (in my case) baking theme cakes.

I think the notion of fandom is incredibly important to the field of education, because each of our students are fans of something. The feeling of alliegance our students will feel toward baseball or Chris Brown or Heroes motivates them to do things most teachers have trouble eliciting enthusiasm for: research, discuss, ask questions, argue, write, become an expert. Our students are researching Carrie Underwood's favorite color, and alien conspiracy theories, and it's that enthusiasm for becoming an expert that would be absolutely welcome in my classroom. It's my goal to find ways to bring that inquiry not only into the teaching of skills (research and writing, for example), but also to critically look at popular culture.

Week One: Popular Culture in Schools?

2009-01-25T16:33:00.000-08:00

Television, movies, and music provide fodder for connections among our disconnected citizenry. Why not use this, rather than belittle it?
Cameron White & Trenia Walker, Tooning In

The first three chapters in White and Walker's book Tooning In: Essays on Popular Culture and Education seem to offer several arguments in favor of incorporating texts from popular culture into the classroom. The first is that popular culture is what connects the world at the present moment in history. If you don't believe me, consider that there are people all over the country who know exactly what Rickrolling is just because they've seen the same viral videos. They're intimately aware of the characters on Gossip Girl because they watch the same episodes each week. Although their daily lives might look starkly different, students from two different parts of the country (or different socioeconomic backgrounds or different family structures) could come together to discuss the latest Coldplay album. In an increasingly isolated consumer society, it is important to recognize the things that bring people together.

The second argument in favor of using popular culture in educational settings recognizes that young people are intimately familiar with popular culture, more familiar than they are with current events or great literature. Because they are comfortable with the themes in music, movies and television, they can bring that prior knowledge to forge connections between pop culture and traditional coursework (literature, history, etc.). Students who are fans of "desert island" shows like Lost and Survivor might be able to come to a greater understanding of Lord of the Flies, for example. Prior knowledge, research shows, pushes learners to new levels of understanding, and the connections between pop culture and curriculum and plentiful. "These connections allow kids to develop the scaffolding needed to construct knowledge" (p. 5).

The third argument is that curriculum designed with popular culture topics in mind are more engaging for the students. Because watching television and movies and listening to music are activities that young people enjoy doing in their free time, why not use that enthusiasm to keep students' attention?

The fourth and most compelling argument in favor of using texts from popular culture in the classroom is to give students' hands-on instruction in "reading the world." Educational goals are changing, the book argues, and should include instruction on critical thinking skills and
"Students who are asked to read popular texts from these broader and multiple perspectives have the potential to develop a more powerful literacy to engage and explore popular culture texts" (p. 23). Young people must find ways to become critical viewers and consumers, to look at pop culture representations as both mirrors and changers of our society and to resist letting pop culture wash over them passively as entertainment

My reaction to these arguments was a resounding "duh." Perhaps it's because I not only love popular culture texts for their entertainment value but I love forging connections between those texts and traditional texts (such as history and literature). My analytical skills allow me to read the world as well as books. I grew up with the internet, which has allowed people to share in their experiences and interpretations of pop culture texts in a way generations before us have not been able to do. Viewers of television shows have the opportunity to use internet forums to discuss and analyze, and music listeners can post their own interpretations of songs on YouTube. This world is familiar to me to such an extent that I can't imagine not using TV parodies to teach Dickens' A Christmas Carol, and it would disappoint me not to teach students how to evaluate films and television.

My hope is that this course will help me to brainstorm new ways to encourage critical thinking skills through a study of pop culture texts. I did not need to be convinced by these first chapters in Tooning In (although I'm sure many outside of my generation did), and I look forward to discussing the implications of these arguments during this semester.

Final Project: Media Representations of Koreans

2008-12-13T19:16:00.001-08:00

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

2008-12-03T18:37:00.001-08:00

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

2008-11-16T14:10:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-10T20:35:00.000-08:00

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

2008-10-26T14:52:00.001-07:00

This week's post is a critical multimedia essay on media representations of Minnesota. I will discuss this topic in relation to a series of YouTube clips that I've posted. I didn't mean for each clip to appear as a separate post, but my YouTube account has been on the fritz so I'm surprised I was able to embed clips at all.

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

2008-10-26T14:49:00.001-07:00

I chose to include this video mostly because it's funny and combines two texts in a pretty brilliant way. The creator of this video alternates scenes of Sarah Palin's interview with Katie Couric with a scene from the movie "Fargo" in which Margie, a police officer from Brainerd, MN, is interviewing two girls about a crime. The way the two scenes play off each other is pretty remarkable.

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

2008-10-26T14:48:00.001-07:00

This video, which is over five minutes in length, shows individual MN State Fair-goers announcing what kind of food "on a stick" they've chosen to eat. It's shot after shot of the same thing. Toward the end of the video, German sounding music begins to play in the background.

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

2008-10-26T14:43:00.001-07:00

This is a trailer for the 1996 movie "Fargo." Most of the movie, contrary to the title, takes place in Minnesota (Minneapolis and Brainerd). The trailer's composition actually reflects the movie itself; it is half crime story about a man who has his wife kidnapped for the ransom money, half caricature of Minnesotans. Until Frances McDormand, who plays Brainerd cop Margie, no one has ever made the Minnesotan accent look so cute.

I continued to think about the idea of a "Minnesota consciousness" as I watched this clip. The first shot is an overhead shot of William H. Macy's character frantically scraping ice off the windshield of his car which is all alone in a snow-covered parking lot. To a Minnesotan, this shot is familiar, even mundane, but to a viewer from a warmer climate it might be a strange sight.

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

2008-10-26T14:41:00.001-07:00

Most people my age are familiar with the "Mighty Ducks" films, and most Minnesotans know they were filmed here. In fact, I took skating lessons the ice rink used in the first movie This clip, though, is from the second "Mighty Ducks" film. I believe, in these nine minutes, children all over the country found out all they needed to know about Minnesota. It's already established Minnesota is the place to go for hockey. We meet Hans, the grandfatherly Scandinavian mentor who works in a hockey shop.

And, in my very favorite scene, we come to understand a very skewed version of Twin Cities geography: Charlie, the main character, is told by the coach (in St. Paul) to round up the rest of the hockey team. So what does he do? He puts on his rollerblades and heads to the Mall of American (in Bloomington) to pick up Avermann. Then they rollerblade to the Stone Arch bridge, to Edina to pick up the "cake eater" player, and finally to Lake of the Isles. It's like a series of postcards of the Twin Cities, and an entirely unrealistic scene if you're familiar with the area.

Week Seven: Minnesota on Youtube

2008-10-26T14:40:00.001-07:00

Because I apparently can't complete an assignment without a "Lost" reference, here is a scene from Season Two. By this point, the survivors of the plane crash have become suspicious that there are other people on the island, and that those people are out to get them. When Rousseau catches a man in one of her traps, the "Losties" must decide if he is "one of them."

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

2008-10-26T14:35:00.001-07:00

This clip, a trailer for the 1999 film "Drop Dead Gorgeous," is one of the clearest examples of media representation of Minnesota, so much so that a great deal of analysis is unnecessary. This portrait of Minnesota is that it is full of beauty-pageant and football-obsessed small towns like Mount Rose that children desperately want to escape from. This attitude is tied to the Minnesotan accent, so I wonder how likely it is that fans of this movie associate the Minnesotan accent with small town shallowness.

Week Six: Media Ethnography

2008-10-20T17:19:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-12T13:42:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-28T18:24:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-21T14:08:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-14T20:05:00.001-07:00

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

2008-09-07T19:23:00.001-07:00

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.