I made a section under episode 3 for our questions etc. Please fill it in!

 

 

 

Model:

 

Slate's Culture Gabfest

 

Ideas for title:

 

 

Paige: "Culture Shock"

 

 

Ideas for show art:

 

DONE -- created by Sinead

 

Host

Me, Paige.

 

Episode 1:

Intro: Hi and welcome to the the first episode of Siren's Culture Shock. This podcast will have in-depth discussions about cultural events and trends. In each episode we will be examining trends in popular culture specifically in the world of teenagers.

I'm Paige Fors, a junior at sion, and today we will talking about Twilight- both the book and the phenomenon. Here with me is senior Nicole Bishop and junior Emily Santiago.

To start off I was wondering what are your opinions of Bella. Is she a good role model, a bad role model, in between?

 

Topic for first episode: 

 

First novel in Twilight Saga

 

Questions for Each Episode:

 

Episode 4: texting

Recording Date:  Mon. 4/20

 

Questions:

 

Ms. Hodge:

• Does texting make it easier to talk to a boy?
• How many texts do you send and receive in one day, on average?
• Do  you have to hide your phone when you need to focus and get something done at home? 
• Have you ever received an unusually weird or funny text?  
• Do you text with parents and siblings?

 

Emily Santiago:

• Does texting keep you from enjoying the present?
• Where would teenagers be if they didn't have texting? 
• Do parents text their own kids? 
• Which do you prefer, texting or calling? 
• Has texting interferred with one's ability to hold  a conversation? 
• Do you wish we didn't have texting?

 

Nicole Bishop:

• Do you get annoyed when you're hanging out with friends and they're texting someone? 
• How does texting risk misinterpreting people?
• What are some pros of texting, cons?
• How do adults view texting, do they encourage it?  If not, what are the issues they have with it?
• Do you believe texting is a good way to begin communication with someone you don't really know well enough to call?
• Do you think texting allows more leniance for conversation between teens, because you can always twist the words to fit a positive or negative light?
• Does texting allow for easier and faster methods of rumors or negative images of peers to spread?

 

Episode 3:

Date: Tuesday 2/23.  Could someone email Nicole to remind her to prepare?  She may have prepared well enough already. Continuation on Tuesday 3/09.

Questions:

 

     Nicole:

• Do you find Facebok a convenient tool for keeping in touch with those peple you aren't really friends with enough to call?
• Do you belive Facebook provides better privacy options to prevent sex offenders and other criminals from victimizing its users compared to Myspace?
• How much time to you think the average teen spends on Facebook per day?
• Could we attribute procrastination and sleep deprivation to "Faceook abuse?"
• Does Facebook allow for easier targetting of peers as far as bullying is concerned?  How rare or common do you think this occurs?
• What do you think about colleges accessing your profile and viewing your pictures to help them decide on your admittance.  Is this fair? (If you put them up, you have to be aware that you are posting them for anyone to see.)

 

     Emily: 

• Do people even realize what they are posting?
• Should facebook allow inappropriate pictures to be posted?
• Have you ever been surprised to see certain pictures of your friends doing things that may or may not be OK?
• Should there be an age minimum to aquire a facebook profile?
• Is it really as safe as the company claims?

 

     Paige:

• Do high-school or college students spend an alarming amount of time on facebook every night and if so how do you think this affects their personal lives?
• How do your "facebook friends" differ from your friends in real life? Or is there a difference?
• Do you think Mark Zuckerberg stole the idea from one of his friends?
• What do you think about all the new applications etc that have recently been added to facebook such as the facebook-chat option? Do you like or use these?
• I recently deleted my facebook, have either of you ever considered doing this?
• Some people say that the reason they keep their facebook is to keep in touch with old friends or friends who you are not close enough to call or text. Do you think if you don't know someone well enough to call or text them it's really worth keeping the relationship?
• Do you ever reject any friend requests or do you tend to be pretty open with your friend acceptances.
• Do any of the applications ever confuse you? Do you ever get annoyed with how many applications there are offered?
• Did the high-school age limit really ever prevent anyone not in high school from creating an account? (I believe that has been taken off of the site.)

