… the ability to access, analyze, evaluate and create media in a variety of forms.

We worked a lot with schools and individual teachers to help integrate media literacy into various curricula. We also focused on critical media studies, particularly analyzing the portrayal of women and girls in mass media – generally underrepresented and then objectified and hyper-sexualized when shown at all. Keep in mind, this was a pre-Kardashian world, so at the time the focus was mostly MTV, network TV and women’s magazines, which makes me LOL to think of a time so quaint.

One of the more popular videos used by media literacy educators and gender students educators was Jean Kilbourne’s Killing Us Softly which looks at the portrayal of women in advertising. It’s an insightful video, continually updated in its critique (the video is on its 4th edition.) I highly recommend it, as it’s become even more resonant in the age of Photoshop – retouched beauty standards.

And now we have Miss Representation by actor/filmmaker Jennifer Siebel Newsom as a companion to Killing Us Softly, it’s the same media critique made relevant for a social media/reality TV world, and extending that critique to how women are misrepresented and underrepresented in positions of authority, including politics and business. You have no clue how much it depresses me that we still need a film like this.

Newsom tackles this weighty, nuanced topic with deft and insight, using her own personal narrative (the birth of her daughter, her own teenage struggles with low self-esteem, eating disorders and sexual abuse) as a springboard to explore a broader narrative told through dozens of interviews with high-profile women in news, entertainment, business and politics and a parade of often troubling stats on women in media. (For example: Women hold only 3% high-level positions in entertainment, advertising and publishing and make up only 16% of Hollywood writers, directors, producers, cinematographers and editors.)

Films like this can be hard to pull off because it’s easy to turn didactic when relying on talking heads and stats to move the narrative forward. Miss Representation doesn’t always avoid this, but the A-list caliber of talking heads in question (Katie Couric, Condoleezza Rice, Gloria Steinem, Lisa Ling, among others) helps to keep the movie engaging. The film is at its best when it focuses on young activists making a difference in their everyday lives, such as then-high school student Devanshi Patel, active in student government and working toward a career in politics.

Another underlying topic of the film, media ownership and political economy gets attention here too. It’s a topic that media activists and scholars are passionate about, but can be a real snoozer for anyone else. Newsom integrates an overview of media ownership and political economy issues into the film to provide insight and context – but without getting all Noam Chomsky on folks who may be new to these concepts. However, this left me longing for a film that does delve deeper into these issues of gender and media/content ownership, though maybe a film isn’t the best medium for such an exploration.

When the film ended with a “An Inconvenient Truth” – style roundup of strategies to create change, I was hoping for something a little more radical. Most of the suggestions were still very based around media consumption. Here we are, in a stunning disruptive age of media and technology, where it’s easier than ever for individuals to create and share media and technology, and there’s no serious talk of independent media, entrepreneurship and alternative sources of media funding and distribution? No discussion of media literacy as a tool? The one mention of independent media production as a solution was mentioned in the context of one of the talking heads (I can’t remember who) mentioned a “little film” that her young daughter and her friends created. That’s it. The end of the film just seemed like a string of missed opportunities to me. However, the Miss Representation website seems to now serve as the homebase for broader movement-building around the topic of media representation of women and girls, so perhaps something those more proactive solutions are presented there.

In general, I do recommend Miss Representation as a media literacy education tool and an eye-opening, entertaining film. It would be great to see media literacy – as a concept, a tactic, and a movement – return to the forefront of conversation among educators and activists, with this film leading the way.

For some TV fandoms, YouTube serves as a living archive of sorts for the show’s history. Dedicated fans upload clips (and sometimes full episodes) of TV shows and fans of older shows and “legacy” programming like soap operas and sporting events in turn, acquaint themselves with past storylines and events, or relive their favorite moments. When One Life To Live was cancelled, I consoled myself by watching iconic scenes/storylines (Megan’s death, the controversial gang rape storyline, Jessica’s many breakdowns) and even storylines I was too young to have seen when they aired (Judith Light’s Emmy winning turn as sex worker-turned housewife Karen Wolek in the 70′s.)

Have you ever used YouTube as a way to catch up with the history of a TV show or relive your favorite scenes?

I’ve written in the past about De Capo’s “Best Music Writing” book series, an annual purchase and usually one of my favorite reads of the year. In recent years, as some of the best music writing has been increasingly found in blogs and the underground press, it’s been interesting to see the anthology reflect that evolution and include writing from non-professional bloggers, zinesters and other non-professional writers. Last month, The Village Voice reported that Daphne Carr, longtime editor of the anthology planned to publish the Best Music Writing series indpendently, with an open submission process that considers:

“features, essays, profiles, news articles, interviews, creative non-fiction, fiction, book reviews, long-format reviews, blog posts, and journal articles on musical and music culture-related topics. We also actively seek work that doesn’t fit into these categories-more whimsical and/or emergent forms of music writing, such as tweets, blogs, Tumblr posts, substantive online comments/discussions, and joint writing efforts.”

