Final project: Website and a Journalism Framework

Good readers, hello.

For my final project I decided to continue work on my website, which is aimed at helping me get a job in a few months. Specifically for this project, I created the framework of a 9-week journalism course. I did not plan individual lessons, waiting to see what students I might end up teaching. But I did create assignments and goals for the course, the idea being that if the course is planned top-down, I can fill in the bottom extended from this framework.

Perhaps over break, I will add to the film/media studies course. But for now, run with the journalism course.

Thoughts on film adaptations

I have long pined for the day when I can integrate films into my English classrooms. Pining might be too strong a word, but I have at least wanted to since I imagined becoming a teacher. Film adaptations can accomplish a few goals. I will focus on three: Explaining the text and its features (like humor, for example), creating an alternate text with altered/tweaked themes, or moving the action to a new place and time to say something a bit different about society.

Rockin' the Suburbs music video - on the spot

In a note related to the previous post on Whitacre almost solely by the fact that I like both performers, I looked at a Ben Folds music video (mostly because choral pieces don't really do the whole music video thing). I chose Folds' "Rockin' the Suburbs" because I know a bit about the backstory that makes the song funnier. As it turns out, that story also makes the video funnier. Essentially, Folds wrote the song in mockery of the group Korn, who once called him out in a magazine (that's what I remember from the story Folds told at a concert five or six years ago).

Whitacre's music, me, and teaching it

For this activity, I considered playing it safe by picking a song that is less obscure, but then I realized that the point of this is to talk about a song that I care deeply about, so I went with "Sleep," by Eric Whitacre. It is a choral piece, and the specific version I have of it was performed by the group Polyphony, directed by Stephen Layton. Whitacre was born in 1970 and has become one the pre-eminent - if not the eminent - composer of this generation. I have been privileged to perform two of his pieces before, both in high school and college, and they are among the most challenging and rewarding works I have sung.

Whitacre's pieces stand out in their choral layering - sometimes a dozen notes in a chord - and "Sleep" is no exception. Dynamically, it builds toward a climax that gives me shivers, and the lyrics are gentle and lulling. Originally, Whitacre had set the music to Frost's poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" but discovered that he could not obtain the copyright. Instead, he asked poet Charles Anthony Silvestri to write words to match the music, and they work beautifully.

Gratuitous disgustingness? Maybe

It takes only a few minutes to see that there is a clear working thesis for the documentary Super Size Me (2004). Whether Morgan Spurlock began his project with a mind as open as his mouth does not really matter: Ultimately, this film is a big slam against fast food and our culture that loves to eat it.

So much time, so little news

The local television news is not my primary source of information. I subscribe to the Pioneer Press, and if I want local news, that's mostly where I will look. And yet I find myself watching the nightly KARE 11 news quite regularly, mostly for the weather report.

Interestingly, the weather report comprises a plurality of all locally produced content on the show, or at least it did on Wednesday night. Including the 10-second update at the end of the newscast, Belinda Jensen spent 5 minutes, 10 seconds talking about the weather. That's 3 more seconds than Randy Shaver spent on sports and 27 more seconds than Mike and Julie spent on local news (admittedly, I separated state news from local news, the reasons for which I will discuss later).

A premonition from 1983

Good morning, all. I intended to post this last week but forgot to grab its source, and since that source was a 1983 textbook on Mass Communication from my parents' house, I could not rip it from a website. It's amazing the world even turned before the internet.

Anyhow, the segment I wish to quote is from the section about newspapers of tomorrow. Its representation of our present media is uncannily accurate:

"It is only a matter of time before the newspaper industry, cognizant of readers' tendencies to read only what appeals to them, ceases distributing the same mass-oriented product to everyone. Futurists looking toward tomorrow's newspaper see homes equipped with receiving units (modified teletype machines similar to today's VDT's) that offer electronic scans of the news and hard-copy printouts. Users will exercise almost limitless control over content.

"By checking the daily news index, they will call up, in as much detail as it takes to satisfy them, those stories of greatest interest to them. In the process they will be free to overlook whatever disinterests them, thereby voluntarily missing out on entire chunks of important daily events and ideas. This disturbs many socially responsible editors who know that readers in pursuing their self-interests will find it easier to overlook substantial information and in the process become less responsible citizens.

"We could, as Merrill and Lowenstein suggest, build political, social and educational cocoons around ourselves, and our society could become divided into highly polarized, and probably, unempathetic, segments. Considering how far Knight-Ridder and Dow Jones have already come in their experimental electronic newspapers, that future may already be upon us."

