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Class Project: Short Proposal Outline

Title: Further Investigations into the Media Monopoly
Abstract: A first-person, observational documentary-style moving image work 'lifting the hood' of the mainstream media, including but not limited to: its social/political history, its physical architecture, and its hidden infrastructure
Intro your project idea: What allows our mass media systems to function? In New York City, the media capital of the world, there are the broadcasting studios and headquarters of all of the major media conglomerates. What physical spaces do these companies and productions operate in? What information and images are they creating and conveying on a daily basis? What technical components allow for the functioning of their operations? This project will explore these questions and more.
Background: how does this project relate to your ongoing work? 
This project is an extension of my previous interests and studies in media, as well my practice in shooting video, and editing together a personal/political story.
Work plan: how do you propose to do this? 
I will map the physical headquarters of the major media networks across Manhattan, and document with a video camera my findings as I go to these physical locations. Additionally, I will seek potential access to broadcast studios, control rooms, and other areas that are considered “behind-the-scenes” of television production and dissemination. I will incorporate through text or narration or other visual means both relevant historical facts of the media industry through academic literature and journalism as well as poetic musings on the state of the corporate media. The final piece could feature a video to be projected in a black box theatre alongside printed materials.
Significance of your project; what do you want to accomplish? 
I hope to shine light on the functioning of the broadcast media systems and how they came to be with a directly personal tone through aesthetic choices of shot selection, editing, sound design and writings of personal experience.
References or sources: http://billmoyers.com/story/twenty-years-of-media-consolidation-has-not-been-good-for-our-democracy/

Fox News Headquarters


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