Scrapbook Identity and Argument

The idea I have come up with is "history repeats itself". I'm a golfer. I have grown up playing the sport. I started when I was really young. My grandparents who are golfers got me started with my first set of junior golf clubs and eventually I started taking lessons. As my skills grew stronger, I started playing in tournaments, did well, and that got me my scholarship to NMSU. My scrapbook is going show my development in the game and my present involvement on the team at NMSU. In the future I want to teach golf or coach as a profession. I would really like to work with children. My focus will be that having been introduced to this sport by my grandparents I will pass on my skills and knowledge to the next generation, hopefully to my own children as well as to the children of others.

Oklahoma Memorial Site

A memorial is a good way to express yourself in an abstract way. Thinking about all the people who died in this attack and the thought and emotional pressure has as an artist put into this memorial shows a lot of character someone has for his or her community. A memorial is made to be adored, people should be able to enjoy themselves and just have a place to think. Memorials are a good thing. They symbolize hope, remembrance, charity, forgiveness, and spirit.


Field of Empty Chairs is one of the symbols I chose to talk about. There are 9 rows of chairs that symbolize each floor and the amount of people that died on the floor. I think this is a good way to express ones feelings about with an abstract meaning. People will look at those and know that these chairs are a symbol of a tragedy and how we are able to cope with it and let it remembered. It almost makes you want to sit in all those chairs and think about how each person would have felt not knowing that their life was about to end. What thoughts went through their head at the time of death, and hoping that they are in a good place now.

The Fence is the next symbol I chose. They built this immediately once the memorial was built. To me it symbolizes a meaning of remembrance for all the people, problems and heart break other people had to go through losing someone, having to clean up the mess and what effect this could have on the minds and the feeling about such an awful thing. The public used it as a form of token and remembrance.

Photographs as a Compsition

Using a photograph to show meaning is a good way to identify what someone is trying to portray. When analyzing a photograph you need to look at the composition as a whole. What colour is used, who is in the photograph, where is the photograph taken, and what message it sends out.

I don't really have a family photograph. Most of my family doesn't wish to have a big family portrait taken. Usually we have one family member taking the photo of a couple members of my family. The photo I chose to analyze is the same photo I chose for the assignment on WEBCT. This photo to me has a lot meaning. It shows that our family likes to spend time with one another in small groups. We never really have big family gatherings. This photo was taken during christmas morning. There was no snow and it was warm enough to make breakfast outside on the BBQ. My grandfather is cooking the breakfast, my mom is beside him and I'm beside my mom. My grandmother is taking the photo. All of us are in our pj's and enjoying the warm christmas weather.

My family is close, but not as close as most families. We tend to do our own things but always have time to spend quality time with one another. I think this photo is important to me because I shared a lot of moments with my grandparents. I spent a lot of nights and days in their house. There house was always a place I could go when my mom was working nights and my grandparents always took care of me. My dad used to do hours of yard work there and I would always go, their house was my play ground.

I think this photograph works well because even though my family doesn't really do things together, we are always together for the holidays and share time together. We might not be big on activities but we are still family and really close.

The colors in this photograph are dull. A lot of grays and light shades. Shows to me that it was a calm morning, might have been a cloudy morning, maybe a little overcast. The fact that each person in this photo is smiling shows that even though its a dull morning, we are enjoying it to the fullest and having fun, also enjoying Christmas as its supposed to be enjoyed, with joy.

Working thesis for essay 2

Here below is the working thesis for my essay 2 paper.

Cell phones have been around for almost 90 years. The use of cell phones have changed since they first came out. Before we only used cell phones for simple emergency calls that were short and brief. Today we use our cell phone for texting, long calls, and surfing the internet as a form of communication. Cell phone companies are making a fortune off the new technologies coming out. The audience the cell phone tends to attract are young adults ranging from 16 to 30, though lately research has shown that people in the workforce have upgraded to a more complex phone such as the blackberry. The way we communicate with people has changed so much over the years. We use abbreviations when we talk to each other on such discourse communities as facebook, and myspace. We use the same text styles when we text message one another as well. The cell phone has become such a necessary part of many people’s lives but we haven’t thought about the “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” aspects of this technology. I believe the cell phone is partly all of these things.

