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Situating the Personal in Digital Media Production

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Situating the Personal in Digital Media Production

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Multimedia Literacy through digital storytelling helps with crafting self.
“Participants use multimedia literacy in digital storytelling to make sense of their past and present lives and to reflect on their life trajectories. Multimedia literacy in this case considers the various affordances in communication and representation through different modes or resources for meaning making such as writing, speech, image, sound, gesture, and movement.”

“The stories participants tell simultaneously portray and shape who they are, how they see themselves and what they plan to do in the future.” (Jocson 2008,  p.170)

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Here the Author recounts her story about growing up with enough language knowledge up to the age of 4 as the main reason she was able to lip read and not need to learn sign language. She also gives us a heartwarming glimpse into what it was like as the Deaf Child in a regular school.

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El Deafo, is a semi-autobiographical account of Cece, a child that loses her hearing suddenly at the age of four from meningitis.
Presented as a graphic novel whose characters are all bunnies, we follow Cece through the regular challenges a young child in a new school faces, like making new friends and managing relationships, battling loneliness and awkwardness while trying to fit in with a rather large device on her chest that makes her look and feel “different” than all the other children. Cece discovers that this large device however grants her superhero level abilities that enable her to hear conversations from very far away!

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The characters in this graphic novel are anthropomorphized as rabbits. The stories and situations presented in this graphic novel are heavy, frustrating at times and sad, but I believe presenting the characters as rabbits helps lend a little bit of levity to a rather serious and heavy topic while enabling the reader to always see the hearing aids that would otherwise be hidden under her hair.

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As Cece begins adjusting to a life with her new hearing device, we see her getting on a different school bus than her neighborhood friends. The images here are all illustrated without text from the characters. Instead we tap into little Cece’s thoughts. She seems unsure of what is happening and where she is going. “I don’t know where Emma goes, but I take a terrifying bus ride holding the hand of a mysterious woman with a serious afro.” (p.26)
We see a single tear on Cece’s cheek.

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Once she arrives at her new school, Cece meets her classmates who are just like her! She meets her new teacher and it seems as though Cece is happy and comfortable. She learns to read, write and also how to lip read, which of course is challenging!

#BadLipReading

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Her mother tells Cece that she will not be going to a special education school for 1st grade, but rather will be going to school with the kids in her neighborhood. She is not only scared to be in regular school, but she now must wear a large hearing aid called the Phonic Ear. She does not want to stand out so in order to blend in, she tries to hide it under her shirt.

As a parent this section broke my heart. Not only do we see Cece’s nervousness about starting 1 st grade with the kids from the new neighborhood, but she is also told that she will be wearing a LARGE hearing aid on her chest!!!

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There are several moments where Cece must confront notions of difference. For example the moment where Cece leaves the Fisher school, a special education school where she is one of many children like herself and is taught the skills that will help her integrate with society. Only to then move to Roanoke.  " Suddenly Summer is here again. When I say good-bye to my friends at Fisher School. I do not realize that I will never again be surrounded by kids who are just like me." (p.34)

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It is in her new class, with her powerful new hearing aid on that Cece discovers she has super powerful listening abilities.
Through this “superpower” Cece becomes “El Deafo” and is able to “escape” to a world where she is able to summon the courage to not only stand up to her bullies, but is also able to mentally act out her feelings of being treated differently as a result of her hearing loss.

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The Superhero day dream is over fairly quickly however and we see just how alone Cece feels. The illustration here captures this loneliness really well by placing Cece in a bubble... "First grade is really lonely at first. Wherever I am .. it feels like I'm always inside my bubble." (p.47)
Her perception that everyone is staring at her because she is different leads her to create an imaginary boundary between her and the others.
"We undo boundaries through the awareness that It is our vision, and not what we are viewing that is limited.” (Sousanis 2015, p.42)

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As the story progresses, Cece does form friendships that help her feel more included, but also more frustrated at being different. Certain children she meets think they are doing her a favor by speaking more loudly or helping by using exaggerated arm movements, but this just makes Cece feel worse. We see Cece escape these situations by becoming her alter ego and mentally acting out against the bullies, the annoying friends and the times she gets really frustrated.

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This section of the graphic novel was a great representation of Cece's challenge in not only making new friends, but also demonstrates her reluctance to speak up for herself. She SO BADLY wants to say what she is feeling, but never quite has the confidence to speak up! As a result, she has a difficult time creating relationships.

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“Language comes into being –into meaning-through coordinated relationships among persons” (Livingstone S. 2009, p.4)

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The summer before Cece enters the fifth grade, we see her meet her first crush.. Mike Miller with her best friend Martha. This conjures up feelings of insecurity at being different once again because Mike Miller has never seen Cece's large Phonic Ear device!

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As a result of a giggling fit, Cece is asked by Mike Miller what was so funny. She summons the courage ( after her alter ego El Deafo provides the confidence) to tell Mike about her super powers. This leads to Mike conducting an experiment to see how strong Cece's Phonic Ear system is.

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The day after the experiment she is recruited by Mike to be the "look out" for the class each time the teacher leaves them alone. Here we see Cece's apprehension to do something she knows is wrong, but she is also worried about what the kids might think of her "super power".  To her dismay.... her classmates think she is amazing. "Gee, I wish I had a Hearing Aid too!" (p 217)
This makes Cece feel special and part of the group... finally!!

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I chose this graphic novel because coincidentally my daughter had it in her bookshelf! But I truly enjoyed it! I too had difficulty making friends in grades K-2 at my public school, so in many instances throughout this graphic novel I found myself quite emotionally invested and rooting for Cece. It is a wonderful story and seeing videos with the author recounting her story only enriches the overall experience of having read this book even more!

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Bell, C., & Lasky, D. (2015). El deafo. Winnipeg: Manitoba Education and Advanced Learning, Alternate Formats Library.

Hill, M. L., & Vasudevan, L. (2008). Media, learning, and sites of possibility. New York: P. Lang.

Livingstone, S. (2009). On the Mediation of Everything: ICA Presidential Address 2008. Journal of Communication,59(1), 1-18. doi:10.1111/j.1460-2466.2008.01401.x

Steirer, G. (2017). Unflattening by Nick Sousanis. Cinema Journal,56(2), 168-173. doi:10.1353/cj.2017.0016

Web References:

https://youtu.be/klbAA0jWuOQ

https://www.youtube.com/user/BadLipReading

https://primarysourcepairings.com/el-deafo/