Cara's Multimedia Musing Miscellany

Laguna Beach Avatars

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 09:52:00 -0700

Ewww....

As if it weren't bad enough that I am completely engrossed in the lives of perfect, blonde, tan, wealthy, vapid, BMW driving teenagers on the other side of the country, now I can also pretend to be them via online Avatars... Sweet! In case you couldn't pick up on my sarcasm, I am so incredibly appalled by MTV's newest and completely unshocking gimmick that I just lost my appetitie for lunch.

Sure we've all become accustomed to the fact that people can spring board into at least short lived super stardom by playing themselves in primetime TV's latest gag fest, but now they can also be played by teenagers and creepy 40 year old men all over the world.

According to the New York Times, "This week, MTV will introduce Virtual Laguna Beach, an online service in which fans of the program can immerse themselves — or at least can immerse digitized, three-dimensional characters, called avatars, that they control — in virtual versions of the show’s familiar seaside hangouts." Because I didn't feel bad enough about the fact that I will never be as wealthy, thin, or popular as the show's 16-year-old stars, now MTV has created even less life-like virtual versions for young women to pattern themselves off of. Now not only will Kristin Cavallari sound like a spoiled, scheming, vapid brat, but she can do it in acronyms.

The Times says that this is the first of three online worlds that MTV will launch this year. The next one is called VMTV, and "is a music destination where visitors can club-hop among hip neighborhoods, buy music, watch videos, sing karaoke or even start their own bands." My question about this is, can't you do all of those things in real life?

Ah, and what is in this for MTV, other than bringing back some of the stray teens that they have lost in recent years to MySpace and YouTube?
"One of the appeals of virtual worlds for MTV is the possibility that advertising can spill over into the real one. Visitors might buy a digital outfit for parties using currency they earned watching an infomercial or checking out a new product for an MTV advertiser. Then, they might decide that they would like to buy the same outfit for their offline selves, and, with a few clicks of the mouse and some real dollars, have one shipped to their home. In trial form, Virtual Laguna Beach has advertising relationships with brands including Cingular, Pepsi-Cola, Secret and another Viacom company, Paramount."

The young people of America, myself not withstanding, seem to be on the right track, but not quite there yet. Yes, we have figured out that we like interactive media better than one-way communication that just plays in front of us. If we can just get to the next step, where we figure out that we also want to do something with that media, instead of just pretend to live our lives, then we might be on to something. Unfortunately, we are a generation who has grown up with the instant media gratification of a polaroid camera, from social networking sites to viral video, I cannot argue with MTV Networks' Executive President Judy McGrath when she says, "MTV speaks uniquely to a group of people who are endlessly fascinated with watching themselves." Hopefully we start seeing ourselves doing something more productive with our time soon.

Local Media Consolidation

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 13:55:00 -0700

Yesterday the Metro reported that the Flordia based owner of WLVI (Boston's WB... which will be switching in the coming weeks to CW programming) has sold the local affiliate to the Chicago based owner of WCVB (Boston's ABC affiliate). This comes only days after a report that Michael Powell, former FCC chair apparently ordered to be destroyed was leaked to a Democratic Congresswoman who has challenged the current FCC chair.

The report was commissioned two years ago by Powell (Yes, Colin's son), to prove that local ownership does not affect news content and the focus on localism. The intent of the report was to fuel further de-regulation to allow for companies to own even more outlets in each region than they currently are under the Clinton administration's 1996 de-regulation act. When the report proved, instead, to show empirically that local owners do in fact show nearly 33 hours more per year of local interest stories, Powell ordered all evidence of the report destroyed.

As for Boston's CW network, WLVI, the owners of WCVB say that they plan to replace the current evening news with a news program aimed at younger viewers. It will still air at 10pm, followed on WCVB by the regular 11pm news, which is obviously not for young people (what?). With our mainstream media's idea of what targeting a young demographic is, I cringe to think about what this news program will look like. Yo! MTV raps graphics? Reporters in Sean John and Enyce? Maybe live Saturday night entertainment reports from The Rack at Faneiul Hall.

In any case, their other programming will remain basically untouched, with the new CW network keeping most of the WB programs, with four exceptions: Tyra Banks' America's Next Top Model (airing at 8pm on Thursdays against Must See TV on NBC), Veronica Mars (paired on Tuesdays with Gilmore Girls), Everybody Hates Chris (moved to the ridiculous time slot of 7:30pm on Sundays), and Girlfriends (right after Everybody Hates Chris on Sundays). The rest of the slots that are not WB shows will be new shows. It still remains to be seen whether or not any of these will feature diverse casts or any young people of color at all. With One Tree Hill, Gilmore Girls, Supernatural, and a miraculously revived 7th Heaven dominating the top time slots, I hope that the new CW network at least makes a feeble attempt at keeping the identity of the UPN's demographics in mind as they make the switch. Look out this fall for Real Women Have Curves star America Ferara in her first TV show on ABC called Ugly Betty.

