MediaDive: Interacting with and Understanding Media

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MediaDiveInteracting with and Understanding
Media

• Kihyun Ryoo
• Peter WorthHillary Thompson
• Stanford University
• November 19, 2003

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Ms. Fung teaches eighth grade English and Social
Studies. The Monday morning after the Super
Bowl, on the way to her classroom, she hears a
group of students talking about the commercials
they saw during the game
Ms. Fung
a few of them seem to be acting out dance moves.
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Did you see the Britney Spears commercial, Ms.
Fung?
Britney Spears is lame. Linkin Park rules! And
it wasnt a Britney Spears commercial, it was a
Pepsi commercial.
Amber ignores him and begins describing the ad
Britney was dressed in all these different
clothes, and she was in all these different
places, like for different times and stuff.
Ms. Fung
Amber
Charles
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Ms. Fung did see the Britney Spears Pepsi ad, and
had had mixed feelings. She thought it was a
clever idea to show Pepsi as a symbol of youth
culture for each decade, but was concerned about
how the ad used celebrity to market such an
unhealthy product to kids. She had certainly
seen her share of students with obesity and tooth
decay problems. Further, she wasnt very
comfortable with how women were represented in
the ad.
Ms. Fung
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This commercial is obviously popular with the
students, she thinks. And Charles raised an
interesting point. But the last thing they need
is me lecturing at them about it. It looks like
were going to need to take a MediaDIVE.
Ms. Fung
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That evening, Ms. Fung tapes the commercials as
she watches TV. Sure enough, the Pepsi ad comes
on. The next morning before class, she
checks out the mobile laptop cart and, with the
help of a couple Of students, imports the 30
second version of the ad into her classroom
computers.
Ms. Fung
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Ms. Fung begins by showing the whole commercial
to the class and leading a brief discussion on
the meaning and structure of the ad. The students
quickly grasp that Britney is dancing through
different decades.
Next, she splits the class into groups of two and
three. The students must pick a decade
represented in the commercial.
Ms. Fung
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As they begin their MediaDIVE, Ms. Fung instructs
them to watch the clip through DIVER, and take
marks or record clips of images that reflect
their decade.
Students zoom in on and capture images from the
frame that indicate the different decades.
Beehive hairdos, surf boards, and skinny ties
are captured.Students annotate their
selections, explaining why the image represents
that time period.
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Meanwhile, Charles is still complaining about
Britney Spears and how the ad is supposed to be
selling Pepsi. Ms. Fung comes over and gives
his group a different task.
Thats interesting. See if you can use DIVER to
explore that idea.
Ms. Fung
Charles
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Charles cheers for his team. They begin zooming
in and marking the appearances of Pepsi cans.
Dive! Dive! Dive!
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Then, using the group still function, they put
the full frame image and the close-up of the
product side by side. They begin counting and
annotating the number of product appearances
and measuring the amount of screen space taken
up by the product.
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Ambers group has now collected a number of
images of the 1960s from the commercial, complete
with annotation. She has focused especially on
Spears Diana Ross and the Supremes costume,
paying special attention to the hair and dress.
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Ms. Fung gives them the next step of the
assignment.
Using a web search, find other images from your
chosen decade.
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Students begin searching. Some download or copy
picture from websites. One group finds a news
reel source.Ambers group Googles the 1960s
and follows a link to a ThinkQuest on the
Anti-War Movement. Further links take them to
sites chronicling the Civil Rights Movement.
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They begin downloading and importing images into
DIVER. They find some similarities, zoom in on
the details, and capture the marks.
Hey, thats just like in the video!
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Amber groups the images, so that the similar
pictures are side by side. In the annotation bar,
they note how the images are similar, but they
also record differences. As they proceed,
Ambers group continues to find interesting
images. Some of them look nothing like the
version of the 60s represented in the
commercial. They import, mark, and capture
clips.
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The differences and similarities among the images
raise many questions among Ambers and Charles
group members.
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As Ms. Fung notices that each group has a good
selection of images from the video and the
research, she asks them to save and close their
MediaDIVEs for the day. For homework, the
students will need to do some journaling about
what they found on their MediaDIVEs, and they
each need to devise one question. They will
return to them tomorrow.
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The question part is easy for Amber. Shes had
questions running through her mind all day. She
spends thirty minutes on her journal- a first-
and decides that her question will be, Of all
the pictures we saw of the 1960s today, why did
Pepsi choose that one?
hmmm
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Ambers friend Ngoc writes in her journal
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Sitting on his bed at home, Charles writes in
his journal
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The next day, Ms. Fung asks the students to
regroup and share their reflections and
questions.The discussion is lively, and the
journals show a lot of deep thinking.
Now we are going to prepare oral presentations
using our questions and findings.
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The students reopen their MediaDIVEs and begin
discussing.
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Ambers group decides that their most interesting
question is the one about choice of
representation. They use DIVERs Slide Show
mode to present their selected images and
annotations frame by frame.
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Ms. Fung is impressed by the deep interest and
critical thinking shown by her students during
their presentations.They raise critical issues
of representations of race, gender, and history,
and their relationship to marketing. Best of
all, the ideas came from the students
themselves, because MediaDIVEs offered them a
way to look closely and analyze.
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That evening, after Amber does her homework, she
goes into the kitchen to ask her mother about her
experience of the 1960s. Her interest was piqued
by the MediaDIVE, and she wants to learn more.
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• the end.