Integrating Media and Literature

I took a course as an undergraduate that was all about different adaptations of Shakespeare's plays. One of the most interesting assignments of that class was to look at a film adaptation of one of his plays and compare and contrast then, analyze the Shakespearean influence, and discuss the differences in experiences that reading/viewing each one had to offer. I would love to do an activity like this in my own classroom someday. There are dozens of Shakespearean adaptations out there, but I think it would work well to focus on one play. For example, if I were teaching Taming of the Shrew, I would have the class work in groups to analyze a different media portrayal inspired by the original text. We could all read and study the text in class, and then students could extend their knowledge of the play by comparing it to different media-- one group could view the movie 10 Things I Hate About You, for example, and give a presentation to the rest of the class that includes selected scenes of particular significance, a discussion of the similarities/differences, etc. After all groups have presented on a different media. the whole class could discuss and reflect on the differences in experience that each adaptation elicited. It would be great if we could integrate drama in this unit as well, by either going to see a production of the play or by staging an act or two as a whole class. This might be a nice way to get the students involved and to have them experience different types of media-- it's very different to read lines of a play than it is to read and perform them "on stage." These kind of activities would be useful for a lot of literature, but Shakespeare seems like a particularly effective unit of study during which to integrate film and other media, because there is so much depth to Shakespeare's texts that students might actually get more out of studying them when other media is incorporated.

If I Made a Documentary

In honor of the upcoming summer games in Beijing, I decided to dream up a documentary about the summer Olympics. My documentary would focus on the incredible amount of planning that goes into making the games a reality. There is a lot of glam and hype about the Olympics in the weeks shortly preceding them and during the handful of days that they last, but for the most part, the games go unconsidered for the better part of four years at a time. In my documentary, I would work to highlight the numerous committees committed to planning—everything from the location, and all that goes along with the process of “applying” to be an Olympic site, to the team of judges that select the athletes to compete in the team events. How do the athletes end up at the Olympics? How do cities become hosts, and how do they make the necessary facilities available? These are some of the questions that I’d want my documentary to address.

It would be great to include interviews with actual committee members—both people who are currently working towards the Summer 2008 Olympics (or the 2012) as well as people who have worked in previous years. The people who work “behind the scenes” likely have great insights and could comment on the realities of the games that go unseen. The preparations in Beijing have been in the news from time to time, but by hearing from people who actually have a hand in the preparation will let viewers get a more well-rounded version of all the conflicts, sacrifices, and controversies that people from all over the world face while making decisions and plans. Possible questions: What is your role in planning the Olympics? When did you first become interested in taking part in this process? Describe how you became involved—did you have to apply? What is one misconception that you feel the general public has about the Olympics? What is the most challenging aspect of making important decisions?—and so on. While it nice be a nice touch to add some voices from athletes, I’d want to stay away from having the majority of speakers being the faces that we always see in association with Olympics. One possibility, for example, would be to list all the sports included in the games—typically, only a few events get a lot of attention, but there are dozens of sports represented.

I think it would be a challenge to fully portray all that goes into planning the Olympics in a two-hour documentary---or even a week-long, 10-hour special. The planning literally takes place for at a decade or more, and it would be hard to pick and choose which decisions to center on or which elements would most accurately portray the long process. Another huge challenge would be what time period to focus on. It would easiest in terms of interviewing to focus on the planning process during recent decades—but the process likely changed greatly from the time that the Olympics began, and that could be another whole documentary itself. Overall, I think one of the key elements of a good documentary is finding interesting, accurate information that provides a fresh viewpoint—often, I feel like this is a hard thing to judge before the final product appears.

Podcasts

I just did a little podcast searching, and I was impressed at how easy it was. There's a ton of stuff out there and I already found several that I think would be useful and/or interesting to follow. Some of my favorites:

Grammar Girl: I found and subscribed to this through iTunes. I've actually heard of this one before, but I've never actually listened to one. "Grammar Girl" gives a quick (under 5 minutes) mini-lesson on some element relating to grammar, and it's done in an interesting and engaging way. For example, her latest one described the correct way of writing "daylight-saving time" and discussed how to properly dictate a.m. and p.m. She has a nice way of grounding her tips in reality, and it would be the kind of podcast one could subscribe to and listen to regularly, or just listen to every once in awhile.

Just Vocabulary: This one I also found through iTunes, and it's another short podcast that defines two different words each day. It looks like the original intended audience was English Language Learners, but the words are advanced enough to be useful for native speakers as well. We've been talking about vocabulary instruction lately, and this kind of podcast might be a nice supplement to vocabulary instruction in the classroom-- it would be a nice resource to recommend to students who are studying for the ACT or SAT.

