Asian Canadians and Community Media

Life histories and media representation of Asian Canadians have often been left to mainstream media to interpret and present to the general public. Have Asian Canadians developed community media and alternative communications strategies that have led to first-voice perspectives on the Asian Canadian experience? This course will be an inter-disciplinary study of the diverse approaches to communications and media representation in the Asian Canadian community of the Greater Vancouver Regional District. This course will begin with an introduction to the history of Asian Canadian community media practices, and then look at basic community media theory and explore community media such as radio, television and web-based technologies. We will examine themes and issues present in the Asian Canadian community, and the course will include basic technical training to produce short documentaries or a website. Students will hear lectures which include examples of community media projects, and in small groups discuss these and other examples, giving brief oral evaluations as well as explain historical and theoretical points to the seminar class. Students will undertake community research projects in the Greater Vancouver Regional District that they themselves will create and execute which will focus on visual life stories and documentation of community history or contemporary issues such as community activism, migration, family, aging, politics, or arts and culture. It is a chance for the students to gain experience on how to conduct research in real-life settings. Individuals and small groups will conduct research on a topic of their choice, collect and analyze data and incorporate community based media research, methodology, and digital video production or website creations into their final project.

Course Grading and Assignments

Grading Breakdown:

Viewing Response Papers - 15%
Video Diaries: 10%
Assignment #1 - 20%
Rough Outline for Assignment #2 - 10%
In-class essay – 15%
Assignment #2 - 30%

Course Requirements:

This course will be student-centred and conducted as a seminar. The emphasis will be to engage students with the course content as much as possible. To facilitate this, classes will consist of small and large group discussions, videos, student presentations, and guest speakers. Participation is crucial to learning as well as to the learning of others.

Students will be expected to have completed the assigned readings or media viewings before class and be prepared to summarize and discuss the major arguments of each reading, or give an analysis of the film/video/website or book.

In addition to readings and discussions, students will undertake research projects that will result in a short video, website or term paper.

Viewing response papers - 15%

Readings or films are assigned each class. Students will be responsible for these readings and films in short reading response, reaction papers. The readings are available online through the class web page. All films are on reserve at the Media Library. (3 papers - each 5%. Total 15%)

Video Diaries: 10%

Students will submit 2 video diaries.

In-class essay: 15%

In class essay based on assigned readings, viewing assignments and class lectures and discussions.

Assignment #1 – Community Non-profit Group Documnentation - 20%

Groups of 3 students will choose a non-profit organization somewhere in the Greater Vancouver area. The organization can be of any kind, but preferably should be one that is run by Asian Canadians. Each student will work together in a coordinated way to examine the non-profit organization from a multiple number of perspectives. For instance, some students may try to arrange an interview with the administration or clients, perhaps even do an oral history. Each student should take turns going to the organization at different times on different days to see what kinds of clientele they serve and why. Some students may examine the services available and find out how it was created--did they copy other organizations in the city, or is it a unique group specific to the community? Some students may examine the history of the location in relation to the community. Were there other Asian Canadians there before? Why were they there? What is the history of that locale or the surrounding block? This will entail some historical detective work, involving city records. In the end, each student will write up the work that they did as individuals, but the whole group's findings need to be coordinated with each other so that it comes together as a team project. The students will present the material on a website mounted on the class website.

Rough Outline for Assignment #2 – 10%

This should be a 3-4 page paper discussing what the students will be doing as a term project. It should take the following format:

Section 1) What will they be doing? Why is it interesting? What are the questions that they will be interested in answering?

Section 2) What are the parameters of the project? What kinds of material will they be using? Will they be talking to people? What will be the process they use to answer the questions they have? What methods and techniques of research are appropriate? Can it be done in the time allotted?

Section 3) What kinds of studies and scholarship exist already that might help them? Are they useful for background knowledge, for possible approaches? Or perhaps they are useful to illustrate how they will do things differently, and how they will ask other kinds of questions? In the end, this assignment is their blueprint for the project.

Assignment #3 – 30%

The initial research provided by the rough outline will then be used for the student’s final project.

This may take the form of an

A) academic paper;

B) short documentary film or

C) website.

If the students choose B or C, the assignment will consist of a 2 page summary of the project which should include the research question, the methods of research and analysis, and how the findings will be introduced, discussed and presented in the form of a short documentary or website.

The short documentary film must be a minimum of 3 minutes in length to a maximum of 8 minutes.

The website should consist of a minimum of 3000 words with text, graphics or video.

The final academic paper should be 8-10 pages in length.

HOW TO POST YOUR ASSIGNMENTS

How to submit your video diary, website or assignments:

1) Email karin_lee@sfu.ca with your FULL NAME and your assignment title in the "Subject" field of your email.

2) In the body of your email, include the link to your video diary, website or assignment. Youtube.com and Vimeo.com are useful sites to upload your videos. Yola is a website publishing site, that you may also find useful. Please note that the entire contents of your email will be published on the asc400.blogspot.com website.

3) Due to the amount of spam that has been posted onto the site, I will upload your links as posts.

Monday, February 1, 2010

ASC 400: Stereotypes

Hi,

This is Roman Wu, 301003959. I tried uploading my video onto my computer for a few times but it didn't work. But I have my video stored on a memory card. Can I just bring the memory card to tomorrow's class, share it there, and post it online with the school's computer? Thank you.

Regards,

Roman Wu

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