New Media Technologies and Libraries

New media technologies have added a whole new dimension to the way that media is produced, distributed and interacted with.  Participatory culture is a term coined by Henry Jenkins (2006) and is used to describe the new ways in which people are using new media technologies.  Social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace allow users’ to create online profiles and share these with friends.  Online games like World of Warcraft allow users to interact in an online fantasy role-playing world with players from around the world.  Weblogs and online forums give users with limited programming skills the ability to create and publish their own material to web pages in creative ways.  A computer and an internet connection is all that is needed to have the ability to publish and distribute content easily and cheaply.  People are no longer just consumers of culture, they are now creating, remixing, sharing and engaging with cultural artifacts at a rapid speed (Jenkins, 2006).

Popular culture has such a large influence on young people’s lives and how they establish their identities (Driver, 2007).  As a librarian with a view to work in public libraries, I feel that it’s important that public libraries provide programs and resources for youth which assist them to develop the skills they need to critically engage with their communities and to become lifelong learners.  

Film and TV has played a central role in popular culture for a long time and it’s now common for public libraries to include resources which support the use of these media forms.  With the development of the internet and communications technologies we are now seeing new media forms becoming established in our communities.  Rather than overshadowing film and TV, new digital media is being  used alongside older media forms in what’s being termed media convergence (Jenkins, 2006).  Texts from popular films and TV shows are, debated in online forums, fan sites, turned into games and remixed into new forms, by both the owners and other users (Marshall, 2010).  

Adolescence is an important time when youth begin to gain a sense of self through the exploration of different identities and how these relate to their communities (McMahan, 2009, p. 368).  Popular culture and the media plays an important role in helping youth to establish identity by providing a wide range of representations of different communities and what it means to be part of these communities.   With the development of new media forms, the way that youth are interacting with film and TV is changing (Driver, 2007, p. 12).  Research by Marshall (2010) found that queer youth are using online forums to discuss characters they see in film and TV.  This debate allows youth to obtain different perspectives on what it means to be queer with peers from around the world.  This type of discussion demonstrates that the internet is playing an important role in providing queer youth with a way of coming together and being part of a community that wouldn’t have been possible before.  As educators it is essential that we provide youth with the skills to be able to critically assess these representations.

As I move from being a student to being a librarian my action plan is to stay up to date with new media technologies and how this relates to popular culture by following blogs relevant to both of these topics, including:

        Girls are Geeks
        Webmonkey
        New Technologies Interest Groups Blog
        Mashable

Over the semester I have been incorporating the RSS feeds from these and other  blogs into my Google reader, which aggregates the feeds and let’s me know when the blogs have been updated.  I have found this useful in staying up to date with rapidly changing world of technology and the media.  In addition to this, I have set up alerts with a number of database platforms to alert me when articles which match my search terms become available.

More than ever before the media is playing a more important role in our lives. Film and TV are still important forces in popular culture but the way youth are using new media forms to interact with these texts has changed.  Therefore, it is important that the community gains an understanding of how new media technologies are being used, so we can get the relevant resources and match these with the right programs.   This involves staying up to date with academic research and getting involved and using these new technologies.  This type of research will allow librarians to develop services and programs that are relevant to youth and based on research and not on hype.  Evidence-based practice also provides libraries to with the ability to justify to the community the decisions they are making about collection development and the types of services they provide.

References

Driver, S. (2007).  Queer girls and popular culture: Reading, Resisting and Creating Media.  New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing Inc.

Marshall, D. (2010).  Popular culture, the 'victim' trope and queer youth analytics.  International  Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 23(1), pp. 65-85.  Retrieved September 29th, 2010, from http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all?content=10.1080/09518390903447176

McMahan, I. (2009).  Adolescence.  Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.

