FINAL POST!

I can't believe this is my final blog post; this semester flew by! Learning about the process of creating various multimedia pieces was definitely aided in having a blog to look back on. Throughout the semester, I also used my classmates' blogs to see how they were doing in each of the units, and to see what they were taking away from the readings and lectures. For my final, I have decided to reflect on Katie Kessler's IW8 and Madelyn Steckbeck's IW8. I chose their blog posts based off the first impression I had when I visited each of their pages. I noticed that their blog posts were both very well organized and had a lot of pictures in addition to text.

Analysis 1: Katie Kessler's Informal Writing #8

I love the design of Katie's blog. The background of the red and purple brick allow for a really good contrast when reading the black text on a white background. Katie also makes it very easy for the reader to enjoy their time on her blog, by separating the text with pictures to the right and left of the text. Rather than having text in paragraph format and having photos beneath, she combines photos and text to make her blog post easier on the eyes. The white header with black print at the top of her blog makes her name stand out while being simplistic at the same time. 

Katie had a lot of meaningful things to say about the power of image, couple with her own examples of how these concepts resonate with her. She drew from the Ocepek reading we were assigned in class. Her analysis of one of the quotes in the reading really stuck out to me. "He states that "images can be manipulated to emphasize reality, distort reality, or even create the obviously unreal." Therefore, it is our responsibility as writers and storytellers to think about how the images we use can change and distort our reality."

 Katie's reaction to the quote in putting the responsibility of the use of images on writers was really interesting to me. Personally, I find that in analyzing an image, it is up to the audience to decide where their mind takes them while looking at an image rather than the writer, or the storyteller in the situation. All of Katie's examples and ideas were very nuanced and had a lot of detail, allowing the audience to almost get inside of her psyche in how she understands various concepts. 

In her post, she mentions that she found it really difficult to explicate her argument about feminism without the use of words, however, I disagree. I think her argument was very well received and that it was very clear where her argument was going even though she didn't use any words. Her argument, about the different ways you can be a feminist really spoke to me and I think she did a great job, despite the fact that she felt like her argument could have been better if words were used. My argument, Stop Texting While Driving, is a much easier argument to argue without the use of words. I utilized a lot of ethos in my argument by using damaged cars and a photo that has blood in it. I felt like the only way to really get to the audience with this specific audience would be to appeal to their emotions. 


Katie's use of a GIF to explicate her relationship with Dreamweaver added some ethos to her blog post, mostly because I could relate to what she was saying. Dreamweaver is one of those programs that are difficult to navigate, especially if you are not well equipped with coding, and it seems like it can be much easier. 

Analysis 2: Madelyn Steckbeck's Informal Writing #8

Madelyn's blog post stuck out to me because of her use of GIFS to help her get her points across. She mentions at the beginning of her post that because she is a journalism major and a creative writing minor, using images to speak for themselves was a concept that she is not used to, because she uses words so frequently.

Her blog is very simplistic and has a white background and black text. She uses bright colors for the headings and to highlight the date, but other than that, there were not many other choices made aesthetically for her blog. I think that having a simplistic blog is definitely a creative choice that can potentially draw in some readers and deter others. Some might find the lack of CSS alterations boring and not exciting enough to keep them on the page, and others might find it refreshing and easy to read. I fall in line with the latter. Because her blog design is so simple and to the point, it allows you to focus on the content of each blog post without distracting you with any choices that may be made during the web design process.

After taking this course and having her struggles, Madelyn said that she learned a lot about using images to persuade and how important it is to use photos in addition to words when compiling a story or an argument.

I felt a lot of ethos being exuded from Madelyn's IW8. I'm not sure if that is solely because I can relate to almost everything she says about her struggles (and triumphs!) that she faced throughout the course of this class, but I really enjoyed reading her final thoughts on the class.

IW 8: Reflecting on the semester

Throughout this course, the power of rhetoric image has been emphasized in every project. We learned that there are myriad ways in which images can convey meaning to they audience. Whether it be through collage, image manipulation, using more than one material, composing an image void of words can still have a lasting impact on its viewer. The syllabus lists 5 objectives for the course, as follows: 

1. Demonstrate your understanding of multimedia concepts such as usability, interactivity, hypertext, remediation, visual culture, etc., through discussion and the products you create. 
2. Demonstrate the ability to design and compose a variety of multimedia products (3) for a variety of audiences (3) based on contemporary design practices.
3. Demonstrate basic research abilities and proper documentation procedures by investigating the relationship between multimedia, culture and image.
4. Demonstrate an ability to rhetorically analyze a wide variety of multimedia texts based on concepts such as design, audience, and overall effectiveness through a series of short, non-traditional multimedia products (mini-projects).
5. Demonstrate an ability to create a series of digital works incorporating print, image, hypermedia, and other modes that utilize multimedia theory and concepts.

