1. Overall introduction

The story project submitted is a nine-minute-long video, whose theme is the gender issues in Mulan 2020 and a series of contemporary feminist movies. Eight interviewees are involved in this project, including two professors whose Ph.D. in sociology and gender studies and six undergraduates in humanity and social science. During the interview, participants were primarily asked three prepared questions: 1. Can female characters in feminist movies with masculine characteristics still represent feminism? 2. Can housewives or women whose feminine features are more salient represent feminism? If so, why can’t we see as many housewives as superwomen represent feminist empowerment? 3. Can femininity “reconcile with” masculinity? The video can be divided into three sections following the logic of the three questions above. Each section starts with one brief narration. This article would analyze my video story from the perspective of framing theory, the third-person effect, and prototype theory.

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2. Framing theory

       In the case of news production, a frame refers to the way media as gatekeepers select and present the events, issues, and topics they cover. Most of the time, it is a conscious process chosen by journalists and editors (Scheufele, 1999). In this video story, some parts of the interview are framed within a particular insight or viewpoint, which could form a clearer flow and structure. By dividing it into several sections, the audience would follow the logic step by step. The recording time of each interviewee was as long as 20 minutes, but each was actually used for only tens of seconds, and even some interviewees were not shown in the video since their directions were not related to the video content. Although every interviewee basically said a lot, considering the entire video frame, what the audience was finally presented was the edited part of the interviewee's views. 

Through the production of this video story, I find that editing can even completely reverse the interviewee’s point of view. But in order to ensure the authenticity of the interview content, I try not to distort the interviewee's views through editing. However, it is still unavoidable to magnify some views: only single-direction views are presented to the audience due to the frames, and the subsequent supplements will be omitted. For instance, the interview from 2:13 to 2:42. 

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In the video, the interviewee ended with "I don't think this is a feminist movie", but in fact, she still added "But Mulan also has her unique feminist’s perspective" and analyzed it. However, since it is different from the theme of that section, it has been omitted. Thus, although she did not modify her point of view, framing will still zoom in or out of some part of the point of view, which could result in a change in the audience’s perception of that viewpoint.

 

3. The Third Person Effect

According to third-person effect (TPE) theory, individuals tend to perceive mass media to have a greater effect on others than on themselves. More specifically, individuals may expect that the media will make the least impact on “me” (the first person), a moderate impact on “other members of one’s own in-group” (the second person, i.e., close friends or the ones share certain feature with “me”), and the greatest impact on “people out of one’s group” (the third person, i.e., people from other age groups, or share different features with “me”) (Zhang and Daugherty, 2009).  

When interviewing the second question, do you think that housewives can be the representatives of feminism on the big screen, many interviewees' answers also verify the theory of third person effect.

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Many interviewees’ answer is, "I think the current definition of feminism is too narrow. Even though most people may think that housewives can't represent feminism, I think housewives can also be self-liberating. Many claims that although their views are correct, they are not accepted by the public. But in fact, among all the respondents, there are not a few people who have a similar perception. Thus, whether this can prove that, in fact, most people think that housewives can represent women's rights? Although most of the female characters representing the empowerment of women in movies are strong or own other masculine characteristics, most people are still not affected by such impressions caused by media. However, interviewees acquiesce that they are more objective, while others are more likely to be affected by negative media than themselves.

 

4. Prototype theory

According to prototype theory, natural categories are organized around ideal examples (prototypes), and other items belong to the category to the extent that they resemble the prototype. 

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In this video story, I extracted the scenes from ten movies to amply my story. In both interviews and narrations, I adopt many movie scenes to make the soundtrack and the scenes harmonious and cohesive. The film excerpts are representative. 

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For instance, in the interview, when mentioning that "as bold as heroines", the picture corresponds to the picture of the Wonder woman lifting heavy objects. This picture is an exemplar of the heroine images with strong male characteristics. 

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For another example, in the third statement, when it is mentioned that "can those female characters who show more feminine physiological or psychological characteristics represent feminism", the corresponding picture is the confession of the eldest sister in the Little Woman: "I want to get married. Although my dreams are different from yours, doesn’t mean that they are unimportant." Choosing representative scenes corresponding to the narration can make the picture and sound more harmonious. More importantly, it indicates the opinion of the editor and helps the audience improve their understanding of the story.

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Geeraerts, D. (1989). Prospects and problems of prototype theory. Linguistics 27, 587–612. doi: 10.1515/ling.1989.27.4.587

Scheufele, D. A. (1999). Framing as a Theory of Media Effects. Journal of Communication, 49(1), 103–122. http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.1999.tb02784.x

Vreese, C. H. (2005). News framing. Identifying Information and Tenor in Texts Information Design Journal, 13(1), 51-62. doi:10.1075/idjdd.13.1.06vre

Zhang, J., &; Daugherty, T. (2009). Third‐Person Effect and Social Networking: Implications for Online Marketing and Word‐of‐Mouth Communication. American Journal of Business, 24(2), 53-64. doi:10.1108/19355181200900011