Media Studies and Poetry ?!?

Because of my readings and the discussions in this class, I am conducting a live experiment in a one term 10-12th grade elective poetry class that I am teaching right now. Since these students are immersed in media consumption in much of their out-of-school lives, I want them to become more aquainted with the tools of media production and with critical stances toward media - even within the study of poetry.

My first idea is to have students use digital media to create instructional videos to teach the poetry terms we are learning in the class. Their job is to choose a term (such as onomatopeoia or imagery) and develop a short instructional video which teaches the term to an audience of their peers in the most engaging manner possible. They need models to accomplish this so I worked on an example which I will post here shortly. I will first have them view my sample and this other I found on YouTube.com in order to critique it.

How was it made? What is its message? What is good/bad about it? How well does it teach what it's supposed to teach?

Once there has been some critique and discussion of the merits of these videos, students will begin planning their own. They will write a script and do some storyboarding to get at the basics of video pre-production. They will film using the school's digital video cameras, and edit using iMovie in the media lab. I am learning a lot of the technology as the class works through this project, so it's a collaborative effort in many ways. The projects are authentic in that they will have real audiences (I fully intend to use the successful videos in future poetry lessons and classes). The project also takes the students into the details of media production so that, along with learning the vocabulary of a critical study of a literary genre, they are learning media production as well. I believe that this multi-faceted approach to learning/teaching poetry will deepen thier understanding of poetry. I also think it will teach student to think about how so much of what they watch is constructed, how it is aimed at certain audiences, and how it can be critiqued.

Another element of the class will hopefully be (depending on the school's resources and my preparation)a multimedia website showcasing research on important poets and creative writing inspired by them. I got this idea from a wonderful website done by an 8th grade class in North Carolina which can be viewed here. The students are doing research, analyzing poetry using the literary terms they are learning in the instructional video project, writing their own poetry as inspired by the poets they study closely, and finally, publishing their work for a real audience via the web.

I think I will learn a lot during this term about implementing elements of media studies into a poetry curriculum, but the underlying concept I am taking away from this class is that to better critically understand media (and I am including print literature under that umbrella), students need to have the tools of production at their disposal to experiment, break down, analyze and utilize. Understanding more about the process of production will almost certainly broaden their comprehension of the products (which in this case happen to be poems).

I Could Go On and On

about the music I like and what I think it says about me and about the phases in my life it defines. The Kiss album to your left is the very first record I ever bought with my own money. I heard lots of kids talking about Kiss at school and I had to have it. I loved the fake blood on the inside cover, the face paint, the theater of it all, however, I never got really into their music. It became hip in the 90s to cover Kiss and claim past fandom in the indie rock scene, but I could never make that claim. I bought this one record, liked the cover, liked one song ("Detroit Rock City") and my Kiss adoration ended there. I do remember my father's friend, who happened to be the chief of police in my small New Jersey hometown, scanning over the cover of this record and shaking his head, saying, "I just can't approve of this. What can you like about this?" I don't think I had an answer, but I started to figure out that music could be a way to get a reaction from parents, a way to set myself apart from them.

I also bought the two Beatles compilations records, the Red Album and the Blue Album from my local record store with my own money. I think these were my second and third purchases. I got home from downtown and told my mom I had bought some records. I said they were by a band she wouldn't know. "They're called The Beatles, mom, you wouldn't know about them." My mom laughed at me and told all of her friends this story, for the next year, in my presence so everyone could laugh at my ignorance. This was my parents' generation's music, but I thought I had discovered it on my own (even though I learned about the records from my elementary school music teacher, who was about my parents' age). Ok, I was young and stupid, but man, did I love that music. Still do. This was my entry into pop rock, specifically classic rock, which defined my teenage years until I discovered punk and alternative (which I did way after it was fresh). I spent my teenage years trying to learn every classic rock band and song, seeing many of them in concert, usually too late (Robert Plant, not Led Zepplin, Steppenwolf way over the hill, Bob Dylan parodying himself, The Rolling Stones in their sixties, not in The Sixties).

