Plan for the Week

TO DO THIS WEEK:

• Watch Watchmen
• Watch Miss Representation
• Generate TV themes
• Write up TV thematic analysis
• Make presentation for formative review

Once again I have had to reshuffle my time plan, this time to account for the fact that I have a formative review next Tuesday and a draft hand-in the week after that and I currently have precisely fuck-all to actually submit for them. Here's what that currently looks like.

Docuemntary of the week

Finally got around to watching Miss Representation, the last of the media documentaries I wanted to watch! It was mostly a bit of a letdown I must admit, but here's some notes:

• Argues that "media is the most important source of information in our society"
• I do like that the documentary touches on how misogyny intersects with things like race - for example there's an interview with a black high school student who talks about feeling like she has to straighten her hair and stuff like that. I know that doesn't sound like a lot but I feel like the bar was on the floor in 2011
• These media documentaries really love the "you can't be what you can't see" quote
• There's a lot of stuff in the documentary I feel pretty weird about - like for a supposedly feminist documentary it talks about women in really weird ways sometimes. I don't think implying that it's the fault of prominent women for wearing "revealing" clothing on TV that women are sexualised is a great thing for a documentary to do. Guys what about the structural analysis. Guys what about the systems.
• Also I get that there's a huge double standard in beauty standards for men vs women but GUYS fat-shaming isn't suddenly fine when you do it to men. shockingly enough
• AND ALSO the way they talk about the Obama vs Clinton election is super weird. Guys why are we pretending Hilary Clinton was the only one of the two who experienced bigoted media coverage. Why are we pretending racism doesn't exist?
• AND WHILE I'M COMPLAINING what the fuck was the guy claiming that female characters were better written in the 20s and 30s on about? I actually watch old movies can we please be so fr. Noir femme fatales were not the high point of female character writing.
• Anyway as ever it turns out the problem was media deregulation all along
• Overall it's a fine documentary and would probably be a decent introduction to the idea of sexism in the media but it only really covers the absolute basics, and could honestly be a lot more radical than it is. It's fine I guess

Happy Tutorial Tuesday!

Had a group tutorial with my fellow students and MRes graduate Louise on Tuesday. We discussed a lot of different things, most relevantly to me data analysis, how to stay motivated, and the dreaded presentation!

• Data analysis - methods depend on data you collect
• What's the best way to explain what's going on? Don't get too stuck on one method
• Give yourself space to not do the work lol - don't just sit in the library being miserable all day
• Giving yourself a day off can help you get motivated
• Presentations - can't include entire research project
• Balance of stuff you talk about should depend on project
• Importance of context! Bring audience up to speed
• Have phone timer while presenting?
• "Progress bar" on slides?
• Can use fewer quotes!

Other Events of the Week

• After a lot of reshuffling and combining themes together, I've put together a set I'm actually happy with! Final themes are listed and defined here!
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• With the TV themes set, the next job was going through the focus group transcripts and drawing out some key points. Summaries of key points from both focus groups can be found here
• Took part in the final two performances for my friend's wonderful performance art thing! We did a filmed performance on Wednesday for the AUB online show as well as doing a live in-person performance on Thursday. It's been a really rewarding experience taking part and I'm kind of sad it's over!
• 
• So. I made what I would call a Hell of a decision considering I have a presentation next Tuesday and fucked off to London for ANOTHER weekend to go see some MORE musicals. This time around went to see Standing at the Sky's Edge and Next to Normal. Neither of these are at all relevant to my project, I just need you all to understand the absolute state that my time management is in currently.

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