Panel abstracts
from previous students
Dustin Winans
VSAR 422
Abstract
04/12/2004
The Digital Dawn
We are living through a defining moment
in the history of mankind. We have ventured
beyond the Industrial Age, an era dedicated
to the motor, to now what is being called
the Digital Age, an era that is defined
by microprocessors. Silicon, oxygen, and
aluminum taken from our earth’s
crust are creating a new revolution in
wireless and microprocessor technology.
In this presentation I will look at the
effects of the Digital Age upon our society
and the way it has changed the way in
which we live.
The computer has become the benchmark
for the 21st century just like the automobile
was for the 20th century. It is changing
the way we live, by providing business
functions, organization and entertainment
to our daily lives. Business store fronts
have already begun transforming into a
different digital shape than a physical
place to shop. Some of the most successful
businesses in America don’t even
have a storefront, they exist only in
cyberspace.
Cyberspace stemmed from the innovation
of computers. It has given our society
a new way to communicate and experience
societies from all over the world. Communication
is the key to a successful business and
is essential to maintaining personal relationships.
Cyberspace has given businesses the ability
to reach a wider market and allow for
them to maintain better customer service
via instant messaging or email. It has
given people the ability to research,
shop and communicate without leaving the
comfort of their homes. We are now a networked
interconnected civilization.
Digital innovations are all around us
from email, television, radio, cell phones,
cameras and even toys. We are cutting
loose all of the wires and analog components
that held us back from becoming a technologically
advanced society. In the coming years,
the digital revolution will continue to
emerge in the forefront of our lives making
ordinary things function faster and with
less effort.
In my presentation I will use a FrontPage
slide show to communicate my information,
thoughts and ideas concerning this topic.
There will be photos of different objects
that have changed due to the innovations
of the digital era. I will also bring
in a laptop computer, a cell phone and
a digital camera to illustrate the advantages
of the Digital Age and the way it is changing
our lives.
Bibliography:
Michael S Malone, "Chips Triumphant,"
Forbes ASAP, February 26, 1996, p. 74
George Gilder, “Leisure & Arts
-- Bookshelf: Yale’s Dr. Doom Looks
Into The Impoverished Future,” Wall
Street Journal, February 25, 1995, p.
A12
Ira Brodsky, quoted in "Look! No
Wires! The Cord Has Been Cut, and Communication
May Never Be The Same," Wall Street
Journal, Feb. 11, 1994, Sec. R, p. 1
John Baxter "The Accidental Superhighway,"
The Economist, July 1, 1995, p. 15
Peter Leyden, "The Historic Moment,"
in "On the Edge of the Digital Age,"
Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune, 1995,
p. A5
Walter Wriston, "The Future of Money,"
Wired.com, October 1996
http://hotwired.wired.com/wired_online/4.10/wriston/index.html
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Marina Hollon
VSAR 422
4/12/04
Abstract for New Media (digital)
Thesis: In terms of art production with
digital media, the newer reality films
filmed by average camcorders such as in
the smash hit ………………………
stupid videos on the internet, and then
specifically Bum Fights are image junk.
There is no artistic quality as in Fantasia
or The Gaze other than the absolute hilarity
of the film piece. It is this hilarity
that saves the film indeed; however the
issues are when children, teens, and adults
gain access to film, video, and media
without consideration of the consequences
of airing their film pieces.
I intend to show that the effects of mass
video such as the examples above are not
only detrimental to a definitive quality
art production, but also that this form
of new media can be harmful to both the
film makers and the audience. The intent
would appear from this form of new media
to bring a reactionary result and observance
with an expectation that the viewer would
find ignorant, funny, or even impressive
and instill a desire to recreate the experience
because it looks plausible.
Doing stupid stunts.
Very dangerous
Encouraging youth to do same
Stupid videos
Addicting
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Matt Suval
Professor T. Allard
VSAR 422
4-11-04
Abstract: Representation and Gender
For my panel presentation I will be presenting
on representation and gender in media.
This will cover media from early European
paintings to the modern music video. It
will be focused on the inequality of portrayal
between the male and female genders. I
hope to convey reasons for the continued
inequality.
The first step of my
presentation will be to research early
European art works and its characterization
of men and women. I believe that the article
in the class reader by Berger will be
a great help in researching this era.
I will then talk of the female portrayal
in early theatre. This step will be important
because theatre preceded modern film.
The next step in my research should take
me to film and television portrayals of
gender roles. The last step of my presentation
will be modern film and video with television,
the music video, and even an incorporation
of print media.
I hope to achieve a historical look at
and reasoning for the inequality in today’s
portrayal of gender. A large part of the
presentation and research will deal with
the sexual implications of gender portrayal
and its continued use as a tool in all
types of media.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Andrea Krohn
Professor Allard
12 April 2004
VSAR 422
New Digital Media – Impact that
Video Games and Computer games have on
Children
There have been many video and computer
games that have had an impact on children.
