kihipe productions. Kihyun Ryoo, Peter Worth, Hillary Thompson. Stanford University. 2003.

MediaDive:Interacting with and Understanding Media

Kihyun RyooPeter Worth

Hillary Thompson

Stanford UniversityNovember 19, 2003

kihipe productions. Kihyun Ryoo, Peter Worth, Hillary Thompson. Stanford University. 2003.

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…

…a few of them seem to be acting out dance moves.

Ms. Fung

kihipe productions. Kihyun Ryoo, Peter Worth, Hillary Thompson. Stanford University. 2003.

Amber Charles

Ms. Fung

Amber ignores him and begins describing the ad:

Did you see the Britney Spears commercial, Ms. Fung?

Britney Spears is lame. Linkin Park rules! And it wasn’t a Britney Spears commercial, it was a Pepsi commercial.

Britney was dressed in all these different clothes, and she was in all these different places, like for different times and stuff.

kihipe productions. Kihyun Ryoo, Peter Worth, Hillary Thompson. Stanford University. 2003.

Ms. Fung

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 wasn’t very comfortable with how women were represented in the ad.

kihipe productions. Kihyun Ryoo, Peter Worth, Hillary Thompson. Stanford University. 2003.

“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 we’re going to need to take a MediaDIVE.”

Ms. Fung

kihipe productions. Kihyun Ryoo, Peter Worth, Hillary Thompson. Stanford University. 2003.

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

kihipe productions. Kihyun Ryoo, Peter Worth, Hillary Thompson. Stanford University. 2003.

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. FungMs. Fung

kihipe productions. Kihyun Ryoo, Peter Worth, Hillary Thompson. Stanford University. 2003.

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.

kihipe productions. Kihyun Ryoo, Peter Worth, Hillary Thompson. Stanford University. 2003.

That’s interesting. See if you can use DIVER to explore that idea.

Ms. FungCharles

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.

kihipe productions. Kihyun Ryoo, Peter Worth, Hillary Thompson. Stanford University. 2003.

Charles cheers for his team.

They begin zooming in and marking the appearances of Pepsi cans.

Dive! Dive! Dive!

kihipe productions. Kihyun Ryoo, Peter Worth, Hillary Thompson. Stanford University. 2003.

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.

kihipe productions. Kihyun Ryoo, Peter Worth, Hillary Thompson. Stanford University. 2003.

Amber’s 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.

It looks like Britney Spears is wearing clothes from the 1960’s, but she is not acting like the images we found that really were from the 1960’s.

kihipe productions. Kihyun Ryoo, Peter Worth, Hillary Thompson. Stanford University. 2003.

Ms. Fung gives them the next step of the assignment.

Using a web search, find other images from your chosen decade.

kihipe productions. Kihyun Ryoo, Peter Worth, Hillary Thompson. Stanford University. 2003.

Students begin searching. Some download or copy picture from websites. One group finds a news reel source.

Amber’s 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.

kihipe productions. Kihyun Ryoo, Peter Worth, Hillary Thompson. Stanford University. 2003.

They begin downloading and importing images into DIVER. They find some similarities, zoom in on the details, and capture the marks.

Hey, that’s just like in the video!

kihipe productions. Kihyun Ryoo, Peter Worth, Hillary Thompson. Stanford University. 2003.

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, Amber’s 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.

kihipe productions. Kihyun Ryoo, Peter Worth, Hillary Thompson. Stanford University. 2003.

The differences and similarities among the images raise many questions among Amber’s and Charles’ group members.

kihipe productions. Kihyun Ryoo, Peter Worth, Hillary Thompson. Stanford University. 2003.

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.

kihipe productions. Kihyun Ryoo, Peter Worth, Hillary Thompson. Stanford University. 2003.

The question part is easy for Amber. She’s 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…

kihipe productions. Kihyun Ryoo, Peter Worth, Hillary Thompson. Stanford University. 2003.

Amber’s friend Ngoc writes in her journal…

Why did they make the styles in the commercial different from the real 60s styles, when it’s supposed to be the same?

kihipe productions. Kihyun Ryoo, Peter Worth, Hillary Thompson. Stanford University. 2003.

Sitting on his bed at home, Charles writes in his journal…

It’s a commercial for something you drink, so why is the story all about different time periods instead of how it tastes?

And why didn’t they use Linkin Park instead?”

kihipe productions. Kihyun Ryoo, Peter Worth, Hillary Thompson. Stanford University. 2003.

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.

kihipe productions. Kihyun Ryoo, Peter Worth, Hillary Thompson. Stanford University. 2003.

The students reopen their MediaDIVEs and begin discussing.

kihipe productions. Kihyun Ryoo, Peter Worth, Hillary Thompson. Stanford University. 2003.

Amber’s group decides that their most interesting question is the one about choice of representation.

They use DIVER’s “Slide Show” mode to present their selected images and annotations frame by frame.

kihipe productions. Kihyun Ryoo, Peter Worth, Hillary Thompson. Stanford University. 2003.

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.

kihipe productions. Kihyun Ryoo, Peter Worth, Hillary Thompson. Stanford University. 2003.

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.

kihipe productions. Kihyun Ryoo, Peter Worth, Hillary Thompson. Stanford University. 2003.

the end.