10. Digital Storytelling Outline

Photo from AMC Series, Mad Men

My digital storytelling video will adhere to the concepts of gender roles and patriarchy.  I will discuss two digital storytelling ideas that I have brainstormed and the following:

• The kinds of people I might include as interviewees.
• Challenges that I may encounter as I pursue these stories.
• If I may encounter these challenges, then address how I will overcome these obstacles.

The first digital storytelling idea would examine women discussing their experiences they have encountered with patriarchy and the pressure adhering to gender roles. I would start the video discussing for about a minute and an half on gender inequality in America (this would be done by voiceover with images of women in American society throughout the decades), then would transition into the interviewees and what they have to say. I would try get keep each interview under two minutes. I would select about three to four women; have them talk about their experiences with patriarchy and gender inequality they have encountered in their lives. The challenges that I may encounter are trying to work around the interviewees’ schedules. I would overcome this challenge if I got the okay to follow through with project and would begin immediately conducting interviews.

Brief Overview of first digital storytelling idea:

•     Examine women and their experiences with gender inequality and patriarchy.
•     Keep each interview under two minutes.
•     Start the video discussing briefly about gender inequality in America. 
•     Then transition into the first interviewee, second and third.

The second digital storytelling idea I have come up with is addressing individual’s viewpoints of the representation of women in the media. This will be done by going in the field and showing a media clip that embodies gender inequality to both men and women. Then videotape each interviewee’s viewpoints on the clip that was shown. First, I would discuss briefly about how women are portrayed in the media and show the clip that I would show to my participants. The clip would be from a television show or some other form of media that shows gender inequality. Then I would record their viewpoints on the clip. The challenge that I may encounter is getting individual’s that would be willing to be filmed. I was thinking about interviewing on campus, but I would possibly encounter noise issues. I am thinking of contacting some individual’s I know and asking them if they would be willing to be interviewed.

Brief overview of the second digital storytelling idea

• Video would examine men and women’s viewpoints on gender inequality in the media.
• I would show my media clip to my participants via my iPad.
• I would start the video discussing briefly gender inequality in the media and the short video clip I would show to my participants.
• Then transition into the first interviewee, second and third. 

9. Video Slideshow with Voiceover

The following video slideshow with voiceover was created discussing the concept of hegemony and gender roles in advertisements.

Here is a transcript of the dialogue in the video slide show:

Gender roles can demonstrate how a society views what it means to feminine or masculine and these roles are preformed through various interactions. The concept of cultural hegemony suggests that there is a power structure in society in which men are seen as the dominant sex and women are viewed as the subordinate. There are many forms of communication from which we seek for entertainment, information and can be a reflection of how a society interacts with others. The following photos were taken to examine these concepts of hegemony and gender roles further. 

Erving Goffman's 1979 research titled, Gender Advertisements examines the depiction of female gender roles from a symbolic interactionist perspective. 

Goffman notes that, advertisements do not depict how men and women actually behave; rather they serve the social purpose of convincing us that this is how women and men are, want to be, or should be. Furthermore, gender advertisements show women in subordinate, subservient and male pleasing roles and reinforces sexism in society. 

Websites That Promote Female Empowerment and Positive Discussions About Gender

While I find it important to discuss the social implications of women in the media and society, it must be noted that there is a vast amount of sites that promote healthy discussion about gender issues and female empowerment. 

I Am That Girl (See clip above): A non-profit organization that promotes women to explore their inner worth, purpose, and positive discussion of issues that women face in society.  I Am That Girl's purpose is that they want to promote healthy female body images and empowerment: 

"The media plays a dominant role in influencing girls' perceptions of the world around them, as well as helping them to define their sense of self. The current state of negative media is a global health crisis for girls' causing mental, physical and emotional illness. We seek to be the solution. By building community and providing girls with a space to consume healthy media, we can silence their crippling self-doubt long enough for girls to think for themselves, discover thier voice and speak their truth. This community that provokes meaningful and mindful conversations enables girls to have a higher sense of self worth."