I used this music to define myself in some ways. I bought into the rebellion aspect of rock n' roll. I learned a lot about the historical context of The Sixties and Seventies through my search through the rock catalogue: you can learn a lot about the political zeitgeist through liner notes, albums and videos on Woodstock and Altamont. I was into learning who influenced whom, and who were the true rockers (whatever that means). Michael Jackson was an abomination to me. Disco Sucks! I bought into this stance, that is basically part of the discourse of listening to classic rock, even today. Although I was pretty much a goodie goodie in school and at home, I loved the idea of a "counterculture" which I gleaned from learning this music. I yearned to be a hippie during the Summer of Love. I couldn't believe the injustice of my never getting to see Hendrix or the Doors live. I couldn't believe my MOM had a Janis Joplin record in there with her boring Joan Baez and Simon and Garfunkel! The idea of The Sixties, and of Rock n' Roll somehow became extremely important to me and really somehow changed who I was in ways that are hard to explain.

There is one song that stands out a bit when I think back to this time in my listening life. I remember "discovering" The Beatles "I Am The Walrus" on the Blue Album mentioned above. Now don't get me wrong, I dug the early stuff like "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" and "Yesterday", but this song, to dip into the Sixties lexicon, "blew my mind, man". And better yet, when I sang the lyrics out loud to my sister while she ran complaining into her room, I could drive her crazy. I could be weird, I could stand out, I could be different, by liking this music, by trying to understand it, by trying to figure it out. And I did spend a lot of time memorizing and talking to friends about how freaking cool it was that yellow matter custard drips from a dead dog's eye and how they name-check Edgar Allan Poe. And what is this Eggman they speak of? Perhaps some of the seeds of becoming an English major were sown here.



Then some friends who were way cooler than I started to work at the local record store and hang out with the owner who was, like, old, like 30. Through their influence, I started to veer off the straight classic rock highway, down punk alley (The Clash) and way off into uncharted territory (Kate Bush, Tom Waits). That's all another story.

A Day in the Life of a Teacher

The assignment here is to envision making a documentary about a particular event, institution, group, person, or experience. Describe what you would include in your documentary.

When I taught a unit on documentaries and documentary film-making to 11th and 12th graders this past term (for the first time), I had the idea that I too would make a film along with them. I didn't. I wish I had, but it was just too much for me to handle the duties of teaching along with getting immersed in a project like this. One of my ideas was to film "a day in the life of a teacher" (me). I still would like to attempt the project some day, but I can just imagine a host of pitfalls.

I would want to get across to an audience of non-teachers just how busy and full a usual day of teaching is, starting with getting the room ready in the morning, to planning, getting resources, meetings, emails, helping early students, teaching classes, hall duty, after school clubs, more meetings, staff development workshops, and perhaps even evening college classes and grading after hours. Sometimes I think back on a day of teaching and so incredibly much has happened that I can barely sift through the memories of it. It would be interesting to edit that experience down to a quick filmic tour of the day, documentary-style. I would try to come out with a final product that communicates the detailed complexity of a day teaching, from the dull clerical tasks to the political budget meetings to the incredibly dynamic interactions with hundreds of students.

I wouldn't necessarily interview people. My idea would be just to have a camera crew or two follow a teacher closely throughout the day. I'm sure that some students in a high school setting would "perform" for the camera and in a sense be interviewed. The trouble would be with how much having the camera would affect the performance of the students/teacher/other staff. I know I change my style at least slightly even when I'm being observed - so a camera recording for posterity might change things even more. I imagine there might be a lot of moments captured on camera that might be unwise to release, for the teacher being filmed, for the students, for the school itself. The editing task would be huge, and how much of the complex truth of a day on this job could be meaningfully communicated in a such a project? I'm not sure, but it would be interesting to try. Maybe once I'm tenured.

