Thursday, November 11, 2010
News Evaluation and Breakdown
For this post, I watched the NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams online.
Here is the breakdown of the report:
1. Mozy pro commercial-30 seconds
2. Pacific Coast Drama- 2:54- the rumor that a missile lit up the sky around LA is examined and an interview with a missile expert reveals that it was probably just an airplane creating an optical illusion in the sky. The FAA reveals that it had no radar indication of a fast moving object on the day of the missile sighting. A traffic helicopter filmed the initial sighting.
3. Allstate commercial 16 seconds
4. Stranded at Sea- 2:25- a Carnival cruise liner is stuck out at sea after a fire disabled one of the main engines on the ship. The crew and customers were left without electricity, running water, and toilet use (although the crew has got these running again)relying on airlifted supplies to be brought to them. The enormous ship must be towed by tugboat to Mexico.
5. Obama visits Indonesia-3:02- this has been the President's third attempt to visit Jakarta, but the area's volcano has been spewing ash and delaying his visit. Obama lived in Jakarta for four years, so the trip was spent politically trying to build bridges between the U.S. and Indonesia and visiting old friends and teachers.
6. Merrill Lynch commercial- 15 seconds
7. Interview with one of Obama's Indonesian teachers- 2:43- Obama's teacher reveals that he was a very bright, good humored, and chubby kid, and that he did not recognize him when he ran for the Illinois senate seat until he smiled. The man also remarked that the president doesn't just take care of the U.S., but the whole world, and that is something people don't understand. His last remark was that he hoped the president would be more relaxed and happy the next time they met.
8. Trend Micro Commercial- 13 seconds
9. Cholera outbreak in Haiti- 23 seconds- all this said was that cholera has spread to Port au Prince, and that is very bad news.
10. Bush's Book release- 2:41- George Bush is at a Borders signing his book and segments of a longer interview are shown. Clips include Bush saying that water boarding is not torture because a lawyer told him it was not, Kanye West thinks he's a racist and that is not appropriate, he quit drinking at 40, and he was with his mother, Barbra Bush, when she miscarried and showed him the fetus. He thinks that may be where some of his Pro-Life sentiments stem from.
11. Merrill Lynch commercial- 15 seconds
12. Steven Hayes receives the death penalty-1:02-6 members of the Steven Hayes trial discuss what it was like handing down the death penalty as a sentence. One juror said, on the Today Show, that it was a "tool the founding fathers gave us to use when we saw fit, and this man is not capable of producing anything positive for society."
13. NYC Chancellor of Schools leaves-18 seconds- He is stepping down to change his career to the corporate world.
14. Achievement Gap Report-2:24- the report discusses how Black male students significantly under perform on standardized tests, how family and socio-economic features add to the stats, and how charter schools aimed at Black male students are trying to close the gap. 50% of Black males graduate from public high schools and 5% of college students are black males.
15. Merrill Lynch- 15 seconds
16. Mr. Goodwrench Gone- 27 seconds- The longstanding GM "mascot" will discontinue this year.
17. Mr. Peanut Speaks- 25 seconds- Mr. Peanut, the Planter's Peanut mascot, has not spoken for decades, but is now voiced by Robert Downey Jr.
18. The Great American Clothes Swap- 2:11- This is an "Apparel Diet" that several women in CA are now a part of. They clean out their closets and examine what clothes they already have, make outfits from them, and vow to stop shopping for a month. The women also meet to swap clothes to give themselves a variety by recycling instead of consuming. A shopping expert says that, in order to be a smart shopper, you need to have a budget, a buddy, and a stopwatch.
19. Mozy commercial- 30 seconds
20. Perils of Apparel Diet (my title)-1:50- loads of retailers and other women were made about the clothes club's mission. The leader reminds women that you already are fabulous.
21. 6 Items or Less- 1:50- a woman who started a similar club speaks about how she only wore 6 items for a month and learned how to accessorize with those things instead of continually buying new things. She gained followers and media attention by using Facebook and Twitter as connection services.
22. Cadillac commercial-16 seconds
23. Consumer's love debt- 1:46- A woman who works with women who spend too much on clothes talks about the American trend for overspending and accruing debt.
