Lost: Ethnography Report

Trung’s family left Vietnam twenty seven years ago when he was just 4 years old. Like so many Vietnamese families Trung’s family left the country due to US and Vietnam War that literally destroyed the country. His family determined to leave the country with the departing US troops to the land of hope and future. They have tried so many times and finally they made it to the US with their four little children.

Growing up in Baltimore Trung has spent countless hours watching any TV shows. As a kid he has consumed hundreds hours worth of cartoons. There was no such thing as watching too much TV, in fact he and his older brother sharing a bedroom with a TV since he was eight or nine years old. When his brother is around he watched what ever his brother is watching. They watched TV while doing home works, folding cloth and doing any house chores.

His favorite shows are mostly comedy. Friends, everybody loves Raymond and Seinfeld are few of the comedy shows he loved. So my question was that how he ended up watching and attracted to LOST. I was wondering if he stumbled to it while surfing the channels. That is really what he does when he is watching TV by himself. He gets easily board. He does not remember how he stumble to the show, but it capture his attention, likes the suspense at first and to his surprise he did not even change the channel during commercial break, though he does not remember the commercial.

As Trung puts it perceptively the show is about survival. Survival and taking control in a situation that you have found yourself. The situation that challenges your instinct and the animal that is in you. It is a fact that people from different background take a plane each day. It is also a fact plans crashed a lot less than cars, but they do crash time to time. The thing is that we do not think about them. The ABC drama LOST captures that angle and that is why Trung is so drawn to the show.

He used to watch the show religiously, but since he does not like to watch serious shows with his wife he slowly changing his habit to something that is neutral for both of them and this time movies became the tie breakers. He still tape and watch the show when he is alone, the same night it airs even if it means staying up late. He considers his accommodation of his wife as the biggest sacrifice he ever made in his life. He does not even want to think about kids. Not at this moment.

The one thing he still likes about the show though that he predict some of the outcomes before the show begins and most of the times his predictions seems to hit the target. He does not know if that is one of the reasons that he loves show, but certainly LOST is the only drama based show with the reality twist that fascinated him each time

Media and Communication Studies

The future of the internet: Utopian and Dystopian possibilities. Was the name of the lecture by Jackie Regales, lecturer at the department of Media and communication studies at UMBC (University of Maryland Baltimore County) I have attended the lecture to get some extra point for my class, AMST 325, but the lecture was more than I bargain for. The lecture focuses on how the internet, the information supper highway, changed the way we communicate with one another, the way educational institutes start offering their priceless courses for free for any one and any where in the globe, how free thinkers share their ideas to the society at large and off course how criminals using this supper high way for their own advantage too. The lecture also touches how we did not perceived how the internet changes the way we live our life so far and how we can not foresee how it is going to shape our future either.

Possible Interviewee and question

It is all about LOST

Four of my coworkers really like the show, watch it religiously and never get tired of talking about it. Two others watch the show when ever they can and do not mind participating in the conversation as long us others started the conversation about the show. One other coworker watched the show many times and says little, but if he was asked about part and places of the show he seems to know it more than all the others combined. For my interview I have chosen the one coworker who watched the show many times and seems to follow the narration of the show closely. Here are some possible questions I am piling up.

• How is your channel surfing habit?
• Do you jump from channel to channel, show to show or finish a particular show?
• What kind of shows you like to watch and why?
• What popular culture theme you can point in the show?
• Do you watch Lost regularly?
• What is that you like about the show Lost?
• Is there something you hate or do not like about the show?
• Do you watch this show with your wife or alone?
• If with your wife does she like the show as much as you do?