Ryenne Glover Professor Smith COM 205 January 31, 2014 Story Identification Project: Ethnic Identity and

Culture For my story identification project, I chose the broad topic of ethnic identity and culture. In a school bustling with international students, learning about new cultures, identities, and heritages piqued my interest and pushed me to discover more about the cultures around the world. The five mediums I chose each portray a certain culture similarly; however, each medium also adds a new way of discovering more about the culture, or revealing the identity of the individual. These five mediums are: fashion, documentaries, music, photographs, and magazines.

The easiest one to choose was fashion. Fashion is unique across the world there is never one similar fashion. The story told through the fashion of each culture is simply the aesthetics of the culture as well. The look, color, and style of the clothes tell the story of culture from an aesthetically pleasing, high-fashioned point of view. This way can usually be what first piques a womans interest in another culture, as the appealing clothes could draw the individual into more and more, until they become acquainted or involved with the culture as well.

Documentaries surrounding a specific nation or culture tend to not be as pleasing as the fashion. Rather, instead they can be more gritty, more realistic. While the amazing cultures and traditions of the people are revealed, so too are the

downfalls of the nation as well, or the struggles they must go through, whether severe or not.

Music dives deeper into the cultural aspect of the peoples. It can reveal the way they communicate, their language, their general beliefs and values, and so on. A culture is usually expressive through their music each song, hymn, instrumental, and more are embedded deep within the roots of the peoples culture.

A picture is worth a thousand words. Photographs can dive just as deep as music. Just a woman dancing in particular outfit can tell the story of a ritual, festivity, or religious activity. Photographs of a culture are frequently beautiful and extremely expressive, so one single picture could tell an entire story and reveal more about a certain culture more than words could.

Finally, magazines focus more on the superficial than the heart of a culture. Magazines tell the story of how to be the perfect _________________ (insert ethnicity) man/woman/wife/husband/girlfriend/boyfriend/etc. It may give some information on certain culinary recipes, or communicational techniques unique to that culture, but in the end, magazines are similar to the medium of fashion it is simply the aesthetics of the culture, not particularly the heart. These mediums help tell the story of ethnic identities and cultures, some in a more profound way than others.