Booktalks, Quick and Simple: This is podcast from Nancy Keane and can be found at http://nancykeane.com/rss.xml. She writes quick reviews of books, and this is her audio version of the reviews. Most of the books she discusses are intended for young adults, so this might be a resource I could use when looking for books to recommend to students or as a good starting point when I'm looking to expand my knowledge of adolescent literature.

News Analysis

When looking over at my viewing log of the midday news, I see that traditional "news" stories were given primary placement, as those were the ones that were covered early in the broadcast, but that they weren't necessarily given the most time. In fact, the beginning of the broadcast moved very quickly, with each story getting just about a minute, give or take a few seconds. In fact, up until the first commercial break, 10 distinct stories were covered in just 8 minutes. Of these 10 stories, 8 could be considered traditional news stories-- many which were local stories, and one that was national news. Also included in the first 10 stories was a look at the weather and an advertising blurb announcing what was to come in the next twenty minutes.

It was striking to me how often the anchors alluded to stories that were coming up in the half-hour. Given that all these stories have so little time devoted to them, it seems strange that they would take 10-15 seconds to highlight a story they will spend a minute on ten minutes from now. It seems that news programs are designed to keep the viewer watching-- they are really fast paced, they often include clips of reporters "on the scene," and they are constantly throwing in "lures" associated with what's to come in their report. The audience of this news program is being treated as if they are watching to be entertained.

The notion of news being entertaining is reinforced by all the attention devoted to news about Hollywood, music, celebrities, and sports. In this particular broadcast, the longest segment (nearly 3 full minutes) was devoted to sports news. Granted, a lot of different sports teams were covered-- but imagine what a different feel it would have if instead the news devoted 3 minutes to national issues. Then, almost the entire last half of this news program was composed of entertainment news-- a good handful of which was connected in some way to ABC or channel five, as they advertised that night's programming and gave one-liners about what stories would be covered on the next news report. Based on the amount of entertainment news they are given, audiences are being positioned to view this information as what is important. Personally, I think it's clear that knowing how much Britney Spears spends each month in child support is not nearly as important or useful as knowing what is currently being discussed in D.C., but at the same time, I almost think it's more aligned with what people want to hear. When people turn on the news these days, they expect entertainment.

I wonder if there is a particular time of day that elicits more entertainment news than other broadcasts. There's definitely a different in ads that play during that time, or at least that's what I would suggest based on my informal and occasional survey of various news programs, but I wonder if there is any significant different in type of news stories.

Something to consider: Does this focus on entertainment news get subdued during times of tragedy? Or does it just appear in different ways?

Outline of News-- Analysis to Follow

The Channel 5 Mid-Day News on Friday, November 2nd, 2007:

12:00: A lone woman anchor opens the show and welcomes viewers.

12:00: news story about an Industrial well accident in Superior, WI

12:02: news story about a murder trial in Minneapolis

12:03: news story of a General Mills recall on frozen pizzas

12:04: weather, beginning with information about Hurricane Noel and then a discussion of local weather

12:05: news story about construction to take place over the weekend

12:05: news story about a car accident involving a MnDot crash cushion

12:06: news story about employment report from WallStreet

12:07: news story about probable writers' strike in Hollywood

12:08: ad promoting Channel 5's website before cutting for a commercial break

12:11: return from commercials, welcome back and a few words on what's to come

12:11: sports news. Gopher Hockey, Women's Soccer, Gopher Football, Gopher Basketball, Timberwolves, Vikings, and the Wild.

12:14: transition to weather-- discussion of wind and a look at the 7 Day Forecast

12:15: weekly special interest story devoted to pets available from the Humane Society.

12:17: break for commercials, with "Jerry Seinfeld's new movie" and "The Boss" up next

12:20: back with ads for ABC's Primetime Line-Up, followed by the local news at 10:00pm

12:21: entertainment news about Bruce Springsteen coming to town, Kelly Clarkson, and "Jersey Boys" at the Orpheum

12:22: entertainment news about Seinfeld's animated "Bee Movie," including clips from an interview with Seinfeld

12:24: entertainment news about Britney Spears's spending habits

12:25: entertainment/ads promoting "Today on Oprah", followed by a look at what stories were coming on the 5:00 local news and the 5:30 CBS evening news with Katie Couric

12:26: brief recap of weather and a farewell from the weatherman and anchor