Jenkins, H. (2006). Confronting the challenges of participatory culture: Media education for the 21st century. Retrieved from http://digitallearning.macfound.org/atf/cf/%7B7E45C7E0-A3E0-4B89-AC9C-E807E1B0AE4E%7D/JENKINS_WHITE_PAPER.PDF

No Longer Just the Victims: Queers in TV and Film

"Rage Gay Crusader"
Photograph: Julie Trinder 2010

The ways in which gay and lesbian characters are represented in mainstream media is changing.  Traditional stereotypes of THE homosexual character as a victim of bullying, disease and at risk of committing suicide, is no longer the dominant message being broadcast. The journal article I am going to discuss is “Popular culture, the ‘victim’ trope and queer youth analytics” by Daniel Marshall (2010).  

In this article, Marshall examines the way in which non-heterosexual or queer characters are represented in film and TV and how this has changed over the past two decades. Marshall (2010) identifies and discusses what he describes as the after-queer moment.  This title he states highlights a change from the queer moment of the 90’s described by Halberstam and Munoz (2005 in Marshall, 2010), which was characterised by an increase in gay and lesbian characters on TV and an increase in political and educational focus on queer issues.  The queer moment lead to an increase in formal queer and queer friendly groups in schools and the community, with an aim to combat homophobia, high teen suicide rates and fears of unsafe sexual practices. 

Marshall (2010) describes the after-queer moment as a direct product of this increase in representation of non-heterosexual norms in TV and film, as well as, the development of an identifiable queer youth audience.  The after-queer moment is characterised by an environment where youth are able to see a wide range of queer representations in the mainstream media and at the same time discuss these representations with their peers.  In particular, the internet has played an important role in allowing young people to come together and critically discuss popular culture.  In this research, Marshall examines the way in which youth are interacting and discussing texts in the after-queer moment and how this effects identity development

The last decade has seen an increase in the numbers and visibility of queer characters in the mainstream media of TV and film.  In 1997, comedian Ellen DeGeneres’ character came out on the sitcom Ellen causing a ratings high followed by a media backlash which ultimately lead to the shows demise the following year (Chambers, 2009, p. 85).  Today, she receives widespread popularity for her talk show, “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” which has been running since 2003.  Other popular TV shows, such as Glee, True Blood, Buffy the Vampire Slayer,  Six Feet Under, Weeds, Neighbours, Modern Family, Home and Away, and The Librarians’, are but a few of the many shows which have all had regular queer characters.  In addition to this popular films, such as But I’m Cheerleader, Boys Don’t Cry, Brokeback Mountain, All Over Me, Transamerica, and The Runaways have brought a range of queer characters to the big screen. 

In addition to these, there have a been two prominent and controversial TV Series’, Queer as Folk ( with both UK and US versions) and The L word, which were unique in that they portrayed communities in which the queer characters were central and the rest of the world revolved about them.  Queer as Folk, which reached a fifth series in the US before finishing in 2005, focused on the relationships of the five lead characters as they bar-hopped and bed-hopped their way around town. Although the show dealt with the ‘victim’ trope in some storylines, this was balanced by everyday portrayals of how the characters lived and enjoyed life everyday. 

The L word, which I would describe, as a kind of lesbian take on the Queer as Folk series, was criticised for its narrow portrayals of the life of Lesbians.  Firstly, the show was highly criticised for developing characters that conformed to all the traditional norms of femininity (Akass and McCabe, 2006, p.4).  As Chambers (2009, p. 86) states, “The L Word is a heteronormative show about homosexuals”.  Secondly, the show appeared to cash in on explicit, sexual images of lesbians designed to appeal to a male heterosexual audience. As Akass and Mccabe (2006, p.6) state, this is not coincidental, for if the show was to succeed it was going to need to appeal to more than just very feminine, white, rich, career driven lesbians it portrayed.  Both Queer as Folk and The L Word were criticised by some as over the top, too sexualised and not representative, but I believe that the mere presence of these two shows has allowed for open debate within the community about what it means to be queer.