News Analysis - KARE 11 10:00 PM, November 8, 2006

Here's a rundown of the approximate times and general content of the news segments on tonight's 30-minute news program:

2:55 - DECISION 2006! National Election Coverage

• Democratic control of House and Senate
• Rumsfeld resignation
• Local reaction to Rumsfeld resignation
• New Secretary of Defense Bob Gates
• Governor Pawlenty and Mike Hatch interviews about election

3:30 - DECISION 2006! State Election Coverage

• MN Legislature - "Capitol Change"
• Will there be division or partnership between Dems and Pawlenty?
• Pawlenty's victory speech

:20 - Voter turnout (40% nationally)

:20 - House fire in Oak Grove, MN
:10 - Weather, sports, holiday decorations teasers for upcoming segments
3:00 - Advertisements
4:50 - EXTRA! A human interest/health story about a woman trying to lose 200 lbs and how her co-workers are supporting her.
4:30 - Weather
:10 - Sports promo.
3:10 - Advertisements
4:19 - Sports
2:50 - Advertisements
:10 - Lottery
:30 - Macy's holiday display

OK, so no real surprises here, I don't think. The greatest chunk of my thirty minutes of news-watching was taken up with advertising - nine minutes, give or take a few seconds.

The news show I watched seemed to be structured in this manner: get the "real" news out of the way first so we can show escapist/inspiring/harmless crap in between lots of ads. The local and national elections, and the huge news of Donald Rumsfeld's resignation and its effect on the direction of the Iraq War was barely touched upon in the opening 6 minutes of the show.

Now, some local disaster causing dismay, financial ruin and/or death/injury has to come next, right? Right. House fire. Place is totalled. People are homeless.

Then, KARE 11 showed an unbelievably random 5 minute story about this woman trying to lose weight. The "news" must be trying to inspire its audience of mostly overweight Americans. They were shilling her book and an upcoming appearance on a show related to this network. It was a pathetic attempt at news. I ate chocolate cookies while I watched the woman complain about how all fruits and vegetables taste like dirt. All of them! (but at least fruit tastes like sweet dirt).

Weather took up just about as much time as the dieting woman. Guess what? Minnesota is going to get cold.

Sports, ads, the lottery and a Macy's Holiday display (lovely commercial tie-in) rounded out the end of the half-hour of "news". It really just panders to the lowest-common denominator - this news show was pretty much escapist entertainment (sports, lottery), drowned out in ads and feel-good weight loss stories, with a tiny bit of surface election coverage mixed in for show. For years I haven't watched an entire local newscast all the way through without flipping channels. I forced myself this time and it felt like a painful waste of time.

Political Ad Spoof

VOTE FOR BOB SMITH on NOVEMBER 7th!

NOT a politician!
A hardworking guy down the street.
A guy you'd have a beer with!

"Cheap Gas, Cheap Guns and Cheap Government!"

I'm Bob Smith and I'm too busy not being political to approve this message.

This guy endorsed by

1970's Sitcoms

All of the criticisms of sitcoms in general are true of 1970's sitcoms that we looked at: stereotypical characters and hackneyed, oversimplified plots are the norm. See this Powerpoint for some details on this: However, it might be interesting to compare some of the social issues that were being investigated (in however simple a way) on some shows like "All in the Family", "What's Happenin'", "Good Times" and "MASH" to how such issues are being portrayed or ignored on TV in the 2000's.

"All in the Family" featured a lower-middle, working class family and did not try to make the main character, Archie Bunker, out to be some kind of flawless hero. He was crude, uneducated and blatantly racist and conservative, and the point of the show was often to laugh at him for his ignorance. Social issues prominent in 1970's America such as the Vietnam War and racial tension were also prominent on the show. It seems that such issues are shied away from on today's sitcoms which in my limited current viewing experience generally just focus on work and romance related comedy.

"MASH" clearly took a critical stance toward war in general - the main characters in the show, Hawkeye and Honeycutt, rail against the unfairness, the brutality, the absurdity of military life and war in the setting of the Korean conflict. Clearly, though, this show commented on the real social issues surrounding America's involvement in Vietnam in the 1970s.

