Sunday, June 28, 2009
Thoughts on Teaching Agents
I feel so far removed from the possibility of using teaching agents in my classroom that both articles appealed to me mainly as presenting curiosities and future potential. As both articles implied that the prevailing view toward the use of teaching agents is one of skepticism, so too am I unsure of how this would improve student learning. More importantly, many schools are still contending with student populations with little access and less fluency with technology than popularly suggested. This in mind, teaching agents undoubtedly are a part of the future, but I am most interested in what will help this moment. Even if teaching agents were available and my students not plagued with access issues, I still place a premium on face-to-face(s) interaction over mediating communication with an avatar. None of this is to suggest that there are not limited situations in which this would be a good idea, but for the majority of classrooms - even ideal ones - I am not convinced this would represent little more than a repackaging of the old in a novel medium. As I have been taught in technology-related courses in my master's of education, we must check our enthusiasm for new tools with the understanding that new is not always better, and the bottom line must always be how it will improve student learning.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Lesson Plans
Lesson Plan One
Identifying the fifteen basic appeals
Students will need to have spent at least a class period familiarizing themselves with Jib Fowles' fifteen basic appeals, a copy of which may be found here: http://www.cyberpat.com/shirlsite/education/essay2/jfowles.html
The teacher should gather around forty print advertisements from a variety of sources. After identifying the basic appeal(s) used in each ad, the ads should be divided evenly between eight stations. Students should then be split into groups of three or four. Their task is to circulate around the room and reach a consensus within their group as to the basic appeal(s) used in each print ad at each of the stations. Upon conclusion of the task, the class will come back together as a group to discuss discrepancies between what basic appeals each group associated with each ad. In all likelihood, some trends will emerge - e.g. lots of appeals to sex, etcetera - this can serve as a segue into what all this material is communicating to and about the culture in which it is found.
Lesson Plan Two
Journalistic ethics
Students will need to have spend at least a class period familiarizing themselves with the basics of journalistic ethics, e.g. libel, provisions in the constitution, etcetera.
The teacher should procure four or five codes of ethics from major newspapers and magazines. Students will be given time in expert groups to review these codes. The teacher should then hand out four or five ethical dilemma scenarios. Working from their expert groups, students will need to use their assigned code of ethics to determine the ethical line of action. After arriving at consensus, students will reassemble into groups with other students with dissimilar codes of ethics. As a followup discussion, students may consider what sorts of specific guidance for journalists is not legislated and how codes of ethics do or do not fill the void.
Identifying the fifteen basic appeals
Students will need to have spent at least a class period familiarizing themselves with Jib Fowles' fifteen basic appeals, a copy of which may be found here: http://www.cyberpat.com/shirlsite/education/essay2/jfowles.html
The teacher should gather around forty print advertisements from a variety of sources. After identifying the basic appeal(s) used in each ad, the ads should be divided evenly between eight stations. Students should then be split into groups of three or four. Their task is to circulate around the room and reach a consensus within their group as to the basic appeal(s) used in each print ad at each of the stations. Upon conclusion of the task, the class will come back together as a group to discuss discrepancies between what basic appeals each group associated with each ad. In all likelihood, some trends will emerge - e.g. lots of appeals to sex, etcetera - this can serve as a segue into what all this material is communicating to and about the culture in which it is found.
Lesson Plan Two
Journalistic ethics
Students will need to have spend at least a class period familiarizing themselves with the basics of journalistic ethics, e.g. libel, provisions in the constitution, etcetera.
The teacher should procure four or five codes of ethics from major newspapers and magazines. Students will be given time in expert groups to review these codes. The teacher should then hand out four or five ethical dilemma scenarios. Working from their expert groups, students will need to use their assigned code of ethics to determine the ethical line of action. After arriving at consensus, students will reassemble into groups with other students with dissimilar codes of ethics. As a followup discussion, students may consider what sorts of specific guidance for journalists is not legislated and how codes of ethics do or do not fill the void.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Infotainment Assignments
Assignment One
Students will view an episode of an infotainment program. Examples of infotainment include the O’Reilly Factor, the Daily Show, and the Colbert Report. If students do not have cable, episodes of many of these shows are available on Hulu as well as the websites tied to each individual program. Students will choose one of the lead stories and gather coverage from three conventional news sources with which to compare to the infotainment source. Students will search for bias in all sources and make a short, comparative analysis of no less than two pages. Students may want to pay special attention to the framing of the story in each source, as well as the guests brought on to discuss the story. Prior to this assignment, students will need to be familiar with the terms infotainment, lead, bias, and framing.
Rationale: This assignment will have students consider a single story from several different sources, leading to the inevitable conclusion that there is often considerable disparity in how a politicized infotainment source will cover an issue as compared to a conventional news source. Some students may identify bias in the conventional news sources, as surely there exists some there. This can be weaved back into the closing discussion, including consideration of the role of the ombudsman to a conventional news source as well as a traditional journalist’s code of ethics, and what the lack of these elements means for infotainment sources. The ultimate understanding that students will derive from completing this assignment is that infotainment sources are only beneficial insofar as the audience takes the time to be informed on the issues on their own time, drawing from a variety of sources. In short, infotainment should not be relied upon to properly inform.
Assignment Two
Students will break into groups and spend several days preparing for a mock debate on a single current issue – see the teacher for a list of acceptable topics. Each group will have three to four students, one of whom will be the actual debater. The remaining students are charged with researching the issue and preparing short list of debating points. The debate will be staged and conducted in a manner familiar to any student who has taken part in or observed a formal debate. The one difference is that one debater will be allowed to debate with no holds barred – they may use ridicule, humor, irony, and whatever else they see fit in order to make their argument. The opposing debater may only stick with the facts and a sober delivery. It is crucial that both sides stick to the topic of debate and direct their arguments at the issue at hand, never at the opposing person. Any ad hominen attacks will be penalized in terms of points as well as consideration of the winner at the conclusion.
