Week 9 Scott Anderson: Response to viewings

Easily the site I got sucked into the most this week was the MediaStorm site, particularly the photography project (mostly because that’s one of my interests) that included actor Jeff Bridges.

I thought these videos were done well, mostly because the interviewee was done in a quiet setting where I could actually concentrate on what they were saying (unlike in many of the other projects we’ve seen this term where there is so much background noise). I think there was also an element of art, combined with real people, which helped to propel the story and create interest in it. I also thought the same thing about the American-Made Benny story that chronicled a Vietnam veteran’s life through his own eyes. It was also sort of funny to watch him as he watched himself and that he was always in agreement with himself and then reflected on his life.

I also took a tour of the Games for Change site. I thought it was a good idea, but when looking at the website and compared it to the MediaStorm site, I thought about things in terms of credibility and audience. Are these games less credible in terms of creating social changes because they are games? Are these games geared toward people under 25 or older than 25? I guess there’s sort of a gray area to the age question because there are some topics that are clearly geared toward older people, like Endgame: Syria.