Thursday, April 17, 2014

Tactical Media Project

For my tactical media project, I plan on satirizing the American educational system by creating a spoof video based on the reality television show House Hunters.  In this show, a host takes couples who are shopping for a new home around to see three houses that the host thinks they would like to move into based on their preferences.  My intention is to create an episode of a show called School Hunters where I am the host, and I show a couple three high schools where they can potentially enroll their child.  The three schools would be an urban public school, an elite private school, and a strict Catholic school in an attempt to include the main types of schools that compose the educational system.  Each school will be an exaggerated version of what the school actually is in an attempt to address the disparities in the experiences the average students of these schools have in a comedic way.  Based on my intentions for my project, I think that it best fits the definitions of Dee Dee Haleck and Gregg Bordowitz.  Haleck defines tactical media as "creative solidarity in the fight for justice and democracy: resistance to the rampant tendencies toward repression, exploitation, isolation, alienation and corporatization", which I feel describes my project extremely well since my purpose for making it is to draw attention to the differences in the qualities of these schools and experiences of their students in order to provoke educational reform and provide a more just system for all kids regardless of race or socioeconomic status.  Furthermore, in Bordowitz's poetic definition of tactical media, he says things like "Tactical media is always collectively produced, even when an individual author produces it....Tactical media is not suspicious of strong emotions. It is wary of how emotions can move people to action; and yet, tactical media is about moving people to action....Tactical media has an ironic sense of humor and a sincere heart."  This also describes my project extremely well because it is meant to add to the existing conversation about the achievement gap and educational reform, is supposed to ignite a fire within people that makes them want to actively try to change the educational system, and it is meant to do so in a way that is humorous but still has a serious underlying message.


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