Brainstorming

I've been thinking about some ideas for my research assignment, and here are some thoughts that I have been considering:

-looking at the projecting of media through time. Perhaps this could be done through a video, looking at the chronological changes taking part in how development is projected through the media as a response to 'donor fatigue' and changes in donor attitudes.

-looking at how media is used in development today, perhaps with a focus on one type of media being used for one particular type of development. For i.e. looking at micro credit and how media (through Internet) has linked people in the Western world with those in the developing world to offer microcredit loans to those in need

-doing some type of visual art project which showcases either how media is used to gain support for a cause, or how realities are hidden behind these visual displays (i.e. war comes to mind; how the government may project war as a heroic and necessary thing, even instilling fear to gain support for going to war, and on the other hand how war should be projected or is projected by activist or NGO groups to show the true side of war which is often hidden to the mass population)

-make a video that attempts to pull out different emotions. This would be used to showcase how powerful sound and images are in projecting emotion. 2 ideas come to mind for this:
1. Make a ~10 min video where every few minutes a different emotion is projected. For i.e.
the first few minutes could showcase 'fear', with the projecting of fearful images and
sounds; then it switches to 'happiness', at which point the sound and imagery changes
accordingly to try to evoke that message/emotion. Then to a third, and fourth emotion.
Overall, the concept would be to show how powerful images and sounds are in projecting
emotions. Moving from emotion to emotion would show how simply the media can alter
our perceptions and feelings about certain things.
2. Same as above, except focused on a particular subject. War again comes to mind. This
could be first to showcase fear (to gain support for going to war), then pride (in taking
part), then reality (through what is really happening in conflict zones). This would
present how the same concept (war) could be viewed so differently, thus is projected by
various actors to get people to side with them in order to achieve their agenda.

Those are just a few things that I have been thinking about lately as potential topics. I will keep thinking and researching and adding as I go along.

Tiana