Facebook: "It's baller"

For this week's media ethnography assignment, I chose to focus on why and how my 9th, 11th, and 12th grade students use Facebook. I myself recently gave into peer pressure and joined this social network and was curious about how the younger generation viewed their participation in this forum. 

PROCESS: Of course, I am not "Facebook friends" with any of my students, nor do I want to be, so I didn't actually view their profiles online. Instead, I gathered "data" by distributing an anonymous survey on the last day before spring break.

My first question was "Do you participate in any social networks?" 10 out of 60 said "no"; the rest said yes, and many participated in 3 or more groups! (No wonder they don't get their homework done; that's a lot to keep up with every night!)

The next question was, "Which ones?" Since most said Facebook, I decided to analyze only the surveys that discussed Facebook. 

Question #3 was, "Why do you participate?" I compiled their responses on a Word document, creating one list for the 9th graders and a separate list for the 11th and 12th graders, thinking that there might be interesting differences in the two age groups' responses. For both age groups, the most popular reason to be on Facebook is to keep in touch with family and friends. A few people stated that they used it to meet new people (one recently joined a group for the incoming freshmen at the college he/she plans to attend next fall), and that it was simply a good way to pass time. My favorite response was, "It's baller." I guess so.

Question #4 was, "How do you decide what to post on your profile?" Both age groups responded that they like to post "funny and cool stuff," "nothing too personal," and items that "show who I am as a person." Everyone took their audience into consideration, too. One 9th grader wrote that he/she didn't post anything that would "make other people mad," and an upperclassman wrote, "my parents, bosses, and peers are looking at my profile, otherwise I just try to be myself." Now, I did warn them before they took the survey that they shouldn't tell me anything that I would have to report, so this could explain why I didn't get more shocking responses such as those that are seen in the news...but then again, maybe these students are learning from others' mistakes? I hope, I hope.

My last question was, "How does what you post reflect your attitude or stance toward certain issues?" Most surveys came back with this part blank, "IDK," "?", or "I don't really think about it." The 9th graders especially had little to say. One student said "music, that's all I care about," and another wrote about how 4H was being cut from the county and she/he posted items to raise awareness to stop it from happening. The upperclassmen had more "issues" that they cared about, including religion, Japanese culture, politics, saving the environment and rainforest, 4H, and supporting the troops/respecting soldiers. They also said they liked to post funny YouTube videos and inspirational quotes.

CONCLUSIONS: High school students mainly see Facebook as a way to stay connected with friends and family when they can't see them in person. This is made evident when they claim that they only post items that reflect their personalities and interests, but without getting too personal since it is a public forum. The underclassmen really only talked about friends and putting "cool" things on their profiles; many had never thought about their stances on issues, or if they even had any. The upperclassmen did have more to say about issues, showing their maturity level in caring more about world issues. This makes sense, as they are almost finished with high school and will be "entering" the world in the next 1-2 years.

It was refreshing to see that students didn't seem to be too sucked into the realm of Facebook; they use it to keep up with people they know, but they aren't going crazy posting a ton of items or forgetting that they don't always know who is looking at their profile. They don't seem to see themselves as the main attraction; they're there to see what others are doing and to support unique causes (although they still aren't willing to post anything that would portray themselves as "uncool," so they ARE still worried about how others view them; it's just not blatantly obvious. :-)). 

Gizmoz

Here's my first attempt at creating a CA. It was interesting that most of the "female over 14 years old" costume options were swimsuits or summer tops...not a whole lot of options for a young female teacher to look professional yet unsexy

research paper

By Cmeister / 01-Mar-2009

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Families in Fox's Ads

I briefly sat down and watched the commercials between reruns of Seinfeld and American Idol episodes on Fox this Thursday. (Conferences were cancelled due to the snowstorm and I found myself with some unexpected downtime!) In those 4 minutes, I saw ads for:

1. American Family Insurance: A young couple signs up for American Family Insurance and immediately benefit from the housing and medical coverage; their house catches fire and a few months later, they happily await the birth of their first child.

2. Quest: A man in his late 20s/early 30s is on a stationary bike in a clearly very comfortable, large home, with plenty of trees in the backyard. He is explaining exactly what he needs from his cable service to the Quest employee, who patiently sets up his cable while the customer continues to happily pedal away.

3. Best Buy: A Best Buy employee in his early 20s retells a recent situation he was in at work: three generations of women came in needing computers; each with a different need. The daughter needed a laptop for college, the mother needed a pink one for her "Pinks" business, and the grandmother needed an easy-to-use computer because she had never owned one before.

