Podcast Project
This page is an analysis of my process for creating the podcast and microsite project; it is also a reflection of my progress toward course objectives. Please see the three sections down below. Our group created a podcast discussing the topic of the Disney movie Frozen, the feminism and false feminism inside the movie. The podcast assignment is an exploration of the relationship between Disney and genre roles, it also helps me to prepare my final essay of this course.
Section 1: Pre-Production: Preparation and Planning
Annotations to Killing Us Softly
This assignment was about watching and annotating a video clip named Killing US Softly by Jean Kilbourne. The image shows my annotations with timestamps of this lecture video, including quotes from Jean Kilbourne. After watching this lecture and making annotations of it, I developed Habits of Mind: Curiosity and Openess, because Kilbournes's lecture made me realized the power of advertisements, and I began to be curious about the messages that the advertising convey. I also became more open to different perspectives in evaluating the values behind the advertising.
Exploratory Writing: Beauty and the Beast
The weekly exploratory writing is about Beauty and the Beast, the screenshot above is part of what I wrote for that assignment. From that assignment, I learned to annotate films in a way that I never did before: closely looking into the details, exploring gender norms through lines and actions. During the preparation of my exploratory writing, I developed habits for engaged reading and apply such reading skills to audio and video. I learned to make connections and summarize information while watching the film; the skill of pausing to make annotations were also developed.
Close Reading Practice--Connect
Above is part of my work in closing reading practice on Connect. The screenshot is a summarize of the definition of "toxic masculinity" in my own words. Doing close reading practices helped develop habits for engaged reading a lot because the focus of the practice was to teaching us the habits listed on the course objectives. I also felt more confident in my reading accuracy after the practices.
Section 2: Production--Creating the Podcast and Microsite
Podcast Script Sources Gathering
The text in blue is my findings of false-feminism in writing our podcast script. During my research, I read several insightful essays that looked deep into the movie Frozen. The production of the podcast helped me improve my written literacy, especially the creation of annotations, reflective analytical writing, and podcast script.
Podcast Role--Host
My role is the host of the podcast, I was in charge of warping up the segments and making the conversation flow together. The blue text is my summarization of one of the segments and the conclusion of the whole podcast. Being a host of the podcast made me practice communication skills by speaking and composing in media of written and audio.
Outline of the Script
During the podcast production, I was also responsible for setting up the deadlines and production dates. I organized the outline of our script by having titles on the left-hand side; I also put the deadlines up at the top. Being a person pacing the working process helped me practice collaboration because I need to communicate the deadlines with my groupmates. I also developed habits of mind: responsibility, since I need to make sure we finish everything on time.
Here is the link to our podcast and microsite, please click the picture to access it.
Section 3: Looking Ahead in Three Paragraphs
At the beginning of the project, we spent a long time discussing the podcast topic and end up going in the wrong direction--our topic was too broad. But we realized this problem and revise our script to make it a more narrow topic. After we recorded and edited the podcast, I listened to it and found that our intro music was way too long. So I recorded more audio on my own and sent it to the editor, told him if he could add the additional audio to our podcast to reduce the length of the inro music.
One of the skills of collaborating that I learned from this assignment is that we need to be open-minded. The reason why we were able to correct our topic was that we were all open to listen to and accept new ideas. Open-mindedness made our ideas flow, it was one of the key reasons for the success of our podcast. Another skill that I learned is communication. I put myself out there and expressed whatever I had for this podcast, which not only helped us to organize the podcast but also helped us solve many problems along with the production.
I came up with the big topic of our podcast and my groupmates liked it as well, I decided to continue using this topic in writing my essay. However, after writing the outline on Tuesday, I realized that my essay might need more than one movie. So I decided to add Beauty and the Beast in addition to the movie Frozen, in writing my final essay. Also, I did not find too much evidence showing Elsa as a feminist character, for this part, I think I can go through more outlines written by other classmates.