"Videotape" by Don DeLillo
Message Prompt

The message behind “Videotape” is that people will watch a disturbing video clip for entertainment. The story behind “Videotape” is that a twelve-year-old girl is filming a man driving in the car behind her. He gives a slight wave, and continues driving. The dull footage seems to go on forever, until the man is shot in the head and instantly killed. The clip shot by the young girl is shown constantly shown on the news shows, and people continue to watch it over and over again. The message behind this short story is that people will watch anything, no matter how disturbing, so long as it is entertaining. The man watching the video in the story calls his wife in during the part where the man is shot. He wants her to see it because of how real it is. The victim is completely unaware of the shot that is about to come. His death is utterly real, as his body now slumps against the door. The footage is real and not the kind of violence one would find in the movies. Because it is so authentic and disturbing, people continue to watch the video over and over again. The message that DeLillo is trying to convey is that people watch material that is dark and upsetting because it amuses them. It shows real clips of human life, and no matter how unsettling the content is, people watch it anyway. A real life example of this is Steve Irwin. Irwin’s death was captured on film, and many people tried to find the footage and publicize it. The material on film was disturbing, and inappropriate to release to the public. Yet many wanted to view the footage. It would have served as entertainment.

An example in the text that supports DeLillo’s message reads, “…they show it a thousand times a day. They show it because it exists, because they have to show it, because they have to show it, because this is why they’re out there, to provide our entertainment…The tape sucks the air right out of your chest but you watch it every time”. This supports his idea because he says right in this passage that the video provides entertainment. It disturbs the viewer, but he or she watches it every single time it is on the television.

The relationship between the message and the medium is that people will watch videos no matter how unsettling they are, and the medium that the story is told through is a video camera. “Man with a Rifle” relates to “Videotape” because the subjects are similar. In “Videotape”, an unsuspecting man is suddenly shot to death. In “Man with a Rifle”, a man is holding an invisible rifle in front of unsuspecting people passing by. Nobody seems to notice him, as the victim in “Videotape” did not notice his murderer. Also, both works rely on authenticity. The death sequence in “Videotape” is realistic, and unlike fake violence in the movies. Meanwhile the photo is similar to “Videotape” because the people are unaware of the men holding the real or invisible gun. Both works are commenting on the belief that nobody is aware of their fate, and any situation could end in two different ways. A person’s death could take place anywhere, and this is portrayed in both works. Therefore, “Videotape” and “Man with a Rifle” are similar not only in the subjects, but in theories as well.

"The Boston Photographs" by Nora Ephron
Message Prompt

The central issue with publishing Stanley Forman’s photos was that they portrayed such a disturbing situation. Forman’s photos were of building on fire, and a fireman trying to rescue a woman and her child on a fire escape. The situation seemed in control until the fire escape collapsed, and the woman and her child began to fall. The woman, Miss Diana Bryant, unfortunately died in the fall. The child landed on her body and survived. In one photo, the fire escape is collapsing as Miss Bryant tries to hang onto the firefighter’s legs. In another, the woman and child are plummeting to the ground. The issue with publishing these photos was that they were very upsetting to the public. The photo shows Miss Bryant in her last moments of life. The viewer knows that this picture was taken seconds before she died. Because the photos were so close to her death, editors did not want to publish such a dark image.

In my opinion, the photos are newsworthy for two different reasons. The first is obviously that a woman fell to her death in an attempt to escape a fire. One can always find tragic stories such as this one in the news. The other reason is that photos such as these are not often put in the papers. The Boston pictures are very upsetting, and most newspapers try to censor material such as this. I find these photos to be newsworthy because they actually made the paper, and stirred up quite a great deal of controversy.

Editors claimed that the publication of the photos was justified because death is an important part of life. Death is inevitable for everyone. It is a main aspect of life, and therefore, many editors felt that it should not be censored. Everyone will one day face death, so why bother hiding it from the public? The one thing people keep in their minds after reading an article on the tragic incident is the woman’s death. It is the most important part of the story, so why hide the pictures from the public? Ephron accepts this idea and believes the photos were both sensational and deserving of a spot in the papers.

If the woman had survived the fall, the pictures certainly would not have had the same impact on the public. People were so disturbed by the photos and considered them “voyeuristic” because they had to deal with her death. The audience knew that in the photo, the woman was just seconds away from death. It was a dark picture. If, however, the audience knew that the woman survived, it would be completely different. Sure she would be falling. Yet the audience would know she is not falling to her death. Had she survived the fall, the pictures would not be so disturbing. The public would react differently to the photos. Therefore, the case would be entirely opposite had she survived the horrible fall.