Again, that was written in 1983 (the book is Introduction to Mass Communication, by Jay Black and Frederick C. Whitney: Wm. C. Brown Company Publishers in Iowa). I am sure Ed Murrow would have agreed (and he may have said something similar in his lifetime). It's a shame.

The Heist - so much to love

Greetings, all! It has been some time now since I posted thoughtfully (some might say I have never done that) and so I have returned to offer my humble insight into what makes a Heist film a, well, a Heist film.

First off, I want to affirm what Dane Cook has already suggested, that every man wants to, at some point in his life, take part in a heist. This is definitely true. (And be warned: Cook does not filter for the family listening at home.)

Perhaps that is what drives some people to make heist films. (By the way, try to type the word heist. Go ahead and do it. I guarantee you will start to type a different word, which will be revealed at the bottom of this post. Let no one say I can't offer cliffhangers to my readers.) And so I offer you four of them, in the hopes that you have seen at least one: Confidence (2003), The Italian Job (2003), Matchstick Men (2003), and Ocean's Eleven (2001).

Ethnographic introspection: fantasy football

Unlike when our league began 15 years ago, there is nothing rare about participating in a fantasy football league. Where it once was an appendage to football itself, fantasy football has become a separate entity. No longer is an explanation of it required; people know fantasy football.

That, I have found, is what makes the league I run - and more importantly, its members - stand apart. As far as any of us know, our league is the longest-standing among our generation. When a few of us started the league in 1995, we were middle-school students who still went door-to-door collecting players for a pick-up game of football after our homework was done. For our members, the league hearkens back to our boyhood, and with that comes a sense of pride.

Thoughts on my own media use

In high school I was definitely ahead of the masses on media use, mostly because my high school was blessed with so much new equipment. We had digital cameras, various editing suites, a weekly newscast ... we had options, mostly because the school was new and had money. So that was helpful. I did a lot of editing and video production for broadcasting, history and English classes. It made projects much more enjoyable and challenging, and we were able to produce these projects at a time when they easily impressed teachers.

Proudly, I joined facebook when it was still "thefacebook.com," in 2004. Since I have remained a passive user, fearing games as the sinkhole of all my free time.

In my first foray into the professional world, I maintained a blog and recorded weekly podcasts for our sports department, and in 2006 that was about on the curve for newspapers. It was a valuable skill to learn, though it admittedly required extra time (but you always do what the publisher tells you to do).

So that's a basic profile of my digitization. To look at facebook again - I think it is a bit scary that we are leaning more toward the stance that everything should be public unless you close it off, rather than the other way around. I see it as a tool for networking and for sharing bits of information about myself, but I find it hard to keep up with all the privacy settings. This bothers me, and yet facebook has become so integral to our generation - it is my primary means of organizing events and communication with large groups of people - that we cannot help but use it. What power we have given to that site. And that concerns me.

But, it is here to stay. Best to figure out ways to utilize it. And I am not yet to the point where I will use it in my class - at least not with me as an active participant. I want a buffer still between myself and my students.

Analysis: Car ads in TIME

Perhaps more so than any other major advertising niche, cars are well-designed and attuned to the priorities of their target audience. Using VoiceThread, I cobbled together my thoughts on a few such ads in TIME magazine during the past four years:

Car ads in TIME

Also, check on the previous post for a lesson plan idea using car advertisements.

Activity: media representation of automobiles

Good readers of my blog -

A happy day to you all. I've conjured up an activity that I am sure is not completely original but was, in this exact form, previously unpublished:

Activity on media representation - Dan Thompson

What do the cool people drive?

Purpose: This activity asks students to analyze automobile ads for as many decades as the teacher can find (either TV commercials or print ads) to appreciate what has changed in how the media represent automobiles - and hopefully why it has changed.

Process: Present students with a number of ads from different decades. Ask them what kinds of vehicles are prized and what aspects of them are emphasized. Is it horsepower? Efficiency? Size? Cup holders?

This could lead to a discussion about whether car ads reflect or suggest what we value in them and what value we place on our vehicles. What will the next generation of automobile ads say? Why will they say that?

Time: Class period
Age: High school

Nissan's ads through a rhetorical lens

Nissan’s goal: Everyone drives a Maxima.

For the purposes of this writing, I am going to use the following definition of rhetorical/audience response as posited by Dr. Beach: “analysis through the lens of how texts seek to gain an audience identification to a brand, idea, cause, etc., through the use of images and equations.”

With that in mind, I took a look at a couple different ads for the Nissan Maxima. Notice the two main audiences here and how the car is presented as desirable for both.