4. Essure: A woman in her 30s considers how her life would change if she got pregnant again. A voiceover explains that Essure is a "permanent" birth control method for women, and the viewer sees the woman kissing her husband and playing soccer with her kids, smiling and carefree because of the convenient solution to her previous concern.

Not one of the commercials seemed to communicate a certain media representation/message, but taken as a group, I noticed some thought-provoking trends among the four ads. With exception to the Quest ad, the theme of the ads was family, and all families involved were happy, white people. The only non-white people were the Quest cable serviceman, who was black, and the Best Buy employee, who was Asian.

People watching this channel for long periods of time may not even realize how these trends are represented, for the ads aren't selling families; they're selling insurance, computers, cable TV, and birth control. However, the subliminal media representations imply that only white people are responsible enough to buy health insurance and therefore safely give birth to their child, and only white people have enough sense to realize when they've had enough children and thus undergo "permanent" birth control procedures. The ads also hint that service jobs are for non-whites, such as the black cable man and the Asian computer salesman. Both were depicted as knowledgeable and responsible employees, but I wonder why it couldn't have been the black man on the exercise bicycle and the white man setting up the cable? Or did the ad producers even consider the message they were creating?

I don't even watch that much TV (the woes of being a high school English teacher and having stacks of papers to read and grade, I guess), and I rarely watch Fox shows. Honestly, I was flipping through channels looking for inspiration for this blog. Reflecting on that fact, it's astonishing to see such similar media representations in a such a short amount of time, in succession on the same TV channel. I wonder what NBC, ABC, and CBS ads subtly communicate to their viewers during prime time.

As one might guess, different families view themselves differently, and it doesn't matter what race/ethnicity, or other grouping they fall under (Duh). In an interview with American Psychological Association (2/11/2009), Bertha Holliday answers the following question:

APA. Family life is very important for achievement by black children. Is it more important for them than for children of other races/ethnicities? Is President Obama an example of how a nurturing environment can buffer a child against prejudice?

Dr. Holliday: Whose family life is most important for whose children? Who knows? In reality, our knowledge of family life is somewhat limited. We know about family process, parent-child interactions, critical life events, child-rearing practices, etc. – but we really don't know a whole lot about the richness, complexities, contradictions and power that are the totality of family life—especially as experienced by various religious, racial/ethnic and other identity–based communities. Nevertheless, one can say with a great degree of confidence, it is always a good thing for a child to have a nurturing environment. And it is always good for a child to have a parent(s) who is not only a provider, but also a protector and advocate. President Obama was certainly the beneficiary of these and numerous other social and developmental benefits. It also should be noted that the bulk of his formative childhood years was spent in locations that lacked deeply rooted social traditions of racism against blacks -- as was the case in the continental U.S.

 But President Obama is also to a great degree the proverbial American “self-made man,” who with little in economic resources, embarked upon a relatively solitary and  focused journey in search of his identity and his own conception of his place in the world. I think this is the aspect of the man that intrigues so many.

Critical Approaches/Lenses

Rhetorical/Audience Approach: This lens examines how the audience is affected and persuaded by what they see and hear in the media. In teaching this approach, students need to learn how to identify media messages, analyze their own active participation in perpetuating the messages, and understand how people are socialized by the messages. 

Beach's book includes a teaching idea using the novel Feed, which is one title that my colleague and I also thought to use for next year's Writing about the Media class. Another more classic novel that would work well for this approach is Fahrenheit 451. Students could analyze how the main characters are so mired in media messages that they no longer have their own personalities. This novel was part of the NEA Big Read program, which provides more specific teaching ideas.

Another idea to reinforce how prevalent media messages are would be to have a "No Brand Names" day, or if possible, week; where nobody would wear clothing that had a brand name on it. At the end of the designated time, students would discuss if and how their perception of different individuals were affected by the lack of brand name clothing.

Semiotic Approach: This lens analyzes how the meanings of messages depend on one's social and cultural codes and signs. People will interpret messages differently in terms of their own culture's values and associations with different codes and signs.

 Teaching Media Literacy uses the archetypal hero's journey as an example, which I could incorporate in my English 9 Greek Mythology unit. When discussing Greek heroes, students always challenge the myths' ideas of what a hero should be. I point out to them that this makes sense, since their culture is different in many ways to the Ancient Greek culture. What defined a hero for them depended on their culture's values. Next time I teach the mythology unit, I will expand this discussion to an assignment that has students write a hero's story that reflects the values of their own culture. Going even further, I could have them revise their stories after researching other world cultures and myths, not just Greek mythology.

Critical Discourse Analysis Approach: This approach considers how certain cultures or communities would view media messages in terms of specific definitions. (i.e., Lawyers, doctors, businesspeople, and teachers will view the same message but construe a different meaning from it based on how their professions influence their ways of thinking.)

