“The Effect of Media on Girls,” Elizabeth Baldwin (2014) — Inquiry 4

Watch Baldwin’s short video on Youtube:Screen shot 2014-06-04 at 3.48.11 AM.png

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6Hxg_bIHbM

When I was told that I was going to be revisiting an old inquiry, I knew that I wanted to remediate my Inquiry Three website on the effects of media on girls.  This issue is a huge deal in my community, seeing as many girls from my high school started the Butterfly Project.  Ever since it took off, the Butterfly Project raised awareness for girls and their self-image for thousands of girls around our area, including my younger sisters and myself.  For my youngest sister, this issue is especially important to her because she is a leader at her middle school for the Butterfly Project and was including in a video that was displayed on Good Morning America.  Clearly, this is not an issue that my family, community, or myself take lightly.  It is something that I am very passionate about, so I want to take as many opportunities as I can to present my ideas.  I also liked that the remediation was another form of digital media because I enjoy working with that form of presentation.  Overall, Inquiry Four was very fun for me because I loved the topic I chose, the medium I worked with, and a lot of my friends got the opportunity to help me out.

For my Inquiry Three project, I created a website that presented my information on several different tabs based on the topic.  I included several videos as well as several pictures and infographics.  I think that my website is effective because viewers can choose what to do on the website, whether they want to view statistics about eating disorders or watch a video, for example.  My pictures drew in the emotional appeal, while my copious amounts of statistics played into the logos affect.  On the other hand, my remediated project had more ethos because of all the girls that were in the video.  My friends in my dorm each held up a statistic about girls in media, which I think also appeals to the emotions.  I also liked the video project better because I felt that I got to be more creative and come up with better ideas.  Another thing that added to the emotional appeal of my video is that I got to use music and sound effects.  I chose to use the sound of a ticking clock at the beginning as I presented statistics about how much time teenagers spend being exposed to media, as well as during the slideshow of pictures of sexualized girls in the media.  Then, during the “inspiration” part of the video, I chose the song “Dare You to Move” by Switchfoot.  It is a song about how things will only get done if people are motivated enough to take action.

The intended audience for my Inquiry Three is for girls who are influenced by media as well as parents who are affected by girls being influenced by media.  There is no truly specific intended audience in Inquiry Three because I was hoping that my website would be used to educate common people about the issue.  On the other hand, my Inquiry Four has an intended audience of girls who are influenced by media.  I think it is important for these girls to watch this video so that they can understand that the body image that girls in the media portray is not realistic.  I wanted to present girls with facts about how much time they spend (on average) on media and how it is inevitable for them to be affected.  The pictures I chose to put on the video were all pictures of girls in the music, television, and advertising industries that have been overly sexualized.  Following these pictures is the informational segment about how girls can overcome these false expectations.

Overall, I would highly recommend using an iMovie to create a rhetorical production.  I think that iMovie allows for more creativity than a PowerPoint or Prezi.  One thing I struggled with while creating my movie was the time limit.  It was hard for me to create a long video when I felt that iMovie had already quickly and effectively presented the statistics and information that I wanted to present.  However, I think that making a video appeals more to captivating the emotions since a combination of sounds, still images and videos can be used.  I feel that my Inquiry Four remediation is extremely effective and I am quite proud of my final project on the effect of media on girls.