Media Literate

Snack Episode 2: The Secrets of Darkroom Photography in 3 Minutes.

How are photos really made? Why is the room always dark? What's up with the red lights??

On this week's Snack Episode, Guest Host Ann teaches Colton all about the enigmas of dark room photography, and how filmmakers and photographers truly master the art of Light Bending.

Tune in to Media Literate's Snack Episodes to learn everything you never knew, you never knew about darkroom photography.  

 

 

 

Episode 10: 7 Ways to be Anti-Racist at the Box Office

Okay, not really, but wouldn't it be nice if there was a quick and easy listicle that could tell you how to engage with cinema created by marginalized groups? Instead, this week Sebastian returns to talk indigenous cinema with Kim and Laura. Looking at Lee Tamahori's 1994 film Once Were Warriors, they discuss how the concepts of authorship and "death of the author" apply when it comes to indigenous films, and try to figure out what it means to be a responsible viewer.

Some cool links for further inquiry:

“The Death of the Author” by Roland Barthes: http://sites.tufts.edu/english292b/files/2012/01/Barthes-The-Death-of-the-Author.pdf

Our Own Image: A Story of a Maori Filmmaker by Barry Barclay:
https://www-jstor-org.libproxy2.usc.edu/stable/10.5749/j.ctt189ttts

“Reclaiming Māori Image” by Leonie Pihama: https://tewhareporahou.wordpress.com/2014/02/08/reclaiming-maori-image/

“Taxonomies of Indigeneity: Indigenous Heterosexual Patriarchal Masculinity” by Brendan Hokowhitu:
https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=za8HCwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PT7&dq=brendan+hokowhitu+taxonomies+&ots=156btHhRs8&sig=GW6Ei7WU4z5JHpdhr2pMKWAZLh8#v=onepage&q=brendan%20hokowhitu%20taxonomies&f=false

Beyond Settler Time: Temporal Sovereignty and Indigenous Self-Determination by Mark Rifkin:
https://read-dukeupress-edu.libproxy1.usc.edu/books/book/2/Beyond-Settler-TimeTemporal-Sovereignty-and

Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples by Linda Tuhiwai Smith: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/socal/detail.action?docID=1426837&pq-origsite=primo

Interview with Lee Tamahori:
https://www.artforum.com/print/199502/warrior-cast-33251

Indigenous Storywork: Educating the Heart, Mind, Body, and Spirit by Jo-ann Archibald Q’um Q’um Xiiem:
https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=PI_tVlgftg8C&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=indigenous+storywork&ots=RzxES41SF1&sig=wO2eVfNHlgTZFXkx7nZPTWCB2eg#v=onepage&q=indigenous%20storywork&f=false

Snack Episode 1: Lacan, Lack and Desire in 3 Minutes.

What is desire? Who is Jacques Lacan? What are we lacking??

In this new mini-series, Colton invites on different hosts to cover an array of media topics. The catch? They only have 3 min to explain their topic in full. This week's subject is all about lack, desire and where they come from.

Tune in to Media Literate's Snack Episodes to learn everything you never knew, you never knew.  

Episode 9: Corrupt Me, Dracula

In the Season 2 premier, new permanent hosts Kim and Laura are joined by Colton for a conversation about the potential of monsters as allegory. Using an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer as a guide, Colton delves into the ways creatures like werewolves and witches have the power to start conversations among viewers.

Source: "Television as a cultural forum: Implications for research" by Horace Newcomb and Paul Hirsch, 1983: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10509208309361170

Media Literate is a collaborative podcast produced by Colton Elzey, Sebastian Wurzrainer, Laura Broman, Kim Henry, and Julia Rose Camus. This episode was edited by Sabrina Sonner. Our theme music is Soft Feeling by Cheel, and our logo was created by Julia.

Episode 8: Queering Troy Bolton: Oppositional Readings of Girls‘ Media

In the season finale of Media Literate, Andrea is joined by returning guests Sabrina and Julia Rose Camus for a conversation about the often-dismissed media made for girls. They look at how, not simply passive receivers of meaning, girls take agency in how they interpret the content directed towards them.

Sources:

Shauna Pomerantz : "Between a Rock and a Hard Place:Un/Defining the "Girl"" 

https://muse.jhu.edu/article/406620/pdf?casa_token=sjWQsHhx06cAAAAA:gUY04-xkDENA7Kl0j4yGjvtDQACzO6xvpu02K0pGDcFgrfJzp9UZc5Hg8Y11xxmR9GAzMkRTEw

Stuart Hall: "ENCODING/DECODING"
https://spstudentenhancement.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/stuart-hall-1980.pdf

 

Episode 7: What Even Is "Indie Film?"

What exactly is "independent cinema?" How does it manifest differently in Hollywood versus other countries? Ann, Ziwei, and Daniela sit down for a conversation about what should qualify as an independent film across American and Chinese culture, and just how blurred the lines between independent and mainstream cinema have become.

Episode 6: The Sopranos, Mental Health, and Food

Daniela, Charlotte, and Laura discuss The Sopranos and its unique portrayals of masculinity, food, and mental health, taking a close look at the show’s representations of eating disorders.

*CW: discussions of eating disorders and diet culture.

Episode 5: D&D & iDeology

Dan, Ann, and Sabrina delve into the history behind the iconic tabletop RPG, Dungeons & Dragons. Looking at some of the more questionable choices in the game's rules, world-building, and antecedents, they consider what it means to be an ethical player and how ideology surrounds us, even if we don't always know it.

Episode 4: Modern Man.

Colton and Sebastian join Julia Rose Camus for a conversation about masculinity in the media. In breaking away from our usual debate format, the 3 discuss portrayals on some of the biggest, and smallest screens, in search of how media can be used to dismantle toxic masculinity. 

Some cool links for further inquiry:

Gillette "The Best a Man Can Get"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koPmuEyP3a0

Charlie XCX "Boys" 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPRy1B4t5YA

Steve Neale "Masculinity as a Spectacle" 
https://academic.oup.com/screen/article-abstract/24/6/2/1653405?redirectedFrom=PDF

Laura Mulvey "Visual Pleasure in Narrative Cinema"
https://www.asu.edu/courses/fms504/total-readings/mulvey-visualpleasure.pdf

 

Episode 3: Can Marvel Make Revolutionary Movies? Intro to Numbered Cinema.

In episode 3 of Media Literate Sebastian, Victor, and Laura discuss the value of Numbered Cinema, the framework that ties together the French New Wave, Marvel’s Thor: Ragnarok, and Marxist revolutionaries—or does it really?

Some cool links for further inquiry:

- Toward a Third Cinema: https://www.criticalsecret.net/IMG/pdf/towards_a_third_cinema.pdf

- Celebrating Fourth Cinema: https://www.academia.edu/4905111/Printed_in_Illusions_Magazine_NZ_July_2003_CELEBRATING_FOURTH_CINEMA

- Our Own Image: https://www-jstor-org.libproxy2.usc.edu/stable/10.5749/j.ctt189ttts

- Dan Taipua on Thor: Ragnarok: https://thespinoff.co.nz/atea/31-10-2017/thor-and-his-magic-patu-notes-on-a-very-maori-marvel-movie/

- Vika Mana on Thor: Ragnarok: https://medium.com/@endlessyarning/thor-ragnarok-a-very-indigenous-film-a108d90ec766

Also, be sure to check out means.tv, a worker-owned streaming platform that creates anti-capitalist news and entertainment media!