On a personal note, I am very sad that ABC has decided to put Grey's Anatomy on the same time as My Name is Earl and the Office. What is a girl supposed to do without Tevo?

More Good Media News

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 14:30:00 -0700

Google feeds are a plethora of good stories of media victories today. Yay! So the producers of "Girls Gone Wild" have been fined 2.5 MILLION bucks for not keeping records of the ages of the women they are exploiting... sure it's not shutting 'em down or anything, but it's a step in the right direction. Personally, I am a firm believer of changing the game instead of hating on the players, but sometimes you need to kick the players that are messing up the game. So I am glad to read this.

From Terry Frieden
CNN

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The entertainment company that produces the "Girls Gone Wild" films and its founder pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges they failed to document the ages of female performers in sexually oriented productions.

Mantra Films of Santa Monica, California, entered a plea agreement in a federal court in Panama City, Florida, the Justice Department said.

Authorities said Joseph Francis, founder of Mantra Films and a related company, MRA Holdings, also agreed to plead guilty to charges to be filed later in Los Angeles, and to pay fines and restitution totaling $2.1 million.

The "Girls Gone Wild" videotapes -- often featuring young women heavily partying and baring their breasts -- are widely advertised on some cable television channels.

Mantra Films specifically pleaded guilty in Florida to charges that it failed to create and maintain age and identity documents for performers. The company also admitted it failed to label its videotapes and DVDs as required by federal law.

Court documents say the alleged violations occurred during productions titled "Ultimate Spring Break," "Girls Gone Wild on Campus Uncensored," "Totally Exposed Uncensored and Beyond," and "Girls Gone Wild College Girls Exposed/Sexy Sorority Sweethearts."

The Justice Department said the case is the first filed under a law designed to prevent the sexual exploitation of children.

The law, which prosecutors call Section 2257 -- is intended to protect minors by requiring producers to create and maintain age and identity records for every performer in sexually explicit movies and other media.

Distributors also must label their tapes and discs with the name of the custodian of the records and their location, prosecutors said.

"Today's agreements ensure that Girls Gone Wild will comply with an important law designed to prevent the sexual exploitation of minors and puts other producers on notice that they must be in compliance as well," said Assistant Attorney General Alice Fisher.

Officials said Francis will pay $500,000 and his firms, Mantra and MRA Holdings, will together pay $1.6 million.

An attorney for Mantra, Aaron Dyer, told The Associated Press that the company would clean up its record keeping.

The charges involved "serious record-keeping issues that occurred several years ago," he told the wire service. "Mantra takes these issues very seriously and has done everything it can to make sure this never occurs again."

The case does not shut down "Girls Gone Wild."

Under terms of the deal, the Los Angeles charges against MRA will be dismissed after three years if the company fully complies with the record-keeping laws and fully pays the fines.

Check out the Agreement here:

Madrid Fashion Week

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 10:54:00 -0700

Madrid's fashion week announced that they would not allow models in the show that were "underweight," in order to project a more healthy image of beauty. Very exciting news, and the female mayor of Milan has promised to begin the process for her fashion show to follow that progressive lead. Check out the text of the article from Reuter's:

By Andrew Hay

MADRID (Reuters) - The world's first ban on overly thin models at a top-level fashion show in Madrid has caused outrage among modeling agencies and raised the prospect of restrictions at other venues.

Madrid's fashion week has turned away underweight models after protests that girls and young women were trying to copy their rail-thin looks and developing eating disorders.

Organizers say they want to project an image of beauty and health, rather than a waif-like, or heroin chic look.

But Cathy Gould, of New York's Elite modeling agency, said the fashion industry was being used as a scapegoat for illnesses like anorexia and bulimia.

"I think its outrageous, I understand they want to set this tone of healthy beautiful women, but what about discrimination against the model and what about the freedom of the designer," said Gould, Elite's North America director, adding that the move could harm careers of naturally "gazelle-like" models.

Madrid's regional government, which sponsors the show and imposed restrictions, said it did not blame designers and models for anorexia. It said the fashion industry had a responsibility to portray healthy body images.

"Fashion is a mirror and many teenagers imitate what they see on the catwalk," said regional official Concha Guerra.

The mayor of Milan, Italy, Letizia Moratti, told an Italian newspaper this week she would seek a similar ban for her city's show unless it could find a solution to "sick" looking models.

The Madrid show is using the body mass index or BMI -- based on weight and height -- to measure models. It has turned away 30 percent of women who took part in the previous event. Medics will be on hand at the September 18-22 show to check models.

"The restrictions could be quite a shock to the fashion world at the beginning, but I'm sure it's important as far as health is concerned," said Leonor Perez Pita, director of Madrid's show, also known as the Pasarela Cibeles.

A spokeswoman for the Association of Fashion Designers of Spain, which represents those at Madrid fashion week, said the group supported restrictions and its concern was the quality of collections, not the size of models.