Maxima for the single man

Maxima for the married man

In the first ad, the Maxima is the fulfillment of a James Bond fantasy (which it assumes, correctly, that all hot-blooded men enjoy nightly): fast cars, beautiful women, the elusion of bad guys, and tuxedos as everyday-wear. Men are asked to connect with the commercial by living out a fantasy, out of which they are jolted by the final seconds of the clip. But the Nissan is presented as a pathway to these dreams.

In the second ad, the Maxima is the fulfillment of BOTH the man’s dream sports car and the man’s need for a family car. In this scenario, the car maintains its cool status but is also big enough to accommodate his needs as a father – and again, he can experience both in style. The visuals of this ad are intelligently designed toward that end: As his Herculean strength allows him to widen the car (all men want to be strong, right?), which doesn’t change in appearance, only in substance. It is also presented as a parallel to him, a new father, because having a baby need not wrench away his “cool.”

With these two ads, Nissan is accounting for a significant chunk of its target audience. It wants single and married men (with or without children) to see the Nissan as the essence of cool. That is the response it wants to draw out of its viewers – who hopefully have the money to afford a Nissan. The price is not discussed in either ad, merely the aesthetic. But the creators of the ads are presumably hoping that viewers will respond first to how enjoyable and functional the car can be. Then they can deal with the financing.

And now, a lesson idea from this ...

Lesson plan: Cars as the fulfillment of self

Objective: Students will be able to better identify the target audience of an advertisement and to recognize the response the advertiser hopes to elicit from the audience. They will be able to give two examples from each commercial that support their assessments.

Materials: Access to YouTube or video copies of car commercials (or any commercials of your choice)

Procedure: Explain to students that you will be asking them to identify the target audience of each ad and what the advertiser wants the audience member to glean from the ad (best to define “glean” for them first). Then, watch the clips as a class. After each, discuss what they saw and ask them to support their answers with textual evidence (might be a good chance to point out that advertisements are also texts for literary purposes).

Also, in intersex small groups, ask the boys in the class and the girls in the class to compare their reactions to the commercials. Are the ads targeting one sex more than the other? Why do they think that is? How could the advertisers better target the other sex?

If possible, have them spend time looking for these clips on YouTube. As an in-class assignment, ask them to find another commercial and identify the following: the target audience (by gender, class, age, or any other specific they deem important), the product or service being offered, and the intended appeal to it. These are all questions that were modeled in the previous class activity.

Time: 30 minutes without additional assignment, 60 minutes with it

Frasier through a social-class lens

The title character of the award-laden sitcom Frasier is not always likeable, but we as audience members are almost always asked to at least sympathize with in and those within his privileged circle. Watch the following clip through a social-class lens, and look for how “Seattle’s elite” are portrayed in relation to others. What does this say about us as viewers? About the characters?

Frasier, “Hot Ticket” (middle scene)


Throughout the scene, Frasier and Niles sling insults at those outside their own class. Niles is surprised that waiting in the cancellation line – portrayed as a shameful place where people who can’t afford to pay full price – “isn’t half as humiliating as I thought it would be.” When Roz arrives, she fulfills her stereotype of a promiscuous middle-class woman by not knowing the name of the esteemed actor in the play. Niles calls her a Philistine.

Then we meet Susan and Steven Kendall, members of the elite, who are worried Frasier and Niles are waiting in the cancellation line. The brothers deny it, rather than lose face. Susan and Steven even hesitate – albeit clearly for a laugh – to say hello to Susan’s parents who “could only get balcony” seats.

But the portrayed distance between Frasier and the Kendalls is convenient, because by distinguishing them we can both sympathize with the former and mock the latter – while still placing them in the same social class. Their ambivalent characterization reinforces the social roles. The audience is not expected to challenge the class system portrayed; it is expected to abide it, if for not other reason than that the rich are humorously petty and judgmental – which is better than being just petty and judgmental.

Throughout the series, Frasier is able to balance this loveable/lamentable quite well, though there are episodes where he topples into the latter. But in episodes such as this one, his desire to be regarded well among the elite is innocent. We laugh at his shallow words and actions, and because we laugh, we fortify the stereotypes of the social classes.

A suggested lesson plan to work off this:

Lesson plan: High society, as portrayed on TV

Objective: Students will apply a social-class lens to television sitcoms so as to better understand how they present or refute stereoypes. They should become more familiar with the social-class lens and be able to analyze future texts through it.