"Z: The Movie That Changed My Life" by Louise Erdrich
Medium Prompt

Prior to watching Little Miss Sunshine, I have always been pretty self-conscious. I did not feel comfortable having my picture taken, and I preferred to have my bangs hanging in my face to cover me. I got along with my family, but there was always this slight embarrassment while my friends came over my house. Little Miss Sunshine, however, changed my life completely. It changed not only how I view myself, but how I view my family, and what they mean to me.

In the movie, a dysfunctional family travels across the country in order to get the young daughter to a beauty pageant. The grandfather is addicted to drugs. The uncle is suicidal. The father is a motivational speaker whose plan ends up failing financially. The mother is struggling to keep the family together, and the son has taken a pledge of silence because of Nietzsche. Meanwhile, the young daughter Olive is entirely concerned with winning the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant. Not to mention that just about no one gets along in the family. Yet, once they arrive at the pageant, the family comes together. They see the little girls (approximately nine years old) parading around in skimpy bathing suits and fixing themselves constantly in the mirror. The family then sees just how superficial the other contestants are, and how Olive, a real girl, does not belong in the pageant. In the end, the family comes together to support each other, no matter how ridiculous they seem to everyone else.

Leaving the movie theatre that night, I felt like crying. Why did I ever let what others think concern me? And how could I ever feel ashamed of my family? At the end of the day, my family members are the ones to comfort me. They are always there for me, and always accepting of me regardless of what I wear or what I say. They are the ones who tell me it does not matter what others think of me. So what if I do not look like a model? So what if I do not follow all the latest fashion trends? So what if my family is silly and quirky? The fact is, this is me. And this is my family. I will not mold myself to be acceptable by others. And I certainly do not expect my family to mold themselves to look more “normal”. The truth is, I love my family and I would never want them to change. I am happy with myself, and I am not going to change. If the others do not like me or think I am strange – oh well. This movie has influenced me more so than any other film I have seen so far. From this, I have learned a lesson I plan on carrying with me throughout my entire life.

"It's A Real, Real, Real, Real, Real World" by Anthony Jaffe
Method Prompt

In his essay, Anthony Jaffe pokes fun at the reality television craze. He does so by coming up with completely ridiculous ideas to propose for new reality shows. He is hinting that reality television has become too silly and ludicrous over the past years. “Survivor” was the first show to really start the phenomenon, and it was followed by “American Idol”. Soon, however, reality shows kept popping up. There were shows on people racing across the country to be the first to find a large amount of money. There were shows centering on people finding “true love”. There were shows on young adults going on five different dates and choosing a winner (or in some cases, naming them all losers). Now there are even reality shows in which the parents choose people for their children to date in hopes that their kid will stop seeing their current boyfriend/girlfriend. In Jaffe’s opinion, reality television has ran out of ideas, so now they are just pulling anything out of a hat that will hopefully do well with the audiences. They are using any idea, no matter how ridiculous, in the hopes of being successful.

The titles of his show hint at his satirical tone. Take “Lord of the Fries” for instance, or “Bums Away!”. The first show refers to a novel, and the second refers to a phrase. The titles are silly, just like what Jaffe considers reality television to be. It has become just a joke. It is not simply the title that is mocking. His overall tone throughout his entire essay is making fun of the reality show trend. “Bum Bucks” is a silly invention he added to his faux show, and for “Lord of the Fries”, he throws in plenty of silly references to fast food restaurants. He also, at the end of each show description, adds yet another little joke in parentheses. In “Bums Away!”, he also says that if the contestants do not spend their “Bum Bucks” wisely, they may get frost bite or die from the cold. He is suggesting that the craze has gotten so ridiculous that producers are now throwing their contestants into extremely dangerous situations just so their company can make a profit.

Another idea for a show that Jaffe could use in his essay would be “Meet the Flintstones”. In this show, contestants would be abandoned in a cave without any modern conveniences. They would have to make fire for light and food, and use carts as means of transportation. Yet another idea Jaffe could use in his essay would be “I Used To Be A Star.” In this show, average participants would switch lives with a celebrity. For example, one could switch lives with Jennifer Aniston and spend the day living in her mansion, while she spent the day attending a regular job. The premises of the two aforementioned shows are obviously ridiculous, and therefore they are mocking reality television. The ideas would prove that reality shows are becoming a bit too silly and outlandish.

Webcams
Message Prompt

“Staging” can be found often throughout the text. In the comic, Alex is trying to stage a fight between her and her father. He is not very upset that she is staying up past her bedtime, so she decides to call him names in order upset him in front of the camera. She thinks that by instigating a fight with her father, she will entertain the viewers. The father is also responsible for staging. He is speaking to his daughter in his normal, natural way until he finds out that the camera is on. He then changes his way of speaking and his attitude because he is now aware that he is on camera. His personality has changed now that he is being filmed, and he is staging his actions to appeal to the audience.

