Who I Am.

Matt's War Remix

Bret Schlein's 'Every Girl' Remix

Go here to view my remix: http://astro.temple.edu/~tua61850/Remix_Every_Girl_2.ppsx

If you do not have PowerPoint on your computer, download this free viewer here: PowerPoint Viewer 2007 (for Windows)
or download it for your mac here: PowerPoint Viewer 2007 (for Mac)

My purpose for making this remix was to point out different female stereotypes of beauty that are in our culture. I did this by using the song 'Every Girl' by Lil' Wayne, Drake, Jae Millz, Gutta, + Mack Maine. Over the song, I used various images of women, throughout the slide show. Without stating what the stereotypes for beauty are for women, I let the song and images do that for themselves. The audience for the remix is intended for this class only, especially since JumpCut is shutting down. I want the audience (the class) to watch the remix and interpret it in their own ways. Each person thinks differently. I do want each person to be able to pick out the different stereotypes of women that stand out, through the combination of the song and the constant photos of different women.

I used Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 to create my remix. I used many images that I found using various websites, such as Google Images, Live.com, and Photobucket. In order to portray the messages that I wanted to use, I used various techniques. One technique was to select images that fit into two different themes; beautiful women and stereotypically ugly women. I chose the song, 'Every Girl,' so that many of the images would fit well with the song, while the others would clash. I also placed certain images at certain points of the song, so that it would create new meanings, when the original meanings of the song and image clashed.

My remix is a fair use of source texts, because it is transformative. Using the images that I used, along with the song, I added new values and purposes to both forms of media.

Enjoy my remix,

--Bret Schlein

My Life in a Slideshow

1) The purpose of my remix is to express part of who I am as an individual with a series of images from my life and captions that describe these images. My audience is whoever sees the blog where the remix is posted, as well as my Myspace where I also posted the remix, and possibly my Facebook if I decide to post it there as well for my friends to see. It will circulate on these three websites only as far as I am concerned. My intended meaning behind the remix was to express some of my interests and hobbies, as well as the people and things that I care most about.
2) The techniques and choices that I used to create and communicate my remix were to pull a variety of images over the years that displayed a bunch of different aspects of my life, and make these pictures come alive in colorful and unique ways. By adding captions with color, as well as the heart transitions between slides, it helped me to more creatively show who I am as a person, and not just post a bunch of pictures, but rather make them pop and stand out.
3) I believe that everything that I portrayed is of fair use, because many of the images were taken by my friends and I on my camera, and so they were mine to use as I pleased, and the ones in which I took from the Internet I used in my own fashion and with my captions, and so I transformed them for a specific purpose, that being entertainment. The slideshow website that I used provided me the options of color and background/transitions, and so everything that I did to make my slideshow come alive was all within boundary of avoiding copyrighting. I believe that it is transformative, because although I am sure that there are other slideshows out there like it, no other slideshow is exactly like mine in that it has the exact same images, captions, and so on, and so mine is unique to who I am as an individual, and it sticks to what the fair use video guidelines lay out as being reasonable and within fair use rather than crossing over to copyrighting.

Teaching Media Literacy

The pages of the article that our group had to read about were from 3-18 and 32-34. We read about the skills needed in a media culture, the overall participation in the culture, the three problems with teaching media literacy, and how to sample media text. I'll talk about the reasons we should be teaching media literacy. Firstly I think that education is going in the direction of learning on the internet using remixes and using social interaction through myspace or facebook. Our class is mainly geared around learnign through these types of media. We use blogs and remixers to learn about the different theories and ideas that are presented to us. We learn through one another by reading others blogs and watching the clips provided. Its essential to teach kids how to use these tools provided to them. Everyone should have access to the internet and should try to learn the different programs on the computer so they won't fall behind in learning. Also I htink that when students learn how to use media in their work, they also need to be wary of Copy rights and that they could get in trouble for not citing their work.





Ok, i know that this video is about copy rights and media literacy, but the professor is on this one. I have to make it work somehow.:P This video is concerned about students using video or materials in their works that are copy righted and how they could get in trouble if they use them. The reason they use the clips is, because the work so well with what they are trying to convey. This is a part of media literacy, because it teaches students how to be wary of copy rights and when it is appropriate to use videos in their work. Copy Rights is a big issue with downloading songs and using other peoples' work in your work. I think this is a big deal when it comes to learning how to use the tools at your disposal and this should be taught to students. I for one, don't know to much about Copy Right laws.

Genderlect Styles

In Deborah Tannen's Genderlect Styles Theory, she described the conversational styles of men and women. According to Tannen, conversations between men and women are cross-cultural conversations. For example, Tannen states that men and women "speak different words, from different worlds. Even When they use the same terms, they are tuned into different frequencies" (Griffin, 429). Tannen then, went into detail to describe all of the differences between male and female conversational styles.

I do not fully agree with her theory. Deborah Tannen has come up with a decent basis that further research and studies should be focused around. I did not find her argument's to be strong, because I thought her results were too extreme, without enough evidence to prove her findings.



This is a simple video of a man (Stevie) talking into the camera about the differences in communication styles, between men and women. According to Stevie, he states that "when it comes to communication, women are subtle [and] men are direct." He says that when a woman wants a man to do something, she throws him subtle hints, instead of just asking him directly. Tannen did not mention anything about women being subtle, but she did mention that women are more sensitive in nature. Tannen and Stevie do agree that men are more direct, in nature. Stevie also stated that women will not let you know, if they are mad at you. They might drop subtle hints or ignore the fight altogether. Tannen agrees that women try to avoid conflict, at all costs. She states that women view conflict, as being a threat to connection, therefore they will try to avoid it at all costs.

--Bret Schlein

The feminist communication theory is based on three criteria of gender, communication, and social change. All of which encompass and understanding of how communication and gender interact with the respect of assumptions constructed by society.

-The feminist communication theory is stated as explanatory because the theory itself is designed by experience. It is articulated by the experiences that individuals have and their perspectives involving the significance of communication in the every day rituals of females.

-It's political because the politics surrounding feminist communication reach a personal level. Women have been silenced and been seen as insubordinate in one way or another has been such a huge part of society's history that it cannot be seen but anything as personal.

-The theory is seen as polyvocal because it has been formed by many different female voices with many different opinions, philosophies, and morals which at times can be conflicting interests. Because of the all the different kinds of women with so many different experiences the theory has so many different perspectives to draw conclusions from.

-The idea of a true "voice" is when one as the ability to articulate thoughts and then in turn also be able to listen to what others have to say that may or may not be in conflict to your opinions and/or ideas. As I mentioned before there have been so many times throughout history when women have been denied the power of their voice and have been silenced and so women were forced to find other creative ways to express the communication that they were denied.

Deborah Tannen stated in chapter on genderlect styles that males and females think on two different levels and express themselves in very different ways. She used the really great examples of dialogue from the movie, "When Harry Met Sally" to better illustrate her point.

The following is a clip that defines certain stereotypes that define the differences men and women and who they are as individuals.