First off, I would like to comment on how hard it is to find a news broadcast to watch online that isn't the Colbert Report or Daily Show. I do not have TV in my house, and watch most of my media on my computer and just use our television to watch movies and what not on Netflix. It took me a long time to find a news source that wasn't just snippets of previous programs. There also seems to exist a "privileged" news media. In the show I watched, there were extra segments you could watch after the program labeled "web only." For instance, one of these clips was a longer segment of the Bush interview which revealed why part of the clip was filmed in a church- because that's where Bush and Laura got married, and his faith helped him quit drinking. The majority of the other "web only" clips were from the program's British constituents featuring British reporters.
In terms of content, I was not very unimpressed. After watching, I do not feel that I know anything that is pressing in the world. There was no update about what is going on in Afghanistan, how the gulf clean-up is going, ANY mention of the economy etc. I thought that most of the program was fluff. Perhaps that is what the Nightly News program is, but I just assumed it would be more informative! Also, several of the news stories that I thought were most important were only seconds long! The cholera outbreak in Haiti only received 23 seconds of airtime, but this is an issue that will have devastating effects on the country. Meanwhile, the program spent the greatest amount of time on upper-middle class white women who have decided to cut back on spending money on clothes. That story got 5:01! Not to sound like a curmudgeon, I am happy for those ladies, but I don't really care. Something that I do care about- the achievement gap report- only got 2:24 of airtime. I think that is unacceptable, and is one of the major reasons I stopped watching the news in the first place.
Activity:
To really highlight this issue of misinformation, I would like to introduce my students to different news sources. Providing my students with a frame of reference for what other countries, people, and cultures deem "news worthy." After stumbling around the internet, I found this neat site which I would like to use in the classroom. I would break students to groups in which they would be assigned to one of the news sources. Each group would watch and take notes on 10 minutes of news and then return to the larger group and share their findings.
Here is the breakdown of the report:
1. Mozy pro commercial-30 seconds
2. Pacific Coast Drama- 2:54- the rumor that a missile lit up the sky around LA is examined and an interview with a missile expert reveals that it was probably just an airplane creating an optical illusion in the sky. The FAA reveals that it had no radar indication of a fast moving object on the day of the missile sighting. A traffic helicopter filmed the initial sighting.
3. Allstate commercial 16 seconds
4. Stranded at Sea- 2:25- a Carnival cruise liner is stuck out at sea after a fire disabled one of the main engines on the ship. The crew and customers were left without electricity, running water, and toilet use (although the crew has got these running again)relying on airlifted supplies to be brought to them. The enormous ship must be towed by tugboat to Mexico.
5. Obama visits Indonesia-3:02- this has been the President's third attempt to visit Jakarta, but the area's volcano has been spewing ash and delaying his visit. Obama lived in Jakarta for four years, so the trip was spent politically trying to build bridges between the U.S. and Indonesia and visiting old friends and teachers.
6. Merrill Lynch commercial- 15 seconds
7. Interview with one of Obama's Indonesian teachers- 2:43- Obama's teacher reveals that he was a very bright, good humored, and chubby kid, and that he did not recognize him when he ran for the Illinois senate seat until he smiled. The man also remarked that the president doesn't just take care of the U.S., but the whole world, and that is something people don't understand. His last remark was that he hoped the president would be more relaxed and happy the next time they met.
8. Trend Micro Commercial- 13 seconds
9. Cholera outbreak in Haiti- 23 seconds- all this said was that cholera has spread to Port au Prince, and that is very bad news.
10. Bush's Book release- 2:41- George Bush is at a Borders signing his book and segments of a longer interview are shown. Clips include Bush saying that water boarding is not torture because a lawyer told him it was not, Kanye West thinks he's a racist and that is not appropriate, he quit drinking at 40, and he was with his mother, Barbra Bush, when she miscarried and showed him the fetus. He thinks that may be where some of his Pro-Life sentiments stem from.