There are several studies that have been
done that show that there are more bad
impacts than good impacts on children
by playing video games and computer games.
I will be talking about how those video
games are causing more violence, obesity,
and children unable to read.
There are different types of video games,
which can be categorized into different
categories. There are the video games
that contain sex, violence, and killing
things with weapons, drug use, prostitutes,
inappropriate language and mush more.
Then there are the uneducational games
that you play, such as Tetris, Super Mario,
where there is not any blood of guts.
Then there are the games that are educational
and make you think about things.
I have found that boys play the most video
games and computer games and they are
the most likely to play the shoot’em
up games that are not bettering themselves.
Girls are more likely to play card games
and games that are not violent, and they
play a lot less than boys. Children are
playing these games for long periods of
time, rather than going outside and playing
games, which is causing children to become
obese. Children are also playing these
games when they should be studying and
doing their homework, which is leading
to children being unable to read and write.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Representation of Women in MTV Videos
Wendy
Gutierrez
Gender roles on television and film have always been a factor when determining content on television shows, movies, videos, etc. Several studies have been done on how subject matter and actor/actress roles on television affect the viewer, especially in young minds. Film, video, and media therefore becomes an important matter when deciphering how gender is represented in society. What I will be taking a close look at for my presentation under the larger spectrum of gender and technology will be the representation of women on MTV videos since MTV began.
Different types of videos on MTV can be categorized
into certain categories. There
are videos where the male is the lead role, woman as lead role, or mixed group.
However what keeps being portrayed on videos is violence against women,
and sexually depicting women. In
a study done in the late 90's, researchers found that women appeared mostly
as posers and dancers. Posers would be when the singer is shown
performing in a recording studio or sound stage however acknowledging the
camera. Various results came
from this study. One of the most
amazing things I found was that
"popular videos suggested that for women to
star in music, videos in the early 1990's they had to affect an attitude or
demonstrate physical talents, rather than exhibit the musical skills typically
displayed by the men who appeared in lead roles." (Gow, 1996)
Men and women both are part of music videos, however what we must look
at is who actually is in the videos and how they are portrayed. Now a day more women are seen on television and are not simply
in the motherly, homemaker role anymore as they used to be in the past. They have risen in some area however men
still have outnumbered women on TV and videos. Some argue that women reaching the heights they have in music
videos are grand accomplishments. I
believe it has been an impressive attainment on the women's part however the
effort from MTV has not been what it should be.
In my presentation I will show parts of several videos and explain
how the men and women are represented for the viewer.
I will show examples of both women represented degrading or lesser
than and how man is portrayed in an unequal manner also. Depending on what videos I can get of MTV, will determine what
kind of examples I bring into the presentation.
Bibliography
1.
Bell, Carrie; Fitzpatrick,
Eileen. Women's portrayal in
vids debated at Billboards confab. Billboard. Vol. 109. Issue 49, p95. 12/06/97.
2.
Gow, Joe.
Reconsidering gender roles on MTV: Depictions in the most popular music
videos of the early 1990's. Communications Reports. Summer 96, Vol. 9 Issue 2. p152.
3.
Hay, Carla.
Is anti-hate campaign contradictory to MTV?
Billboard. 1/20/2001. Vol. 113. p1.
4.
Hay, Carla.
Proper role of music TV debated ion the US.
Billboard. 2/17/2001. Vol.113. Issue
7. p1.
5.
Kalof, Linda.
Dilemmas of femininity: Gender and the social construction of sexual
imagery. Sociological Quarterly. 1993. Vol. 34.
Issue 4. p639.
6.
Lewis, Lisa A.
Being Discovered: The emergence of female address on MTV.
7.
Newman, Melinda.
Everyone's a comedian at MTV awards, but, as usual, the joke's on the
women. Billboard. 9/24/01.
Vol.106. Issue 39. p14.
8.
Rakow, L.F.
Review and Criticism. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic
Media. Winter 91.
Vol.35. Issue 1. p126.
9.
Signorielli, Nancy;
Mcleod, Douglas. Gender stereotypes
in MTV commercials: The beat goes on. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media. Winter 94. Vol.38. Issue 1.
p91.
For: VSAR 422, Art, Technology and the Moving Image
AFFECT OF THE MEDIA ON MALE BODY IMAGE
My presentation:
Ý MH18 a magazine aimed at teenage boys with the goal to teach them how to
exercise and lift weights;
Ý Fox naming a beauty king on TV special, The Sexiest Bachelor in America;
Ý Playgirl models have gotten leaner and more muscular over the years, on
average shedding about 12 pounds of fat, while putting on approximately 27
pounds of muscle over the past 25 years.
Some keys to overcoming poor body image are:
Ý Recognize that bodies come in all shapes and sizes.