Students will understand the disadvantages an interview subject faces on an infotainment program and gain an intimate understanding of how this ultimately unbalances the debate. Before or after the debate, students will view in class clips of interview subjects and their treatment at the hands of Jon Stewart, Bill O’Reilly, and Keith Olbermann, and compare to their treatment at the hands of Terry Gross, Charlie Rose, and others. Students who complete the assignment will pay keen attention to the treatment of an interview upon which they are relying for credible information, and seek alternate sources when they sense a disadvantageous interview environment.
Students will view an episode of an infotainment program. Examples of infotainment include the O’Reilly Factor, the Daily Show, and the Colbert Report. If students do not have cable, episodes of many of these shows are available on Hulu as well as the websites tied to each individual program. Students will choose one of the lead stories and gather coverage from three conventional news sources with which to compare to the infotainment source. Students will search for bias in all sources and make a short, comparative analysis of no less than two pages. Students may want to pay special attention to the framing of the story in each source, as well as the guests brought on to discuss the story. Prior to this assignment, students will need to be familiar with the terms infotainment, lead, bias, and framing.
Rationale: This assignment will have students consider a single story from several different sources, leading to the inevitable conclusion that there is often considerable disparity in how a politicized infotainment source will cover an issue as compared to a conventional news source. Some students may identify bias in the conventional news sources, as surely there exists some there. This can be weaved back into the closing discussion, including consideration of the role of the ombudsman to a conventional news source as well as a traditional journalist’s code of ethics, and what the lack of these elements means for infotainment sources. The ultimate understanding that students will derive from completing this assignment is that infotainment sources are only beneficial insofar as the audience takes the time to be informed on the issues on their own time, drawing from a variety of sources. In short, infotainment should not be relied upon to properly inform.
Assignment Two
Students will break into groups and spend several days preparing for a mock debate on a single current issue – see the teacher for a list of acceptable topics. Each group will have three to four students, one of whom will be the actual debater. The remaining students are charged with researching the issue and preparing short list of debating points. The debate will be staged and conducted in a manner familiar to any student who has taken part in or observed a formal debate. The one difference is that one debater will be allowed to debate with no holds barred – they may use ridicule, humor, irony, and whatever else they see fit in order to make their argument. The opposing debater may only stick with the facts and a sober delivery. It is crucial that both sides stick to the topic of debate and direct their arguments at the issue at hand, never at the opposing person. Any ad hominen attacks will be penalized in terms of points as well as consideration of the winner at the conclusion.
Students will understand the disadvantages an interview subject faces on an infotainment program and gain an intimate understanding of how this ultimately unbalances the debate. Before or after the debate, students will view in class clips of interview subjects and their treatment at the hands of Jon Stewart, Bill O’Reilly, and Keith Olbermann, and compare to their treatment at the hands of Terry Gross, Charlie Rose, and others. Students who complete the assignment will pay keen attention to the treatment of an interview upon which they are relying for credible information, and seek alternate sources when they sense a disadvantageous interview environment.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Lesson Plan
News Broadcast Storyboard Activity
The following would come toward the middle of a larger unit on journalism. Prior to this, students should have been introduced to the editing process behind putting together a single day’s news program, with some consideration given to the myriad ways in which the end product is shaped and filtered. This activity would be especially effective after the students have logged the local or national news.
Learner Outcomes:
Students will understand the effects of time constraints on news programs and what this means for the final product, i.e. edited and aired broadcast.
Materials:
Five sets of twenty news stories printed on small pieces of paper; each story should include the length of time it will require
Five grids with eighteen blocks, each block representing a minute of broadcast, to represent the eighteen minutes usually afforded to a news program – the remaining twelve minutes, naturally, are given to advertising
Directions:
Students should be broken up into small groups – no larger than three or four to a group. Each group will be given one of the five sets of possible news stories and a grid. Working together to come to a consensus, students must decide which stories to air during the eighteen minutes they are given. While one outcome for this activity is that students will understand the filtering process that raw news goes under as it winds its way to the consumer, the activity may be modified to consider issues of pacing and organization of the stories. Sponsors may be introduced as well as an additional variable to consider in selecting which stories to air. A final possible modification could be to allow students to adjust the length of time for each piece.
The following would come toward the middle of a larger unit on journalism. Prior to this, students should have been introduced to the editing process behind putting together a single day’s news program, with some consideration given to the myriad ways in which the end product is shaped and filtered. This activity would be especially effective after the students have logged the local or national news.
Learner Outcomes:
Students will understand the effects of time constraints on news programs and what this means for the final product, i.e. edited and aired broadcast.
Materials:
Five sets of twenty news stories printed on small pieces of paper; each story should include the length of time it will require
Five grids with eighteen blocks, each block representing a minute of broadcast, to represent the eighteen minutes usually afforded to a news program – the remaining twelve minutes, naturally, are given to advertising
Directions:
Students should be broken up into small groups – no larger than three or four to a group. Each group will be given one of the five sets of possible news stories and a grid. Working together to come to a consensus, students must decide which stories to air during the eighteen minutes they are given. While one outcome for this activity is that students will understand the filtering process that raw news goes under as it winds its way to the consumer, the activity may be modified to consider issues of pacing and organization of the stories. Sponsors may be introduced as well as an additional variable to consider in selecting which stories to air. A final possible modification could be to allow students to adjust the length of time for each piece.