Eating disorder activists said many Spanish model agencies and designers oppose the ban and they had doubts whether the new rules would be followed.

"If they don't go along with it the next step is to seek legislation, just like with tobacco," said Carmen Gonzalez of Spain's Association in Defense of Attention for Anorexia and Bulimia, which has campaigned for restrictions since the 1990s.

Soul Survivor

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 8 Sep 2006 13:43:00 -0700

I was absolutely appalled when I opened up the Metro to the headline "Segregated Survivor." While I was disturbed by host Jeff Probst's claim that the show's racial segregation is a means of making the show more diverse, I was just as taken aback by the Metro's laissez-faire coverage of the controversial move. Survivor has in the past pitted men against women, and young against old in the pursuit of the million dollar cash prize and fifteen minutes of fame.

In a society like ours, where segregation still reigns, glorifying a televised war of all races is not only irresponsible; it is dangerous to our collective psyche. Nearly a year after Hurricane Katrina’s coastal devastation brought racial injustice to the country’s spotlight for a brief moment, we have quickly forgotten about how this administration’s priorities so heavily favor the supposed majority. Instead of finding ways to openly discuss different backgrounds of privilege and disadvantages to build a more just and sustainable future, the entertainment media has chosen once again to focus on the small divisions and drive a wedge further between those of us who continue to struggle for our piece of the pie.

In 1712, British Slave Owner, William Lynch delivered these words on how to control slaves, “Don't forget you must pitch the old black Male vs. the young black Male, and the young black Male against the old black male. You must use the dark skin slaves vs. the light skin slaves, and the light skin slaves vs. the dark skin slaves. You must use the female vs. the male. And the male vs. the female.” Lynch proposed that these methods would be successful for up to 300 years, but with major networks like CBS still doing the dirty work and perpetuating the cycle adding new groups to play against one another, I have a feeling that it will continue far beyond 2012.

9/11 Hall Pass

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 8 Sep 2006 13:42:00 -0700

Myspace

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 8 Sep 2006 13:41:00 -0700

Letter to the Editor

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 8 Sep 2006 13:29:00 -0700

referencing this:

Regarding Harold Shurtleff's response to the feature on radio talk show host Jackie Guerra, I cannot even begin to express in words my horror at his gross generalizations, inaccurate claims, and racist attitude.

I will preface by saying that I have not made an effort to study free market economics, and as such this is not a critique of Mr. Shurtleff's factual claims. I have no evidence to the contrary on many of his points. However, to claim that Middle class families have it "easier" because those making minimum wage often get welfare benefits is ludicrous. Clearly, he has never been a recipient of welfare benefits. The fact is, you cannot receive most welfare benefits if you work full time, and you certainly can not afford to pay for daycare to work full time even with full time minimum wage pay and the modest welfare allowance that you would receive with that income. I am sure that those single parents raising more than one child on a minimum wage salary, even with the benefit of Food Stamps or WIC would scoff at your claim that you had it harder than them and are paying their way.

Having been a recipient of Food Stamps benefits when I was an Americorps VISTA, I can tell you that making minimum wage, even with Food Stamps benefits, it was difficult to get by even as a single young adult. If I'd had to feed, clothe, or shelter anyone but myself I would have not been able to. Given the events that unfolded after Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita, I think that you should maybe re-think exactly what governments are refusing to make their countries livable. As for the idea of Ms. Guerra sitting in her radio booth shaking her fist at the "gringo," I would rather you not act as though you speak for all white americans. Not every gringo subscribes to your elitest, racist banter.

Updated Writing

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 23 May 2006 08:35:00 -0700

I added some new stuff to the writing blog. I'm going to be going through some stuff this weekend to, to start cataloging 15 year old cara.

Birthday Countdown Begins

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 18 May 2006 07:45:00 -0700

Alright,

so there is now only 2 days to miss katie's birthday, and you know what that means? one month and two days to my birthday. for my birthday, i am going to have a good old fashioned swap meet... with wine and maybe some jello. but everyone can bring the stuff that they don't want, and hopefully someone else will! that way, for my birthday, everybody gets presents. it will also probably be one of the last oportunities to have a gathering at bagshaw. negotiations are underway to move sooner than expected, but we'll see. still up in the air, but w. any luck i will be moving to boston over the summer. anyway, on the "me" tip, i have begun to think about what i would want for my birthday, and since both of my parents are technologically savvy enough to read my blog, i figured that i would post it here.

