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Tess Nelligan
Dr. Erin McLaughlin
Multimedia Writing and Rhetoric
12 October 2015
Technological Difficulties
On every college campus media and technology are an important part of day-to-day life; this is
especially true in the movie Dear White People, which is set on the fictional Winchester University
campus. The main focus of this movie centers around the struggles that black college students face
living on an Ivy League campus. For the most part, the students at Winchester struggle with who they
are and where they fit in; specifically, the black characters in the film struggle with their racial identities
on a predominantly white college campus. In order to connect with others, as well as discover
themselves, the characters in this film often turn to mediums such as social media and television. Within
the films larger discussion of race, rhetorical strategies are used to illustrate the negative impact media
and technology can have on a college campus.
Throughout the entirety of the movie, Dear White People, racial tensions run high. The movie
takes place on a modern Ivy-League campus called Winchester University, which happens to be
comprised of a mostly white student body. The film specifically focuses in on three black characters and
their respective struggles with race and identity. One of these main characters is Sam White, whose
stance on the problems at Winchester causes her to be a revolutionary in the film. Sams antithesis in the
movie is Coleandra Coco Conners, who tends to take a more moderate approach to many issues. The
other character that the movie focuses in on is Lionel Higgins. Lionel, who is both gay and black,
struggles the entire movie to find a place for himself at Winchester. Ultimately, media and technology

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help to perpetuate the problems that all of the characters face, most of which have to do with stereotypes
and their identities.
One important rhetorical strategy employed in Dear White People is the use of symbolism in
order to create two separate opinions on white culture. One of the main forms of communication in the
movie is through media, specifically Sams radio show Dear White People and Cocos YouTube vlog
Doing Time at An Ivy League. Both forms of media symbolize two different black stances on white
culture. Sams message is spread over the radio because it, like the radio, is something that has been
heard before. Within the narrative of the film, the fact that Sams opinions are shared on a radio show
symbolizes the idea that her opinions are older and more conservative. The message she spreads on her
show is the idea that white people dont understand black culture, so they should leave it alone. On the
other hand, Coco broadcasts her show on YouTube, which is a newer and more progressive platform for
her newer and more progressive opinions. Cocos message focuses on the idea that white and black
cultures are different, but that you dont have to limit yourself to one or the other just because of the
color of your skin. These two different media outlets function symbolically by representing the
ideologies they represent. Through the use of symbolism the audience is able to see how different Coco
and Sams ideologies are, as well as how divisive media can be. The divide that their shows cause on the
Winchester campus may not be evident at the beginning of the movie, but as the movie progresses the
impact can be seen in the way Coco and Sam, and their supporters, treat each other.
Another important technique that is used in this film is audio editing. The director, Justin
Siemen, successfully incorporates non-diegetic, or inserted, sound into the movie in order to emphasize
the differences between white and black culture. For example, during the opening credits viewers could
see only a blank screen, but were still able to hear various non-diegetic sounds. A static noise signaled

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that someone was changing the channel on a television as snippets from different shows played. The
different types of shows that could be heard during this scene were ones often associated with
predominantly black viewers. Some of the snippets from these shows included, you are not the father
and feeding Shannons crystal meth addiction, illustrating that these shows are unrefined. The use of
audio from these unrefined television shows causes the audience to draw the conclusion that black
culture on Winchesters campus is different from that of a usual Ivy League Campus. This opening scene
acts as a sharp contrast for one of the next scenes in the movie, which shows the students from all of the
different schools of Winchester University. As the camera slowly pans past the strictly white students
from the Bing School of Business and the Desmond School Of History, instead of excerpts from
offensive television shows playing in the background, Siemen inserts classical music. Classical music
acts a sophisticated contrast to the slang and explicit language heard during the opening scene. In this
way, the director uses two different types of non-diegetic sound to introduce the audience to the idea of
how differently the two races are perceived at Winchester. Through a media outlet like the television,
Siemen successfully illustrates the idea that black culture, in comparison to white culture, on an Ivy
League college campus is often thought of as less sophisticated. The context of these two different audio
sources is also very important in that they both show how, "The capacity to affect us as viewers and
consumers is dependent on the larger cultural meanings [the sources] invoke and the social, political,
and cultural contexts in which they are viewed (Cartwright and Sturken, 25). In other words, the
symbolism of the two different audio sources would be meaningless if the audience was unable to
understand the context taken from classical music versus snippets from television shows. Overall, the
audio editing introduces inaccurate stereotypes about black and white culture, which negatively affect
how the audience views interactions between the two cultures throughout the rest of the movie.