In my opinion, Jennifer Ringley, though she claims otherwise, is also responsible for staging some aspects of her life. The text quotes her on saying that the camera shows only her real life, and it is all natural. However, it seems that she has staged some of what is included on her website. Performing a striptease is not exactly a normal part of life for most people, and it must have crossed her mind at some point that a striptease would probably lure in more viewers (in particular, males). The photos shown in the text seem to show only the interesting aspects of her life, such as her friends or her sporting a silly hairstyle. She must have in some way edited the content she posts online in the hopes of creating a larger audience and more entertaining material.

Staging is also found in “Refresh”. In this, cameras were placed in offices throughout the US as well as other countries. The people found on the tapes were caught altering their behavior in subtle ways. For example, aware that they were being filmed, people would begin dressing nicer. Also, the cleaning crew behaved differently than they used to, and probably acted more properly and worked twice as hard. The love story in “Refresh” also seems a bit fictional. The love that may be blossoming by the water cooler is more likely than not just a way to amuse the audience. The camera makes the workers act in ways that they are expected to, not in ways that are natural. Their actions are all staged for the audience.

Webcams may pick up some real aspects of life. However, they typically pick up staged aspects of life. It is natural for people to alter their behavior in front of a camera. When pictures are being taken, many people often check their appearance and try to “fix themselves up”. The photo is then no longer natural, but staged. It is just human nature to alter behavior when in front of an audience. Therefore, webcams do not really portray the authentic aspects of life.

"Ashes" by David Sedaris
Medium Prompt

One family story that I will hold onto forever is the story of my cousin Natasha, or Tasha as we all called her. Her father (my father's brother) got a divorce with her mother, and my uncle stayed in New Jersey. Unfortunately, Tasha and her mother moved to Florida. The distance has limited our time together severely for as long as I can remember. In fact, there are very few moments of Tasha I can remember. But those moments that stay with me, every single detail is still completely clear and vivid in my mind.

I remember spending one Christmas season together at my aunt's house when we were in our early years of elementary school. Our fathers were teasing us by saying that if we fell asleep during the midnight mass at church, we just might find coal in our stockings. We would also play at our grandparents' house, making flowers out of clay and watching "Gone With the Wind", even though we could never actually follow the storyline. I recall exploring my dad's old room, and looking through his high school papers. I remember playing with our grandpa’s bird Tweety and eating strawberry frosted donuts, our favorite.


When I was in fifth grade and she in sixth, our uncle took us out fishing. That day, I caught what I thought was a massive fish, but was actually a tire. We laughed for hours. I remember afterwards going to our aunt's house. To escape the cold, we dove straight into the heated pool and swam for over two hours. When it was too dark, we went inside and watched movies while eating popcorn, chips, cake, and ice cream sandwiches. We stayed up all night talking.

She came back to New Jersey again two years later when I was in the seventh grade. That year, she met my best friend Gaby. She also met my karaoke machine. The three of us spent days just singing our hearts out to Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. We even came up with our own talk show. Tasha was afraid of clowns, so at night, Gaby and I would place a toy clown right by her face so she had a lovely surprise when she awoke. We would go shopping together. We would watch movies until 1:00 a.m., and then we would spend the rest of the night talking about girly things. There was nothing wrong when I was with Tasha and Gaby. We all got along so well and enjoyed every single moment together.

Then after her visit in the seventh grade, Tasha and I lost touch. She went back to Florida and began high school. She got a job, a boyfriend, and a social life that no longer involved me. It wasn’t her fault – how could I be involved with her social life when we were so far apart? And now that she is in college and I am in my senior year, I still have not seen her since the seventh grade. Looking back, my memories with Tasha still make me smile. I will never forget sitting on a dock by the lake at night eating apple pie with her. I will never forget telling scary stories at midnight. And I certainly will never forget our coordinated dance to Mandy Moore’s hit song “Candy”. But unfortunately, things have changed. The story of Tasha and I does not have a happy ending.

If I was to pick a medium to tell my story in, I would tell it with pictures and videos. Only pictures and video clips could truly capture the fun we had. Just one look at our faces in the photos would show the audience just how much we enjoyed each other’s company. I would show pictures of us singing karaoke, or creating our own talk show. I would include photos of us as younger children eating those strawberry frosted donuts while watching Gone With the Wind with our grandma. And I would add the video we recorded of our coordinated dance to “Candy”. In this case, words are just not enough to describe the times I had with Tasha, and the memories I keep.