This is exciting news for readers of the anthology and for fans that write about music.. Some of the most interesting music writing I’ve read in the past decade or so – the most impassioned, funny, critical and knowledgeable stuff – increasingly comes from the fan community,  from non-professionals writing for non-traditional publishing outlets: personal blogs, Twitter feeds, etc. Carr has done a great job of identifying such writers and publications in past anthologies but I really appreciate that this new submission policy broadens this spectrum even more. Writers of all genres and backgrounds who have contributed exceptional music writing may reach a bigger audience because of this new submission policy. It’s great news for music fans and music writers.   The 2012 Best Music Writing book has a Kickstarter campaign going, check it out and support the project if you can.

I’m sure you didn’t even get past the first sentence without thinking “this is a horrible idea.”  Very little good seems to come from  network TV’s flirtation with internet culture, from the “Shit My Dad Says” show on CBS, to that nut company that incorporates the pop culture meme du jour into each of its latest ads.

Why do TV shows based on internet memes seem to be so cringe-worthy when they are proposed? It’s hard to nail down the science behind why certain internet memes become popular, but for the most part they share a commonality in their simplicity and their easy adaptability. You don’t have to struggle to get the joke behind the “Randall” videos (or the Ryan Gosling meme or the silly randomness of Nyan Cat.) It’s a different kind of humor, for better or worse, than scripted television, particularly traditional sitcoms based around A and B plot storylines and character development (even if  it’s thin.) Is anyone really thinking about Randall’s backstory when they watch the Honey Badger videos? Or thinking up wacky storylines around his character?  TV execs would likely get a better return looking to web-based TV show creators for ideas (see the in-development Epic Meal Time show, though who knows what happened to that,) rather than trying to exploit the last bit of shelf life out of an expired meme.

That being said, a Feminist Ryan Gosling movie could be kind of awesome.

So why listen to Kpop? If you remember a time where large groups with talent existed (the present lack in the U.S. decried in both The Atlantic and The Root), waiting for anticipation for both singles and entire albums, and exciting live performances, then Kpop is worthy of you giving it a shot.

The way the Korean pop industry works is very different than the U.S., with everything blatantly manufactured. Potential artists become trainees to usually one of the four major labels at a young age, and hopefully, after many years of training, are then selected to become members of a group. Often, groups have leaders (the go-between the management company and the group), those that are primarily singers, primarily dancers, and at least one rapper. The rate of new music for these artists is frequently at Rihanna-like rates, with at least a new single coming out every year.

With the release of every new marketing push, there is usually a new “concept” for the group and live performances on television shows — similar to American Bandstand, Soul Train, Top of the Pops, and MTV shows of yore. Unlike U.S. pop artists who are increasingly phoning in live performances,  K pop artists do it live — frequently changing up the arrangement, dance routine, and costumes. With. Every. Performance. As highly manufactured as all the music is, the performers are true professionals.

One advantage for newbies that Kpop has is that in the dizzying array all of the singles, double singles, EPs (they still exist in Korea), regular length albums, and then the reissues (oh, the reissues — usually albums that are reissued with one or two new songs and new inserts), is that frequently albums and videos name check themselves — 1st Album or 2nd Reissue — and include the name of the artist and song in English.

Before we get to the individual artists, the most comprehensive source of frequently posted well-written (in English) writing on Kpop with a critical eye is Seoulbeats — which rather than surface writing delves into thoughtful essays — and doesn’t shy away from mentions of racism and homophobia in Kpop. Other recommended sources are KoreAm magazine’s blog (for Kpop from a Korean-American perspective) and AllKpop (breathless updates with the feel of old school Metal Edge or Tiger Beat).

Below are some suggested Kpop artists to try out — ranging from underground hiphop to girl groups with attitude to aegyo (cuteness). For our earlier post on Korean female rappers, go here.

Warning — this recommended list is based on personal taste (’cause it’s not just a Kdrama), so it is very R&B heavy. Missing is rock (because it is *very* underground — for example, the Korean rock group Apollo 18). We have no interest in ballads, but if you are try IU. Whenever possible, the hangul (Korean) for the artist is included, because unfortunately, the legal English-language sources for purchasing downloads do a very poor job of cross-referencing Korean artists — for example, Tasha and Drunken Tiger are all over the place on iTunes.

