Digital Story Proposal

Proposal

Within many forms of digital media, societal norms are expressed and impressed upon us. From an early age, children are constantly bombarded with messages about Gender Roles on television shows and advertisements. As they grow up, and begin to use digital media more often, these earlier teachings are reinforced in movies, video games, internet sites, advertisements, more mature TV shows, and other forms of digital media. These forms of "mass media" disseminate large amounts of information across a wide area and populace, socializing many different people at the same time, feeding them the same message. With this, the societal norms inside of these different forms become reinforced and more present in society.

My digital story will be a fictional story highlighting this phenomenon. It will highlight the experiences of a "queer" person who doesn't follow the normal binary and what they experience as they go through their life. It will take the form of a "video game" using a website as a way to jump from phase to phase. It will try to meld education and elements from a "Choose your own adventure" story, taking some inspiration from the works of Merritt Kopas.

The efforts, up to this point, have mainly been around trying to find programs that would be able to do such an endeavor. It was originally thought that a PowerPoint would suffice, as it carries with it the ability to link slides and create a video game-esque idea. However, it was pointed out early on that it would be impossible to embed it into my blog or publish it for others to use. After this, the idea of transforming a website was brought up, and it is one I am currently considering and thinking about. Another idea is taking Google Slides and seeing if it could work.

The pros to using a website are that it is less work on the person to use the website and easier to find. You will always be taken to the home page and it would be easier to just go through it. It however, might prove awkward and hard to use. Google slides, on the other hand, is pretty much a Microsoft Powerpoint like program that would allow me to create something accessible by a wide audience, have the look of a video game, but however not have the capability to embed sound or a video link, if desired.  There are pros and cons in both programs and ways, and these will have to be considered as the date of reckoning approaches (the due date). The website may prove more moldable and flexible, but the Google slides idea is easier and less of a headache to use.

Annotated Bibliography

Kopas, Merritt. "What are Games Good For? Videogame Creation as Social, Artistic, and Investigative Practice." Online posting. MerrittKopas.net. n.p., 18 Sept. 2013. Web. 20 Nov. 2014. <http://mkopas.net/files/talks/UVic2013Talk-WhatAreGamesGoodFor.pdf>.

Merrit Kopas, here, gives a synopsis on a talk she did a good while about Video Games and what they can do and be used for. At one point, she mentions that "making a game to model a system can be one way of learning something about that system – and the things we learn from doing so may be different from the things we’d learn in more traditional investigative modes." Essentially, it means that I will learn more about creating a video game placing myself in the shoes of the person I am discussing than I ever would if I just simply tried to research it.

Bailey, Jane, et al. "Negotiating With Gender Stereotypes on Social Networking Sites: From “Bicycle Face” to Facebook." Journal of Communication Inquiry37.2 (2013): 91-112. Web. 20 Nov. 2014. <http://digitalmediafys.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/69691259/Bailey_Jane2013GenderStereotypes.pdf>.

In this rundown on a experiment about Digital media and how it affects our interpretations, many different ideas and conclusions are brought up in the introduction. Connections to past events are made and these can be used to make inferences about the future. We can see how we are affected by these experiences and make an educated guess from this information. It simply will allow me to speculate the effects and reactions of others to what they see as well, as the experiment had a lot to do with how women see other women.

Dockterman, Eliana. "What Is #Gamergate And Why Are Women Being Threatened About Video Games?." Time.Com (2014): N.PAG. Business Source Complete. Web. 20 Nov. 2014.

In this article discussing the recent "Gamergate" movement, the author speaks about just the history of the movement, which is tied very closely to how video games represent Women. This article will be helpful because it will provide me with insight into how gamers view and treat women who are different from themselves and hold different opinions. One example of this sort of hatred is actually making threats against these women who speak out or even enter this area of the workforce.

Afterthought: It would appear the story I am considering may lean towards a woman gamer and game developer.