ABIGAIL STETTER
DESCRIPTION
This page was made to document the process for creating a podcast and microsite as well as to reflect on my progress towards the course objectives. The podcast and microsite is a group project focused on answering the course question about how Disney relates to society's view of gender norms and roles. It was meant to help me practice spoken communication, practice collaboration, and develop various reading skills through the analysis portion of the project.
SECTION 1:
PRE-PRODUCTION:
PREPARATION AND PLANNING
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WEEK 1 EXPLORATORY WRITING
I think this was an important first step in this process because I learned what the term “social construction” meant and I got a look and chance to briefly answer the course question.
This assignment started with watching a video defining social construction then turned into a few paragraphs writing about my own definition of social construction, why it’s important, and how it connects to the course question. I’m featuring my definition of social construction in the image above. This connects to the habits of mind curiosity and persistence as well as developing engaged reading skills because I had no clue what this term meant before completing this assignment so I had to learn how to engage well with an audio and video text. This connects to the habits of mind because I became curious about the term because it’s the focus of the entire quarter and persistence because I had to continue to be engaged to find an answer because I had no background knowledge.
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CATES, MASCULINITY, MARVEL-STYLE ARTICLE
This was a useful article to read and help in the process of making a podcast because I saw a better connection between the Marvel Universe and gender norms presented by the superheroes.
This connect assignment was meant to help develop engaged reading and develop effective habits for my writing process. The image above is a highlighted section form the beginning of the article that was like a lightbulb moment for me. This article and this quote became a really important part of developing my ideas for the podcast. I think this connects with creating writing process habits because the assignment was broken up into multiple parts which forced me to focus on a specific part and really understand the point of that section which also relates to better engaged reading skills. From this assignment I learned about how I like to organize my writing process and a better way to discuss my ideas for the podcast.
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MODEL PODCAST ANNOTATIONS
I believe this assignment was important in creating the podcast because it gave me an example to look to for assistance in the organization of the podcast but it also gave me some ideas that I could use in my podcast to connect ideas.
This assignment was used to understand this type of medium and to review group members' ideas they found from the podcasts they listened to. The image above is one of the comments I made on a group members post. This connects to the objective of improving my peer review skills through practice. This assignment was a later one so I had some practice previous to this assignment but I think it gave me a great opportunity to continue to improve on them. I learned that it’s very important to review what group members are thinking when in group projects because it allows me to get on the same page as them so the final project it’s a complete mess.
SECTION 2: PRODUCTION
CREATING THE PODCAST AND MICROSITE:
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SCRIPT
EXCERPT
One important aspect of the podcast that I contributed was a topic I brought up about how empowering women doesn’t mean creating a new image for them but extending what already exists. Above is the excerpt from the script where I bring up this point’ the section highlighted in blue is the specific quote to look at. This development was something that was a layered discovery on my part but I think it was a significant one based on the other assignments I had completed. I think this connects to the habits of mind skills engagement and openness because having this point come across my ideas later in this process shows continued engagement in the project and because I feel it’s not a common view of female empowerment, I was open to different perspectives of the centred idea.
MICROSITE CONTRIBUTION
Another important contribution is the graph pictured above. This was used on the microsite page as a way to show female involvement in the comics universe in general as it represents both Marvel and DC groups. This connects to the podcast because of a statistics I spoke about concerning the percent of female protagonists in comics and this graph displays this point by showing the amount of women in groups throughout comics which correlates to female protagonists. This connects to practicing communication skills because I learned the importance of displaying the information I talk about in different ways, such as visual, and ensuring that those types of media are viewed accurately and clearly.
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PODCAST DIRECTOR: ORGANIZATION
Another important aspect of my work during the podcast is being the podcast director and setting up the zoom meetings for the group to collaborate. Below is a screenshot of a list of goals for the pre production meeting along with some suggestions under some topics to ensure the conversations we were having were productive. I learned that it’s extremely important to set goals especially in group work and that communication is necessary if you want to get your point across and understand others. This connects to practicing collaboration and the responsibility habit because I learned that if the group didn’t get far enough in the meeting it was my responsibility to ensure everything was prepared for the next meeting and that it went smoother. This also involved plenty of communicating while working on the project individually.
CHECK OUT THE MICROSITE. JUST CLICK THE LINK BELOW
SECTION 3:
LOOKING AHEAD IN THREE PARAGRAPHS
LEARNING FROM MISTAKES
I think one mistake I made in the beginning of this process was deciding to annotate the films the group chose focused on the characters we were going to talk about. That sounds kind of weird but I found that by not taking notes on any and all moments that reflected gender roles in both of the movies hurt the amount of annotations I ended up with and therefore the amount of scenes and analysis I could contribute to the podcast. From this I learned that it’s important to focus on the aspects I’m going to cover but to make sure to grasp the entire movie so I don’t miss out on possibly great examples related to the project. Another mistake that happened was scheduling the pre-production meeting. My group ended up having two meetings, one at the beginning of the process to get a better focus for the podcast and again closer to recording to ensure everyone was in line with the timeline that was set. I learned it’s better to over estimate than under estimate. Because the first meeting was on the shorter side it was hard to fit in everything the group should have talked about in depth, but adapting and setting another time helped relieve some stress from not being 100 percent clear on our ideas and organization.
COLLABORATION
Because I want to be an engineer in the future I know I’m going to need to collaborate all the time so I think assignment is great practice to improve those skills. I learned that it’s important to speak what you're thinking; people in your group aren’t in your head, they can’t see what you're thinking about so if you have an idea or a contribution say it. Building off of that, it’s vital to ensure everyone understands their part in the project and everyone understands the direction the project is going. One group member not understanding their portion of the project can significantly affect the final outcome so it’s imperative before the meeting ends the leader recap everything that was said so it’s clear to all members what’s expected by the next meeting. That also brings up the importance of designating a leader; if a group doesn’t have someone taking initiative, mostly likely, nothing’s going to get done. Overall collaboration depends on excellent communication skills through all types of mediums.
WHAT IDEAS FROM THE PODCAST WILL YOU PUT INTO THE ESSAY?
I think I’m going to focus on one of the segments from the podcast and direct the general ideas from the questions in that segment into specific ideas in my essay. The segment I want to focus on is Black Widow, and the topics I want to write about that stem from this segment are about roles of female characters in marvel movies and recognition of new traits for women and a positive outlook on established ones. I feel like the essay needs to be a more focused and succinct topic than the podcast so choosing a segment and narrowing in on two or three major topics from that will benefit the analysis of my essay. I want to mostly take the topics I mentioned above and choose a few characters or examples in general in my essay from previous assignments I did in class instead of focusing solely on one character. I decided to proceed with the Black Widow segments instead of Iron Man or the comparison because I felt like I had the most amount of examples and understanding of topics related to her segment than the others.