In class this week, we discussed the definition of "children's media." We viewed The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (1940). This time, I got to watch it with a new perspective. I never knew how much meaning could be derived from this short, especially pertaining to the relationship between children and creativity. Mickey uses the sorcerer’s hat, the supposed source of power, in order to get out of his chores. Mickey is engaging with his creativity, especially when he is dreaming about all of his new powers, but then it gets out of hand, and everything has to be resolved by the “adult.”

In contrast, we watched the Aries clip from one of his documentaries. He talks about an experience he has as a child wherein he had a great idea for a film, and he was really excited about it and supposed he must be a genius. He then found out that his idea had already been made into a movie, and was discouraged. The connection between this clip and The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is significant. One clip is meant to be viewed by children, and the other clip has children as subject matter, but isn’t necessary targeted at a child audience. These clips show two different relationships children have with their world around them, and then how adults fit into that world as well.

We read a children’s book from a few decades ago called “I’m Glad I’m a Boy, I’m Glad I’m a Girl.” This book had children as subject matter, and it was targeted at a young audience. It showed the “correct” gender roles, and I believe it was meant to be a cute story, but also to teach children how to behave and fit the correct mold. I found this book to be a little bit problematic. Children are so moldable, and are so influenced by the media they partake of. I could see this book causing some internal struggle for children who read it, especially if they felt they didn’t fit the mold.

Our discussions in class this week made me think of a recent Flight of the Conchords video.

In this video, Bret and Jemaine are asked to write a charity song to help raise money for sick children. They turn to children to write the lyrics of their song. After they interview a handful of children, they make the song into something really great. This is a great example of children engaged in media and creativity. Bret and Jemaine are encouraging these children to get creative. Their responses are so funny and adorable, and are later arranged into a cool song! I can see how this could be considered problematic. I think this video is only going to be funny to adults. I showed it to a few of my little sisters, and they didn’t find it as funny as I did. But when I watched it with adults and other college-age students, we found it to be hilarious. It could be argued that this video is unfair to children, but I think this video was done lovingly, and is a great example of how children are capable of creating great things.

We viewed Son of Rambow (2009) in class. This film also had new meaning to me as I watched in the context of our discussion. Will is a child who has had very little contact with media, movies and television specifically. When he is accidentally exposed to the movie Rambo, he is so influenced by it, that it takes over all of his thoughts. This film was meant for an older audience, but also is such a good portrayal of children engaging in what they see, and then proceeding to create as a direct result.

Our discussion of the relationship between children and media, portrayal of children in media, and what is considered media for a young audience was really interesting, and makes me excited to keep learning about it in this class.

I decided to tell a story about a hard thing that I went through in my life, but I wanted to make sure it had a positive feel. I talked about how basically my childhood was cut short in a sense. When I was 9, I got hit with reality really hard and really fast. My grandparent’s sold our cabin, my second home, and then went through a really hard divorce. At the same time, my dad was super sick and wasn’t supposed to survive his necessary surgery.  I still feel the repercussions of these events in my life, even 10 years later. But I wanted to emphasize my belief about how important it is to let hate leave our hearts to make room for love instead.

I was so nervous for our fireside chat. I really wanted to present something heartfelt and sincere, and not cheesy. For my media element, I went through a lot of old home videos. I found clips at our cabin, as well as some footage of my grandparents when they were still married, and some footage of my dad teaching me how to ride a bike. I wanted the visuals to reflect what I was saying, both literally and figuratively. I showed a jenga tower falling and me falling off my bike when I talked about trials, and then I showed the other end of the clips, me getting back up and high-fiving my grandpa, to represent faith and forgiveness. I feel like everything went the way I wanted it to during my presentation. After I started, the nerves went away, and I just tried to speak from the heart.

I loved listening to everyone present their stories and presentations. Everyone did such a great job, and I could tell everyone put a lot of effort into the stories. Some of them made me laugh, and some made me want to cry. This assignment felt like the culmination of the entire semester. I have gotten to know everyone so well this semester, and I have learned to love everyone as well. At the end, I didn’t really want to leave. I just wanted to hug everyone and tell them how great I think they are. I’m so thankful for the camaraderie and love that has grown over the semester.