Logging the News
1:00
Lead: Denny Hecker raids: cut to correspondent, interviews
2:00
Denny Hecker raids continued: two more interviews, cut to correspondent
3:00
Cut back to desk, online coverage of Denny Hecker raids; Peeping Tom story, brief interview; back to desk, engineering professor’s death
4:00
Engineering professor’s death continued: interview; H1N1 victims in Minnesota
5:00
Leads: thief robs church, school bus arson, tornadoes; ads: Pawn America
6:00
Pawn America, Herberger’s, Fleet Farm
7:00
Travel Wisconsin, Herberger’s, Mercury
8:00
Back to news desk: tornadoes, correspondent, pictures, back to desk
9:00
Pictures of tornadoes; school bus arson, interview
10:00
School bus arson continued, pictures; church robbery, in-house correspondent, interview
11:00
Church robbery continued
12:00
Church robbery continued; back to in-house correspondent; back to desk; drunk driving crash; price of jail time, plan to charge inmates daily fee
13:00
Mayo clinic at the Mall of America, footage; shuttle mission aborted, footage
14:00
Weather: severe weather, tornadoes in southern Minnesota
15:00
Weather continued, temperatures, current conditions
16:00
Weather continued, forecast, satellite, tomorrow’s weather
17:00
Weather continued, forecast; return to desk; lead: sports, Vikings
18:00
Ads: Nightline, Dairy Queen, Hom, Do
19:00
Do, JC Penny, Alltel
20:00
Sleep Express/Hom, Men’s Warehouse
21:00
Coit; back to desk, sports, Brett Favre, state of Vikings address
22:00
Sports continued, Twins
23:00
Sports continued, “Twins Insider,” Timberwolves
24:00
Ads: Menards, Slumberland
25:00
Arby’s, Hyundai
26:00
Marshall’s, Qwest
27:00
Spire, Slumberland, back to desk, lottery numbers
28:00
Weather: severe. End broadcast
This news broadcast made frequent use of teasers, both at the top of the show, as well as before commercial breaks, in order to entice portions of the audience into remaining on that channel. I had my media class do this same activity this spring. One thing that we noticed as a class, and I saw it again here, was that the teasers are always in reverse order of how they will appear on the program. This is doubtlessly designed in order to hold the audience for the longest possible time. Major stories followed a predictable pattern in which the story began at the news desk, was bounced to a correspondent in the field, who then brought additional images and interviews. At the conclusion of each story, this folded back into itself, as the viewer is brought first back to the correspondent, then back to the news desk. This gives a sense of layers of information, each step out taking the viewer one step closer to the story. I found it interesting that the anchors played up the church robbery the way they did, obviously playing on the additional outrage implied being that the target of the robbery was the church. One thing that struck me was the lack of banter between the anchors. When I logged the news with my juniors and seniors, we recorded over a full minute of banter. Time was perhaps cut short due to the extra attention afforded the tornadoes in southern Minnesota.
Lead: Denny Hecker raids: cut to correspondent, interviews
2:00
Denny Hecker raids continued: two more interviews, cut to correspondent
3:00
Cut back to desk, online coverage of Denny Hecker raids; Peeping Tom story, brief interview; back to desk, engineering professor’s death
4:00
Engineering professor’s death continued: interview; H1N1 victims in Minnesota
5:00
Leads: thief robs church, school bus arson, tornadoes; ads: Pawn America
6:00
Pawn America, Herberger’s, Fleet Farm
7:00
Travel Wisconsin, Herberger’s, Mercury
8:00
Back to news desk: tornadoes, correspondent, pictures, back to desk
9:00
Pictures of tornadoes; school bus arson, interview
10:00
School bus arson continued, pictures; church robbery, in-house correspondent, interview
11:00
Church robbery continued
12:00
Church robbery continued; back to in-house correspondent; back to desk; drunk driving crash; price of jail time, plan to charge inmates daily fee
13:00
Mayo clinic at the Mall of America, footage; shuttle mission aborted, footage
14:00
Weather: severe weather, tornadoes in southern Minnesota
15:00
Weather continued, temperatures, current conditions
16:00
Weather continued, forecast, satellite, tomorrow’s weather
17:00
Weather continued, forecast; return to desk; lead: sports, Vikings
18:00
Ads: Nightline, Dairy Queen, Hom, Do
19:00
Do, JC Penny, Alltel
20:00
Sleep Express/Hom, Men’s Warehouse
21:00
Coit; back to desk, sports, Brett Favre, state of Vikings address
22:00
Sports continued, Twins
23:00
Sports continued, “Twins Insider,” Timberwolves
24:00
Ads: Menards, Slumberland
25:00
Arby’s, Hyundai
26:00
Marshall’s, Qwest
27:00
Spire, Slumberland, back to desk, lottery numbers
28:00
Weather: severe. End broadcast
This news broadcast made frequent use of teasers, both at the top of the show, as well as before commercial breaks, in order to entice portions of the audience into remaining on that channel. I had my media class do this same activity this spring. One thing that we noticed as a class, and I saw it again here, was that the teasers are always in reverse order of how they will appear on the program. This is doubtlessly designed in order to hold the audience for the longest possible time. Major stories followed a predictable pattern in which the story began at the news desk, was bounced to a correspondent in the field, who then brought additional images and interviews. At the conclusion of each story, this folded back into itself, as the viewer is brought first back to the correspondent, then back to the news desk. This gives a sense of layers of information, each step out taking the viewer one step closer to the story. I found it interesting that the anchors played up the church robbery the way they did, obviously playing on the additional outrage implied being that the target of the robbery was the church. One thing that struck me was the lack of banter between the anchors. When I logged the news with my juniors and seniors, we recorded over a full minute of banter. Time was perhaps cut short due to the extra attention afforded the tornadoes in southern Minnesota.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Media Representations of Protests
Portrayals of public protest in the media - speaking specifically here of the press - has interested me since coming across the book Culture Jam in high school, authored by Kalle Lasn, the founder of AdBusters. Toward the end of his book, Lasn offers some strategies for successful protest, including guidelines for ensuring the protest is framed in a manner sympathetic to the protest's goals. Below, I provide a passage from this section:
“When a reporter asks, ‘What are you protesting against, exactly?’ you answer: ‘Please, let’s get something straight right off the top. We’re not protesters. We’re citizens of this city…’ […] The reporter who had practically written her story in advance (‘…insert inflammatory quote from protester here…’) now has that word ‘protester’ yanked out from under her.”
