Sonja Baumer
My blogs
| Gender | Female |
|---|---|
| Location | Berkeley, California |
| Introduction | I grew up watching movies and television and thinking that there is an exciting and wonderful world out there. For my generation television was a window to what we imagined was the rest of the world. That window enabled us to live vicariously through amazing lives of beautiful TV heroes and heroines. However television was also a frustrating medium, as it left its audience invisible and unable to integrate their real lives with television adventures -- our daily experiences seemed too mundane and life seemed to be happening somewhere else, outside of our bedrooms. After leaving my bedroom to lead a very non-mundane life -- decades of wars, loves, losses, fascinating studies in human cognition, play, and popular media--I am now working at UC Berkeley on a project about new media and digital youth, focusing on the video web sharing service "YouTube”. My goal is to understand how viewing and production of videos on YouTube help people make sense of their own lives and identities. |