mdst_110 / 2007_fall / project proposals

2.0 Proposals

mdst 110-l : section 2 : r 14.00-15.50 [last updated 07.11.07]

• Our group project, in which a website will be created for the newly formed Media Studies Department, is directed toward improved aesthetic quality and organization. After thoroughly searching the old website, our group made its first priority the reorganization of links and information. We will be adding horizontal tabs to the top of the homepage (which also drop down) so that all the important, basic content will be categorized and presented on every page for easy redirection. Specifically, we will reorganize the "courses" section to meet the needs of current and prospective majors by adding an extensive list of all core, primary, and secondary classes offered. Before, this useful information was only available off an obscure link on the old website. To improve both visual appeal and functionality, a flash presentation will be added to the homepage as well as a "recent news and announcements" box. Also, a video interview of Professor Siva Vaidhyanathan will be placed under the "about" section of the website to help explain the growing media studies field and what a new department means for the students at UVa.


• Our video will portray both the positive and negative effects that Instructional Tool-kit has on the University community. Through narration, dramatization, and real-life interviews, it will bring to light the ways in which Tool-kit has allowed the educational environment to flourish, while also drawing attention to the ways it has taken away from it. Each team member has played an important part in the creation of this project, whether in helping edit the film, writing the script, or getting interviews set up. In order to gather all the information needed for the video, the group talked to various members of the University community to see how they used Tool-kit in their daily lives, whether it helped or hurt them, and in what ways. After all the interviews are complete, we will take clips from them and put them together with the dramatization we have created and information given by the narrator. We plan on putting the video on the Facebook group for the class and possibly on YouTube. Potential ideas for publicity include posting the video on our own Facebook profiles and putting links where others can view it on AOL Instant Messenger.


• For our project, we will rely on interviews and news clips to create a video that will explore the role of Facebook in the Virginia Tech shooting crisis. Facebook "groups" functioned as social networks which allowed those at Virginia Tech to communicate with people within their community, as well as the outside world, during the incident. We will also show, through a filmed interview, that Facebook served to generate support for the Virginia Tech community in outside communities like ours at UVA. The video will begin with news footage of the shooting in order to show the devastation of the event. We will then move on to footage of professionals discussing the role of social networking sites (Facebook, Myspace) in the crisis. Finally, the majority of our video will be devoted to the first-hand accounts of the interviewees about the powerful role of Facebook in their experiences on the day of the crisis and the time thereafter. Keith will be the main cinematographer; Dimitri is responsible for sound and music; Sarah conducts the interviews; Allie will be finding pictures for digital stills; and Ashley is responsible for logistics and organization. The video will be posted on the class Facebook group site at the conclusion of the course.


• Our group's video project will be a documentary-style compilation of interviews investigating University students' endeavors to transition their Facebook profiles from a primarily social network use to a career-oriented one. To do this, we will interview professors, students, career services representatives, and business recruiters to include a sampling of opinions from a diverse group of individuals. We will ask each individual an established set of questions, including: whether the interviewee has a Facebook profile, his perceived security of his profile, his or her chosen online persona (and perhaps editing, "untagging," of pictures), and finally his opinion on whether he thinks a potential employer would try to access his profile. In addition to those questions, we will ask employment recruiters that visit the University whether they look at a student's Facebook, on what criteria they would judge it, if a Facebook profile can work to improve a student's likelihood of employment, what role he/she thinks that Facebook will play in company policy and recruiting in the future, and his/her suggestions for students who maintain a Facebook profile. Our goal is to compile and edit these interviews in a fair way based on our collective observations and interviews on the employment of students. We will use minimal outside footage, but we will include still shots from the Facebook website and shots of the University for transitions. We may choose to use a voice-over to narrate sparsely throughout the video to maintain a level of coherence for the viewer.

mdst 110-l : section 4 : r 14.00-15.50 [last updated 07.11.07]

• For our project, we will be redesigning the Department of Media Studies website in such a way that it encompasses the innovative direction that the department is currently pursuing. The current site does not have an attractive, inviting look to it and more often than not, the different pages within the site are laden with too much text. By redesigning the site, we hope to streamline the material within the site while presenting a look that is both user-friendly and aesthetically pleasing. Emily will be the main coder for our site. Buddy and Tiffany will help with some coding, but will also be involved with assembling materials. Ross�s primary task will be to assemble materials while also helping with any miscellaneous tasks that might arise. Leslie will be working closely with Emily to determine and execute the aesthetic look of the website, as well as ensure that the content works with the new design.