-instructional materials (DVDs, CDs, or tapes... because my car's not that high tech) to learn Italian... the deadline i've placed on my fluency is coming up quick
-brown sugar on DVD... because it's just kind of silly that i don't own it
-mom- the pages for your new book so that i can finally print it
-repair for my record player
-paint, stain, and sealant, so that if i do move into the apt in jp that i'm looking at, i can re-do the floor and walls of my room

thats all i can think of right now

c

Long time no Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 11 May 2006 10:25:00 -0700

So I have not blogged in a little over two months, which is only slightly less time than I have been working as the Media Education Organizer for Project: Think Different. It is a busy life, but I am loving every minute these days. I have done so much in the last 3 months, I cannot believe it, and at the same time, it seems like I have so much right in front of me. One thing that we have coming up is our CD release party for the empowerment: the power to break you free album. You can check out the cd at www.emPOWERmentrecords.com. Here's the info for the event:

Also, I am almost done hiring young people for our Media Watch Team. The Team will be working with me to create an eight week Media Action Series that they will be facilitating starting in the fall. We will also be initiating a campaign to increase youth voice in the Boston media. There's lots of other exciting stuff going on here, but I am going to save some for later.

Peace

Girls Weekend Out (or in)

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 5 Mar 2006 15:46:00 -0800

This weekend was very girl power oriented for me. I spent Friday and Saturday night in a production of the Vagina Monologues with girls from UTEC and women from the Lowell community. It truly was one of the most powerful experiences of my life to see it all come together (finally). Saturday during the day was spent teaching middle school girls how to use iMovie to make PSAs. I used the track "Freedom Song" by one of emPOWERment records Empowerment artists, Sofia Snow as the background of the video, and the group of girls that I worked with in the afternoon put this awesome video together. The morning group still needs titles and stuff, but I will put that up soon.

links for this post are a plenty:
www.vday.org
www.girlsgetconnected.org
www.projectthinkdifferent.org
www.empowermentrecords.com

Teens Leading The Way

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 21 Jan 2006 17:08:00 -0800

Today I was lucky enough to get to work with an awesome group of young people from all over the state of MA who are working on a campaign called STIGMA. They are trying to get legislation passed that will bring drop in mental health facilities for youth into communities accross the state. Check out their website for more info, and check out the PSA they made today below.

could snl be funny again?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 16 Jan 2006 06:28:00 -0800

this short video is sweeping the internet nation. it has even taken over the two chinese boys on you tube for the number one spot. i have watched it like 15 times and have not gotten sick of it yet. if you haven't seen it yet, do yourself a favor and click on the picture. you're about to get taken to a dreamworld of magic

http://www.youtube.com/watch.php?v=zLElfJ9YCh0

Media That Matters in Lowell

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 9 Jan 2006 15:59:00 -0800

This Wednesday and Thursday, The Media That Matters Festival will be coming to Lowell. For more information, contact me at cpowers@utec-lowell.org

New Years Resolutions

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 30 Dec 2005 08:48:00 -0800

I usually like to do my new years resolutions in June (for my birthday), but this year I am getting swept up in all the hype, so here goes

1. Dedicate a serious amount of time to learning to speak Italian
2. Bring my sewing machine in from the car and learn how to use it properly
3. Finish decorating the dining room
4. Rededicate myself to my own health and well being
5. Rediscover the things that I love

i think that'll do it

happy new year everyone

Building Our Dream

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 13 Dec 2005 09:09:00 -0800

Last Thursday, December 8th, UTEC kicked off its capital campaign with a dinner dance/silent auction at Lenzi's Grand Ballroom in Dracut. Here's some highlights:

Video Blog!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 1 Dec 2005 09:16:00 -0800

I did it! I made my very first video blog. Check out my adorable baby cousin.

flow+vocabulary= flowcabulary

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 12:02:00 -0800

After a long discussion last night about the nature of elitism and snobbery, I have encountered a very specific example of my own snobbery. Apparently, Flocabulary, a hip-hop vocabulary system has been sweeping the blog world, but the way I discovered it was at the gym watching MTV. Thank heavens for Kurt Loder, or I would be a wandering bundle of ignorance. The most embarrassing part, I used to live around the corner from one of the guys on the album. I suck at life. Nonetheless, I think it's definitely worth checking out their site.

http://www.flocabulary.com

edumacation

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 17:13:00 -0800

Even when I was a kid, I was huge into effective educational reform. Maybe it's because my Dad was a teacher before I was around and because both of my parents nurtured an environment wherein I could vent enough to figure out what the real problems were and how I wanted to go about fixing them. Anyway, I came across this article in What'sUp magazine and some of it's a little dry, but it's got some interesting nuggets of information.

http://www.whatsupmagazine.org/articles/everything.html

it kind of makes me wonder what happened to coalitions like SCAM and other groups that popped up right before MCAS went mandatory.

time for giving thanks

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 27 Nov 2005 15:38:00 -0800

It's a couple days late, but the thing I love about Thanksgiving is that it's this one day a year that is specifically designed for you to remember how lucky you are and stop complaining for once. The next day you can go back to complaining about your family and job and whatever, or in my case laughing while remembering the look on your uncle's face when your grandmother tried to throw a piece of cheesecake at him. So, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, I decided to try and compile a list of things that I am thankful for.