11. Merrill Lynch commercial- 15 seconds
12. Steven Hayes receives the death penalty-1:02-6 members of the Steven Hayes trial discuss what it was like handing down the death penalty as a sentence. One juror said, on the Today Show, that it was a "tool the founding fathers gave us to use when we saw fit, and this man is not capable of producing anything positive for society."
13. NYC Chancellor of Schools leaves-18 seconds- He is stepping down to change his career to the corporate world.
14. Achievement Gap Report-2:24- the report discusses how Black male students significantly under perform on standardized tests, how family and socio-economic features add to the stats, and how charter schools aimed at Black male students are trying to close the gap. 50% of Black males graduate from public high schools and 5% of college students are black males.
15. Merrill Lynch- 15 seconds
16. Mr. Goodwrench Gone- 27 seconds- The longstanding GM "mascot" will discontinue this year.
17. Mr. Peanut Speaks- 25 seconds- Mr. Peanut, the Planter's Peanut mascot, has not spoken for decades, but is now voiced by Robert Downey Jr.
18. The Great American Clothes Swap- 2:11- This is an "Apparel Diet" that several women in CA are now a part of. They clean out their closets and examine what clothes they already have, make outfits from them, and vow to stop shopping for a month. The women also meet to swap clothes to give themselves a variety by recycling instead of consuming. A shopping expert says that, in order to be a smart shopper, you need to have a budget, a buddy, and a stopwatch.
19. Mozy commercial- 30 seconds
20. Perils of Apparel Diet (my title)-1:50- loads of retailers and other women were made about the clothes club's mission. The leader reminds women that you already are fabulous.
21. 6 Items or Less- 1:50- a woman who started a similar club speaks about how she only wore 6 items for a month and learned how to accessorize with those things instead of continually buying new things. She gained followers and media attention by using Facebook and Twitter as connection services.
22. Cadillac commercial-16 seconds
23. Consumer's love debt- 1:46- A woman who works with women who spend too much on clothes talks about the American trend for overspending and accruing debt.
First off, I would like to comment on how hard it is to find a news broadcast to watch online that isn't the Colbert Report or Daily Show. I do not have TV in my house, and watch most of my media on my computer and just use our television to watch movies and what not on Netflix. It took me a long time to find a news source that wasn't just snippets of previous programs. There also seems to exist a "privileged" news media. In the show I watched, there were extra segments you could watch after the program labeled "web only." For instance, one of these clips was a longer segment of the Bush interview which revealed why part of the clip was filmed in a church- because that's where Bush and Laura got married, and his faith helped him quit drinking. The majority of the other "web only" clips were from the program's British constituents featuring British reporters.
In terms of content, I was not very unimpressed. After watching, I do not feel that I know anything that is pressing in the world. There was no update about what is going on in Afghanistan, how the gulf clean-up is going, ANY mention of the economy etc. I thought that most of the program was fluff. Perhaps that is what the Nightly News program is, but I just assumed it would be more informative! Also, several of the news stories that I thought were most important were only seconds long! The cholera outbreak in Haiti only received 23 seconds of airtime, but this is an issue that will have devastating effects on the country. Meanwhile, the program spent the greatest amount of time on upper-middle class white women who have decided to cut back on spending money on clothes. That story got 5:01! Not to sound like a curmudgeon, I am happy for those ladies, but I don't really care. Something that I do care about- the achievement gap report- only got 2:24 of airtime. I think that is unacceptable, and is one of the major reasons I stopped watching the news in the first place.
Activity:
To really highlight this issue of misinformation, I would like to introduce my students to different news sources. Providing my students with a frame of reference for what other countries, people, and cultures deem "news worthy." After stumbling around the internet, I found this neat site which I would like to use in the classroom. I would break students to groups in which they would be assigned to one of the news sources. Each group would watch and take notes on 10 minutes of news and then return to the larger group and share their findings.
Friday, November 5, 2010
Genre Evaluation Take Two
Well, for whatever reason, my first post of this did not copy to my blog, but I will try again!
I chose horror as the genre I would like to examine because I think it is a fascinating genre. The line between good horror films and bad horror films (and books, and shows, etc.) seems to be so clear, yet horror movies seem to be one of the few niche markets that can knowingly release "bad" work, and still do well financially.