Lasn is speaking here of reframing the narrative for the inquiring journalist. Of course, if there is need for reframing, then there must be a preexisting frame or mindset that most journalists bring to their coverage of a protest. It has been my experience - and a quick Google News image search backs this up nicely - that protests are mainly covered for the spectacle, the car-crash surreality of hundreds or possibly thousands of people turning up to decry or to lend their support to this or that cause. One of the most iconic and repeated photograph to take at a protest is the long shot between the phalanx of riot-geared police officers and the jagged lines of protesters. This and other shots usually taken at protests reinforce conceptions of protests as adversarial, rather than demonstrative events. The sober, stoic police pitted against the crazed, futile vitriol of fringe elements of society.
Naturally, there is the fact that photographs do not lie - Photoshop excepted - and that protests are portrayed as violent, unscripted, and disorganized because they in fact are. What, then, of the protests that turn out peacefully? One can imagine there is not much of a storyline to be had there. Successful protests that do not offer an adversarial storyline are not any more likely to be covered by journalists than most other bits of good news that go unaired year after year. This effect should be familiar to anyone who has heard talk about the over-reporting of violent crime on the evening news. Bad news is good news, good news is no news.
What this coverage means for the effectiveness of protest as well as peoples' views on protest is plain to see. Protests are seen as disorganized, lacking a coherent voice, and generally attended by young, glory-seeking rabble rousers. Again, this is certainly the case for some protests, but by no means do all protests fit this description, and those protests that do not frequently go uncovered by the press.
For my outside source, I came across an article in the June 2001 edition of the journal, Social Forces. As explained in the title of the article, the authors were concerned with "description bias in media coverage of protest events in Washington, D.C." Among other findings, the article authors discovered that media coverage of protests tends to be episodic (covering the protest as an event) rather than thematic (covering the issue the protest is trying to bring to light). What follows is an excerpt from their findings: “Thus, social movement actors engaging in protests as a means of attracting media coverage to their grievances ideally seek thematic framing of the reports on their protests, since social movement aims are best served by coverage that addresses the underlying structural sources of the problems they target. However, the majority of news coverage of protests is episodic or, at best, represents some mixture of episodic and thematic framing” (Smith, McCarthy, McPhail, and Augustyn 1417). This is in agreement with my initial observation that protests are generally covered for the spectacle, not for the issue.
While what is at issue here is generally an under-representation of positive protests, there is also the issue of framing, or what to focus on in covering a protest. On both counts, the media has only an incomplete picture to convey. As always seems to be the case in considering the mass media, what is most interesting is what is left unsaid.
“When a reporter asks, ‘What are you protesting against, exactly?’ you answer: ‘Please, let’s get something straight right off the top. We’re not protesters. We’re citizens of this city…’ […] The reporter who had practically written her story in advance (‘…insert inflammatory quote from protester here…’) now has that word ‘protester’ yanked out from under her.”
Lasn is speaking here of reframing the narrative for the inquiring journalist. Of course, if there is need for reframing, then there must be a preexisting frame or mindset that most journalists bring to their coverage of a protest. It has been my experience - and a quick Google News image search backs this up nicely - that protests are mainly covered for the spectacle, the car-crash surreality of hundreds or possibly thousands of people turning up to decry or to lend their support to this or that cause. One of the most iconic and repeated photograph to take at a protest is the long shot between the phalanx of riot-geared police officers and the jagged lines of protesters. This and other shots usually taken at protests reinforce conceptions of protests as adversarial, rather than demonstrative events. The sober, stoic police pitted against the crazed, futile vitriol of fringe elements of society.
Naturally, there is the fact that photographs do not lie - Photoshop excepted - and that protests are portrayed as violent, unscripted, and disorganized because they in fact are. What, then, of the protests that turn out peacefully? One can imagine there is not much of a storyline to be had there. Successful protests that do not offer an adversarial storyline are not any more likely to be covered by journalists than most other bits of good news that go unaired year after year. This effect should be familiar to anyone who has heard talk about the over-reporting of violent crime on the evening news. Bad news is good news, good news is no news.
What this coverage means for the effectiveness of protest as well as peoples' views on protest is plain to see. Protests are seen as disorganized, lacking a coherent voice, and generally attended by young, glory-seeking rabble rousers. Again, this is certainly the case for some protests, but by no means do all protests fit this description, and those protests that do not frequently go uncovered by the press.