There are several teaching ideas that immediately come to mind to help students understand this approach. The easiest one, I think, is to have each student find magazine ads and analyze what the ads' messages are promoting in terms of different discourses (gender, class, race, etc.). Of course, this could also be done with other forms of media, but it is easy for everyone to bring in a couple of magazine ads, hold it up to the class, and explain it. Since it is a still image, the class has less to pay attention to, thus providing ample opportunity to really break down the ad's message in terms of different discourses. Once that is done I'd have them view their "favorite movie of all time" through one critical discourse , and come back to the class to share their discoveries.

Feminist Approach: This lens focuses on how males and females are portrayed in media messages, thus communicating with the audience how they as males and females should act, dress, and look. As these ideals have changes throughout history and how they differ between cultures, so have the media's portrayals of gender.

To further study the feminist approach, I think it would be useful to bring in covers of a variety of men's and women's magazines, and unpack the messages from the cover's picture and stories. For example, the look of Cosmopolitan, which many high school girls carry around in their backpacks, is much different than Good Housekeeping. Or isn't it? Of course, students could research how the magazines' messages have changed over the years. I recently received a forwarded email from a 1955 issue of Good Housekeeping from a newlywed friend that could be used in this context.

Postmodern Approach: Postmodernism explores how "modern improvements" do not actually make life happier, easier, or more fulfilled; they actually make us feel sadder, more stressed, and emptier.

In the classroom, I would definitely start with a discussion of materialism, and how students are obsessed with having the "latest and greatest" gadgets. I myself will admit to having (and loving) an iPod; and secretly wanting, but unable to afford, an iPhone. Why do we want these things? How are we supposed to feel once we have them? Are those feelings actually felt when that happens?

Eventually I'd move in the direction of watching a full-length film. I like the suggested list in Beach's book (p. 41), and I also think the current Oscar nominated films The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Slumdog Millionaire would be well-received in the classroom. Both films use non-traditional narratives to examine what is/should be valued in life.

Commercial Shot-by-Shot Analysis

The title of this post links to the commercial that I am analyzing: the i-Pod commercial that uses "Disturbia" by Rhianna.

0-35 seconds: There is a combination of medium and close-up shots of a teenage boy dancing and singing along to Rhianna's catchy song, "Disturbia." The camera pans, zooms in and out, and tracks the boy's dancing, which gives the audience the sense that they should dance to the music as well. The quick cuts also give the audience the feeling of excitement and energy that is created through quick dancing.

35-40 seconds: The music stops, and the camera cuts to his friend who has just walked in. There is a low-angle, medium reaction shot on the friend. The audience is close enough to see the look of incredulity on the friend's face, but far enough to also see the body language; the friend looks uncomfortable with the first boy's choice of music. "Dude. Do you seriously have Rhianna downloaded on your iPod?"

40-45 seconds: The camera cuts back to the boy, using a closer frame. The close-up shot lets the audience see his discomfort of being "caught" listening to a "girlie" song, and he tries to lie, saying, "uuummmm, no?"

45-55 seconds: The camera cuts back to the friend for another reaction shot.  The awkward camera angle conveys the awkwardness the two main characters fell. As the friend shakes his head and leaves, the camera remains stationary, so the audience feels abandoned (the camera is focused on the chalkboard). 

55-60 seconds: After a slight pause, the boy shifts his eyes from side to side, looks at the camera, and starts playing his music again. The camera is close up, so the audience can see the happiness the boy feels from the song.

60-70 seconds: The camera cuts to a screen that says "iPod + iTunes,"then another cut to the Apple logo. The bright colors and the catchy music that are used heightens the audience's attraction to the iPod product.

A Justified Film Lesson Using Ferris Bueller's Day Off

Even though it smiles on truant high school students, I don't think I know one person in education that does not enjoy the classic film, Ferris Bueller's Day Off. I was quite pleased with myself when I was able to bring in a clip last fall to teach tone. Remember the roll call scene? It's a great example of different tones of voice, in which the audience understands each characters' attitude toward being present in a mundane class. My freshmen loved it, and begged to watch more of the movie. (Can you believe that many of them had never heard of it?!)

Looking more closely at the clip from YouTube, I think these scenes could also be used to examine camera shots, lighting, sound, and (lack of) music in film. The first minute of roll call consists of mostly medium shots, and we as the audience feel comfortable with that distance, just as students feel comfortable during roll call; they aren't yet expected to start thinking. Later, during the economics lecture, the audience sees close-up shots of different students in the room. These shots really let us know how each character is feeling; the facial emotions range from frustration, hatred, boredom, and just plain sleepiness. (We're close enough to see the drool, remember?) The audience is able to relate to many of these emotions, and the closeness of the camera helps create that intimacy/connection. 