*Me. Sure it sounds conceited, but I am thankful for everything in my life that has happened, that has made me who I am today. I wouldn't take back anything, even as much as I may cringe at certain memories, who knows what I would be without them.
*My family. Like most people's, it's a little crazy. It's big, it's loud, it's sometimes very conservative, and sometimes a little bit critical, but I am incredibly lucky to have two amazing family trees, and to be learning a lot more about them now. I got to see some really cool old pictures from when my Grandmother was little while I was visiting for the holiday, and I know that a lot of people take for granted being able to trace back their roots, so I hope that I remember how lucky I am to have that.
*My friends. As strewn across the countryside as they are at this point, I am so incredibly blessed to have collected amazing friends at every juncture of my life so far, and also lucky for things like AIM and Friendster, to make keeping in touch with all of them fairly simple. They can all look forward to some snail mail for the holidays, however, because who doesn't like getting real mail?
*My home. I super lucked out with this apartment. My roommate is chill, my room is huge, I have a SKYLIGHT, walking distance to work, the gym, and coffee. And who can complain about life when they have a waterfall in their backyard? (sometimes me, but I'm working on it)
*My Bed. Seems like it would go in the same category as home, but it really deserves it's own. I know that I have sung the praises of my bed in many a forum, including a full page article in WheatBread, but it really never ceases to please me, and I have a newfound appreciation for it after sleeping on the hard as a rock mattress in my grandparent's guest room for two nights.
*My job. Everyone complains about their job, and even though I've done my fair share lately, and I don't make any money, I do feel very lucky to have found something that I love to do, and regardless of where the wind blows me in the next year, I have met some amazing people and definitely been able to do a lot of career goal finetuning.

That's about it for now. Oh, I am also thankful for the video I took of my baby cousin eating whipped cream out of a can, which I will hopefully post tomorrow as my very first VLOG.

Hip Hop Hooplah

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 16 Nov 2005 06:11:00 -0800

I was talking to a co worker yesterday and he expressed frustration about hip hop as a venue for teaching. He basically made the argument that it seems like everything is hip hop this or hip hop that, and that everything is made to look appealing by making it graffiti or a certain style of dress. And while he was talking specifically about our center at first, his tone quickly broadened to cover the whole gambit of youth culture. On the one hand, I totally see his point, especially at our center, where hip hop culture is kind of the law of the land. However, there are a couple of reasons that I don't think that justifies ceasing using hip hop as a means of education. (1) It's effective, not only as a means of communicating ideas and new skills, but as a means of re-identifying what hip hop culture really is. (2)Specifically in media, hip hop, and specifically the art of remixing is the ideal venue to introduce the idea of bricolage, which this generation more than any before it is hugely familiar with, and unfortunately unaware of. We are just over 100 years away from the inventions of television and radio, and the last century's styles, music, television, movies, and ideas have been more well documented than any other in history. This gives today's youth a unique opportunity to reappropriate these images and sounds in their own way. While bricolage (which comes from the french word for brick-layer) is not a new concept, its potential today is unimaginable, and it is the idea of remixing that has opened doors for further explorations of bricolage, from video to fashion, to HISTORY. Now, I could teach this incredibly important idea the way that I learned it, through Marxist terminology and hours of boring lectures about superstructures and bases. However, wouldn't it be more well received if I introduced the idea through something that teens are already familiar with? That was the long one.

(3) We shouldn't stop teaching hip hop culture, because it's not where it should be. Someone told me recently that they couldn't leave their job, because they wouldn't be leaving it in the right place for someone else to take on. If we left hip hop culture to only represent girls in bikinis, flashy cars, and drug money, which is unfortunately the way a lot of people perceive it, then we wouldn't be handling it very responsibly. I grew up on Queen Latifah, Salt-n-Pepa, and yes, Public Enemy. It is important to me to protect the legacy of education and empowerment that they helped to instill in me, and to give that message to another generation.

Multimedia Magazine Call to Arms

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 14 Nov 2005 16:14:00 -0800

Youth Multimedia Magazine Program

Mission: To empower youth through creative exploration of multimedia technology as a means of communication and transmission of ideas and information.

Goals: To facilitate a media canvas that will serve as a multifaceted approach to communicating information and ideas in an interactive and engaging way.