When I think of "good" horror movies, I think of The Shining, The Exorcist, The Omen, Frankenstein, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Alien, Saw, Halloween, Psycho, Scream, Sean of the Dead, Paranormal Activity, etc. Alternatively, when I think of "bad" horror films, my mind reverts back to the genre itself- most horror films are bad. For the most part, "good" horror films tend to be the exception, and this is only until they are sullied by the plethora of sequels and prequels that inevitably follow any scary movie success. So what makes a good horror film?
This is a tricky question. When you get down to it, the same aspects of "good" film apply to all movies, but with horror, I believe that timing is of the essence. You have slow burn movies like The Shining and Paranormal Activity where it takes the entire film's length to reach the payoff point, and you have rough and rowdy rides like Saw and Halloween that scare you from the get go.
It is also my opinion that less is more in horror movies. Consider Jaws. The first half of the film is terrifying because you never see the shark. While shooting the film, Spielberg could not get the mechanical shark to function properly, so they tried shooting glimpses and shadows of Jaws instead of showing what a giant, floating set piece he really was. This turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to Spielberg.
Films like Paranormal Activity pick up where Jaws left off. Here is what I thought was the most terrifying moment in the film:
Smart horror films seem to attack us when we are most vulnerable, in our sleep, in the bathroom, etc. And, I think the reason subtle horror movies like Paranormal Activity are so scary in the face of giant, digital monsters and unnecessarily explicit gore is that it plays on things we encounter that scare us. A billow of wind through a bedsheet, a creek in the house, a glimpse of a shadow are all things that make us jump.
The last bit of this genre I would like to discuss is the sub genre of slasher movies. I think it is incredibly hard to make a good slasher movie. There are only a few that come to mind: Psycho, Scream, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween, etc. Partly what ruins most generic slasher movies is the incredibly flawed logic that exists within most slasher films (and horror films as a whole). As a matter of fact, most slasher movies are laughable, which is why films like Scream are so great. Scream knows what it is and in what genre it exists and exploits that to include themselves in the joke as opposed to being the butt of it.
Part of the reason so much horror becomes comedic is because the beats are extremely similar to comedy. There is a set up, the anticipation/build, and then the payoff: the punchline or the scare. One major difference between the two genres is that in comedy, the clown sees everything, but in horror, the victim only sees when it is too late. Laughter is also just another coping mechanism for dealing with things we cannot understand, or that scare us. I think this connection is the real reason anyone bothers with horror movies at all: it's fun to feel scared once in a while!
Here is my teaching activity that can also be found on our PB Works site:
Oh, the horror...the horror! Examining cliches and the horror genre
by Allison Witham
After reading a classic, such as Frankenstein or Dracula, or modern piece of horror literature, The Shining etc., I would ask the students to create a series of lists. The first list would be qualities of good films such as logical progression through the story, well developed characters, the film leaves an impression on the audience, etc. I would then ask them to think of horror movies they have seen and jot down what are some common features of horror movies like, plot holes, graphic violence, graphic nudity, sequels, etc. Finally, I would ask them to create a venn diagram with their two lists to figure out what are the earmarks of good horror movies are. After hearing from the students about the common characteristics they found between good movies and horror movies, I would ask the students about the horror characteristics that did not meet the "good movies" criteria they established. After hearing from students and writing their observations on the board, I would introduce the idea of cliches. We would have a brief lesson on cliches and their uses and then move on to the second half of the activity.
The students would be broken into groups and asked to imagine they are the producers of Dracula (or whatever novel they are reading). I would then pass out reviews and stills of previous versions of the film or, (depending on the grade level and appropriateness) perhaps even show some clips. After they materials have been passed out, I would ask the students to devise criteria for the film to make it a "good horror film." Ex. Count Dracula's accent should be legit, the costumes should be period and not just about showing off the actresses' chests, and the characters should have some depth to them instead of being wooden. Afterward, the groups would be invited to pitch their films to the class and vote on who should be produced.