For my outside source, I came across an article in the June 2001 edition of the journal, Social Forces. As explained in the title of the article, the authors were concerned with "description bias in media coverage of protest events in Washington, D.C." Among other findings, the article authors discovered that media coverage of protests tends to be episodic (covering the protest as an event) rather than thematic (covering the issue the protest is trying to bring to light). What follows is an excerpt from their findings: “Thus, social movement actors engaging in protests as a means of attracting media coverage to their grievances ideally seek thematic framing of the reports on their protests, since social movement aims are best served by coverage that addresses the underlying structural sources of the problems they target. However, the majority of news coverage of protests is episodic or, at best, represents some mixture of episodic and thematic framing” (Smith, McCarthy, McPhail, and Augustyn 1417). This is in agreement with my initial observation that protests are generally covered for the spectacle, not for the issue.
While what is at issue here is generally an under-representation of positive protests, there is also the issue of framing, or what to focus on in covering a protest. On both counts, the media has only an incomplete picture to convey. As always seems to be the case in considering the mass media, what is most interesting is what is left unsaid.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Ad Analysis
The advertisement I analyzed is for Brink's Home Security. I used this same ad in my unit on advertisement for the media course I recently taught. I used this ad in order to make the point to students that companies frequently are not selling a product so much as their are selling a desire, or in this particular case, the feeling of insecurity. This ad was particularly appropriate as it uses techniques similar to those used in Hitchcock's movie, "Vertigo," which the students had viewed and analyzed over the first half of the semester.
I have stills that go with each shot description, but will need to continue to work on uploading those to this blog post. Here is a link to the ad itself.
I have stills that go with each shot description, but will need to continue to work on uploading those to this blog post. Here is a link to the ad itself.
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| Establishing shot: Exterior of house, slow zoom. Cut to… |
|
| Panning shot: Over nightstand to couple in bed. Cut to… |
|
| Close up: Couple in bed, woman hears something, props self up in bed. Cut to… |
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| Overhead shot: Man responds to woman’s alarm, “It’s our first night in the new house.” Overhead shot makes couple seem vulnerable. Cut to… |
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| Close up: Man asks woman if he should check out, woman nods her head. Cut to… |
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| Medium shot: Man getting out of bed. Cut to… |
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| Behind shoulder shot: Man’s point of view as he approaches top of stairs to investigate. Cut to… |
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| Zooming, panning shot: Camera zooms and pans forward upstairs – a similar technique is used in the Hitchcock film, “Vertigo,” to simulate the sensation of vertigo. Cut to… |
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| Behind shoulder shot: Man’s point of view as burglar breaks in, sets off alarm. Cut to… |
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| Zooming, panning shot: Camera once again zooms and pans forward upstairs as man slams bedroom door. What follows is a quick series of multiple cuts and shots to simulate chaos. Cut to… |
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| Exterior shot: Shot of house and fleeing burglar’s feet. Cut to… |
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| Medium shot: Back to the bedroom; couple reacting to break-in. “The alarm scared him away.” Cut to… |
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| Overhead shot: Again making the couple appear vulnerable. Cut to… |
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| Close up: Man looking out window as burglar flees. Cut to… |
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| Medium shot: Couple reacting in bedroom. Cut to… |
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| Close up: Woman answering phone. Cut to… |
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| Panning close up: Andy from Brink’s Home Security responding to alarm. Andy is comparatively steady compared to the chaos in the couple’s bedroom. Cut to… |
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| Close up: Woman explaining they are alright. Cut to… |
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| Panning close up: Andy on the other end. Cut to… |
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| Close up: Final shot of woman on phone with Andy from Brink’s Home Security. |
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Brief Discussion of How I Plan to Teach Film/Editing Techniques in my Classroom
Part of the mass media course I taught recently involved teaching students about logical fallacies and Jib Fowles’ fifteen basic appeals. I experienced some success in teaching students to understand and identify these tools as applied in advertising by immediately providing them with examples – print ads for the fifteen basic appeals, and video ads for the logical fallacies. Based off of this success, I would look to take a similar approach to teaching film editing techniques. This means I would have students review the terms, view some examples, then have a turn at identifying these tools for themselves. Naturally, all of this activity would be couched in a wider discussion of what these film editing techniques do for a film’s overarching meaning-making. The final step in my unit on film editing techniques would involve students actually applying what they have learned, either to a video or a storyboard of their making. One book I would consider using is Walter Dean Meyers' Monster, which makes extensive use of film terminology.
Scene Analysis of an Episode from the "Look Around You" Series
For my scene analysis, I have selected an episode of the British “Look Around You” series. The “Look Around You” series is a satire of 1980’s educational programming, as hinted at in the intro, which features a countdown clock and the words, “Television for schools and colleges,” and “Look Around You follows shortly.”
The episode on iron begins with the countdown clock, as described above, over which is played a short acoustic guitar intro. Immediately following, there is a close shot of hands typing on an eighties model keyboard. The music is synth and upbeat. There is a quick cut and slow zoom onto the screen associated with the keyboard below. On the screen, there is a command to “PRINT” the words “LOOK AROUND YOU.” There is another quick cut to the keyboard where the hand presses enter. There is a synth sound effect and a quick cut back to the computer screen where “LOOK AROUND YOU” is displayed ad infinitum. At this point, the series logo appears overlaying the shot of the screen. The “O” in the word “you” is a shot of planet earth from space. The synth music concludes on a high pitched, upbeat note. The focus on technology for the intro is a throwback to 1980’s educational programming. There is an added layer of humor from how outdated the computer being used is. The ability to print the series’ name on the screen is presented as something noteworthy and technological, highlighted by the synth warp sound effect when the user presses “enter” on the keyboard.
