#rta950

[saltysirensongss]

Final Project Post-mortem Thoughts

 For our final assignment, we decided to create a TikTok account concerning you and the types of queer representation that is available to them, and how those forms of representation have come to be, and the pieces of media that preceded them. As three queer girls, ourselves, we especially wanted to draw on our own personal experiences, as well as referencing the media that helped shape our own identities, and that we felt were valuable to our understanding of what it is to be queer. Throughout this course we’ve continuously discussed the importance and value of children’s media and the role it plays in shaping youth. I feel like what really resonated with me was the notion that while there is an abundance of media that caters to children, most of it is made without their direct input. Which in the grand scheme of things makes sense. If your goal is to educate children or even market towards them it makes sense that their lack of knowledge would make them unsuited to the task of creation. However, I really do believe that listening to what the kids want (and less of what scared adults want) is incredibly important especially when it comes to representation and diversity in their shows. Shows like Mr. Rogers Neighborhood which we briefly discussed in class is a perfect example of this. We should be teaching our kids to be kind and open minded as Mr. Rogers says “there are three ways to ultimate success, the first way is to be kind the second way is to be kind and the third way is to be kind.”

I feel like our TikTok channel's goal is to help kids better understand that they are not alone and that Queer people have always existed both in real life and on screen and will continue to do so hopefully in a more and more unabashed fashion. 

Our longest video (or video essay) is about censorship and the evolution of queer stories on screen over the past few years. The hardest part was not writing the script or deciding which shows to bring up as we already had such strong feelings about the matter the discussion points came easily. The most difficult part was deciding how to make our format most appealing to our target audience. Now that we’re no longer angst teens ourselves it was hard trying to get into the mindset of how would a modern day tween want this information to be shared with them. This garnered some sympathy from me towards the show runners who have to decide what to green light and pitch for this same elusive audience. I do think putting it on tiktok and mixing in shorter TikToks to draw people in made the most sense. and I’m lucky enough to have been paired with some very funny people so there is a bit of a comedy aspect sprinkled in. While we were discussing whether or not to include a puppet (our medium of choice) we learned throughout this course that sadly puppets are not popular with the youth. Instead we decided to animate a little mascot and have them speak in our stead. This was a bit nerve wracking for me because at this point I was starting to feel like I never had been a tween at all. However, with some good advice from our peers we decided to just make it how we would’ve wanted (which in hindsight is quite obvious). 

I’m really happy with how our work turned out and I’m almost sad there isn’t more to do. Not sure if we’ll make it go live or if anyone will see it but if they do I hope it resonates. 

[saltysirensongss]

Journal #2

As a new media major, I enrolled in this program imagining that there would be some form of ‘new’ media that I would be able to unlock or even create. While that sentiment may not have been wrong, what I did learn was that New Media in fact was not new to me at all. New Media as defined by Rebecca Herr Stephenson consists of many “ diverse forms, for example, podcasts, video streamed on the internet and/or shared through social media, digital images, and interactive games…” (Herr Stephenson) all of which to no one’s surprise, I like many others have had the pleasure of engaging with. In fact, none of these media forms were new to me at all. As a youth I had had plenty of experience consuming a myriad of media forms through fandom culture. 

Fandoms like Harry potter were introduced to me by my older cousins. They saw my enthusiasm for reading and bestowed upon me their copies of the Harry Potter books. Personally, I never really got into Harry Potter and it was not for lack of trying. If you were involved in reading spaces anywhere it was almost a prerequisite to be well versed in the Potter lore. While I never fully immersed myself in the canonical Harry Potter universe, I found myself deeply invested in the fan-created content, a phenomenon that continues to thrive. The Harry Potter fandom to this day remains one of the most active fandoms online, often being lauded as the epitome of fandom culture. Despite the books being released nearly two decades ago new Harry Potter content is still being produced and shared by fans. The intersection of traditional and new forms of media within fandoms exemplifies the transformative and long lasting nature of New Media.

Figure 1. A Very Potter Musical 

 It's not merely about the introduction of entirely new content but rather the reshaping of existing narratives. In the case of Harry Potter specifically perhaps it is because the author leaves so much unsaid and only vaguely hints at the complexity of her stories that fans are so free to theorize and create their own narrative structures. On Tiktok, one of the newest social media platforms hailed for hosting the younger, more trend-conscious generation, the Harry Potter hashtag has amassed a staggering 162.4 billion views (Herr Stephenson). But it’s not just videos, on Archive of our Own, a popular fanfiction sharing website, there are currently 434,619 works of fan fiction under the Harry Potter tag. Not to mention the heaps of fan made artworks, theatrical productions, video essays, podcasts, video games, etc, that fans have been spreading for decades. 

Figure 2. Potter Puppet Pals

Figure 3. Old Minecraft tutorial on how to build an elevator

We learned all sorts of hacks, tricks and lore that would have been almost impossible for us to discover on our own. This group geeking is what really solidified my love for the game as it made me feel more confident in my knowledge as well as giving me a feeling of community knowing that others were struggling in the same areas.