Technologies List

Myspace
Facebook
Tagged
NMSU
Youtube
Cellphone
Halo
xbox
Nexopia
Yahoo
Dating Sites

For my Technology, I choose Cellphones. My argument would be about "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly." Cell phones can be all of these things, as well as different things to different people.

This is a tentative list of some of the things that I might consider:


Good- handy and convenient, fun, text without long distance charges, get information quickly (maps, stock market, transfer money, get news), emergency use( 911 or getting help immediately), GPS, you can easily reach and check up on kids ex. where and when, being able to send pictures easily.
Bad- expensive, addictive (text messaging), possibility of brain tumors (?), internet charges, picture posting (naughty photos), huge bills, Roaming charges.
Ugly- Annoying(restaurant, subway or bus), Dangerous (texting while driving, not watching where your going while talking), spread germs, pictures on the internet, distracting (listening to music while driving, having to answer your phone while driving), posting pictures rude pictures.

Essay Draft

Commercials are an interesting mode of communication with an audience because they focus on persuading the viewer to act upon the product they are promoting by making a purchase or supporting a cause. In any given hour-long program on television, a viewer can see as many as twenty different commercials. Many viewers like to channel-hop during commercials unless something within the commercial attracts their attention. A commercial usually has to be pretty amazing to keep you from changing the channel. The delivery may get your attention, the content may keep you watching and how the content is presented may make it memorable. The more memorable commercials make it to youtube. It is from this source that I had the opportunity to watch a Pedigree dog food commercial. Animals are often used in commercials as “visual rehetoric” because they are cute, naturally innocent, often funny and they automatically pull on the emotional heart strings. Animals also attract a wider audience because who doesn’t like animals.

The youtube commercial opens with a lone yellow dog lying on the bare cement floor of a kennel. The viewer is initially behind the dog looking toward the fenced door of the holding cell. The Text uses little colour. The image is limited to muted browns and yellow, grey, and black which leaves the audience feeling the dog is in a lonely, gloomy place.

The audience can tell someone is coming, by the dog’s reaction of getting up excited and going to the entrance of the holding cell. The audience can only see the legs of two people. The camera angle changes so you can see the dog’s expressions of excitement at seeing the people.

A monotone male voice starts the narration of Pedigree supporting an adoption program and that one dollar from the purchase of their dog food goes toward their program. Therefore dogs like “Echo” do not have to live like this and will be adopted if you support their program by buying their dog food. Echo does not get adopted in the commercial. The naturally deep pitch of a male voice and the monotone delivery of the narration also leave the viewer feeling sad for the dog. You watch the dog, once excited at the prospect of being adopted, look a the people leaving without him and the viewer automatically knows the dog is sad and alone again.

The Text then includes written contact information on the screen so the viewer can find out more information about their adoption program and products. There is a yellow bag with a blue ribbon on it which is an icon representing good quality. Pedigree is superimposed on the top of this in white. This backs up the idea that they are a solid dependable company. They use two primary colours, yellow and blue. These are simple unsophisticated colours. White symbolizes purity. The font is arial, a simple conservative type face.

They also use a catchy website name, “dogsrule.com”. This is an interesting name for a website. What is it’s significance to the audience? Could it be this creature is so important that buying their product is as important by association. Furthermore, “dogsrule” also suggests dog are the best and the audience can help their plight by buying their dog food.

The Rhetor’s use of camera angles allows the audience to identify with the dog and become emotionally attached to it and its situation. The use of the dogs eye view lets us see things from the dog’s perspective. The use of close personal distance, frontal angle, and medium angle all help us to to become more strongly involved with the dog. The colour choices and use of minimal visual objects in the commercial really capture the feeling of emptiness and isolation. In addition, the web site name is memorable which makes it more likely that they will look up the site when they are surfing the net.

