And One More Thing

One of my big projects near the end of the semester was a class presentation on family portrayals in the media. We discussed social learning theory (individuals learn how to act by watching others) and cultivation theory (individuals learn how the world works through personal experience and media experience). I had just gotten the Adobe Production package and volunteered to create a couple of clips. There was going to be an opening montage and then two example clips. Sadly, due to compatibility issues with the school's media lab I couldn't export the montage video, and after set-up issues we only had time for one of the example vids.

Regardless, I had a lot of fun doing it. The montage was my favorite, though admittedly it ran long and was choppy. My teammates consoling told me I should finish it and send it to them (likely never expecting to see it). But surprise, surprise - I got bored this weekend, so I re-mixed it a bit, exported it correctly and uploaded it to YouTube. It's still choppy and doesn't flow as well as I'd like, but overall I still like it.



The montage was entirely for fun, and during the presentation itself we kept the topic fairly moderate, boiling down to "there are both good and bad effects, but overall individuals' experience with their own families and with peers are the strongest ones." Some of the other presentations took a slightly more sensationalized view of their topic (video games make you dumber, the internet makes you less social), citing strong media effects theories which assume the premise that the individual is highly influenced by media messages. I'm really glad I got grouped with fellow moderate classmates, or our group project could have turned into "Single parent Disney families are severely detrimental to young children and will invariably screw them up for life!" Which would have been a real shame since I really disagree with the sentiment. I seem to disagree with a lot of sentiments in media theories and communication studies, and take issue with a few of the "experts." Ironically, this is probably a sign that I'm in the right field of study.

Woo... tangent.

I'll be out of town next week with my family. Christmas morning is going to be rad - the presents I bought for everyone this year are pretty flippin sweet. I have to be back to work next Monday (stupid "open all year" company), but at least I managed to bribe enough people to get Wed-Fri off. Happy Holidays to everyone! See you all after New Years!