We are now seeing a wide range of representations of being non-heterosexual or queer.  The combination of this increase in queer characters and the formation of a recognisable queer youth audience has provided youth with both the motivation and the space to critically discuss queer representations in the media. The development of online forums and fansites also adds another element as it allows youth a way to discuss these characters in a critical way with more people and across larger geographic spaces then was possible before.  The ability to have these discussions with their peers is assisting youth in constructing identities that, rather than reinforce traditional gay and lesbian stereotypes, highlight the diversity of the cultures, races etc. that they identify with (Driver, 2007, p.3).  

Marshall (2010) highlights a number of pedagogical implications that are a result of the after-queer moment.  Importantly his research into queer youth cultures has identified the queer youth audience not as passive, but as critical readers of popular texts who are actively discussing and challenging non-heterosexual representations with other queer youth and as result forming a new sense of identity

The research also found that youth are moving away from an essentialist view of sexual identity and developing a more fluid understanding of sexual experiences.  Rather than there being one representation of what a gay or lesbian should be, youth are faced with a range of representations, and as a result of this they are able to see how these fit into the world they live in.  This also means that their understanding of what it means to be non-heterosexual is becoming much broader.  

Therefore, as educators I feel that it is important that we provide an environment where youth can engage with these texts and debate with their peers the types of characters being portrayed, so that they can develop a sense of their sexual identity that is relevant to their communities.  


By Julie




Additional References


Akass, K. and McCabe, J. (Eds.) (2006).  Reading the L Word: Outing Contemporary Television.  London: I.B.Tauris & Co  Ltd  


Chambers, S. (2009). The Queer Politics of Television. London: I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd


Driver, S. (2007).  Queer girls and popular culture: Reading, Resisting and Creating Media.  New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing Inc.


Marshall, D. (2010).  Popular culture, the 'victim' trope and queer youth analytics.  International  Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 23(1), pp. 65-85.  Retrieved September 29th, 2010, from http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all?content=10.1080/09518390903447176

Media and Moral Panics: TV made them do it?

News Article:  Bitter dregs of a pop culture gone Red Bull

On September 22^nd 2010, 18- year old, university student Tyler Clementi committed suicide after learning that his roommate and another friend had setup a webcam in his college room and had streamed live footage of Tyler and a friend having a sexual encounter.

In the article above from the New York Post, writer Phil Mushnik begins by stating that he is not shocked by the behaviour of the teens who committed this crime and that he blames the demise in the quality of TV, as well as, Red Bull for the actions of the teenager’s committed this crime.  The author claims that the two teenagers, who have been charged, have been “targeted, trained and conditioned to be remorseless wise guys”, seemingly through the immense power of TV shows.  

Sensationalised articles like this one use emotive language in an attempt to ignite moral panic and as a result increase readership. Moral panics are characterised by a group of people which decide that the behaviour of another group presents a significant threat to society and as a result demand action be taken to remove this threat (Goode and Ben-Yehuda, 2009).   Is TV solely responsible for the basic lack of respect shown by these educated youth when they decided it would be a good idea to film their peer in the privacy of his bedroom and broadcast this on the internet?  I think this type of sensationalist and emotive journalism is why media literacy education is important in our schools. It is important that youth learn the skills to critically evaluate the media they are exposed to.  

I think it is very sad that the death of Tyler has lead to this poorly written and antagonist article which appears to me to be purely a grab for ratings.

Julie

Reference

Goode, E. and Ben-Yehuda, N. (2009).  Moral Panics : The Social Construction of Deviance.  Chichester, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.  Retrieved October 8, 2010 from Electronic Book Database.

Coming out on Neighbours

In February 2010, the first regular, male gay character, Chris Pappas, joined the cast of Neighbours.  Chris’ character plays a senior high school boy who is head of the Basketball team and is dating regular cast member Summer.  I think that the development of Chris’ character is done well with subtle hints over a number of months that he may be having feelings towards his best mate, Andrew.  In August after building tensions Chris finally comes out to his schoolmates, friends and family.