The episode on iron begins similarly as the other episodes in the series, with a still shot and a voiceover that instructs the viewer to “look around you.” For this episode, the first shot is a low-angle shot of the canopy of a tree. As the action begins to unfold, the voiceover says a couple more times, “look around you.” The music is synth, but this time low-key and calming. This dissolves into a medium shot of a uniformed schoolboy jogging out of the woods. He is followed by two more boys and an overweight boy. When the overweight boy appears, there is a quick dissolve and transition to a close shot. There is another dissolve and return to medium shot as the last three jogging schoolboys make it clear of the forest undergrowth. There is another dissolve and cut to a schoolyard where the head of the pack is reaching the finish line. The boy in last place is now clutching his side, still behind the overweight boy. The boy in last place leaves off jogging to walk. There is still another dissolve to a long shot so that it is clear this boy is in last place and losing ground. At this point the voiceover asks, “Have you worked out what we’re looking for.” There is a cut to a man dressed in a track suit, a probable schoolmaster, attended by a well-dressed young man with a clipboard, a probable prefect. The schoolmaster can be seen yelling and craning his neck as though he is addressing the back of the line. There is another cut to our schoolboy in last place, this time a close shot, as he staggers to lean on a wall. The voiceover chimes in, “Correct. The answer is: iron.” As the voiceover says this, the boy’s face strains in pain, and he pulls his lips back, revealing a set of braces. The shot freezes and the word, “IRON,” appears on the screen beneath the boy’s mouth.
The shots are clearly devised to sharpen the derision of the boy in last place. Keeping him in the same frame as the substantially overweight boy, even as he is being beaten by this larger boy, is probably meant to highlight how abysmally the boy in last is doing. While the transitions are generally dissolves, when the shot switches to the schoolmaster, there is a quick, abrupt cut, in order to highlight the stress the boy in last is in. All the while this action is taking place, there is no sound save for the voiceover and music. This may be in order to focus the viewer’s attention on his or her sense of sight, keeping in line with the series name.
The episode on iron begins with the countdown clock, as described above, over which is played a short acoustic guitar intro. Immediately following, there is a close shot of hands typing on an eighties model keyboard. The music is synth and upbeat. There is a quick cut and slow zoom onto the screen associated with the keyboard below. On the screen, there is a command to “PRINT” the words “LOOK AROUND YOU.” There is another quick cut to the keyboard where the hand presses enter. There is a synth sound effect and a quick cut back to the computer screen where “LOOK AROUND YOU” is displayed ad infinitum. At this point, the series logo appears overlaying the shot of the screen. The “O” in the word “you” is a shot of planet earth from space. The synth music concludes on a high pitched, upbeat note. The focus on technology for the intro is a throwback to 1980’s educational programming. There is an added layer of humor from how outdated the computer being used is. The ability to print the series’ name on the screen is presented as something noteworthy and technological, highlighted by the synth warp sound effect when the user presses “enter” on the keyboard.
The episode on iron begins similarly as the other episodes in the series, with a still shot and a voiceover that instructs the viewer to “look around you.” For this episode, the first shot is a low-angle shot of the canopy of a tree. As the action begins to unfold, the voiceover says a couple more times, “look around you.” The music is synth, but this time low-key and calming. This dissolves into a medium shot of a uniformed schoolboy jogging out of the woods. He is followed by two more boys and an overweight boy. When the overweight boy appears, there is a quick dissolve and transition to a close shot. There is another dissolve and return to medium shot as the last three jogging schoolboys make it clear of the forest undergrowth. There is another dissolve and cut to a schoolyard where the head of the pack is reaching the finish line. The boy in last place is now clutching his side, still behind the overweight boy. The boy in last place leaves off jogging to walk. There is still another dissolve to a long shot so that it is clear this boy is in last place and losing ground. At this point the voiceover asks, “Have you worked out what we’re looking for.” There is a cut to a man dressed in a track suit, a probable schoolmaster, attended by a well-dressed young man with a clipboard, a probable prefect. The schoolmaster can be seen yelling and craning his neck as though he is addressing the back of the line. There is another cut to our schoolboy in last place, this time a close shot, as he staggers to lean on a wall. The voiceover chimes in, “Correct. The answer is: iron.” As the voiceover says this, the boy’s face strains in pain, and he pulls his lips back, revealing a set of braces. The shot freezes and the word, “IRON,” appears on the screen beneath the boy’s mouth.
The shots are clearly devised to sharpen the derision of the boy in last place. Keeping him in the same frame as the substantially overweight boy, even as he is being beaten by this larger boy, is probably meant to highlight how abysmally the boy in last is doing. While the transitions are generally dissolves, when the shot switches to the schoolmaster, there is a quick, abrupt cut, in order to highlight the stress the boy in last is in. All the while this action is taking place, there is no sound save for the voiceover and music. This may be in order to focus the viewer’s attention on his or her sense of sight, keeping in line with the series name.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Rationale for Teaching Media Studies
I recently completed my student teaching experience at Shakopee Senior High. I am pleased to report that Shakopee embraces technology and mass media instruction. Every room is equipped with an LCD projector, VCR and DVD player, and internet access. The school is divided into many pods, with eight classrooms apiece. Each pod has a bank of computers for students to use, this in addition to several computer labs and the main media center. The mass media course on offer at Shakopee Senior High is an elective, but popular at that. Half of the semester in mass media is devoted to film study, the other half to other topics such as journalism, advertising, and television. I taught the latter half in my student teaching experience at Shakopee.
While that is all well and good for the students and teachers at Shakopee, this is less than ideal for the assignment, so I will be addressing my rationale to Bizarro Shakopee Senior High.
Bizarro Shakopee Senior High (BSSH) is located in a small town ringed by farmland. While the staff is mostly young and progressive, the surrounding community is only now turning on to the internet, which they view as a diversion at best, a danger to the security of their personal information at worst. Eager to address dropping scores on mandated state testing, the area school board is pressing for a back-to-basics curricular approach. Mass media type courses, seen as frilly and unnecessary, would not be included in this reactionary reformation of the curricula.