I believe that in the past few months, through the three unit projects, informal writings, mini projects, and blog posts, that I have a much deeper understanding not only of the importance of imagery, but how to make specific artistic choices in order to convey a specific message. To me, images largely persuade an audience in that they are more entertaining to digest than a large body of text. 

Before this course, I was not really aware how powerful web design and hypertext could be. I had never thought about constructing my own website, let alone how to go about it and what softwares to use in the process. There are so many things to consider in creating a website or a webpage including basic web design, accessibility, layout, content, CSS, HTML, coding, and a ton of other aspects that I still don't quite comprehend. Webpages have a lot more freedom than other tradition forms of media in that they can combine a bunch of different kind of medias and join them together in one space. Through links, downloadable documents, different tiers, and images, you can have the full gamut of medias in just one single page that you can access from any form of technology. My first website, TCU Recycle, explores the full range of struggles that one might have when creating their first website with Dreamweaver, but still manages to get the message across via a combination of images, texts, and hyperlinks. 

Visual arguments are an interesting concept to tackle. On one hand, images can speak for themselves, especially if manipulated to tell a specific story as they did in this project. However, if the argument trying to be achieved is extremely nuanced, it seems rather difficult to convey the complexity of the argument without words. Not being able to use words for this project really made me think about how I was going to compose the image and what it would say to someone that wasn't part of my thought process. My argument, Stop Texting While Driving, almost speaks for itself. In having multiple pictures of car wrecks, it reiterates to the audience that no one wants to end up in the situation I have depicted. Since it is something that is relatable to essentially everyone, being those with a cell phone and a car, it is easier to appeal to the audience's emotions and understand what they may feel when they look at the images. 

When I signed up for this course last semester, I knew it would challenge me. I assumed that this time around my experience with the Adobe Suite would be a lot more intuitive than it was, but I'm glad I was challenged in terms of creativity and patience. As a news and media studies major with a film, television, and digital media minor, been well versed in the Adobe Suite is something that will undoubtedly benefit me in my future career endeavors. Although I somehow managed to avoid sharpened my skills in Photoshop, I am extremely impressed with how I can navigate Dreamweaver after this semester. I know that if I continue to practice making even simplistic, template-based webpages, it is a skill that will become more refined over time. Eventually, I hope to not be as frustrated with Photoshop as I have been in the past, including this semester throughout all of the assignments. 

Stop Texting White Driving: Visual Argument

My visual argument circumferences an issue I notice in my daily life: texting while driving. Since the age of the smartphone, drivers have been plagued by the immense distraction caused by their cell phones. Being able to text, call, Snapchat, check your Facebook feed, and FaceTime with the touch of a button on a smartphone creates an overwhelming diversion of the driver’s attention from the road. Considering that driver are operating a motor vehicle that not only has the power to harm their passengers and themselves, but other innocent civilians on the road, this common mistake made ubiquitously by drivers needs to come to an end. 

While it is apparent that using a phone while driving does not make for the most attentive driver, there is a common misconception that many drivers, especially the younger generation, think there is an of evasion of potential harm because of their high levels of intuition in being on their phones while driving. This is clearly not the case.

To persuade my audience, I took all of my photos on an iPhone to add an element of logos to my argument. After taking the photos and uploading them to Photoshop, I enhanced the photos using various elements in the program to add Pathos. I took four photos for my gallery. The first I took is of one of my roommates cars that had damage on the front fender. The second photo I took was of one of my roommates texting on her phone while driving. Although I did ask for her consent to use the photo, she was not aware of the project and was genuinely “multitasking” by using her phone while she was behind the wheel. The third photo I took involved a two-car accident I came across on McCart Avenue. In this accident, one of the drivers happened to be using their phone at the time of the collision. I approached the drivers and asked what had happened. One of the girls in the accident was a TCU student, she and told me that she was looking down to change the song on her Spotify before rear ending the car in front of her. Although it was extremely windy and the weather conditions were not favorable for driving, if all of her attention would have been on the road, she could have avoided rear ending the truck in front of her. The fourth photo I took involved an accident where a young man was injured and there is a cop in the photo. Although this does not involve a car accident or a cell phone, the juxtaposition of a man with blood all over his face and a police officer exhibits the downfalls of what could happen if a car accident were to take place. When in context with the other photos, this photo makes chronological sense when it comes to my visual argument. 

In editing the photos, I decided that having a black, white and red color scheme would appeal most to the audience. All but the final photo are in black and white, white highlights of read. The text on the webpage is red to emphasize the importance of the project and to use the Logos and Ethos of the connotation of blood. The only photo that is not in black and white is the final photo, which has a low saturation and depicts the boy with the cop. I felt like leaving this photo with color would make the picture stand out even more than it already was. In this project, I wanted my photos to be raw, and grainy with a low quality aesthetic. I think that having the photos not taken on a professional camera and having them have lower resolutions adds to the message. Cell phones are pervasive in today’s society, and I think the way I utilized them in this project goes even further to prove that. In choosing the background photo being a close up of car damage, I wanted the audience to have to focus on the image and let it impact them in various ways. I wanted the webpage to appear noisy, to resemble the distraction that cell phones have on drivers. I did not want the webpage to be a comfortable place for the audience, as I wanted to push the message in an aggressive manner. 