Reflecting on my experiences with the enduring Harry Potter fandom and the immersive world of Minecraft, it is clear that new media's transformative power lies in reshaping existing narratives. These fan-driven communities demonstrate how new media not only coexists with traditional forms but contributes to their sustained relevance. As I mark over a year in my new media major, I recognize the convergence of old and new media in fandoms, fostering a vibrant cultural ecosystem that transcends boundaries and shapes future narratives.

[saltysirensongss]

Meaningful Childhood Media: a Reflection

The ocean and I have always had a love-hate relationship. From a young age I was obsessed with the water, from swimming classes to lakeside day trips, I simply couldn’t get enough, my fingers in a permanently wrinkled state. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly where things went wrong but if I had to guess I would blame the Persian New Year. Every spring I was allowed to choose out a half a dozen live goldfish from the store to bring home and display on our Haft-Sin. As per tradition (which no family member could explain) the goldfish is meant to do a little roll at the beginning of the new year. And roll they did… I witnessed an insurmountable number of goldfish pass in varying degrees of horrific ways from slow fades to suicidal leaps onto the living room floor. Before I knew it I had developed a fear of goldfish which slowly but surely evolved into an irrational fear of all fish. I stopped eating fish, I stopped walking by the fish sections of pet stores and I forced our family to switch to plastic fish for our traditions. What I couldn’t shake however, was my fascination. 

A traditional haft-sin table setup

I remember the day we downloaded netflix. It had become available to stream on the Wii in late 2010 (Nintendo) and I, aged 8, convinced my mom that it was absolutely necessary. I was told we would only have it for a month, meaning as long as it was free to us. I don't remember what options were available to me at this time but being a little water obsessed kid I was drawn to two particular shows which some could argue represent the two ends of the media spectrum: H2O: Just Add Water, and River Monsters, both of which as their names imply were ocean related. 

I consider H2O: Just Add Water one of the most influential shows of my childhood. H2O tells the tale of three Australian teens who unknowingly find themselves cursed with the ability to turn into mermaids. Cleo, Rikki and Emma were forced to navigate their highschool years without ever touching a drop of water which as you can imagine put them in plenty of high stake situations. Situations that I would recreate both alone and with friends. This show provided us with endless hours of imagination fodder both in and out of the pool. This was a show that all my female friends and I watched avidly, but my friends didn’t all have netflix so it became a show that they would come over to watch. My permitted screen time was restricted to two episodes a day so the selection of which episodes we would watch would become colourful debates in themselves where we would discuss the show in depth and advocate for our preferred storylines. 

Just three mermaids hanging out

My minute amount of screen time paired with the fact that we were one of the few families I knew to be subscribed to an SVOD makes me believe my parents were better off than they let on as both are common traits of higher income families (Rideout et al.)  which is probably why they let us keep Netflix after that first month.

On the other hand, my parents have a small friend group of three couples that they’ve had long before me that all together managed to produce a sum total of six children, all roughly the same ages. Within this group I sadly found myself to be the only girl. Growing up with a group of boys at arm's length played a heavy influence on the type of media I was exposed to. While my school friends would come over to watch fairy cartoons and mermaid shows the first thing the boys convinced me to watch on netflix was River Monsters. River Monsters hosted by Jeremy Wade was not nearly as terrifying as the name suggests but still a complete 180 from the content I would have chosen for myself. River Monsters was a docuseries which followed host Jeremy Wade as he travelled around the world to remote locations where legends of river monsters prevailed. He would then interview locals about recent incidents and anecdotal experiences with the supposed monsters and would explain the potential species who could be responsible. As scary as this sounds Jeremy Wade is a lovely man who treated every case gently and worked hard to demystify these “monsters” with a sense of positivity I could only hope to one day achieve. Watching this show on an SVOD again played a huge role in how we consumed the material. The eldest of the boys would get to pick which episode he found most intriguing and we were all made to watch it. 

Jeremy taking a dip in a piranha infested tub to prove their innocence

While this show may have had less impact on me socially, as my school friends were far from interested, it did start me on a path of being very interested in biology. When I tell people that I like this show they often feel the need to blame it for my Ichthyophobia, however I would argue that it serves more as a form of exposure therapy. My mother in particular was adamantly against me watching the show as she considered it “not for kids”. This always confused me because my parents would allow me to consume a great deal of heavier topics so long as it was served in cartoon form, like the movie, Grave of the Fireflies which my mom brought home from the library one day having not checked the rating or synopsis, or Coraline which I was dragged to see against my will. I soon learned that what my parents perceived to be appropriate was based on “their view of childhood, rather than what children would choose themselves" (Steemers) which to them meant I was to be watching animated features. While these shows are clearly marketed to vastly different audiences I enjoyed them equally and consider both to have had great impacts on my life. I do believe that they’re not as opposite as some might believe, afterall, being a teen mermaid is pretty much as scary as swimming with piranhas. I think another interesting thing the two shows have in common is their accents. River Monsters was filmed largely in South America and H2O was filmed in Australia so I got to hear the classic Australian as well as British (Jeremy’s accent) accents on a day to day basis. Both shows gave me a glimpse of what life was like in other parts of the world which in river monsters often looked very different from my own. Television is a great resource for children such as myself to be exposed to other cultures, giving me a chance to reside in what Marshall McLuhan would call a global village (Lemish).