What the heck is going on here? I cannot believe they said Anna Nicole Smith was ranked higher on the 2007 scandal scale than Britney Spears. That is such a crock. I'll never watch Entertainment Tonight again. What a load of bull. Where do they get off saying . . . oh, jeez, wrong blog! Sorry!Uh, yeah, the Lawndale Lowdown, that's our topic. Right, here's the lowdown on the Lowdown. Ever since Lawndale High's school newspaper was introduced in "Quinn the Brain," with Brittany Taylor one of its columnists per The Daria Diaries, the paper has found a nice little niche for itself in fanfic as a constant source of trouble. In Canadibrit's "Grating Expectations," Thomas's "The Fascist Club," Richard Lobinske's John Lane series, Peter Guerin's "Lukewarm Metal," and Kara Wild's "Breaking the Mold" (plus later stories in her Driven Wild Universe), the Lowdown offers plenty of opportunity for students to get themselves into hot water with Ms. Li and their classmates, if not the legal system as well.
High-school newspapers are interesting entities. There is an interesting website for the National Scholastic Press Association on "Trends in High School Media" that details some of the controversies in which student newspapers become embroiled. This is not to mention the perilous path tread by students running an underground newspaper, as happens in Wild's DWU. But is this issue now passé with the rise of the Internet? Why print controversial things in the school paper when you can spam the entire planet with your views about the school administration and the mystery meat in your lunch on your own website?
A high-school newspaper will always be important. It's nice to have something you can read right in your hands that doesn't need batteries or a power cord to operate. However, Daria appeared right on the cusp of a large number of changes in the school system and society in general; the Internet's full impact was barely addressed. If the show had been made today, Quinn's essay in "Quinn the Brain" would have been published on the school's website for everyone on Earth to see. (Apparently the MTV Daria pages once made reference to there being a school website, but that material has been lost.) What would Quinn have thought then? Would Daria have blogged her opinions about school? Would Jane have posted her artwork at deviantART.com? Changes, changes, changes . . .
2 comments:
You know, I learned in my high school journalism class that there was actually a Supreme Court decision which said that high school newspapers have to run their content by the principal before it can actually be published. There was certainly a bit of drama in our newsroom as a result, as the principal effectively stamped out articles on upcoming school board elections and a scandal involving the co-valedictorians.
You know, this post made me want to read a version of Daria 2007 that isn't Angsty or at least isn't as angsty as the real deal is, heh.
About the "Quinn the Brain" thing, I think that maybe Daria using Quinn's outfit wouldn't have worked then, because Quinn would've probably gotten enough praise on the 'nets to assure her that she's not dumb (Or maybe, they would've trolled her enough to let her know that she isn't a Brain and thus there wouldn't have been a need for the "Daria as Quinn" outfit).
Daria would probably have her own blog and not just about school, but about all her views of the world... "The world according to Daria" or something like that. And Jane in deviantart... that would've worked heh. Maybe people would've called her a hack :p.
Post a Comment