I chose horror as the genre I would like to examine because I think it is a fascinating genre. The line between good horror films and bad horror films (and books, and shows, etc.) seems to be so clear, yet horror movies seem to be one of the few niche markets that can knowingly release "bad" work, and still do well financially.
When I think of "good" horror movies, I think of The Shining, The Exorcist, The Omen, Frankenstein, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Alien, Saw, Halloween, Psycho, Scream, Sean of the Dead, Paranormal Activity, etc. Alternatively, when I think of "bad" horror films, my mind reverts back to the genre itself- most horror films are bad. For the most part, "good" horror films tend to be the exception, and this is only until they are sullied by the plethora of sequels and prequels that inevitably follow any scary movie success. So what makes a good horror film?
This is a tricky question. When you get down to it, the same aspects of "good" film apply to all movies, but with horror, I believe that timing is of the essence. You have slow burn movies like The Shining and Paranormal Activity where it takes the entire film's length to reach the payoff point, and you have rough and rowdy rides like Saw and Halloween that scare you from the get go.
It is also my opinion that less is more in horror movies. Consider Jaws. The first half of the film is terrifying because you never see the shark. While shooting the film, Spielberg could not get the mechanical shark to function properly, so they tried shooting glimpses and shadows of Jaws instead of showing what a giant, floating set piece he really was. This turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to Spielberg.
Films like Paranormal Activity pick up where Jaws left off. Here is what I thought was the most terrifying moment in the film:
Smart horror films seem to attack us when we are most vulnerable, in our sleep, in the bathroom, etc. And, I think the reason subtle horror movies like Paranormal Activity are so scary in the face of giant, digital monsters and unnecessarily explicit gore is that it plays on things we encounter that scare us. A billow of wind through a bedsheet, a creek in the house, a glimpse of a shadow are all things that make us jump.
The last bit of this genre I would like to discuss is the sub genre of slasher movies. I think it is incredibly hard to make a good slasher movie. There are only a few that come to mind: Psycho, Scream, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween, etc. Partly what ruins most generic slasher movies is the incredibly flawed logic that exists within most slasher films (and horror films as a whole). As a matter of fact, most slasher movies are laughable, which is why films like Scream are so great. Scream knows what it is and in what genre it exists and exploits that to include themselves in the joke as opposed to being the butt of it.
Part of the reason so much horror becomes comedic is because the beats are extremely similar to comedy. There is a set up, the anticipation/build, and then the payoff: the punchline or the scare. One major difference between the two genres is that in comedy, the clown sees everything, but in horror, the victim only sees when it is too late. Laughter is also just another coping mechanism for dealing with things we cannot understand, or that scare us. I think this connection is the real reason anyone bothers with horror movies at all: it's fun to feel scared once in a while!
Here is my teaching activity that can also be found on our PB Works site:
Oh, the horror...the horror! Examining cliches and the horror genre
by Allison Witham
After reading a classic, such as Frankenstein or Dracula, or modern piece of horror literature, The Shining etc., I would ask the students to create a series of lists. The first list would be qualities of good films such as logical progression through the story, well developed characters, the film leaves an impression on the audience, etc. I would then ask them to think of horror movies they have seen and jot down what are some common features of horror movies like, plot holes, graphic violence, graphic nudity, sequels, etc. Finally, I would ask them to create a venn diagram with their two lists to figure out what are the earmarks of good horror movies are. After hearing from the students about the common characteristics they found between good movies and horror movies, I would ask the students about the horror characteristics that did not meet the "good movies" criteria they established. After hearing from students and writing their observations on the board, I would introduce the idea of cliches. We would have a brief lesson on cliches and their uses and then move on to the second half of the activity.
The students would be broken into groups and asked to imagine they are the producers of Dracula (or whatever novel they are reading). I would then pass out reviews and stills of previous versions of the film or, (depending on the grade level and appropriateness) perhaps even show some clips. After they materials have been passed out, I would ask the students to devise criteria for the film to make it a "good horror film." Ex. Count Dracula's accent should be legit, the costumes should be period and not just about showing off the actresses' chests, and the characters should have some depth to them instead of being wooden. Afterward, the groups would be invited to pitch their films to the class and vote on who should be produced.
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