"Good Times" and "What's Happenin'" were prime time shows that featured mostly African American casts and dealt with issues such as inner-city crime, racism and working class struggle. Sure, they did so in surface and pat ways, but they did feature plot lines about these social issues, whereas it seems that today these issues are simply ignored.

It seems to me that a comparative study of popular sitcoms in the 2000s vs those in the 1970s might show an eroding willingness for primetime network TV to even attempt to address controversial social issues.

Spin Magazine Advertising - Defining Your "Self" from Head to Toe with STUFF

This collage shows five advertisements from Spin Magazine's November 2006. I just quickly selected a sampling to analyze. There is an advertisement for a cell phone plan, two vehicle ads, a shoe ad, and a U.S. Army recruitment ad. They all very clearly target older teens through young adults probably up through about age 35.

Since the ads appear in a rock/alternative music magazine, they all use a discourse of rebellion/originality. The T-Mobil cell phone ad at the top places the consumer in the place of the punk rock star, adoring throng in background, checking his cell phone outside the club he is clearly starring at. He's tattooed, he's got a cool car, cool hair, and of course a cool phone. He stands apart, yet he is a successful and connected rebel.

The text in the Army ad shows a timeline reading, "Aug. '04 - Didn't want to be a follower...Feb. '05 - Became a soldier." Clearly the discourse of individuality here is emphasized over any camaraderie or selflessness in military life. Smaller print text reads partially, "Army training helps you find your potential...". The Army prepares him for his future. The audience here is one looking into its future, and the Army draws them in with this idea of being in control (ironically during what might be called an out of control war) of one's self and being able to conquer the future.

And even though I see a row of practically identical looking skateboarder types sitting together in the Adidas Champs shoe ad, the tagline reads, "Be Original. Champs Sports." The text interestingly defies the utter unoriginality of the visual, in my opinion. The visual does reference the skateboarding world, which somehow implies social rebellion and non-conformity, again targeting this young, unattached, disposable-income-rich demographic that might read Spin. Somehow the giant Adidas brand logo stamped over all of the legs, shoes and skateboards is supposed to allow for, or bring about originality.

The two car ads definitely target this young, tech-saavy, "alternative", "rock n' roll" audience. The Toyota Yaris ad pairs the name of the car with the word "play" and shows a cartoon figure holding a balloon bouquet of every mp3 player imaginable. The selling points for the car here are fun/play/music/technology. You can be yourself with your music with this car, you can still be young and cool and have silly facial hair and own this grownup piece of machinery. And you can, as the tagline at the bottom reads, continue "moving forward" with your life with the aid of this product. The Jeep ad superimposes sort of jokey figures in what might look like a traditional car ad to draw in a younger audience. Yes, the Jeep has safe "Side-curtain airbags", but it also has "Freedom Drive four-wheel drive" and a "458-watt Boston Acoustics stereo!" so you can hold onto your youthful freedom and still grow up a little and be safe. Both of these ads allow consumers to hang on to a playful youth, remain not entirely serious about life, but somehow begin to grow up, to define themselves as people moving ahead in society, achieving success.

Overall, this random sampling of print ads from a recent Spin magazine interestingly mixes mass consumerism with a discourse of rebellion and freedom and individuality. Consumers are positioned to define themselves through the products they buy. Consumers are the products they buy - your car, your shoes, your phone allow you to be you, these ads say. Even losing yourself in the mass uniformity of a military organization is somehow sold as promoting individual freedom and control. Every little (and big) thing you buy says something about your very essence as a person, your very self, and that self can be wonderfully original and free, if the right products are purchased. From our mass-produced and well-branded shoes to our military issue helmet, we are all creatively original and free. Amen. And God Bless America.

Media Ethnography - Online Gaming

I interviewed a friend about his online gaming. He plays the most popular 1st person shooter called Counterstrike Source.

He connects online with friends to play a military-themed anti-terrorist action game. He keeps a detailed website as a central place that his gaming friends can go to get detailed statistics from the game, player rankings, links to new maps in the game and general gaming links. As an outsider, the website looks rather foreign and confusing to me: http://www.mptrio.tzo.com/halflife/index.php

What is the appeal of playing?