In both scenes, there is high-key lighting, which gives the sense of the relentless, often headache-inducing fluorescent lights that abound in schools. There could have been a bluish tinted lens used to add to the fluorescent feel, but I'm not sure. 

I really like that there is not a lot of sound, and literally no music in this scene.  The only sound in the second part of this clip is the teacher's monotonous voice, and one incredibly loud SCREECH on the chalkboard. The class is quiet; the audience can feel how badly the students in the film want class to be over. This would be a great opportunity to discuss how effective it can be to NOT have sound or music, if used at the right time.

When I have taught film/editing techniques as a unit, I spend a few days going over definitions of terms, with still image examples. I have students bring in magazines and find different types of shots, angles, and lighting. Then we watch clips from different movies, again identifying film techniques and discussing the directors' decisions. (What effect did the director want to have on the audience? How do these techniques achieve that?) I try to vary the genres of movies that I show, in part to reach all students' interests, but also so they get a sampling of different directors' styles. Finally, we end the unit by watching a full-length movie and writing a film review. In Essentials 9, I show To Kill a Mockingbird, and when I taught General Writing, I showed One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. In both classes, students have to analyze key scenes of the movie, identifying and explaining why certain techniques were used during those specific moments. It goes pretty well, but like Beach advises on page 31, I've found it absolutely necessary for students to view scenes several times before they can write a decent review. Their first viewing is solely for comprehension of narrative elements; it's only the second and third times that they can pick out film techniques and explain their effects. When all is said and done though, my students can never passively watch movies again. Mission accomplished.

Why teach film, television, and media studies?

"This generation is the media generation." With this statement from the Kaiser Foundation's Key Findings on Kids and Media (http://tinyurl.com/d6yw5), it is clear that media studies should be taught to a greater extent in the Hastings School District.

Currently at the high school, there is only one course offered in the English department that centers on the media, Broadcast Journalism. This course covers the history of broadcast journalism, and students participate in authentic assignments such as the school's weekly broadcast news, The Ekko. However, Broadcast Journalism is an elective with a capped enrollment, and many students shy away from taking it because they do not want to be on the newscast. Hastings students need to have more options for media study.

For next year, curriculum is being developed for two new electives: Film Studies, and Writing about the Media. The 2009-2010 course description for Film Studies reads:

"This course consists of learning about film by studying its history, terminology, and industry through reading, discussing, and watching several major motion pictures. Students will be required to watch some films outside of the class, presenting various papers and at least one speech on related topics. Various themes will include concentrations on certain directors, periods, or genres."

Writing about the Media is described as follows:

"Students will develop and refine their writing skills by critically analyzing dozens of examples from contemporary films, television shows, commercials, and news, both print and video. Media topics slated to be examined include consumerism; gender and sexuality; media and politics; race and class; and, current events."

It is important for students to study film, television, and other forms of media for several reasons. First of all, although it is important for students to be able to read and write in the basic sense, data shows that students are using media now more than ever, and they are often using several types of media at a time. Both the Film Studies and Writing about the Media classes will embed reading and writing assignments into the curriculum, so it isn't as though the students in these courses will not be reading and writing regularly. It is just that, if media is so time-consuming for today's students, it makes sense that they hone their reading and writing skills while interacting with different types of media. Beach cites Manovich (2001) and Street (2004) to assert that using digital tools teaches students to interact with texts in diverse ways, and also increases digital literacies. 

This brings up a second reason to teach media studies; students need to know how to use digital tools as they are developed, otherwise they will not be prepared for the world outside of school. Technology and the way messages are conveyed changes at a dizzying rate; if students are not educated in how to use the technology and interpret messages, they will be completely at a loss when they step out of high school, or they will prefer to remain digitally illiterate. Film Studies and Writing about the Media will incorporate blogs, wikis, and online chat rooms so that students are familiar with these tools before they leave high school. As technologies change, so will the courses' curricula.

Finally, teaching film, television, and media studies fosters critical thinking skills; skills that have always been important to schools. Students are bombarded with media messages all the time; isn't it time schools taught them how to read and analyze those messages, and not passively accept them? Film Studies will cover the history of filmmaking and different techniques that are used to convey a specific message. Writing about the Media will analyze media from different lenses such as race, class, gender, and political persuasion. Both classes will reward students with the ability to hear, see, or read a message, and develop their own interpretation and reaction to it, which is a skill everyone should have.