Name: Emily Sherman
Partner(if applicable): Shelbi Hauer
Issue: Women Portrayed In The Media
1. What I was trying to get across to the class about my issue?
My presentation was meant to spread the awareness of the way women are displayed in the media. This affects everyone, as the media cannot be escaped. Constant images that seem non-attainable are affecting women everyday, and the majority of this influence is definitely not positive. The message I was aiming to spread with my presentation was proving that the media objectifies all of us, and we soon begin to objectify ourselves. This has lead women to believe that nobody can be perfect the way they are, and there is always going to be room for improvement.
2. Production Elements Organization -research, -presentation, -creative process
When gathering research about women in the media, Shelbi and I split up sections for us to complete on our own, and decided to write the introduction and conclusion sections together. We exchanged each other’s notes as well as adding to each other’s notes. We also set up deadlines for certain days we should have research done by, which really helped. I think the presentation was very organized. It was really great to have practiced a bunch of times before, so we wouldn’t be figuring things out on the spot. We tried to be as creative as possible with our presentation. We knew most people would already be doing videos and power points so we decided to add to our visuals and make a collage, a timeline and showed a few examples to pass around the class, such as a picture and a Barbie doll. We also thought of the idea of creating a quiz for people to learn from our presentation, where chocolate bars would be given to people who asked questions correctly.
3. Participation. Comments about co-operation, diligence, support. To what degree partners contributed to the overall work and success of the project?(if applicable)
Working with Shelbi was really good because we both had a lot of amazing ideas to combine into a successful presentation. Shelbi and I got along very well and I found that she was always there if I needed help with anything. However, I felt as if I had completed most of the visuals on my own. Shelbi was very considerate to helping out with all visuals, but in the end she could never get together to do them. Soon enough it became closer to the date the project was due, and I am a very organized person so I took it into my own hands because I knew I could not wait until the last minute. She knew I had completed them and insisted she could have helped, but she could never get together to do them together, so this was the one problem with our project.
4. What aspects were most successful? Least? What I would do differently?
I think that the information we gave was really important, and the way we divided our information into sections really benefitted us in the end. I was really happy with the way our presentation went along with our visuals, power point and movie. I think the movie was a very smart idea, as we asked girls all around York Mills what they least liked about themselves. We never said it had to be a physical characteristic, and we found that the majority of girls answered about something physical having to do with their bodies. A few other good aspects of our presentation were the collage and the quiz. The collage showed girls all these words in magazines today. We decided to cut out words that girls may feel about themselves and put it into a huge collage, showing what the media has done to women of all ages. In the middle of the collage we put a mirror with the words “Not good enough” in lipstick. This symbolized the unattainable body image that the media is constantly displaying. The quiz went really well as most people were able to answer our questions, which meant we had succeeded in passing on the information.
5. Theory: How did we use a variety of medias to get our point across? Why did we choose what we did? What worked? What didn't?
Focusing on our topic of women portrayed in the media, we incorporated many different types of media into our presentation. This showed how the negative image of women is expressed through all types of media. As we have learnt in class, you cannot escape the media. It is everywhere. With our time line, we showed famous celebrity icons over the years, which are defined as role models to girls and women everywhere. We also included the Miss Representation video that tied in with our discussion on how shows and movies can influence women, as well as girls at such a young age. An example of this was the television show “Toddlers and Tiaras.”
6. How did we explore the use of technology/media concepts in relation to our issue?
I think that while completing our project, we just learnt that the media could literally never be escaped. With technology continuously improving, access to media is only becoming more and more often. We also explored the aspect of the body of a model being altered on the computer before being promoted. An example of this was a situation like the Barbie doll we showed. The majority of girls owned or has owned Barbie dolls and they are advertising a body that could never survive in the real world.
7. Analysis: How much of our presentation was based on research? On opinion? (whose?) INCLUDE A LIST OF RESOURCES, CITATIONS
I think that 99% of our presentation was based on research and the other 1% was just common sense, relating things to our world today. Shelbi and I spent a fair and equal time finding research for our presentation.
-handed in bibliography
8. Depth of content: To what degree did we introduce new ways of looking at this issue, new information? Was this class 'educated' or just 'entertained'?
I know that the majority of the class already knew about most of the information we were giving out because most of it is common sense. I think that both the boys and the girls in our class understand the unattainable beauty consistently displayed in the media. I do not, however, think anyone understands the extent it has come to. Being teenagers ourselves, the majority of girls in our class are affected by the media and I’m sure that many of them could relate to the information given in our presentation. I believe that the presentation educated the class on how serious the issue of women in the media has affected the overall image of women. Through speaking about body image, stereotypes, health concerns, and history of women, we put the point across that the image of women hasn’t changed and is only getting worse. We came to the conclusion and proved to the class that the best thing women of all ages can do for themselves is ignore the media and enjoy what makes them unique. By showing the movie Miss Representation, we wanted to inspire women to rise above the media so they can impact others.
9. How well did our examples reinforce and illustrate our points?
I think our examples really helped and inspired the class. We tried to relate all of our information given in the presentation to things girls and boys in our class would see daily. Our first visual was a timeline that displayed four famous celebrity icons. Marilyn Monroe, Twiggy, Britney Spears and Victoria Secret models were examples of how the media hasn’t changed over the years. All four examples are known for their skinny, gorgeous bodies, and idolized by women all around the world. Our video we created was mainly shown to indicate the way that girls feel about themselves. Using girls from our school, I believe that this technique made the overall presentation more impactful. Our collage was taken out of a bunch of magazines that are recent, showing all the words that can stand out to the reader while flipping through a magazine. Sentences like “Lose 20 pounds and you can have it all!” were pasted onto the board overlapping one another showing how self-conscious women can be and all the improvements they think they often need. The movie Miss Representation helped explain that everything in the media has to be about someone’s looks, never their brain. This has caused people to not accept others who do not match the standards of the media, or to automatically judge them.
10. What new skills did I develop during this project?
I think I really learned how to be time manageable. I know that I usually am with schoolwork, but I think I organized the amount of work really appropriately. Shelbi and I set deadlines for when we would have things completed by and this helped the quality and overall presentation in the end. I also developed creative skills that lead to our hanging timeline and collage. Our main goal was to do things that other groups wouldn’t be doing.
11. What new things did I learn about myself in the process of working on this project? (related to the content and/or process)
What might I do differently if I were starting over? What skills can I transfer to my next assignment in this class or others?(or life!)
I think at the beginning of the project Shelbi and I were so interested in the topic because we’re at the age where these women in the media can even affect us. I know for a fact that the media has personally impacted me and the majority of times it has impacted me in negative ways. Although this is not a realistic conclusion, I learnt that girls should just be happy with who they are and not always need to look or be like someone else. It is so unfortunate that all girls care about are the way they look, rather than the million other aspects of themselves. I think I have just come to further outcomes that it is quite impossible to not be affected by the media when it is always going to be surrounding us. I have already begun looking at the media in a different way. I now find it more pathetic and ridiculous, rather than idolizing the women I used to always want to be like. I hope I can continue to do so and inspire my friends and people around me to do the same so they can all learn to accept themselves.
There really are not too many things I would do differently for this project. I was extremely happy with the content and overall presentation in the end. If anything, I would have worked out the workload with Shelbi better. Unfortunately, it’s hard working with your friends because they do depend on you for everything. We did split the research but it was very hard splitting the work up to make the script and visuals. I felt as if I had done the majority of it. A few skills I will transfer to future assignments and even life is my organizational skills and time management skills. These two skills are essential to the majority of work I will be doing in my future. I hope to continue using those skills as they guarantee success.