It seems that the manufacturers of this product must be good and caring people because they are donating money from the sale of their product to such a worthy cause. Ethically we also want to be good and caring people and by buying their product we too will be supporting dog’s without homes . Looking at this communication from a realistic perspective, one would have to say that the motives of Pedigree are more about selling dog food than they are about the welfare of dog’s without homes. However, their approach is politically correct in that they are still helping animals and people will respond favorably despite knowing deep down what Pedigree’s real motive is.

Sorry about not having a photo but there was an issue with posting a photo on the blog and it frustrating me, but here is the youtube link to the ad that I used for this critique.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ODC5e3AEa8

Logos, Ethos, Pathos

Here are the definitions I came up with...

Logos: Persuading and giving evidence by reason. Giving appeal to a commercial or advertisement using reason. What makes an effective reason to what you are trying to persuade.

Ethos: Using expert comments or persuasive skills that appeal to the audience. With using experts that give a credible appeal makes the audience think its worth watching.

Pathos: is the emotional part of the commercial to appeal to the audiences emotions. Using words, language that effects the readers/listener emotions. It usually shows a point of view that helps the audience make a choice towards the ad.


This works towards the commercial I chose a pedigree commercial that shows emotion, reason, and persuasive skills that makes an audience think. I think this commercial is more towards Pathos because it has a lonely dog, and everyone loves dogs. But seeing as the dog is not getting adopted and left alone in the kennel again, there are now emotions of loneliness and abandonment. It also has logos, which are for reason. Dogs that are usually up for adoption are usually dogs that have been abandoned and left alone. Buying food for your dog from pedigree they are donating towards those lonely dogs that you wish you could more for.

Commercial/Ads

For the first commercial Ad I chose, "Black and White people furniture" advertisement for Red House furniture. I know this is just a joke to make people laugh, but my argument would have to be against the discrimination that people judge upon one another. But at the same time, we make fun of the policies and laws that try to make our country content with different racial acts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnOyMSEWNTs

For the second ad I chose the "Pedigree Adoption AD". I feel the argument is basically the abuse of animals, but also giving the feeling that not only do animals get abused, there is also a close feeling that we too as people have the same conflict. Not only do we leave an animal behind but we also share the same alone feeling when something or someone leaves or treats us poorly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ODC5e3AEa8

WWII Poster

WWII Poster response...

The poster I chose for my response was the "He's watching you" by Glenn Grohe. In this poster is has a mans face from eyes up, looking directly at you. It has a lot of soft tones to the coloring. From middle to bottom it has in big bulk letters, "HE'S WATCHING YOU".
This poster is really implying a lot of in depth emotion. From looking at this poster, I feel very scared, like someone is literally looking through me. The use of color spectrum and have the colors in mellow tone works well with the underlying purpose of the image. The figure itself is very dark and mysterious. The darkness around his eyes, gives you the feeling, "who is this man staring right at me". It works well with the whole purpose behind world war II, seeing as everyone is so serious and focused on their goal to survive as long as they can and get the job done. It almost looks as though there is a abstract figure below him, crawling/walking around in mystery. The big bold white lettering signifying clearly that "He's Watching You" shows that this man staring as us from this photo, really is keen on what hes going. No matter where you are, if you are fighting for or against someone, there is always someone watching you who could be better.
The poster really shows you how WWII could really be like. It's not showing a group of people fighting as one person. It shows one man fighting for freedom and to stay alive. Subliminally this image portrays that you gotta have a good sense of what is going on and that you are alone in this battle. Yes you can defend someone, and keep them close so you stay alive longer. But you have to keep a good sense on who is going to slow you down in the long run and is it really worth the risk. So often we don't take a good look at our surroundings. Most of the time we just assume that we are going to get through every inch of life with just a tiny bit of effort. This image to me, makes me feel that we need to be more observant and make sure we know what we are getting ourselves into. If not we will not know what hit us next.

First Blog,

Hey,

Just seeing how this works. It's cool, gives me a way to express myself. I've always been the type to show how I feel on typed pages or paper better then verbally expressing myself.
Well back to reading for our assignment due wednesday night!