Ý Focus on the qualities that you like in yourself
Ý Look critically at advertisements that push the “body building”
message. Our culture emphasizes the V shaped muscular body shape as the ideal
for men. Magazines targeted at men tend to focus on articles and advertisements
promoting weight lifting, bodybuilding or muscle toning. Consider giving up
your goal of the perfect male body and work at accepting your body the way
it is.
I will use a PowerPoint presentation with
media embedded throughout.
References:
Barisoff, Ingrid. The Effects of the Media
on Male Body Image. A thesis submitted
to
the Department of Psychology in partial
fulfillment of the requirements for the
degree of Bachelor of Arts (honors) in
Psychology, University of Regina. August
1999.
Hansen, Suzy. Looking Good: Male Body
Image in Modern America. Salon.com.
March 5, 2001.
(http://www.salon.com/books/review/2001/03/05/luciano/index.html)
Hellmich, Nancy. Body Fixation May Be
Muscling Out Health. USA Today. September
19, 2000. (http://www.usatoday.com/life/health/men/lhmen049.htm)
Potter, Alicia. Mirror Image. Infoplease.com.
(http://www.infoplease.com/spot/mbil.html)
Rauch, Jonathan. Buff Enough. Reason Online.
November 2000.
(http://www.reason.com/0011/cr.jr.buff.html)
Rempel, Byron. Men’s Body Image –
The Brad Pitt Syndrome. AskMen.Com.
(http://www.askmen.com/fashion/austin/38_fashion_style.html)
Thompson, J. Kevin. Body Image, Bodybuilding,
and Cultural Ideals of Muscularity.
August 30,1999.
(http://www.mesomorphosis.com/exclusive/thompson/bodyimage.htm)
Women in Action Movies
Jacqueline Arciniega
agents of motivation for the male action hero. The male action hero
justified his violence by avenging the death of his wife or by using his force
to
protect the innocent. Women in action movies were always cast as beautiful,
witty and charming as to reflect and enhance the male hero. To prove this
point I will be showing clips from Hard to Kill and True Lies.
prove that the male hero was not only intellectual but charming enough to
woo the beautiful female. Now that the role of the action hero is being
permitted to be portrayed as a female the use of sexuality is used differently.
and as an agent of power. Many would argue that this use of sexuality was
only
permitted by the producers for monetary reasons. I partially agree. Yes,
sex sells but in subscribing to this idea alone we would be ignoring the idea
that a female with charm or beauty has no power and that these attributes
could
not be used to the female's advantage. We can see another example of sexual
constraint in the movie A Long Kiss Goodnight were the character Charlie,
a
female assassin, tries to seduce Mitch yet fails because the narrative does
not allow her to do so.
Hollywood is not ready to allow a women to do it all and be put in the
limelight. For that same reason Geena Davis's role was split up into two
characters. Sam the family oriented school teacher that has amnesia
discovers she is Charlie a special agent which is a trained assassin. Throughout
the
whole movie these two characters are conflicting and in the end these two
characters merge yet the role of Sam becomes dominant. Most of the
literature tributes this two the mother warrior role in which the heroine's
violence is
justified by her innate maternal instincts of saving her family (Charlie has
to save her daughter which was kidnapped by the enemy. The use of maternal
instinct is societies way of justifying the heroines violence. Yes, saving
a family member or avenging the death of a family member is used in the heroes
role but it is not labeled in such a manner. The mother warrior label
rejects the possibility that not all women are maternal. one role that frees
itself
a bit more from the mother warrior role is Sara Conner from Terminator two
here Sara Conner is trying to save the world and the T-1000 (Arnold
Shwartzaneger) is sent to protect her son. Sara Conner would have been the
ultimate
warrior but once again Hollywood does not allow that so the narrative constricts
her
to the background throughout many scenes. The first scene in which we see
Sara is a good depiction of her role in the whole movie. We first see her
doing
chin-ups so the viewer knows she is physically strong. Then she plots her
escapes letting the viewer know she is intelligent yet she has been confined
in a mental institution meaning she is neglected by society as she is
neglected in the narrative.
was nor would he had had amnesia like Charlie. let's not forget the
aesthetics. Unlike the hero the female heroine will display bruises, cuts,
and will be allowed to cry.
searched the only true action heroine I found was in a cartoon by Disney.
Mulan from beginning to end is a true action heroine. She is intelligent,
fights, defies, and gets the reward and the guy at the end. Maybe James
Cameron should ask Chris Sanders for advice in how to construct a female
action figure.
Violent Screen: A Critic's 13 yrs.. on the Front Line of Movie Mayhem.
by Stephan Hunter
Macho Macho Femme by Lisa Shroder. Sun Sentinel Ft.. Lauderdale, FL.
8/10/98
Holding My Own in No Man's Land by Molly Haskell.
Movies:
Hard to Kill
True Lies
Charlie's Angels (2001)
A Long Kiss Goodnight
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Mulan
Point of No Return
Mission ImpossibleSubject: abstract