My recommendations:

2NE1

2Ne1 remind me of a girl group that never existed in the U.S., as strange as that sounds, somewhat like if TLC had been created now. They are a interesting melange that doesn’t seem like it would work — BOM, a singer best known for doing the chorus in other songs (AKA the Ashanti lady bridge in many GD songs); CL, a rapper with attitude; Minzy, a highly talented dancer/singer significantly younger than the others, and a singer that … I’m not sure what Dara does, but she fits. Latasha Peterson of Racialicious wrote about how Nicki Minaj opened the door for the acceptance of 2ne1 in the U.S.:

Both Minaj and 2NE1 are barrier breakers, crossing into pop music but bringing the swagger of rock and hip hop. For Minaj, she’s dominated the pop charts with rap ballads like “Super Bass,” and lent honeyed vocals and verses on Lil’ Wayne’s “Knockout”. 2NE1 is far, far more aggressive in appearance than more traditional pop groups like The Wonder Girls, which could have been a liability.

Honestly, with the exception of Tasha (below), I think that 2NE1 has the best chance of success of my recommended artists in an English speaking market — they all speak English and have already recorded in English with Will.I.am (blergh, sorry, personal moment).

BIGBANG (빅뱅) (plus GD & TOP / Taeyang (태양))

BIGBANG, like 2ne1 — their labelmates and frequent co-performers, are an amelglam of different types of performers — GD (G-Dragon), the leader and (different for K-pop) frequent songwriter; Taeyang, the Justin Timberlake; and T.O.P., who while not the leader, is the boss with two left feet. And there are two other guys. I don’t like their latest release, but their back catalog is chock full of listenable songs.

From GD&TOP’s collaboration:

And one song by Tae Yang:

Girls’ Generation (SNSD ; 소녀시대; Sonyeo Shidae)

Girls’ Generation is the gold standard for Kpop — all nine members are excellent singers and dancers, who move and sing with military-like precision. But one problem with having nine members is that it is hard for me to distinguish them without watching the video — beyond Sunny (who has the chirpiest voice), Jessica (who sings many of the main parts) and Hyoyeong (who sings at the dance breaks).

Super Junior (슈퍼주니어)

Super Junior’s Sorry Sorry is, not to be too Kanye, ONE OF THE BEST POP SONGS OF ALL TIME!!1!!1! And Super Junior improves on the usual boy band phenomenon by having up to thirteen members at one time (so that there really is a different one for every girl at a sleepover to like someone else — the pretty one, the one that looks like a girl, the one that looks twice as old as the other ones, the chubby one, the two that look the same, the objectively handsome one, the only one who can sing real good, the bad boy, the ugly one, and is that thirteen yet?)

SHINee (샤이니)

Put it simply, if you liked NSync, you’ll like SHINee!

4Minute (plus HyunA)

4Minute has been described as Ke$ha with talent — high energy pop with a slight edge. Also, HyunA, their rapper, has a controversial solo career.

Tasha  / T/ Yoon Mi Rae (윤미래) / Drunken Tiger (드렁큰 타이거)) / Tiger JK (타이거 JK)

Tasha and Tiger JK are highly talented rappers in their own right, but they have have started collaborating so much that the line between what is the project of one and the other, isn’t clear anymore. Tasha is a hard-hitting rapper in both Korean and English and also an excellent R&B singer; Tiger JK rap style is very West Coast. Their next release in whatever form it takes is highly anticipated: “there’s genuine excitement on my end to see two noteworthy artists truly come back after working hard on new material.” If you take nothing else from this post — listen to Tasha!

Below are their most recent collaboration — and individual separate songs. But their best performances are live (and unfortunately not for sale in the U.S./Canada), so I snuck one in at the end.

Big News! The Learned Fangirl is now on Facebook!

“Why should I care?” you’re probably thinking. “I get spammed enough on Facebook by my elderly relatives.”

Fair enough, but hear us out. If you like the TLF blog, then you’ll want to check out the TLF page for posts that we’re too lazy to flesh out  shorter, time sensitive posts and maybe, just maybe, some multimedia stuff like video  if we’re not too lazy to do that.

Anyway, “join the conversation” as the social media folks love to say and like the TLF Facebook page today!

But this year, TLF reluctantly plans to sit this one out,which saddens us because we have a lot of great friends presenting this year! The reason? It’s not worth the money.

Though the price of a badge has nearly tripled in the past three years, at $950, SXSWi is still a deal compared to similar tech/innovation conferences like Techcrunch Disrupt or TED. Even so, the tech conference marketplace has become a crowded, fragmented one – SXSWi is no longer the must-attend event that it used to be, and that money may go further at other, more specialized events.