In our current media landscape, the means by which previous generations got their information and ideas about society have multiplied and mutated beyond all previous comprehension. All of these previous formats, from newspapers to broadcasting to internet forums have been folded into a system of multimedia that leaves no stone (or silicon chip) unturned when it comes to engaging young people in the market economy that it supports and is supported by. Teenagers today have very little trouble navigating their way through the hundreds upon thousands of media messages that are thrown in their direction every single day. That does not mean, however, that they are equipped to make educated decisions regarding the way that they consume these images.
While the means by which we as a society communicate has changed rapidly over the last century, our awareness of the tools that have swiftly replaced one another in a quest for a global community has not made the same strides. The ever-changing media landscape has been a much discussed topic in scholarly texts during the 20th century and into the beginning of the 21st. Perhaps most renowned is the Marshall McLuhan text, The Medium is the Message, wherein McLuhan highlights the ways in which we as a people have failed to keep up with the technologies that we are constantly inventing. He says, “We actually live mythically and integrally, as it were but we continue to think in the old, fragmented space and time patterns of the pre-electric age” (4). That is, we as a people have not yet aligned our awareness with the possibilities that even the simplest technologies allow us in evolving beyond conventional modes of communication.
There needs to be a paradigm shift in the way that we as a society treat the evolving interactive media that so actively engages the vast majority of our population, especially our youth. We cannot continue to view the new technology through an old set of standards.
It is worth noting that the concept of adolescence is, historically speaking, relatively new. The first acknowledgement of teenagers as a condition of humanity that is uniquely separate from both childhood and adulthood was in 1904 by G. Stanley Hall. Since this discovery, and especially since the years following the baby boom, teenagers have often been the target audience of the constantly evolving media. Quickly it was discovered that this subset of our population had more expendable time, money, and attention than adults. However, even as they are a target audience they have had little more than a marginalized voice in creating mainstream media. There is an opportunity for change, though, as the young are the most equipped to complete the paradigm shift that we so desperately need in order to stop trying to make today’s technology serve yesterday’s purposes.
As technology becomes more and more interactive, the potential for all citizens to become reporters, creators, and innovators to a mass audience is being realized. In 2001, the newsmedia marveled at the role that cell phones played in the collective knowledge of the tragic events of September 11. Only four years later, the role of weblogging and video weblogging (blogs and vlogs) made it nearly impossible for the corporately owned media to blindside anyone as to the horrific goings on in the Gulf Coast during the days following Hurricane Katrina. As the interactive potential of the internet increases, we as a society are already deciding how much of a role we will allow it to play in shaping the way that we communicate. In previous broadcast technologies, there have been systems in place to keep marginalized groups in the margins. However, the internet is constantly providing us with new ways to give voices to the voiceless on an international scale. The sheer magnitude of the internet, coupled with the evolving ways in which we can use it for creative expression makes it more difficult than ever before for the conglomerates who own the mass media of television, radio, newspaper, and magazines to exercise the same exclusive control.
It is popularly assumed that because our youth are growing up in a media saturated society that they are inherently media literate. True, younger people are at an advantage, having come into the technological world with less preconceived notions about the pre-technological world than their elders. Their capacity to interface with many different types of media is more automatic, and they have a vast working knowledge, whether they understand it or do not, of the conventions of film, television, and radio. However, to assume that because teenagers use the media every day means that they understand it would be a dangerous assumption. Mass media is a code, or a language, which would lead one to believe that saturation would ensure fluency. However, the mass media is not that simple; the messages that it contains are well hidden and based in a market economy that is best served if those messages stay that way. In essence, the market economy of mass media is a language that is designed to be secret, changing to protect its invisibility much in the way that children invent secret languages and change them as adults catch on to certain words. Without ensuring that youth are given the proper tools to decode these secret messages, we are essentially setting them up to be living their lives in a foreign land.
By introducing any new medium into a society, we in some ways reshape it. This has never been more apparent than in the present. The rapid shift in the way that we as a society communicate with one another based on the saturation of computers, cell phones, and PDAs, to say the very least, is apparent in even underdeveloped nations. The immediacy of communication, and the means for anyone, anywhere to move, at least virtually, beyond their surroundings has exponentially and expediently changed the way that people communicate, relationships, and even conventions of family units. It has certainly begun to change the way that people relate to the ideas of time and space.
An invention as simple as the light bulb and the means to independently power it in our homes has given people the power to live outside the lighting conventions and sleeping patterns of the natural world. Imagine then, the possibilities of the shifting conventions of space and time as each generation’s communication on an international scale becomes more immediate and interactive. It is not unreasonable to assume that the concept of time zones could be altogether wiped out within the next century in order to accommodate communication between people who would otherwise be working on opposite schedules. This is, of course, a far reaching claim, but our newfound capacity for immediate travel and communication cannot be introduced into society without some consequence.
The trick is to think of this consequence as an evolution, and not a nuisance. For example, today’s youth are often targeted on many different media fronts at once. No longer is it sufficient to have a magazine or a CD or a movie. Based in large part to the saturation that they have been brought up in, today’s youth demands a more engaging pace of activity. It would not be a stretch to imagine a teenager working on their homework while listening to music on their computer and instant messaging with friends all at once. This multitasking is almost an expectation in today’s developed world. The example of CNN is often brought up, in that the channel often employs the use of different frames within the television screen to communicate many different news items all at once. Teachers and parents complain that this need for engagement is difficult for them to keep up with. How can a person at the front of a classroom compete with a handheld game, a cell phone, a computer, and an online community? They can’t, and to continue to look for ways to do so is simply stunting progress.
Many adults would seek to blame the flashing images of the media for the influx of Attention Deficit Disorder diagnoses and for youth violence. Because many adults are just as blind to the secret language of the media, they would not be able to tell you that while statistically, violence among youth has gone down over the last ten years, the reporting of it has gone up. They also would probably not tell you that the swarm of Attention Deficit Disorder and hyperactive youth is a byproduct of a society that is failing to change its expectations with its technologies. Just as a teacher cannot compete with a computer, often times, a parent cannot compete with a movie or video game. So why does it have to be a competition? If we as adults learn to evolve with the evolving technology in terms of our methods and expectations for engaging with youth, not only will our attempts be met with more success, but also less frustration.
In the 1990 film Pump Up The Volume, Allan Moyle creates a world where teenagers are able to hijack the broadcast airwaves as a means of communicating with one another outside of the world of their parents and teachers, who, as Will Smith would have said some fifteen years ago, just don’t understand. Teenagers today have the capacity for this, and more. Whereas Christian Slater’s Mark Hunter is able to reach out to his local peers in Pump Up The Volume, today’s teenagers can podcast to the whole world.
Within the opening pages of The Medium Is the Message, Marshall McLuhan says “Every culture and every age has its favorite model of perception and knowledge that it is inclined to prescribe for everybody and every thing. The mark of our time is its revulsion against imposed patterns” (6). In the nearly fifty years since its publication, we as a society have not lived up to this proclamation. We have not revolted against imposed patterns of newsgathering and reporting, and we have not revolted against imposed patterns of how to engage our youth. We are still asking a new dog to do old tricks, and it just doesn’t make any sense. By engaging youth in information gathering and idea sharing in a way that it is not only interactive, but international, we can not only facilitate media literacy, we can facilitate global community and civic engagement. As an added bonus, we as adults can learn from creative minds that have not yet been molded into the model of perception that we have decided is law. As a society we can begin the process of shifting the paradigm and teaching the dog some new tricks.