A number of issues were addressed within the series that related both directly to Chris’ character but also to how his school community, friends and family deal with his homosexuality.  These included Chris’ confusion over his sexual feelings, being bullied by his classmates and the way his family and friends came to terms with finding out.  The storyline focuses on the relationship between Chris and his girlfriend Summer and how she also deals with finding out and then goes on to be a supportive friend.    Chris’ mate Andrew also plays a key role, discovering that not only Chris was gay but that he had feelings towards him.

Sexual identity can be a difficult subject to approach with youth but important as more and more youth are openly identifying as being Queer.  Queer youth can often feel isolated in their communities if they feel they have no role models or people they can talk to in a safe environment.   The recent suicide deaths of several queer youth in the USA which have been associated with harassment and bullying, demonstrate that queer youth are still feeling isolated in their communities.  Popular culture can play an important role in providing youth with representations of different sexualities that can help queer youth develop their identity.   Therefore, I feel that it is important for youth to be able to see more realistic representations of different sexualities in the mainstream media of film and TV that they can relate to and feel like they are not alone.

It was fantastic to see Neighbours step away from the stereotypical portrayal of male homosexuality and  actually look in depth at some of the issues that are faced by queer youth.  One month later, the only question left to ask is where has Chris gone? 

Julie

Young women and advertising. A reflection on the Mallan and Pearce (2003) article.

This blog entry will look at the Mallan and Pearce (2003) article titled Introduction: Tales of Youth in Postmodern Culture. It will discuss the way advertising represents youth culture and the associated consequence of those representations. The blog will make some recommendations for educational considerations that may help to counter the negative aspects associated with advertising in the mass media.

            Youth and all it represents sells. Historically youth has been targeted by advertising companies to sell products. From the innocence and purity of the 1950’s to peace loving activists and youth subcultures of the 60’s and 70’s corporations have tried to find a way to create products that consumers identify with and desire in the hope to regain  diminishing youth, prolong youth or desire what being young stands for.

            Because youth identity is a fluid and changing concept taking on new expressions that portray independence, or resistance to societal standards, it can’t be determined by one particular representation. Advertising agencies spend inordinate amounts of money and time in research trying to find ways to sell ideas associated with youth. In this process of being reproduced and sold, young people are positioned within the commercial media as both product and consumer. In essence these representations are controlled by market forces for the express purpose of selling them back to the people they represent (Brooks cited in Mallan & Pearce, 2003). Youth are often complicit in this notion of commodification the selling of goods in this case youth for value exchange as in money. When they adopt and appropriate particular looks that represent rebellion and resistance to mainstream society advertisers are only too willing to adopted and market the modified ‘look’ as a viable product. The practice of wearing jeans that sit below the waistline by teenage men has resulted in underwear makers such as Calvin Klein creating labels that boldly identify their brand name as the boxers tend to sit above the low riding jeans. The creation of designer boxers is exploiting an expression that began as a sign of resistance to a perceived dress standard.        



Calvin Klein advertisement showing the trend of low riding jeans.



This conscious commodification (Brooks cited in Mallan & Pearce, 2003) by companies in the act of creating desirability for their products within mainstream consumers tend to stereotype the images that represent young people with often negative and insidious consequence.

            Young women are constantly represented in advertisements as thin. There is research to suggest that from about the 1950’s women have been consistently depicted in advertisements as becoming thinner (Killbourne, 2010). Being represented as thin and often idealised, being consciously portrayed as the ideal notion of beauty, creates a reference point or way of seeing women that begins to seem natural or normal. The reason these images have a normalizing effect on society is that they are so abundant in all forms of image representations. Because there is rarely an alternative body image shown, this further serves to promote thinness as both desirable and normal for women. These unattainable and often digitally enhanced images create a negative body image perspective for many women who subconsciously compare themselves to the ideal image creating a myriad of body image disruptions including body shame, self objectification and eating disorders (Harper & Tiggemann, 2007).

