Blog Post #10 Identity/Self

My roles during an average week include, but are not limited to:
Leader of a design team
Church goer
Sister
Aunt
Daughter
Friend
Cousin- my extended family is all out of state, so I spend a considerable amount of time trying to engage in conversation with them to keep current.  I am one of 20 cousins, so it stays busy!
Personal assistant
Nanny
Student


While it is necessary to shift from one role to another (I wouldn't behave the same in my role as a leader as I would in my role as a daughter), I am consistent in each one.  It's a goal of mine to offer stability and consistency to the people in my life and on my team.  In the past, I have found it very unsettling to be friends with inconsistent people, so I make concerted efforts in making myself stable.  While not always easy, the work is worthwhile because other people can be at ease when they are with me.

Technology plays a massive part in many of the identities that I assume.  Without my phone and the internet, I wouldn't be able to talk to my cousins or my dad, who live in the Boston area.  Additionally, without the internet, being a diligent student, personal assistant and designer would be infinitely more difficult.  In all honesty, I hardly remember a time without the internet, aside from a vague memory of coloring in my mom's encyclopedias. My life is framed by the expanse of technology.

Blog Post #9 Final Project Progress Report

My final project has been going well so far.  I take about thirty minutes a day to review the ad campaign I selected and write down any additional observations I can find.  This seems a bit futile, but it actually really helps because each time I look at it, I come from a different perspective, based on the way my day went or the conversations I have engaged in that day.  The process of revisiting the images helps me in finding different aspects to write about.

After I look at the images, I will write a few sentences about how they seem applicable if those observations are different from others I had previously written. Right now, this looks a little bit like a journal, but as I start to write my paper, it will be an invaluable resource.

Blog Post #8: Website Analysis

Website: Oneminutenews.com

What is the most important feature of an effective Web site? Why?
The most important feature of an effective website is the ease of navigation.  A website that is cluttered, convoluted or chaotic will cause people to lose interest quickly.  Naturally, people gravitate toward simplicity, and easily deciphered information.  Any data that is presented in an unprofessional manner will not intice people and will cause frustration and ultimately, a lack of effectiveness.
One Minute News (OMN) presents their information in an easy to read, highly accessible format.  I appreciate their sleek design and find it navigable.

What features of hypertext hinder a Web page’s communicative ability?
Hypertext can hinder a website if they don't work.  Sometimes, a website may not maintain their links, leaving the visitor frustrated and without the information that would be most beneficial to have.  Similarly, hypertext on a website must be completely accurate in order for it to function properly.  A mistyped link will result in the failure of a site to load.

What features of hypertext most enhance a Web page’s communicative ability?

When done correctly, a website with hypertext is extremely helpful because it gives immediate access to all the information.  Ultimately, this saves the reader time because they won't have to look up referenced article on their own. Simply clicking through a link will bring them to the text in question, giving them the opportunity to perform their own analyzation.


In the case of OMN, the hypertext links from the homepage straight to the piece that is being highlighted.  Beacuse the links are changing frequently, often more than once a day, it is rare for a link to be nonfunctional. I have been using this website for several months and have yet to discover a link that is broken or leads to a 404 error.

Blog Post #7- Final Project Summary

• Include a summary of your project--- my project will deal directly with advertising campaigns through a Toulmin analysis.  I am most familiar with the Toulmin model and so I tend to favor using this method to perform an objective critique of images.  By assessing claims, warrants, qualifiers, etc of appeals to logos, ethos and/or pathos, I will be able to look at emotional ads and make evaluative comments. 
• Outline: I think the first step to performing a thorough evaluation is to look frequently at the image being evaluated.  My first step at doing the assessment is to look, with undivided attention, at the series of images in the campaign.  While I'm looking, I will write down quick notes to remind myself what I saw in the individual picture and this will allow me to draw out any similarities between images. After I do this, I'll begin fitting my information into the Toulmin analysis model and drawing appropriate conclusions therefrom. 
• Summarize your status on the final project— After reading the assignment sheet,  I started to think about how I wanted to present my information in a creative way.  Powerpoint is effective and can be suitably customized to create a unique experience, but I would like to think of other ways to present my data. I haven't quite decided what that will look like, but I have a few ideas to consider. 

Blog Post #6

Source

*What or who is negated? In some ways, 9/11 is negated in order to create room for awareness of the tsunami that hit Brazil. According to the tagline of the ad, 100 times more people were lost in the tsunami than in 9/11, but because it was not an act of terrorism, it received subpar media coverage and little support from organizations across the world. 