Artists’ Statement:

We did our Concerned Citizen documentary on Diena Simmons. She is the station manager of KBYU, Channel 11, at BYU Broadcasting. KBYU is Utah’s local PBS channel, and is part of the bigger organization, BYU Broadcasting, which is nationwide, as well as international.

We originally planned to interview and follow BYU Broadcasting Managing Director, Derek Marquis. When we showed up to do the interview, he suggested that we interview Diena. He explained that she works more on the community level than the global level, and that she is really passionate about her work. We were glad he made this suggestion, because Diena turned out to be a great interviewee.

Diena is in charge of what goes on the air for Utah’s PBS station. She is very passionate about providing wholesome content. In the interview she mentions that no matter what, people are going to use media, so she wants to provide something that is worthwhile.  Toward the end of the documentary, she mentioned that she has had opportunities to work in the commercial media world. But when it came down to it, she felt more proud to be doing this work at KBYU. Other employees at BYUtv have had similar opportunities to work in the commercial media industry, but choose to work at BYUtv. Even though the salary is often lower, many of them feel better about the work they are doing there.

We happened to be at BYU Broadcasting to interview Diena on the day before a big event she was running, and she invited us to come back the next day and shoot some b-roll. This is one of many events that she is in charge of. We discovered that they have a lot more going on than people realize. She said in the interview that not all of the work they do is on the air. This event, among others, aids the community on a physical level. Diena feels it is important to provide service wherever she can, in fun and interesting ways that will get people to want to participate.

We could tell that Diena is a genuinely caring person. While editing, we talked about how comforting it is to know that there are people like Diena who care enough to try to improve the community. There must be more people like her in our community who work hard in different ways to better their environment, and that is such a great thing. We hope this documentary can inform people about how dedicated people are to creating better environments, and how anyone can help out even if it is a small contribution.

On the technical side, we got to our interview and didn’t have a 9-volt battery to power our lav mic kit, so we just had to use the camera audio. If we could go back and redo it, we definitely would have gotten a battery so our audio could have been better. However, in the end, we are really happy with how the documentary turned out.

Artist's Statement:

I decided to protest Teachers’ Unions. It is easy to argue that we want the best possible teachers in the classrooms educating the youth of America. But Teachers’ Unions primary focus is on the teachers, and not the students being taught. Teachers’ Unions protect even bad teachers. The concern isn’t for the best quality education, but to ensure that all teachers, even poor ones, keep their jobs.

Education in the United States is definitely faltering compared to other countries. We are in need of a change in the educational system, but Teachers’ Unions are standing in the way. According to Teachersunionsexposed.com, a campaign against Teachers’ Unions, 1 out of 57 doctors loses their license to practice medicine, and 1 out of 97 lawyers lose their license to practice law. Yet only about 1 out of 1000 teachers loses their teaching license. Tenure protects teachers, yet tenure isn’t necessarily earned because of their hard work or being good at what they do. These stats illustrate how detrimental Teachers’ Unions are.

I believe teachers should be hired and fired based on if they are good teachers or not. I think I feel strongly about this because my siblings and I have had experience with bad teachers. One of my sisters told me that her teacher doesn’t care if they misspell words or use poor grammar in their writing. She says they only care about if their writing is interesting, persuasive, etc. She hasn’t learned so many of the basic skills, like penmanship and typing, that I learned in elementary school. Additionally, the principal at my little sister’s elementary school consistently uses poor grammar in writing and speech. I worry that some teachers aren’t following the best teaching methods, and the kids are becoming consistently less proficient in the basics. The future of America truly does lie in quality of education obtained by the rising generation.

I represented my views on Teachers’ Unions in my poster by portraying a bad teacher. I showed that it was in fact a bad teacher by writing “2+2=5” on the chalkboard. I put a fence around the bad teacher to show that he is protected and nothing can touch him. I felt this adequately showed that I am against teachers’ unions.

I posted this protest poster to a social media platform, and also on my normal life blog. I got a few responses to it. People said they could understand what I was trying to say. They agree that teachers unions are protecting bad teachers, and maybe even hindering good ones. Some said the barbed wire seemed a little harsh, like maybe people in teachers’ unions should be arrested. That isn’t exactly what I was trying to say, but the idea of being against teachers’ unions is there.