I get to hang with friends, chat over VOIP, and escapism. Also I've always liked videogames and this one offers great gameplay and graphics. Just a bit of escapism, relaxation and a chance to engage in a great game where reflexes, tactical thinking and planning, and hand eye coordination are used Even though you ‘kill’ the enemy and there is blood and violence, those are not the reasons I play this game. There are a thousand games with blood and gore and violence that just are sucky games. This game also has the best physics engine out there so things are more realistic when they move or explode or get shot.

What is VOIP?

VOIP- ‘voice over IP’.. we use a client/server application called Teamspeak. I have a server running. Everyone that wants to join installs a small client. I give them some login credentials and then they join. Before we play, I join teamspeak and await my comrades. We have headphones with mics. It’s just like talking over the phone except it’s free no matter where the person is. It also has about a 2 second delay. We use it during gameplay to rag each other and tell each other where we are on the map and other important tactical info (it’s a counter terrorists vs. terrorist war game with each round lasting about 4 minutes).

What kind of connections do you make while playing?

tcp, ip, udp, voip are the 4 main connections that I make (that's a g33k joke.real answer: the same connections you can make over a beer.

Are there any unwritten rules that govern how you play the game?

Yeah – you cheat, you are gone. You don’t kill your own team members, you don’t act like an ass. Just like at a bar. If you are a dickhead you get beatup and thrown out on the street to think about it for awhile.

Demographics: Do you know who plays with you online? all guys? ages? ethnic background? or can you not tell at all since its somewhat anonymous?

Mostly men. No one has polled me (until now) so I don’t know if there is a poll out there. I would say mostly under 40 down to about 12. Race? I wouldn’t have a clue. I see a lot of USA, German,
Asian, England, Sweden servers. My ‘clan’ called ‘The Dripping Blade’ is made up of all straight white males late 20’s to my age. At least I think they are all males. I have never seen 3 of them as they work with my friend ryan (aka Cartman) whereas james (aka nurvgas) works with me (aka Mr Joshua….and number one on the stats board…and born leader as you well know). A lot of them have IT related jobs or have access to the internet all day so they are computer savvy. It relaxes me at the end of the week in as much as it’s a planned Friday or Saturday night event that is something to look forward to. It’s playing. And after working all week and taking care of my family and household and not going out to bars or actually having time or the energy to go hang out with my friends across town, it’s so nice to be able to communicate with them on a weekly basis while playing together. Before this type of stuff it may have been a weekly telephone call or just losing touch. Now this online gaming can kill 2 birds with one stone.

Does the game affect your life? Does it make you violent? Does it relieve stress?

It doesn't make me violent. Bad drivers make me violent. Yes it relieves stress, but if played too long, it can give you headaches from staring at the screen. Moderation, my offline friend.

SUMMARY
Clearly there is a social component to this online gaming experience. My friend is able to fit in some relaxation, entertainment and comaradierie through the interactive aspects of playing Counterstrike interconnectedly over the internet. And as he says, the group that he plays with, mostly busy professionals with families, might not have time for other forms of socializing. So although there is an element of escapism in the play, there is also this chance for social connection, for belonging to a sort of team and engaging in competition.

There are social rules upon which participation in the game depends. Players can be kicked out of the group for going against teamates or cheating.

A lot of the language used on the websites and in the interview can be described as masculine and militaristic. The discourses of militaristic combat and typically male competition are evident ("tactical thinking", "my comrades", "born leader", "number one on the stats board", online names like "spear", "overkill" and "nurvgas"). The game fits the acceptable pattern of "male bonding" that is a part of modern American culture.

It might be interesting to further analyze the specific terrorism-related storylines and contexts that exist within the game. Is playing this game a way of dealing with, or thinking about, real concerns about terrorism in a post-9/11 society? How closely does some of the gameplay mirror real-world terrorism? Are the political stances of players widely varied or mostly similar?