The case for inclusion of mass media instruction in the current curriculum is twofold. First, we must recognize the ubiquity and centrality of the several new media to the lives of everyone, especially our children. Second, we need to look beyond the novelty of these technologies and consider how they are actively shaping our literacy, and subsequently, how they may be used to improve and build upon traditional literacy skills such as reading comprehension and writing.
The surge in pervasiveness of video games, handheld music players, increasingly complex cell phones, and the internet has caught the attention of researchers interested in both the scope and nature of the impact of this late technological revolution. Notably, the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) recently completed a nationally representative survey of two thousand third-to-twelfth-graders. Among other findings that indicate the central role mass media has taken in the lives of young people, the KFF found that nine in ten have a computer at home, and the average respondent spends six and a half hours per day, seven days per week with TV, music, computers, video games, and reading books. The time spent with books represented the smallest chunk of that time at just three quarters of an hour. These findings reveal only the latest in a growing trend of a shift of our collective attention from traditional literacy skills to new literacy skills. Some educational systems that have been onboard with this evolution in media consumption include Ontario, Canada, where media education has been required for grades seven through twelve since 1987, and Great Britain, where ability to critically analyze the media is nationally assessed.
With the overwhelming attention being paid to the effects of the mass media, both by educational systems abroad and researchers, should serve some indication that failing to account for these forces would make for a curriculum incomplete in scope. More importantly than appearances, however, is what our students stand to lose if we do not include study of mass media in our curriculum. I fear there may be an assumption that because our younger generations are so adept at manipulating these new forces, that they have an expert understanding of its effect on their minds, and the society as a whole. This could not be further from the truth. In fact, I would argue that the manner in which most people use media such as the internet, video games, and television, amplifies the effects these media have on the individual mind. A mass media curriculum would encourage people to go above and beyond letting these new media simply wash over them, to instead pause from time to time to take stock and reflect on how these media are actively shaping them on an individual and societal level. What’s more, mass media curriculum is not on parallel tracks with traditional concepts of literacy, rather they are increasingly merging. The use of these media sits on a foundation of traditional literacy skills – reading, writing, and interpersonal communication – but it is not a mere rider. The merging of these new and conventional literacies has resulted in the emerging necessity of courses at the post-secondary as well as the secondary levels that focus students’ attentions on how these forces have been and will continue to change the way in which they interact with their world.
While that is all well and good for the students and teachers at Shakopee, this is less than ideal for the assignment, so I will be addressing my rationale to Bizarro Shakopee Senior High.
Bizarro Shakopee Senior High (BSSH) is located in a small town ringed by farmland. While the staff is mostly young and progressive, the surrounding community is only now turning on to the internet, which they view as a diversion at best, a danger to the security of their personal information at worst. Eager to address dropping scores on mandated state testing, the area school board is pressing for a back-to-basics curricular approach. Mass media type courses, seen as frilly and unnecessary, would not be included in this reactionary reformation of the curricula.
The case for inclusion of mass media instruction in the current curriculum is twofold. First, we must recognize the ubiquity and centrality of the several new media to the lives of everyone, especially our children. Second, we need to look beyond the novelty of these technologies and consider how they are actively shaping our literacy, and subsequently, how they may be used to improve and build upon traditional literacy skills such as reading comprehension and writing.
The surge in pervasiveness of video games, handheld music players, increasingly complex cell phones, and the internet has caught the attention of researchers interested in both the scope and nature of the impact of this late technological revolution. Notably, the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) recently completed a nationally representative survey of two thousand third-to-twelfth-graders. Among other findings that indicate the central role mass media has taken in the lives of young people, the KFF found that nine in ten have a computer at home, and the average respondent spends six and a half hours per day, seven days per week with TV, music, computers, video games, and reading books. The time spent with books represented the smallest chunk of that time at just three quarters of an hour. These findings reveal only the latest in a growing trend of a shift of our collective attention from traditional literacy skills to new literacy skills. Some educational systems that have been onboard with this evolution in media consumption include Ontario, Canada, where media education has been required for grades seven through twelve since 1987, and Great Britain, where ability to critically analyze the media is nationally assessed.
With the overwhelming attention being paid to the effects of the mass media, both by educational systems abroad and researchers, should serve some indication that failing to account for these forces would make for a curriculum incomplete in scope. More importantly than appearances, however, is what our students stand to lose if we do not include study of mass media in our curriculum. I fear there may be an assumption that because our younger generations are so adept at manipulating these new forces, that they have an expert understanding of its effect on their minds, and the society as a whole. This could not be further from the truth. In fact, I would argue that the manner in which most people use media such as the internet, video games, and television, amplifies the effects these media have on the individual mind. A mass media curriculum would encourage people to go above and beyond letting these new media simply wash over them, to instead pause from time to time to take stock and reflect on how these media are actively shaping them on an individual and societal level. What’s more, mass media curriculum is not on parallel tracks with traditional concepts of literacy, rather they are increasingly merging. The use of these media sits on a foundation of traditional literacy skills – reading, writing, and interpersonal communication – but it is not a mere rider. The merging of these new and conventional literacies has resulted in the emerging necessity of courses at the post-secondary as well as the secondary levels that focus students’ attentions on how these forces have been and will continue to change the way in which they interact with their world.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Chapter One Response
Whenever I encounter a discussion of the necessity of media education in the English curricula, I think back to a tenth grade honors English class I took at my high school. One major component of the course involved repeatedly watching a documentary that was against the use of landmines. The film used many graphic and disturbing images, and while its basic premise was not disagreeable, we were urged to view the film critically – to find, if we could, how it was positioning us as viewers, and ultimately to evaluate its arguments.