In today’s world, there are two digital divides, the divide that separates privilege from poverty, and the divide that separates youth from adults. More than ever before, the youth of today represent the unknown. Not only do adults often forget what adolescence really feels like, but as our society moves faster and faster, today’s teenagers are occupying a completely different time and space than their parents. They have grown up in a world where, space travel is an every day occurrence, where movies can be seen on Saturday afternoons on cable if you wait a year or so, and where telephone communication can be kept in their pocket. They really do speak a different language than most of the adults in their lives. However, they are perpetually being asked to communicate in a language that is not their own, putting them at a distinct disadvantage.
So how can we change this system of communication, and create a level playing field on which both adults and teenagers can communicate. Given the changing climate of international communication, we need to fully accept the concept of the youth as leaders of tomorrow. In fact, we need to take it one step further and make them leaders of today. Today’s youth are equipped with the capacity to understand the potential of evolving multimedia technology in ways that very few adults can, based solely on that fact that they are one step further away from the old paradigm. It is common perception that both youth and the media are evils in today’s society, and that the solution is to keep our kids in our sight and turn off the television. This solution is as antiquated as the idea that the way to bring your family together is to sit around the phonograph on Sunday night.
It is not fair to continuously ask youth to communicate on the turf of adults. We need to meet them on their playing field, and let them teach us what is important to them in their own language. There is more to their language than words, and as the internet creates a higher and higher capacity for Marshall MCLuhan’s concept of “global community” it is the images, sounds, and motion picture that is now called multimedia that will make this type of community possible. Facilitating this new move to multimedia language in way that youth can use it to create their own ideas and information is not enough. There are many different corporations out their that have already co-opted this idea and further involved youth in a market economy that does not support them. In order for youth to use multimedia to truly have their own language, they need to own it.
The idea of changing the system of advertising and the whole market economy of the media is a daunting one. However, the first step is educating youth in this system. Instead of making them watch advertisement after advertisement created by adults for their consumption, they can sell advertising on their own virtual space. They can co-opt this system for their own gain, personally and as a community. Not only can today’s youth tell us what is important to them in their own language, they can do it as a means of supporting themselves.
So how does this idea work? Well, as in any multimedia project, there are two components: the medium and the message. The medium, in this case, is a multimedia portal that supports a whole range of technical expression, from text, to images, to streaming audio and video, and video blogging. The message is constantly changing, and is determined by the youth that author the portal. It could be anything from local politics to upcoming trends in fashion. It could be a means of community building and homework help, but it is important, as an adult, to not assume that it will serve any one function, or to have a specific idea of what purpose it will serve. In order to facilitate a voice of the youth, we cannot clutter it with our own ideas of what this voice should be.
Technically speaking, there are a number of steps to the successful implementation of this model. First, in order to facilitate the medium itself, there needs to a be a brainstorm session about what technologies exist and what formats and equipment need to be learned in order to creative a truly interactive multimedia portal. This needs to be followed up by a comprehensive training in the equipment and software necessary to facilitate the portal. These could include, but are in no way limited to digital camcorders, sound mixing boards, Final Cut Pro, Avid, Imovie, Pro Tools, Itunes, Dreamweaver, and/or Flash. This training would cover the medium, leaving then the message to fill in. With the training provided, the involved teenagers could then begin to fill in the site with their own blogs, vlogs, information, ideas, and exchanges.
It is all well and good to provide a haven for these voices, but without bringing others to the place that the exchanges are being made, it may as well exist in a vacuum. By targeting similar groups and parties that would be interested in the material provided in the portal, teenagers would next develop a grassroots advertising plan, including but not limited to email lists, postcards, and flyers. Coupling this with extensive person to person networking, focusing on building strong personal and professional relationships, the teens would be able to build a strong readership. From this readership, they could extend their business plan into advertising and sustainability. Through the process of creating an advertising policy, a strong literacy of advertising media would be cultivated.
Partnered with the technical skills that they learned in the first phase, the information skills in the second, and the networking skills in the third, the fourth stage of advertising literacy would be the final stone in building a strong foundation of skills that would be useful in almost any chosen profession. Most importantly, it would enable the teens involved in the project to understand the market economy that is already in place. While many would argue that allowing, or even worse encouraging teenagers to willingly participate in this market economy goes against the foundation of creating an independent media outlet. While this is necessarily an unfounded claim, the knowledge that they will gain of the market economy and the way it functions will not only allow them to think critically about it, but also give them the first step to changing the system from the inside out.