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In addition to audio editing, Siemen features different techniques of visual editing in order to
enhance the viewers' understanding of a common problem with modern technology. One example of this
can be found in the way that instant messages are sent in the movie. Oftentimes when a character sends
an instant message, the message will appear on the screen in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen.
Throughout the movie, Lionel seems to be the one character that communicates the most via instant
message. Towards the beginning of the movie, the audience can see Lionels instant messages appear on
the screen while he is writing them. In one particular instance, Lionel receives an instant message from
George, the editor for the newspaper. In addition to running the newspaper, George has also been
portrayed as a potential love interest for Lionel. The instant message from George reads, Hey
handsome, hows the story? To which Lionel starts to reply with Going great sexy, before he changes
his mind and replaces sexy with a (: . By allowing the audience to see the text message on the
screen, Siemen is able to communicate what Lionel is thinking versus what he is doing. From this it
becomes apparent that Lionels representation of himself through texts and other social media isnt
actually indicative of his real personality. Although this one example is about Lionel, the idea behind the
scene applies to other characters in the film as well. Albeit for different reasons, Sam and Coco also both
act differently on their radio and YouTube shows in comparison to how they act in reality. As the
characters, like Lionel, continue to change who they are on social media it becomes increasingly harder
to distinguish between the actual characters and the ones found online. Anything, including social media
and technology, that causes a person to change who they are in order to fit in is not beneficial to the
environment of a college campus.
During the second half of the movie, the visual rhythm of one scene in particular illustrates yet
another common detriment that technology and media have on the Winchester campus. According to
Lancioni, visual rhythm is described as the, content selection, shot composition, camera work, and

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editing (109). It is obvious that Siemen purposefully creates a certain visual rhythm in this scene in
order to show the negative aspects of technology. The scene takes place in Cocos dimly lit room, where
Coco sits at her desk staring at the bright glow of her laptop screen. At first, the camera cuts from side
profile shots of Cocos distressed face to a view of her computer screen, which shows the number of
subscribers and viewers of Sams YouTube channel. Shortly afterwards, the camera cuts back to a sideprofile of Coco and shows her mouthing the word fuck. Then the camera focuses on the computer
screen again as Coco goes to look at her own channel, which happens to have a lot less subscribers and
viewers than Sams. Finally, the camera cuts back to a close-up of Cocos face and it is evident that she
is not happy about being less popular than Sam. At the end of this scene parallel editing is also used to
emphasize the importance of receiving gratification on social media. In this case, the parallel editing
happens at the end of the scene when the camera shows a close-up of Cocos distressed face. As Coco
stares at the screen in front of her, the director blends in the scene where Helmut, a reality television
show producer, tells Coco that, conflict is a commodity. Initially, this entire scene may seem like it
revolves around Cocos desire to become famous; however, its larger message is about the need for
people to receive gratification on social media. The lack of lighting in Cocos room during this scene
signifies the dark role that technology and media has in our lives, and the constant cutting from Cocos
face back to the computer shows her attachment to social media as well as her computer. Additionally,
Helmuts comment emphasizes the importance of idea that social media is similar to a business and that
gratification on social media can be bought through conflict. Together these techniques create a visual
rhythm, which successfully illustrates that social media causes people to judge their own self-worth
based on the gratification they receive on social media. Another example of this can be found later in
the film when Helmut comments about the amount of views Coco has on a newer and more popular
video of saying, 40,000? Much better. By equating self-worth with the amount of love received on

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social media, Siemen makes a statement not only about Coco, but also about our generation as a whole.
His statement is that we are dependent on success and love in the virtual world in order to feel
successful and loved in the real world. Overall, this reliance on virtual love and success undermines the
need for real love and success in society.
As I have said before, media and technology can have negative effects on a college campus, but
both also possess positive aspects. One such positive is that the use of media and technology has betterimproved communication as well as the sharing of ideas. This can be seen in both Sam and Cocos
shows, where they are both able to openly share their opinions on anything and everything to a large
amount of viewers. Unfortunately, the ability to share opinions to a large audience, also allows others to
easily criticize those same opinions. An example of this can be found on Cocos YouTube vlog, Serving
Time at An Ivy League. Coco criticizes Sams radio show in her own vlog saying that Dear White
People is Blacker than thou propaganda from a bougie Lisa Bonet wannabe who smells like patchouli
and frankly I cant believe were letting Sam get away with it. In the end, this proves that one of the
positive aspects of media and technology, being able to share ideas with a large group of people, can
become quickly become a negative aspect when the ideas are met with hateful comments.
Nowadays, media and technology play a vital role in everyday life. Our generation has become
increasingly dependent on both media and technology in order to survive. Within the movie, Dear White
People, media and technology are displayed in a certain way in order to point out the negative aspects
that come from this dependence. Ultimately, Siemen offers a convincing argument to show that the
constant use of media and technology on a college campus is a persistent problem; however, in the end
he fails to offer a solution to this problem.

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Works Cited
Brown, E. (Producer), Siemen, J. (Director). (2014). Dear White People [Motion Picture]. United
States: Lionsgate Entertainment.
Cartwright, L., & Sturken, M. (2009). An introduction to visual culture. Practices of looking: An
Introduction to Visual Culture (pp. 10-69). Oxford University Press.
Lancioni, J. (1996). The rhetoric of the frame: Revisioning archival photographs in The Civil War.
Western Journal of Communication. 60(4), 397-414.

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