Materials: YouTube access or clips from TV shows (suggested Frasier and The Cosby Show) and synopses of the shows, if deemed necessary

Procedure: Choose clips of about 10 minutes from each show that highlight social class (with Frasier this is really easy, as they live to be among high society and focus on it often; I am not as familiar with The Cosby Show). Before watching each, offer setting, scene and character briefs for the shows – perhaps printed synopses. Tell students that as they watch the clips, they should write down adjectives to describe the characters from each social class as portrayed. After watching one, discuss as a class some of the words they wrote down.

Then, watch the second and ask them again to write down adjectives. How do they compare to the list from the first clip? This can lead into a conversation about how classes are portrayed in media, and whether these shows challenge or reinforce the stereotypes. Is it television’s job to fulfill either role?

Either as homework or perhaps a free write, ask them to think of another show they watch with some regularity. (If they do not watch TV, they could use a book, a video game or some other form of media.) Does their program reinforce these social stereotypes, or does it portray them in a contrary manner?

Time: 45-60 minutes

Anniversary No. 1 around the corner

What with our first anniversary 18 days away, this seemed a fitting time to share this video from our wedding. A more fitting time would have been 18 days from now, but oh well.

Dan and Annie's Awesome Wedding Slideshow

Enjoy at your own risk.

Teaching Idea (Film): What We Don't See

This is adapted from a lesson I saw taught at Columbia Heights High School during my observations, so I cannot take full credit. But here's the idea:

Purpose: Students will better understand how the use of sound can fill in visual gaps and actually create a stronger image in a viewer's mind.

Procedure:

Watch the shower scene from Psycho. First, do so with sound and video. Next, turn off the video but play the scene with audio. As they listen, as students to describe the sounds they hear. Finally, watch the scene a third time and ask the students to write down what shots seem to be missing in light of what they wrote down during the audio-only portion.

Depending on timing, the teacher could either hold a full-class discussion of the differences or could first break up students into small groups (probably just the students around them) to discuss what they wrote down. Then, during the full-class discussion, guide the conversation toward the concept that the sound of a stabbing can actually be more affective than seeing it, perhaps because our own imaginations are more powerful and visceral than what our eyes actually see.

Time: 20-30 minutes.

A real favorite of mine

I am pretty sure every Pixar movie is blessed with a fantastic opening scene, but the one that stands out to me most is the one beginning "Wall-E." Take a look below. I dare you not to cry. I know I will.

A few thoughts on the first minutes of "Wall-E"

These 8 minutes reveal a world that is poisoned, and we are given hints as to how and why but not every detail. This is important, because we are left wanting more information. Why is Wall-E the only robot left? Where are the humans? They must be in space, but why are we not shown them?

These questions beget more questions. This opening sequence - which contains no actual dialogue - sets the scene brilliantly. We are shown, not told but shown, the day of our main character. We see the world and his role in it, so we are oriented as the director wishes us to be and we are waiting to see what is going to happen next. Once hooked, an audience can be moved around much more easily.

But first, a brief hello

It seems unfair to leave my faithful readers (all ... zero of you) without a proper introduction. Consider this 6-minute vlog my hearty introduction.

Cooking made easy

After an exhaustive search of the Internet (well, about an hour-long odyssey) I found a solid video blog site that might be of interest. It is produced by a Minnesotan and is therefore superior to any similar sites produced by those from the other 49 states. Especially North Dakota.

I took a peek at Rob Barrett's site, Cooking for Dads. On it he offers, well, what the title suggests: basic recipes geared toward dads who may not really like to cook but are forced into it by circumstance.

With that in mind, his video blogs start with a 10-second intro and then starts cooking. The video I watched was 7 minutes long, which seems like the right amount of time for one of these. Much longer and I don't know if I would want to watch it all through. Unlike most "live" cooking shows, he doesn't have commercial breaks during which bread can rise, so he just cuts the down time between steps.

It is not a still shot; he has a camera person, which gives it a faster pace and much more interest. Also, he flashes text - tips, serving sizes, calories, etc - through the video so he doesn't need to talk through everything. The nice aspect of watching a recipe is that it takes out a lot of the ambiguity so often present in (poorly) written recipes.

Overall, the video is cleanly, tightly edited. It is easy to follow and interesting enough to hold attention for 7 minutes.

A hearty welcome

Good day, and welcome to A Lost Scotsman, where I, a born and bred Minnesotan, chronicle my time here in the United States as I search for a reason to return - forever - to Scotland, from where my ancestors long ago came.

I assume I'll limit my thoughts to travel, sports, and education, but if something else itches me, I won't hesitate to scratch it.