Multimedia Magazine Curriculum

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 14 Nov 2005 16:07:00 -0800

After what seems like ages of putting this off for more urgent matters, I have finally finished a workable version of this curriculum. This is the flowchart for the class, in its most basic form:

The curriculum itself is as follows, but the supplemental introduction piece, I will post separately.

Phase One
Day One: (1 hour)
*Introductions and Icebreaker (15 minutes)
*Brainstorm session about media that we use (15 minutes)
*Brief presentation about the effects of media (15 minutes)
*Brainstorming adjustment and what we want to get out of this (15 minutes)
Day Two: (1 hour)
*Icebreaker (10 minutes)
*Discussion about youth representation in media (45 minutes)
*Discuss assignment (find one website that has something that you want to include in the media forum) (5 minutes)
Day Three: (1 hour)
*Check In (10 minutes)
*Share websites that we found (30 minutes)
*Brainstorm ways to use them (20 minutes)
Day Four: (1 hour)
*Check In (10 minutes)
*Dreamweaver boot camp 1 (50 minutes)
Day Five: (1 hour)
*Check In (10 minutes)
*Dreamweaver boot camp part 2 (50 minutes)
Day Six: (1 hour)
*Check In (10 minutes)
*Discussion about site CONTENT (50 minutes)
Day Seven: (1 hour)
*Check In (10 minutes)
*Planning Session: What do we still need to learn?
Days Eight, Nine, Ten: (1 hour)
*Check In (10 minutes)
*Additional Trainings (50 minutes)

Phase Two
Day One: (1 hour)
*Check In (10 minutes)
*Planning Session: Roles and responsibilities (50 minutes)
Days Two, Three, and Four: (1 hour)
*Check In (10 minutes)
*Work Day: Creating template for site and its content (50 minutes)
Day Five: (1 hour)
*Check In (10 minutes)
*Brainstorming what is working and timeline (35 minutes)
*Next steps (15 minutes)
Days Six-Nine: (1 hour)
*Check In (10 minutes)
*Working as team on site, preparing for launch
Day Ten: (2 hours)
*Check In (10 minutes)
*Setting maintenance schedule and goals for distribution (40 minutes)
*Feedback (10 minutes)
*Launch celebration (60 minutes)

Phase Three
Day One: (1 hour)
*Check In (10 minutes)
*Distribution Action Plan (50 minutes)
Day Two: (1 hour)
*In house workshop on how to use the multimedia magazine
Days Three-Six: (1 hour)
*Check In (10 minutes)
*Enacting distribution plan (50 minutes)
Days Six-Nine: (1 hour)
*Check In (10 minutes)
*Continue distribution plan (25 minutes)
*Maintain magazine (25 minutes)
Day Ten: (1 hour)
*Check In (10 minutes)
*Brainstorm sustainability (50 minutes)

*This syllabus is subject to and open to change as the direction of the program is meant to be designed by its participants.

Learning to Vlog

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 14 Nov 2005 09:39:00 -0800

This is my new blog for the purposes of experimenting with multimedia technology and information sharing. I learned how to video blog at a training at UMASS Boston's CPCS. I am planning on working the training there into a program that I am hoping to finish up the writing of today. The program is a multimedia magazine designed to be a forum for teens to network with other teens and share information, news, and ideas with one another and adults. I will post it up later today when I am finished with it. For now, welcome, and stay tuned for good stuff.