            As film and television are central and persuasive forms of media where these normative repetitions (Dezuanni, 2010) exist, they have the potential to influence how young people construct ideas about gender and identity. Gender performativity (Butler, 1999) is the repetitions of stereotyped representations which have the potential to marginalise anyone who is perceived to exist or live outside these norms of society. This normalising effect has real impact on individuals from communities that exist in the minority. Often they live with the fact that their standards, values and perspectives may create concern, fear and even violence because people living in the dominant culture fail to recognise and accept that there are alternative world views. One such example is the New South Wales governments plan to pass a bill in parliament that will ban the wearing of the burqa for women in the Islamic faith because it is perceived to be a security risk and symbol of oppression. I can’t remember too many people being outraged by sisters of Anglican and Catholic Orders in the 60’s wearing a habit as a form of religious obedience and devotion, yet the burqa worn for much the same reasons is perceived to be more threatening because we can only conclude it is worn by women who are seen as being different from women in a Western society. To prepare young people to understand how these normalised views operate within society we need educational imperatives that serve to address their associated power and effect.

One imperative is media literacy (Peterson, Grippo & Tantleff-Bunn, 2008) whereby students critically examine the embedded messages in many images and representations that are produced in the media. This will increasingly mean students must learn to ‘read’ images that are found in multimodal presentations that make use of many genres including animation, online competitions, infomercials and music videos (Rodesiler, 2010).



Maidenform bra advertisement 1991 with a critical perspective.



          Another imperative is empowerment which is the central tenet in a Feminist perspective. This perspective helps women understand that their self worth is not determined by their physical appearance (Peterson, Grippo & Tantleff-Bunn, 2008). It develops a critical and intellectual understanding about cultural and social messages that surround gender representations in advertising. These are called Meta skills that encourage women to modify their belief systems and provide them with lifeskills that create attitudinal change.

            These personal perspectives could be realised in an education context by incorporating technology to create personal narratives in the form of mash ups which explore the issues of objectification, commodification and gender performativity.

Mash ups are digital manipulations of sound, but could include image and text that appropriates and duplicates pieces of original soundtracks. Due attention to copyright and the creative commons license would be required as mash ups blur the line between plagiarism and reappropriating original content. This concept of creation and production could offer students an opportunity to critique image representation in the world of mass media much like the media which now critiques them in the guise of advertisements.

References:

Butler, J. (1999) Gender trouble: feminism and the subversion of identity. Retrieved 6    October, 2010 from             http://books.google.com.au/books?id=gyWuhD3Q3IcC&pg=PA175&dq=gender+            performance+judith+butler&hl=en&ei=DMWrTPOsB4SevgPW45GFBw&sa=X            &oi=book_result&ct=book-     thumbnail&resnum=1&ved=0CCwQ6wEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

Dezuanni, M. (2010). Film and television: gender, childhood and media influence.          [Lecture 7 notes]. Retrieved October, 2010 from     http://blackboard.qut.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1            &url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse            %26id%3D_64558_1%26url%3D

Harper, B., & Tiggemann, M.. (2008). The Effect of Thin Ideal Media Images on          Women's Self-Objectification, Mood, and Body Image. Sex Roles, 58(9-10), 649-     657.  Retrieved October 2, 2010, from Academic Research Library. (Document      ID: 1466717021).

Kilbourne J. (2010). Killing us softly 4. [video webcast] Retrieved 6 October, 2010 from             http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTlmho_RovY&feature=player_embedded

Mallan, K. and Pearce, S. ( 2003). Introduction: Tales of youth in postmodern culture. In          Mallan, K. and Pearce, S. Youth Culture : texts, images and identity. Retrieved      October 6, 2010 form             https://cmd.library.qut.edu.au/CLN647/CLN647_BK_297657.pdf

Peterson, R., Grippo, K., & Tantleff-Dunn, S.. (2008). Empowerment and Powerlessness:  A Closer Look at the Relationship Between Feminism, Body Image and Eating      Disturbance. Sex Roles, 58(9-10), 639-648.  Retrieved October 2, 2010, from             Academic Research Library. (Document ID: 1466716991

