Getting Started! – Week 1

For my final master’s media project, I’ve been playing on the idea of creating a short documentary series or a short documentary film. This project will have a focus that revolves around Asians who grew up in America at a young age within an adopted family. Now as adults, this project will follow their views on how or if western media has influenced their views of self-identity and society. I also want it to concentrate particularly on Chinese American female’s stories. However, this is subject to change.

Finding identity and representation in the media we consume is something that most people yearn for and is something that I have personal ties to. So far, I have a couple topics I’d like to incorporate in this docuseries/short film. Some of the topics revolve around race, the model minority myth, stereotypes and misrepresentation, Asian representation and influence in the media, and western ideals in the media and how they can impact society.

My hope for this project is to bring more awareness about how important diverse representation in the media is and how it impacts social views. I also hope to bring attention to how news media had recently played a role in xenophobia and racism against the Asian community. As well as how the #stopAAPIhate movement gained momentum and my film subjects views on the movement.

After viewing some of the MA projects from past students, there were a few I could relate my project idea to in terms of representation and identity such as JIN by Jin Kim and Empowered by Quanya Myers. However, I thought that My Name Is by Chunxue Li was the closest example as to what I want my final project to in terms of its documentary style and focus on identity and struggles regarding identity in the United States.

I also thought that a theme in my project could relate to 2019 Nicole Messina’s Identity and Identification Through the Changing Views, Expectations, and Representations of Family on Television. Since my focus is on Asian American adoptees, family dynamics can play a part in self-identity when the media plays a part in educating a person on one’s culture.