Here are the three reasons TLF is skipping SXSW and why we think you may be better off spending your (or your employer’s, lucky you!) money on a conference that you’ll get a lot more out of.

1.) It’s too crowded to meet anyone new or do anything cool

Last year, SXSWi attracted more than 19,000 attendees, eclipsing SXSW music for the first time.  On one level, this is great news: this growth has lead to more attendee diversity – and more opportunities to meet new people doing interesting things from a across the wide spectrum of technology related fields. And that’s awesome, except for the fact that most events are way too crowded to actually meet anyone new.

Conference attendance started to outgrow the convention center about two years ago. Session rooms were packed, standing-room only affairs. You had to stand in line for a hour or more to get into the decent parties. There was a certain kind of networking serendipity that was promoted (maybe romanticized?) at previous SXSWi’s — the whole idea of stumbling out of a session you’re really jazzed about, and into a conversation with random strangers in the hallway of the convention center and then running into those same strangers and THEIR friends at a party later than evening. With 20,000 people milling around, there’s no way that happens anymore. You’re lucky to randomly spot people you already know while shuffling through the halls like hungover cattle in between sessions.

Last year, SXSWi organized debuted the “campus” concept, which  hosted sessions at different hotels in Austin. It was a good start, and the sessions were tracked well; the journalism sessions, health and government sessions, the UX sessions, and gaming sessions were generally in the same area.  However, if you happen to have multiple session interests, then the hike back and forth across town ended up becoming most of your day. Still, the campus idea is a move in the right direction, but time will tell if this idea can scale with the continued growth of the conference.

Nowadays, SXSWi seems to be a place to coordinate meetups with people you were already planning to meet up with anyway, but not about connecting with anyone new.

2.) The focus is way too broad now

As I mentioned before, the professional tech world has become highly fragmented and specialized and in the past few years, there’s been an explosion of conferences to cater to niches of all types.  SXSWi covers everything under the sun when it comes to tech, which is great, but also means that most of the information being shared tends to stay at a really high level. So if you want to dig deep into anything, whether it’s content strategy or analytics or videoblogging, you’re better off going to a more specialized conference. Still, SXSW is great for inspiration, and the idea of coders and bloggers and social media folks and entrepreneurs and designers and theorists all converging in one place and sharing ideas is a tantalizing one, but you’ll have to actually meet those people, which brings us back to point number one.

3.) There’s no archive of past sessions

After the disappointment of getting shut out of myriad sessions last year, we took comfort in the fact that most of them were being recorded and would surely be posted on some sort of archive after the conference was over. That didn’t happen. Outside of the keynote sessions, none of the other session recordings were made available to attendees after the event. Whether this was due to production or permission issues or an oversight by the conference planners, we don’t know, but it takes away from the value of a conference registration to not have this content available. Plenty of other conferences do it; it’s standard practice now. Maybe this year, conference organizers will archive and post these sessions, but to me, such an archive should be baked into the price of a badge.

So. that’s it. TLF will be following SXSWi on Twitter and one of us (knock on wood) will be headed to Austin later in the week for SXSW Music.  But what are your thoughts? Do you think SXSWi is worth the cash? What tech conferences are you planning to check out this year?

Watch this video on YouTube.

Today, the Post Secret app officially died. How things spiraled down so quickly is a highly cautionary tale for anyone who fully trusts anonymity — and expects it not to become a tragedy of the commons. As Frank Warren, the founder of Post Secret, states on the website, this was a difficult decision made, but one made necessary due to problems with some of the anonymous secret postings:

Like the PostSecret Blog, the App was designed so each secret was absolutely anonymous. Unfortunately, that absolute anonymity made it very challenging to permanently remove determined users with malicious intent.

99% of the secrets created were in the spirit of PostSecret. Unfortunately, the scale of secrets was so large that even 1% of bad content was overwhelming for our dedicated team of volunteer moderators who worked 24 hours a day 7 days a week removing content that was not just pornographic but also gruesome and at times threatening.

For many users of this app, this is a great loss — not just of a fun way to pass the time, but also the app served as a supportive community for those who were suffering through great loss and difficult times (such as having children with cancer, multiple miscarriages, soldiers with PTSD). And now that community is erased through the removal of the iPhone/iDevice app. Forever. (At least not in a recoverable way).

As cNet reports, users are saddened by the loss of community through the end of the PostSecret app:

“I will always wonder about the beautiful woman fighting cancer that always had the kindest words to say in response to people’s secrets. I will wonder about beard guy and assume he’s still brightening people’s days…Thank you for the opportunity to take a look into the world Frank, and help me realize that I am blessed and privileged in a world where many people are not. It gave me a new sense of compassion for others.”