 

Ms. Hodge:

 

• What does "facebook stalking" refer to?  Have you done this?  Sophomores talk about this a lot.
• Check out this article from The New Yorker.  ANd this one.  And this NPR audio essay.
• Article on the Huffington Post -- link fixed.  It's about the "25 things about me" meme on Facebook.
• Slate's Culture Gabfest # 27 has a segment on the "25 things" trend on Facebook.  I've now listened to it -- HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.  
• I've recently begun using Facebook and I've noticed a lot of adult friends of mine are using it regularly.  Artists in particular seem to be benefitting from sharing artwork and receiving feedback.  Also, parents of small children are staying connected with friends that they aren't able to see as much these days.  It looks to me like Facebook is serving the function of providing a virtual community where physical (or "meetspace," as my husband calls it) communities are lacking, due to various constraints of our 21st century lives.   Do you find that Facebook serves as a kind of community for teens, in a healthy way, or does it seem to be serving other purposes for teens?
• I don't understand why / how people have four or five hundred (or more) people listed as "friends."  That seems like it would completely ruin the experience.  Have you "friended" people too casually and regretted it later?  Do you ever feel like it's just too many people to deal with? 
• I am noticing that some friends of mine are probably spending more time on Facebook doing things like updating status or changing profile pictures than I would have expected of them.  It's probably taking away from other things they might have been doing like reading or just talking to people.  I'm making a conscious effort not to spend much time on it, but I do seem to look at it daily. 
• The "25 things" lists I have read have been pretty good . . . I don't understand all the vitriol over this.   I suspect that having too many Facebook "friends" is the real problem; I haven't read any lists that I didn't want to read, because I haven't "friended" anyone who isn't an actual friend.  Have you experienced the "25 things" meme?  Did you write a list ?  

 

 

     Episode 2:

 

     Ms. Hodge:

 

     NOTE:  please feel free to disregard any of this if it isn't helpful or interesting to you

 

•  Are there times when suspension of disbelief becomes too difficult for you while watching the show?  (Example when this happened to me:  In recent episode titled "Last Resort," House gets gun from gunman holding him and others hostage, then gives the gun back, which nearly costs his colleague her life.  Before doing this, he has used the words "stupid" and "moron" repeatedly to describe others in the scene)
• Is House, as a character, the biggest draw for viewers of the show?  Why or why not? 
• Do you think people enjoy watching someone insult others because they would like to do this to people in their own lives who annoy them, but could not get away with it?
• Insult comedy has a long-standing place in sitcoms, sketch comedy, and standup comedy in America.  John Stewart once told Terri Gross (of Fresh Air on NPR)  that one of the hardest things he had to learn as a comedian is how to walk the fine line between being genuinely funny and just being an a**h*le.  Is House genuinely funny with his insults, or does he often come off as more jerky than funny?
• What if House were a woman?  Would the show have ever made it to air?  Are Americans able to take that kind of humor from a woman?
• Is the show ever formulaic?  That is, do the episodes follow predictable patterns?
• Does it get irritating that the women on the show look like runway models and wear tailored lab coats (has anyone ever actually seen a female doctor wearing a tailored lab coat in real life)? 
• Is there enough

 

Nicole:

• It is obvious that House would not be employed in the real medical world.  His struggle with addiction and, what seems to be, lack of compassion are qualities added for dramatic effect.  How do you think House's character affects the moral standings of the show itself?
• Do you think the mistreatment or disregard for his patients is a form of rebellion or true mastery of one of the most important aspects of being a doctor, not getting emotionally attached?
• Would House be as intruiging without his witty, dry humor?
• House knows how to get straight to the emotional centers of patients and co-workers with brutal honesty, is this part of our draw towards him?
• The characters around him, like Wilson and Cuddy manage to keep House in check.  Do you think its essential to have these characters around him?
• Secretly everyone wishes they could be as "hardcore" as House.  What aspects do you actually admore in him and why?
• Dr. Cuddy, House's female supervisor seems to be the only one with any sort of control over him.  What do you think of their relationship?