Rodesiler, L.. (2010). Empowering Students Through Critical Media Literacy:   This      Means War. The Clearing House, 83(5), 164-167.  Retrieved October 5, 2010,   from Academic Research Library. (Document ID: 2112784461).

            http://proquest.umi.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/pqdweb?index=8&did=2112784            461&SrchMode=2&sid=2&Fmt=6&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&V            Name=PQD&TS=1286257251&clientId=14394

Images :

Sturken, M. and Cartwright, L. (2001). Practices of looking: an introduction to visual culture. Maidenform ad pg 225.
Calvin Klein. Mark Wahlberg underwear ad. Retreived October 6, 2010 from http://www.google.com.au/imgres?imgurl=http://www.popcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Mark-Wahlberg-Kate-Moss-Calvin-Klein-Underwear-Ad-500x708.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.popcrunch.com/calvin-klein-kate-moss-difficult-to-work-with-hated-mark-wahlberg/&usg=__HmK2p6NeF5TWuVz4vvOtJHB4JZE=&h=708&w=500&sz=71&hl=en&start=36&sig2=qJ1I9lRU-wDPSvtf-gnI-Q&zoom=1&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=rg42ArwDOmwfYM:&tbnh=140&tbnw=99&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcalvin%2Bklein%2Bads%2Bwahlberg%26start%3D20%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26rlz%3D1W1DAAU_en%26ndsp%3D20%26tbs%3Disch:1&ei=4-OrTImZBIyyvgOIkfz_Dw

Pedagogical Innovations. The things I'd like to use in my practice.

Being trained in the Visual Arts, images and their manipulation by using visual elements and visual literacy is an engaging and creative area to work in. New and emerging technology has made the manipulation and production of visual images into content and knowledge much easier, more dynamic and more collaborative. The area of interest that I’d like my pedagogy to develop into is the area of personalised learning using social software and web 2.0 technologies associated with the very visual concept of scenario based learning. This concept although not a medium of Film and Television per se is aligned to the genre of animation which has a historical association with television.      

            Scenario based learning (Lawson, 2008) is a design consideration that uses rapid elearning software where students interact in a virtual environment completing tasks or quests, that are content specific , played in self designated or context specific roles. The learning occurs due to the interaction and immersion within the situation they are playing out. Real life issues presented as problems to be solved either individually or collaboratively with associated consequences for their decision making, makes this an experiential learning experience (Bloom cited in Jones, 2007). This type of learning allows the student to use critical thinking and reflection to consider all the options, which is presented as instantaneous feedback.

            The programmes Raptivity and Adobe Captivate allow educators to design and embellish subject specific scenarios that simulate real life contexts. These software packages offer frameworks on which you can design and create your virtual scene. Templates make the selection process easier and technical programming doesn’t appear to be a must have skill. Step by step instructions and a logical interface appear to make this programme user friendly.            

            Scenario based learning is engaging, it offers the flexibility of online sites which can be revisited and replayed. This type of learning has the potential to be personalised (McLouglin & Lee, 2010) with specific considerations for learning preferences and technical competency factored into the designs. It takes advantage of the social and collaborative learning that students bring to school, positing learning within their own real life context.

            Another consideration that I would like to include in my teaching ideology is to use the untapped potential of mobile phones to create situated learning opportunities that are not dependent on formal learning environments.            

            The appeal of using handheld camera phones that allow a type of ‘citizen journalism’ (Hartnell-Young & Vetere, 2008) in the form of student narratives is now more easily facilitated by the use of software such as Lifeblog. Lifeblog enables the viewing, editing and storage of images and messages from mobile phone to personal computers.

            Creating, producing and sharing content are activities that describe the participatory nature of youth culture (Jenkins, 2006). By bringing these types of activities into the classroom you acknowledge

• a perspective of the world with multi viewpoints
•  that all perspectives have value
• that students bring to school life experience and cultural capital
• that students gain agency in terms of the power of autonomous learning
• that scaffolding and support can be provided on an individual basis.