• Our video project will focus around uses and abuses of technology in the classroom. We will present the issue from both the student's and professor's perspectives. We have set up interviews with professors, some who use technology as an intricate part of their teaching style, and others who either do not use technology, or have been at UVa long enough to see the changes in classroom technology over the years. We will be interviewing ourselves to show a students perspective and the different abuses of technology we have seen in our classrooms. We will be filming in classrooms, from the angle of the professor to see what he sees as students bring out their laptops in class. We will also be filming from the students perspective, in the back of the classroom, looking down at the professor and seeing the different things students are doing with their laptops in class. We plan on doing filming around grounds as well, to get B roll of students and professors using the technology.


• The purpose of our video, using old video footage from UVA basketball and football games, is to demonstrate the uses and abuses of digital technology on the University of Virginia athletic events. In particular we want to explore how the JumboTron has positively and adversely affected football and basketball games. We believe that the JumboTron has increased crowd excitement and game awareness. However, we also believe that what the JumboTron contributes to the game may also compromise the integrity of aspects of sports. More specifically we will look at problems such as crowd rioting and distraction caused by the JumboTron. In our video we would like to include some evidence from articles about the distractions caused by the JumboTron and interviews with personell that work near or with the JumboTron. We will also obtain interviews from students to poll the opinion of the JumboTron�s effect on athletics, specifically basketball and football.


• Our video project is intended to explore some of the uses and abuses of digital technology pertaining to the production and distribution of student-created film and video. We will begin by exploring the digital equipment resources on campus and the legitimate student film culture. Then, we will talk about the prevalence of handheld-camera videos, and we will show a (fake) YouTube video created by a (fake) University student. The video will be divided into 3 segments, each representing a media use or abuse, and we will proceed to analyze each section. The first segment will involve bootlegged footage of a UVA football game from inside the stadium, and our analysis will focus on issues of copyright. The second segment will show an underage student caught on camera (unawares) drinking alcohol in dorms, and our analysis will focus on UJC discipline and defamation of character. The third and final segment will be a video of an on-grounds a cappella group (Remix?), an dour analysis will focus on fame and exposure.

1.0 Proposals

mdst 110-l : section 2 : r 14.00-15.50 [last updated 07.09.26]

• For our project, we plan on analyzing, with interviews, the benefits and drawbacks of facebook as a social network through case studies such as Virginia Tech support groups, as well as hate groups.


• The intention of our video project is to analyze the benefit of toolkit as a helpful assistance which has offered student's ability to access readings, assignments, and course information very simply at anywhere that has access to internet while also showing the cost it has on the student body in that people take it for granted and might skip class or depend on the site so much that they are affected when a course does not use toolkit.


• Our group's video project will be a documentary-style compilation of interviews investigating University students' endeavors to transition their Facebook profiles from a primarily social network use to a career-oriented one.


• The purpose of this project is to create an improved website for the new Media Studies Department at the University of Virginia which contains more functional and centralized informational links, video interviews from professors, and an aesthetic design with both inovation and a traditional UVA look.

mdst 110-l : section 4 : r 17.00-18.50 [last updated 07.09.26]

• Our group will be looking into the uses and abuses of the JumboTron in the football and basketball game experiences. We will be researching the uses that enhance the game experience, providing insight into the game that previously didn't exist. At the same time, we will look into abuses of advertising, replay, and video that causes distractions.


• For our group project, we will analyze (mockumentary-style) the possible (fake) paths of a YouTube video, including uses like creative expression or artistic exposure and abuses like invasion of privacy or copyright infringement.


• Our 5 minute film will discusses the uses and abuses of classroom technology focusing on technology such as laptops, clickers, powerpoint presentations, podcasts, videos, and toolkit, comparing and contrasting their effect on students and teachers now versuses older technology.


• Our goal with this project is to analyze the positive and negative aspects of the current Media Studies website and to utilize that knowledge to build an improved website that is both aesthetically pleasing and contextually informative.