Questions & Interventions
Humanities
Content Questions:
- How do the close-up shots used for the interviews influence the tone and meaning of the show?
- What cultural and political ideas emerge across the episodes that are representative of the late-1950s?
Method Questions:
- How can close reading strategies be used to analyze sound and video?
- How can rhetorical or literary analysis be used to look at voice, silence, and tone, and how can this be integrated into the annotations/transcript?
Student Outcomes:
- Evaluate how historical narratives are communicated through performance
- Interpret how language and meaning signal the investments of a cultural moment
- Adapt textual methods to sonic and visual media
Social Sciences
Content Questions:
- What does the list of interviewees and the content of their interviews suggest about the role, politics, and influence of public figures in the late-1950s?
- Where do societal ideologies emerge across four interviews and what does this communicate about the purpose of the series?
Method Questions:
- How can qualitative coding be used to categorize the tone, language, and style of interviews?
- Using discourse analysis, what ideas and interviewer-interviewee dynamics are repeated across the series?
Student Outcomes:
- Application of qualitative research methods to audio and video material
- Analysis of how meaning circulates across different sociopolitical setting, including interviews
Media/Comm/RTF
Content Questions:
- Based on both the content and style of three interviews, what do the conventions of this series reveal about how journalism reflects societal investments?
- How can annotating camera shots and audio quality be used to develop new ways to think about the use of narrative in interviews?
Method Questions:
- How can analysis of media technologies alone be used to better understand the relationship between the interviewee, audience, and the archive?
- How can annotating according to media and content be used to aid qualitative analysis of secondary material?
Student Outcomes:
- Demonstrate how critical analysis of media impacts the style and content of journalism
- Reflection on how cultural narratives are communicated in archival settings
- Collaboration between content, media, and form, alongside analysis of secondary material
Education/Pedagogy
Content Questions:
- How is knowledge modeled and valued in different parts of interviews, and different interviewees, versus others?
- How does the form of the interview ask students to consider the role of public knowledge-making and education?
Method Questions:
- What critical analysis strategies become available to students in audiovisual media?
- How can educators promote students' shift from passive to active listening through collaborative annotation?
Student Outcomes:
- Develop critical listening skills in interpersonal and mediated settings
- Practice interdisciplinary methods for engaging in public-facing digital humanities work