The pedagogical significance of this type of learning is that teachers have to be prepared to take on the risk that is involved in using mobile technology. This risk is associated with going up against school policy that bans there use. It also involves going against much of the thinking that determines whether a new or appropriated technology enhances learning as opposed to merely entertaining students.

            The other consideration is that assessment parameters need some realignment if they are to include the broader aspects of digital learning. Much of the thinking about technology is that it is a something, a skill, or competency when in fact a lot of the work is ongoing and fluid not something that can be easily evaluated. Assessment needs to consider the whole process which may be individual or collaborative that creates student generated work (Hartnell-Young & Vetere, 2010).

            Many of the pedagogical considerations I aspire to use in my practice are only possible due to emerging and evolving digital technologies. These technologies enable learning to be constructed within different contexts to traditional learning environments.

They open up the possibilities for the creation, production and consumption of knowledge, making the process of learning autonomous and student directed (McLouglin & Lee, 2010). The notion of autonomy works well with the pedagogic strategy of Stephen Murgatroyd (2010) that is “work less learn more”.

            If students are engaged and motivated to learn by virtual situated learning environments (Jones, 2007) or mobile technology which allows them to direct and mediate their own learning, if they can participate in communities of expertise and work to an individual programme then teachers may have less to do. But the adage of Murgatroyd (2010) is also about learning more. Technology combined with good pedagogical intent and creative content design should mean the learning will be enhanced to give better learning potentials.

            Imagine being a student learning in a virtual situated learning environment where your role is head curator of Iraq’s Museum of Art just before the Gulf War invasion. Your mission is to secure, catalogue and protect the antiquities collected from the first civilisations of ancient Mesopotamia. There is widespread looting, many of the treasures have been damaged and your collection is deemed to be one of the most important archeological collections of the ancient world as many pieces document the beginning of civilisation. Imagine the problem solving and raft of real world considerations that have to be investigated and thought about. This is critical thinking, planning and implementing in a virtual world, but with real world considerations, a very exciting future prospect.

References:

Jenkins, H. (2006). Confronting the challenges of Participatory culture: Media education for the 21^st century.Retreived 4 October, 2010 from http://blackboard.qut.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_64558_1%26url%3D

Lawson, T. (2008). Scenario + Rapid e-learning = Powerful learning In Hello! Where

Are you in the landscape of educational technology? Proceedings ascilite Melbourne 2008.Retrieved 3 October, 2010 from http://www.ascililte.org.au/conferences/melbourne08/procs/lawson-poster.pdf

McLouglin, C. and Lee M, .J. W., (2009) Personalised and self regulated learning in the Web 2.0 era: International exemplars of innovative pedagogy using social software.Retrieved 3 October from http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet26/mcloughlin.pdf

 McLoughlin, C., and Lee, M., J., W. (2008). Mapping the digital terrain: New media and social software as catalyst for pedagogical change. Retrieved 3 October, 2010 from http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/melbourne08/procs/mcloughlin.pdf

Jones, S. (2007). Adding value to online role-plays: Virtual situated learning environments. In ICT: Providing choices for learners and learning. Proceedings ascilite Singapore 2007.Retrieved 4 October, 2010 from

http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/singapore07/procs/jones-s.pdf

Hartnell-Young, E. and Vetere, F.(2008), A means of personalising learning: Incorporating old and new literacies in the curriculum with mobile phones. Curriculum Journal, v19 n4 p283-292 Retrieved 4 October, 2010 from http://www.informaworld.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/openurl?genre=article&id=doi:10.1080/09585170802509872

Bikini clad girls, racing barriers, models and the Gold Coast Turf Club, all in the name of entertainment or fundraising or sports promotion?