The app was released in September to much fanfare — including a glowing article in Wired. And according to ReadWriteWeb, the app “taught beautiful lessons about privacy on the web” (and is where you should go to read about what the user experience was like, if you haven’t used the app.) The app rocketed to the top of the App Store, becoming the #1 downloaded app within 24 hours.

And the PostSecret app was a highly entertaining app, easy to use, with secrets ranging from the tragic, to the hilarious, to the simply banal. My own user experience likely followed those of other early adopters — only positives, then surprise by the negatives, then annoyance with those who were wrecking the app for others, to now, acceptance of the shutdown. And the negatives started slow — with anonymous pleas for sexting, complete with Anthony Weiners, moving on to a flood of these posts — and also occasional direct personal attacks. And then things got much worse around Christmas, with the amount of what I would describe as legally obscene pictures posted — no message — so the entire point was to disturb the viewer.

Of course, some of the secrets posted were racist, sexist, or demeaning to others in some ways. But as long as those were “secrets”, they were still within the spirit of PostSecret. But the direction that many of the postings that shut down the app showed the worst side of people generally and specifically on the internet.

The Post Secret app was launched after years of the PostSecret brand as a website, books, and speaking tours. It failed not because people did not want it to succeed — but because a tiny percentage were interested in their own needs, upsetting others, or something else negative towards communities, everyone lost.

I doubt that future app developers will be so amenable to anonymous user experiences as PostSecret was, and the next time you wonder why we can’t have nice things (read: more privacy) remember the griefers, sexters, and haters that ruined the PostSecret app for all.

Rebecca Black’s Friday

Watch this video on YouTube.

Yes, the song is awful.  Production wise, lyrically – on any level, it’s hard to defend “Friday” as a song of any redeeming quality.  But it’s oddly hypnotic (I know all the words, and I don’t even know why!) and its brain-numbing simplicity makes it an easy – and hilarious – meme target. Not all the parodies worked but a few, like comedian Matt Mullholland’s emo cover version, were well done and inspired. I still find myself saying “we so excited” at random intervals. Usually on Friday. – KDC

Pepper Spray Cop

One of the most memorable and disturbing images of the Occupy movement – Lt John Pike casually pepper spraying UC-Davis protestors directly in the face – has become one of the year’s more darkly hilarious internet memes. The Pepper Spray Cop  has been photoshopped spraying everyone from Mr. Rogers to Sleeping Beauty to the Declaration of Independence on peppersprayingcop.tumblr.com.  I admit, that I get a little humorless when it comes to activist movements (I went to UW-Madison, yo) and people’s responses and part of me wonders if the explosion of Occupy-inspired memes are too glib, that some jokester’s seem to take the civil liberties far too lightly if they can poke fun at this.  The Pepper Spray Cop Tumblr, however seems to toe the line comfortably between absurdity and cultural commentary.  At least enough so that I am not discomforted by it. – KDC

Nyan Cat

Watch this video on YouTube.

Hey Girl, Ryan Gosling

Watch this video on YouTube.

The Hey Girl, Ryan Gosling meme, where a picture of Ryan Gosling (preferably shirtless, preferably looking directly at the camera) with a ridiculous come-on line, is my favorite meme of the year, from its slow burn start in 2009. I warmed to this meme slowly, but the ridiculous themes (Hanukkah, Feminist, Public History, Silicon Valley, Librarian, Biostats — it’s like he’s a Barbie!) plus the cheeseball photos, slowly wore me down, unlike any of the appalling lines.

One of the frequent questions asked is “Why Ryan Gosling?” And my response is — who else would be more appropriate for a third-wave feminist reinterpretation of the oppositional gaze? Or crassly, why the !@#$ not?

Additionally, this meme is an unfortunately rare well-recognized form of reinterpretation specifically not only directed towards a female audience, but also female created. One of the interesting things about this meme is that some dudes seem strangely threatened by it, though the only thing menacing about Hey Girl, Ryan Gosling is that he always has both the best abs … and the best lines! -RL

Herman Cain and the Invisible Orange That Is Instead a Pizza

What end of the year list would be complete without a meme that lives up to the short half-life of most memes? For our entry this year, we give you: a Pokémon quoting Presidential candidate who … hmm, how to summarize Herman Cain? I know how! With a badly photoshopped picture of him holding a pizza! A meme that even a five year old can understand, despite its short shelf-life, this meme is now over, but the memories of its LOLs will warm our hearts, if not our pizzas, for months to come.

-RL

Peace, LOLs, and lots more memes in 2012!