HelloGiggles: Is an online community that encourages women to have fun, but also attentive to gender issues in the media. The website is founded by actress Zooey Deschanel, Sophia Rossi and Molly MCaleer. "Hellogiggles.com is the ultimate entertainment destination for smart, independent and creative females."

Gurl.com: This website's demographic targets the teenagers: "We have the news that you care about, answer questions about teen issues going on in your life, and give you tons of ways to have fun. Learn important facts about your body and body issues and how to deal with everyday girl issues. Play games, ask a teen expert questions, talk to other girls, and learn the facts about what's going on in your life. 

Gender roles and depictions of female body images in the media can prove to be distorted, but these websites try to capitalize on encouraging women to confident, conscientious women. I would find it interesting to examine the content of these websites further to see variations on the discussion on femininity and gender roles. 

Resources: I Am That Girl, HelloGiggles, Gurl.Com

8. Video Slideshow

For the video slideshow assignment, I choose to focus on female gender representations in advertisements. I found that depictions of women in these advertisements very powerful images that depicted varying perspectives of femininity  Some interesting results when examining print advertisements was that some of the women that were depicted looked androgynous and while other women were depicted in a very sexualized manner. While the photos that were taken at La Cantera showed how various stores tried to market their products to a specific type of women. For example, the Ralph Lauren display evoked a sense of upper class, elite women at a country club. 

Erving Goffman's Gender Advertisements (1979)  which examines the depiction of female gender roles from a symbolic interactionist perspective inspired me to complete this assignment. Goffman notes that Gender Advertisements, "The author notes that advertisements do not depict how men and women actually behave; rather, they serve the social purpose of convincing us that this is how women and men are, want to be, or should be."

Resources: Erving Goffman

6. 30 Rock Female Gender Roles and Hegemony: Video Clip as Representation of Key Concept

30 Rock is a comedy series on the NBC network that centers on the character Liz Lemon who is the head writer for the fictional show TGS. The show deals with the interactions between Liz’s boss, Jack Donaghy and co-workers. According to Artz & Murphy (2000), the media depicts men as the dominant class and women are viewed as the subordinate class. Artz & Murphy (2000) discusses how Antonio Gramsci argued that hegemony is viewed in two different ways, “It provides control through consensus but also can yield change if subordinate classes challenge these controls (Artz & Murphy, 2000: 2-4) Furthermore, they argue that hegemony only exists if the subordinate classes give into these roles, “Power is best secured if subordinates by into the arrangement, agree to the terms and make the relationship theirs. Hegemony is that system of support of the subordinate.” (Artz & Murphy, 2000: 3)

In the episode Jack the Writer (1.4), Liz confronts her assistant, Cerie about how her attire is becoming distracting for the other co-workers. The clip shows the characters viewpoints of gender roles in society. Liz’s assistant, Cerie agrees to the dominant-subordinate relationship between men and women. Rather than Liz, who provides a counterhegemonic discourse that a women’s role in society is not about just settling down and becoming a housewife. She tells Cerie, “You need to wear a bra if you want to be taken seriously in this business.” (Jack the Writer, 1.4) Cherie tells her that her job isn’t long-term and that she wants to settle down and become a mother. Liz argues that being a housewife isn’t the only occupation a women can do. 

There are some great series’ on cable that challenge hegemonic forms of female gender roles such as Parks and Recreation, Mad Men, and New Girl. It would be interesting to examine these current series that are on air and explore if there is a trend of women challenging a hegemonic structure for female gender roles or that these female characters give into it.

The following video shows clips of the Liz Lemon, and how these individuals find her to be a positive and relatable character:

Resources: Artz & Murphy (2000), 30 Rock- Carlock, R. (Writer) 2006, Rudúlph, H. W. (2011), 30 Rock- Scardino, D. (Writer), 2010

5. Defining and Visualizing Concepts: Gender and Cultural Hegemony

Gender roles can demonstrate how a society views what it means to be feminine or masculine and these roles are preformed through various interactions. The concept of cultural hegemony suggests that there is a power structure in society in which men are seen as the dominant sex and women are viewed as the subordinate.  Television is one of the many dominant forms of communication from which we seek for entertainment, information, and can be a reflection of how a society interacts with others. By examining the female gender roles in the media from a hegemonic standpoint, I will be able to address if there is or isn't variability in the representations of female gender in various television shows and film.        