Courier Mail, September 30 Racing Queensland bans Gold Coast Turf Club bikini 'horse' race

This news article which appeared in the Courier Mail, September 30 about a racing club using young women dressed in bikinis in a novelty race to boost their failing attendances has changed its modus operandi on more than one occasion this week since producing much public comment.

This article reinforces the process of objectification by using the body image as a commodity to sell product in this case attendance. Objectification occurs when women are evaluated by their appearance, through the male gaze, and by the constant and repeated idealised images of women in visual media. Objectifying is a societal western phenomena and it leads women to view their bodies as objects with often negative consequences such as body dissatisfaction, depression and eating disorders (Peterson, Grippo & Tantleff- Dunn, 2008; Gurung & Chrouser, 2007; Harper & Tiggemann, 2007).

            This has significant ramifications for a society of young people who are constantly looking at images in magazines, online communities and music videos which are genres that all use highly sexualised and objectified images of the female form.

            The fact that the women portrayed in the article are athletes made to run in bikinis objectifies them more because wearing a bikini in a place not normally deemed appropriate alters the viewers perception so the focus is on the body, not the aspect of running or athletics (Gurung & Chrouser, 2007)

            Education that encourages critical thinking about media literacy and visual media representations that depict through their frequency a normalizing effect about what constitutes healthy and attainable body image are long overdue and very necessary.

Television and online videos : life is a spectacle.

Screen shot of Channel Four’s Super skinny vs. Super sized, Isn’t It a Pitta.

Channel Four have produced a life style programme entitled Supersized vs. Super skinny (Jessen & Richards, 2009) which is a documentary that invites paired participants who have an eating disorder to consume each others daily food portions for a week. The programme titled “Isn’t It a Pitta” places these participants in an Eating Clinic with some medical supervision afforded by the co star called Dr. Christian Jessen. While watching this episode I felt the main focus of this short video appeared to be about the spectacle of the vast array of food that was to be consumed by the under eating participant and the meager amount of rations which was to eaten by the overeater.

            This particular episode with its visual abundance of food usually consumed in a 24 hour period by the over eating participant and the miniscule amount for the under eating participant only serves to reinforce the stereotyped view many people harbour towards people with an eating disorder. It represents a view that people who have eating disorders can exercise the same control mechanisms attributed to everyone including the choice to over or under eat. The term spectacle (Sturken & Cartwright, 2001) was first used by Guy Debord a French theorist to explain how visual representations viewed by masses of people can manifest a normalizing view of the dominant culture and society.

            If this view is the dominant message getting through in the media and if repeated enough times people actually begin to feel that this view must be true. Messages that deal with aspects of behaviour directly attributed to choice and the consequences of those choices begin to take on a moralising effect, as we somehow judge people with eating disorders as behaving in a way that is not like everyone else and therefore wrong.     

            This predisposition to judge is historically apparent in Hieronymus Bosch’s 1485 painting titled ‘The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things’ which served as a visual reminder about indulging in vices such as gluttony, avarice, sloth etc and the subsequent consequence of Hell, Heaven, Judgment and Death. 500 years on and we still have the propensity to make judgments based on what we hear and see whether it be through the visual media of 21^st century video or medieval paintings.

Hieronymus Bosch (1485), Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things.

Oil on wooden panel.

References :

Jessen, C. Dr. (presenter) & Richards, A. (presenter) 2009. Richard Thomas (Head of Production). Isn’t It a Pitta. Britain: Channel 4.

Sturken, M. and Cartwright, L. (2001). Practices of looking an introduction to visual culture. New York: Oxford University Press.

Images:

Jessen, C. Dr. (presenter) & Richards, A. (presenter) 2009. Supersized vs. Superskinny.[video webcast]. Retrieved 28 September, 2010 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BUzYNJzzMo

Bosch, H. (1485). Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things.[Image]. Retrieved 27 September 2010 from commons.wikimedia.orghttp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hieronymus_Bosch-_The_Seven_Deadly_Sins_and_the_Four_Last_Things_-_Gluttony.JPG