I want to do a short video documentary as my final project, which will look at how women and girls are portrayed in media from various decades. It will also include a montage of scenes from films, TV series, and commercials that span several decades in order to emphasize enduring problems like objectification, underrepresentation, and stereotyping as well as changes in the way women are portrayed.
The goal of the documentary is to critically examine the ways in which media has affected women’s and girls’ self-perceptions and societal perceptions in both positive and bad ways. The film will highlight the need for ongoing work toward more inclusive and equitable representations of women and girls in media while also raising awareness of the progress that has been done by presenting a variety of experiences and points of view. The project’s ultimate goal is to provoke thought and discussion about how media affects how we perceive gender roles and identities.
The Final Project asks you to create your own media on your about women and girls. This can be a criticism of what you see in media, what you wish you saw in media, satire, etc. Any topic in relation to women, girls, and media is acceptable for this project.The form your project takes is also up to you: you can create a YouTube video about women, girls, and media, a series of memes, a short film, a commercial or advertisement marketed to women and girls, a zine, a podcast episode, a proposal for a new podcast, a script for a commercial, TV show, or short film, an advertisement for a new or existing product, or some other creative mediated format. Any media format is acceptable for this project. Here are some resources that may help you:
- Screencast-o-Matic Tutorial– Free screen recording tool (Privacy Policy)
- Podomatic Tutorial – Free podcasting tool (Privacy Policy)
- Canva Tutorials – Free photo editing tool (Privacy Policy)
- YouTube Tutorial – Free video tool (Accessibility Information, Privacy Policy)
*Creativity and thoughtfulness are mandatory, professional media creation is not.
With your media, you must also submit a one paragraph description of your media (title, what it is, and its intent/intended message) and an Annotated Bibliography. Like your formal written assignments, a total of 4 scholarly sources, 2 of which may be from your textbook/course materials, and 2 outside sources must inform your project. Additional supplementary sources such as news media articles are welcome and encouraged, especially because conversations about your text may be happening on the web, Twitter, etc. too and are therefore relevant to your research. Do keep in mind that those are supplementary rather than scholarly sources. The descriptive paragraph and annotated bibliography are the only written requirements for the 3 components of this Final Project (your media; paragraph description of it; annotated bibliography).