 

 

     Episode 1

• Does Bella's obsession with Edward reach a concerning point? Is this unhealthy for teenage girls to see and read?
• Do you see Bella as a good role model or bad role model for teenagers?
• Does the fact that this is a quick, easy read have anything to do with why it is so popular?
• Is Bella, or any character for that matter, the draw toward Twilight or is it the plot? Something else?
• Is it important that twilight contains little literary merit? Does this make the book more likely to be read?
• Why is the Twilight series compared to Harry Potter? Is this a fair comparison?

 

Nicole:

• The article refers to a surprisingly wide demographic of Twighlight readers, including mothers, grandmothers, and ten year olds.  Do you consider this an accomplishment on Meyer's part, or a disturbing reflection on today's society? (that maybe kids are growing up too fast)
• Stephanie Meyer does not emphasize the fantasy [Gothic or gruesome] in the idea of vampires, do you think Edward's humanity makes the story easier to be enveloped in?
• We have to keep in mind that sometimes authors write their protagonists in a way that is not appealing to every reader.  They write in hopes to make you feel something, be it good or bad.  Did Meyer accomplish this?  At times did you find yourself annoyed with Bella's willful submission to Edward?

• We have to keep in mind that the point of view in Twilight is from Bella.  How does her opinion change the image of Edward?

 

Ms. Hodge:

• A lot of very bright, well-read teens and adults seem to be reading and enjoying these books.   Even if you didn't like Twilight, what can you see in this kind of book that would make people gobble it up like a guilty pleasure?  Is it anything like what we get from blockbuster movies that are fun to watch but not particularly memorable?
• What do you think of Bella's relationship with human teens, boys and girls?   Does it seem believable that all the boys seem smitten with her?  What about the girls -- what qualities are emphasized in these girl characters?  Anything weird about the way all these teens are portrayed in general?
• Do you think part of Edward's appeal to readers is his dangerous side? 
• Could American readers be drawn to the vampire myth in general, and this one in particular, because of the way these gorgeous characters stay young forever?
• Are there any aspects to this book that you see echoed in other areas of popular culture?  What about popular women's magazines and teen magazines?  Music?  Movies? 
• What about the writing style / language of the novel?  

 

Research / preparation: 

 

     Episode 1

• Entertainment Weekly article "The Vampire Empire" July 18 2008 (copies distributed to panelists)
• Video interview with Rob Pattinson: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Te3qH4LhDY&feature=related

 

     Episode 2

 

     Go to hulu.com to watch episodes.

 

Recording Dates and Production Notes:

 

Mon. 11/24 in class and Tues. 11/25

 

Production Notes from 11/24:

 

Blue Snowball not immediately recognized by GB for this session, which is very unusual; I think we ended up using the built-in microphone, though I'm still not entirely sure.  I'm very sorry for this oversight -- I should have been able to see that at the beginning.  Remind me to show you how to check this so you don't run into this problem yourselves.   Voices are  very clear in the recording, but we do have a slight buzz, which  is not necessarily related to the built-in.  We should be able to eliminate the buzz in editing.  If GB won't do it, I know of another problem called Goldwave that will eliminate a particular frequency from a recording, and that should do it.  

 

Paige is now having problems with GB that seem connected to the fact that we have two different audio regions with different data rates on the same track.   I recorded with the built-in and in the next session, continued recording with the Snowball on the same track.  That seems to have been a big no-no.  Folks, remind me to show you how to avoid accidentally recording with the built-in.   Here's a help page I created:  culture shock help

 

 

 

 

Topics for upcoming episodes:

 

House (the tv show)

 

Facebook*

 

Editor:

Paige Fors