Flash forward to my sophomore year of college. A series of short documentary films, all bearing the title, “Loose Change,” started making the rounds in the e-mail forward circuit. Each film in the series made a case for various conspiracy theories surrounding the September 11th attacks. The presentation was convincing, and the filmmakers cited some sources, but I naturally did not accept the films’ claims on face value. Some light research of my own, including reading reviews from a variety of perspectives, revealed that much of the “research” cited in the series was shoddy and speculative.
The reaction I had to watching this documentary series was not instinct, nor did I learn critical analysis from simply being a passive consumer of mass media. This pattern of behavior was taught to me and others in my sophomore year of high school. Arguably, had I not learned those skills in high school, I would have picked them up later en route to my English major and master’s in English education, however, not everyone can count on encountering these lessons later. For many students, high school may be the only place they are encouraged to take a critical approach to their consumption of mass media.
I believe this is one of the main duties of a teacher, especially an English teacher: to show students texts and ways of approaching texts that they would not encounter if left to their own devices. As Beach explains in this chapter, courses that instruct students on critical approaches to mass media are a principle way of achieving this. One particularly potent application, and one that I am personally interested in, is using mass media images to demonstrate the ways in which concepts of race and gender are socially constructed. This is an admittedly out-there way to think about gender and race, and one that was initially difficult for me to get my own head around in a modern literary analysis course in my junior year of undergrad. Beyond being conceptually difficult to grasp, it is also not a comfortable notion for many students. Using images to demonstrate the limited representations of different groups in society, however, facilitates this revelation. As a brief example, I showed my own mass media class a Hungry Man advertisement in which construction workers shown eating something other than the microwaveable dinner were depicted as effeminate. My students’ initial reaction was to laugh and to join in the derision. After some discussion, most of my students – boys and girls – were disgusted with the ad and what it had to say about masculinity and femininity.
To address the concerns of the Eden Prairie school board member, his or her worries are not totally without merit. I do imagine that some school districts see mass media curricula as icing, merely riding on top of the base of the skill set conventionally taught in English classrooms. However, just as our mass media continue to blur old lines, so too should our modern curricula – across all subjects – reflect a culture that increasingly engages with multimedia in favor of traditional texts. Furthermore, I would caution anyone who cannot see beyond the novelty of our new media to its broader implications extending into the future – and here I get stomach-turningly preachy – to consider the metaphorical frog: drop a frog into a pot of boiling water, and it will jump out; drop a frog into a cool pot of water and slowly bring it to a boil, and it will be boiled alive. Our mass media, by nature of its sheer ubiquity, is the water we are all submerged in. Only through mass media courses, as suggested in chapter one of Beach’s text, will students be brought out of the pot to see what it is they are immersed in.
Flash forward to my sophomore year of college. A series of short documentary films, all bearing the title, “Loose Change,” started making the rounds in the e-mail forward circuit. Each film in the series made a case for various conspiracy theories surrounding the September 11th attacks. The presentation was convincing, and the filmmakers cited some sources, but I naturally did not accept the films’ claims on face value. Some light research of my own, including reading reviews from a variety of perspectives, revealed that much of the “research” cited in the series was shoddy and speculative.
The reaction I had to watching this documentary series was not instinct, nor did I learn critical analysis from simply being a passive consumer of mass media. This pattern of behavior was taught to me and others in my sophomore year of high school. Arguably, had I not learned those skills in high school, I would have picked them up later en route to my English major and master’s in English education, however, not everyone can count on encountering these lessons later. For many students, high school may be the only place they are encouraged to take a critical approach to their consumption of mass media.
I believe this is one of the main duties of a teacher, especially an English teacher: to show students texts and ways of approaching texts that they would not encounter if left to their own devices. As Beach explains in this chapter, courses that instruct students on critical approaches to mass media are a principle way of achieving this. One particularly potent application, and one that I am personally interested in, is using mass media images to demonstrate the ways in which concepts of race and gender are socially constructed. This is an admittedly out-there way to think about gender and race, and one that was initially difficult for me to get my own head around in a modern literary analysis course in my junior year of undergrad. Beyond being conceptually difficult to grasp, it is also not a comfortable notion for many students. Using images to demonstrate the limited representations of different groups in society, however, facilitates this revelation. As a brief example, I showed my own mass media class a Hungry Man advertisement in which construction workers shown eating something other than the microwaveable dinner were depicted as effeminate. My students’ initial reaction was to laugh and to join in the derision. After some discussion, most of my students – boys and girls – were disgusted with the ad and what it had to say about masculinity and femininity.
To address the concerns of the Eden Prairie school board member, his or her worries are not totally without merit. I do imagine that some school districts see mass media curricula as icing, merely riding on top of the base of the skill set conventionally taught in English classrooms. However, just as our mass media continue to blur old lines, so too should our modern curricula – across all subjects – reflect a culture that increasingly engages with multimedia in favor of traditional texts. Furthermore, I would caution anyone who cannot see beyond the novelty of our new media to its broader implications extending into the future – and here I get stomach-turningly preachy – to consider the metaphorical frog: drop a frog into a pot of boiling water, and it will jump out; drop a frog into a cool pot of water and slowly bring it to a boil, and it will be boiled alive. Our mass media, by nature of its sheer ubiquity, is the water we are all submerged in. Only through mass media courses, as suggested in chapter one of Beach’s text, will students be brought out of the pot to see what it is they are immersed in.
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