*What standards are created by the image or advertisement?

This advertisement is powerful and slightly controversial in that it takes an American national tragedy and levels the playing field with tragedies that have occurred overseas. By doing so, the WWF campaign creates a double standard. To be clear from the outset, I wholeheartedly stand behind the efforts of Americans to remember and honor the people who died that day. For the sake of this assignment, one must come from a place of objectivity and that is where I stand.  The events that happened on 9/11 are some of the most publicized and covered of the last century.  There are documentaries, memorials, monuments, and moments of silence dedicated to the lives lost on the planes and on the ground.  It is wonderful yet painful to take a minute and remember those people.  Somehow though, the tragedies in other countries have gone completely unnoticed by the United States and many other countries.  This campaign, run by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), is dedicated to informing people of the catastrophes in other places.  Mostly, the campaign brings awareness to foreign countries regarding natural disasters in lesser known territories.  

*Are these standards fair? Is the advertisement or image ethical?

The desired standard of the WWF is for fairness across the world for help and monetary support whenever disaster strikes. Regardless of origin, be it terrorism or an earthquake, lives are impacted and people get injured.  No one people group is worthy of help more than another.
As for the ethics of the picture, it is difficult to look at but it does not cross the boundaries of ethics.  Because the attack on 9/11 is a scar on the soil of America, citizens of that country may find this advertisement offensive. 

Blog Post #5 Final Project

Description of the project: As I initially conceptualize my final project, I'm leaning toward a compare/contrast piece that would evaluate some of the most recognized and successful ad campaigns in history.  Coca-Cola, Gap (RED), Marlboro, and dozens of others make the list but I haven't settled on which ones I'd like to evaluate as of yet.  10 Most Successful Ad Campaigns provides a list of, as the link might give away, ten successful (slightly dated though) ideas that I'll consider.

Argument:  There are definite elements of advertising the appeal to a consumer's sense of pathos, logos or ethos.  Retailers play to one or all of these appeals through their clever marketing.

Topic and format:  The topic will be the efficacy of ad campaigns.  The format will likely be a written paper that addresses similarities that set successful campaigns apart from those that fail.  I would like to include a visual element to the project, but I'm not sure what that look like yet.

Audience: The audience for this type of thesis has the potential to be quite broad, encompassing society as a whole.  I want to narrow the scope of the audience by selecting advertisements that play to a certain segment of population.  It's likely that I'll choose to evaluate ads that are primarily targeted toward my cohorts.

Context:  With Christmas and simliar holidays approaching, it can be tricky to objectively engage in shopping.  Flashing lights, bright colors, and well-placed ads lure people into buying things they may not have otherwise.  This phenomenon is compounded by a new study called decision exhaustion.

Blog Post #4 Rhetorical Arguments

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/23/opinion/why-cyberbullying-rhetoric-misses-the-mark.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

     This article, printed originally in the New York Times aims to address the perception of bullying among middle and high school students.  Authors Danah Boyd and Alice Marwick work to debunk the differences between "drama" and "bullying" as used in the every day vocabulary of America's student population.  "Teenagers say drama when they want to diminish the importance of something", the reporters noted.  Bullying, in opposition, is a term that refers to a more aggressive, personal attack on another person.  Left behind in the wake of bullying is hurt feelings, victimized children and clueless adults. 

     Boyd and Marwick present an interesting approach to this topic.  They purportedly interviewed students that align with the middle and/or high school age groups and represent their ideas in this piece.  What I found absent from this article were direct quotes and explanations from students in these categories.  Paraphrasing their verbiage is an ineffective tool in this case because adults theoretically know what bullying is, but we have failed to realize how bad it has become. If children and young adults were allowed to define bullying in their own words, it would probably sound a lot different from what adults would imagine.  The reporters do quote the children interview, including a line here or there about their experiences, but hardly enough to gain the ethos of the reader. Undoubtedly, that is a weakness I cannot ignore.  To print a piece about how bullying rhetoric is wrong, and leave massive parts of the argument unexplored is to partially equip your readers, creating a gap of mis- or under-informed citizens. 


     Additionally, in omitting information from kids who have been bullied and those who are classified as bullies decreases the validity of this article.  As an adult, I am aware of my own perceptions of bullying in elementary and middle schools, but to read an account of a young person would heighten my awareness and present a new dimension to the anti-bullying campaign.