The SPNN Real Reality TV vlog caught my attention. I liked this vlog because it is something that would interest my students as well. Students I see often feel frustrated about the way their society is and they do one of two unproductive things:
1)They complain but do nothing.
2)They try to do something but feel like their voices are not heard.
With this vlog, students outline problems and issues in their world and go about questioning these ideas. I like that they choose relevant topics and that they interview relevant sources. These sources are providing positive feedback to these teenagers just by taking the time to speak with them.
I also like that they are not forcing people to think a certain way, but instead interview various people who provide differing views of the topics. This allows teens to gain information without forcing them to choose a position.
This vlog's audience is intended to be other teenagers to open their eyes to information about censorship, gothic culture and places for teens. Also, adults who interact with teenagers can appreciate these vlogs because it provides a glimpse into teenage life. The "Places for Teens" vlog specifically addresses adults and ways they can ensure teens have safe places to hang out after school.
The vlogs showcase a mixture of interviews, music video clips, audio clips and images. The interviews are effective because the people interviewed are experts in their fields. The music clips are effective because they provide examples of censored music and gothic, hardcore rock.
Thoughts on digital writing and media as part of CI5410.
1 comment:
Anna, you've identified an example of of vlog that you could use to demonstrate more substantive uses of video to engage in critique of society versus a lot of videos on YouTube designed simply to entertain. I really liked your focus on how this video involves students in critical thinking abut the issues facing them. You could then have them create their own videos as ethnographic studies of the issues, spaces, or institutions they are dealing with. For example, in Red Wing, the Prairie Island nuclear storage issue has always been a key topic.
This last week a new site, http://match.mtv launched that contains a lot of material that's similar to the realityTV vlog. There's also material on CurrentTV, BlipTV and Google Video--short documentaries about certain topics.
I'm glad that you're in this course.
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