Gender is culturally determined through social norms that address what it means to be masculine or feminine. Holmes (2007:2) defines gender as “Socially produced differences between being feminine and masculine.” Holmes (2007) takes a social psychology approach in measuring gender and argues that we are all social actors and what it means to be feminine or masculine has been socially constructed by our parents, friends, and the media. Buysee & Herbert (2004) define the concept of gender, and its differences in sport. They argue that specific types of sports are perpetuated and accepted in the media as more masculine or feminine, “Male athletes are portrayed by the popular media in terms of their physicality, muscularity, and superiority, while female athletes are feminized and their achievements as athletes are often trivialized” (Buysee & Herber, 2004: 4) They measured gender differences by examining cover photographs of sport media guides from two time periods: 1989-1990 and 1996-1997. Each photo was coded if they had the following representations: Was the male or female presented on or off the court, in or out of uniform, portrayed as active or passive positions or poses, and what was the theme of the photograph?

Cultural hegemony in the media typically shows men as the dominant class and women as the subordinate. Women are portrayed as the subordinate by their occupations, sexuality, dress and interactions with men. Crane defines the hegemonic structure in fashion magazines as, “Media images are constructed for the male spectator’s gaze and embody his expectations of women and of male-female relationships.” (Crane, 1999: 542). Crane measures hegemony by drawing a sample of 18 photographs from the February, March and September, 1997 issues of Vogue Magazine. Then the photos were coded into eight categories. Next, a focused group was administered a questionnaire and then asked their perceptions of the photographs. Kalof (1994) defines hegemony in the media as, “The portrayal of men as powerful and women as powerless and constantly trying to "entertain, please, gratify, satisfy and flatter men with their sexuality" (Kalof, 1994: 40) Hegemony was measured by examining the male and female representations in Michael Jackson’s video, “The Way You Make Me Feel”.  A sample of 80 respondents viewed the video and answered an open-ended questionnaire that examined their viewpoints of male and female interactions in the media.

It would be interesting to present the concept of hegemony by showing a chronological representation of women in the media and their interactions with male counterparts. I would display this concept by creating a video by ripping clips from various movies and television shows. Moreover, I would probably start from the 1960’s to present day. It would be important to start from the 1960’s because during that decade there was a lot of discourse that demanded change to how women were treated and represented in society.  As for gender, I would create a photo college through Picasa which would present what it means to be feminine. Some photos could show a woman at a vanity putting on makeup, being surrounded by children, or women in various occupations.  

The Periodic Table of Visualization Methods is a table that shows various ways to visually display information. The table breaks down visualizations into six categories: data, information, concept, strategy, metaphor, and compound. For the concept of gender, using concept visualization would be the most applicable way of presenting the concept. In particular, the clustering graph could display in the center ‘female gender roles’ and then break it down into various categories of how gender is displayed in the media. Then, provide examples for each category. Compound visualization would be applicable in conveying hegemony. A visual cartoon could be used showing a female in the workplace and her interactions with her male counterparts. I think clustering graphs is a great way of displaying a concept, because a concept can be open to interpretation in various sociological perspectives. For example, gender is addressed differently in criminology, social psychology, religion, and family. Another visual representation application is Visuwords, which is an online visual dictionary. When I examined the two concepts in the application, there wasn't a lot of results for hegemony, but more so for gender. I like how the application displayed each word in a cluster graph format and how other words are tied to the specific concept.

Sources:  Picasa, Visuwords, The Periodic Table of Visualization Methods, Vouge, Kalof (1993), Buysee & Embser-Herbert (2004), Holmes (2007), Crane (1999)