The way I displayed the photos on my webpage tell the negative story about texting and using a cell phone while driving. The first photo of a girl texting while driving, displaying the act of the visual argument. The second of minor car damage, which can serve as a warning of the dangers of using your phone while driving. The third, of a severe car wreck, which provides a more emotionally invasive warning against using the phone while behind the wheel. The fourth, which portrays the physical harm that being behind the wheel can cause in addition to getting tied up with the law. 

In using the photos that depict severely damaged cars, I am appealing to the Pathos of the audience because seeing a car wreck is always jarring because other drivers immediately imagine yourself being in that situation. The photo of the car with minor car damage employs both values of Pathos and Logos because the emotional ties one has with damaging their car in addition to the logic of there being a damaged car on my webpage enhances the argument. The photo of my roommate texting behind the wheel adds Logos to my argument because it depicts the mindlessness that goes behind using your phone while driving. Most people are not thinking of the potential fatal harm they are causing by getting behind the wheel with a distraction in their hands. Finally, the fourth photo emits Ethos because since the police are involved and there is a depiction of an injured man, it brings up the ethicality of using your phone while behind the wheel.

To me, my visual argument hits close to home. Many of my friends, family, and myself included at times need to be reminded how life altering sending a text or just looking down at your phone for a brief moment can be while behind the wheel. Although it is tempting to just quickly check a text or a Snapchat, those few seconds spent keeping your eyes on the road and save not only your own life, but other lives on the road around you. 

Dreamweaver, we meet again

As I mentioned in a previous blog, we are required to make a website that contains a gallery of originally composed photos that form a compelling argument. Before today's class, I was really worried about the progress I have made on this project because I have faced some technical difficulties with my camera. However, after the peer reviews, I have a much better idea and a more clear perception of what my photos will argue and how I will get it across to the audience. As of now, I am planning on taking a photo of my own car, using a friend with their hands while texting and adding elements in photoshop to make it have a more emotional impact. I also want to add a photo of a police car with sirens, so I will have to spend some time trying to find that.

I am definitely feeling a lot more confident about my project after the peer reviews, and I will utilize the lessons we have learned about lighting and the emotional pull that our images should have in aiding our argument.

Dickey Chapelle

Dickey Chapelle is one of the most underrated female war correspondents in history. Serving during during the war era, she covered events from the Battle of Iwo Jima to the Vietnam war. Chapelle was responsible for documenting myriad photos that are considered staples in our understanding of the war front.

Chapelle was the first female war photographer to be killed in action and is survived by her colleagues, family, and friend as fearless and unrelenting. A few of the images shot by Chapelle have become extremely famous, while a great many of her images have not made it to the mainstream public.

To me, her images of Vietnamese families living in a war torn area are the most emotionally striking. The Vietnamese war was an extremely controversial, polarized war and her photos not only capture the realities of these families that are having to live in the war on a day to day basis, but they allow for Americans to visually place themselves in the situations of these families across the world.


Vietnamese children react to mortar life circa 1961-62. (Dickey Chapelle/Wisconsin Historical Images)

The photo above depicts children going about their day to day lives in war torn Vietnam. The selection of children for the subjects of the photo enhance the overall emotional response because children are so helpless and they have zero agency in this situation, specifically. The photo argues that war impacts a lot of individual human beings and that while our daily lives in America were not radically changed, thousands of families in Vietnam couldn't go a day without their life being disrupted by the war.



Fidel and Raul Castro pose with a bazooka during the Cuba Revolution in Oriente Province in 1958. (Dickey Chapelle/ Wisconsin Historical Images)

This photo is compelling for a variety of reasons. First, the status of the subjects give the photo a lot of value. Also, Chapelle's proximity to the violence of the war shows her dedication to her photography and reiterates her fearlessness.



South Vietnamese soldiers during a live fire artillery drill, circa 1961-62 (Dickey Chapelle/Wisconsin Historical Images)

Again, this photo gives the audience the shock factor immediately upon looking at it due to the proximity of the photographer. It is very likely that in a live fire artillery drill, with nothing to arm her  but a camera, that Chapelle's life was at risk. This photo captures the fear on the face of the soldiers and emphasizes the strife that the soldiers have to go through.

Visual Argument

For our unit 3 assignment, we are to find a topic to argue, but solely through the use of compelling images..aka a visual argument. Our sketch/storyboard is due Thursday, and I still have no idea what my topic is going to be. I've been thinking about it a lot, and I really want to do something that is unique, but that will minimally impact the few lives of the people that will see it.

During my four short years in Texas, I have noticed that drinking and driving is a lot more prevalent here than it is at home in California. Throughout my life, the topic of drinking and driving has been extremely serious, as it should be everywhere, I feel as though there isn't as much as an emphasis on how dangerous it is here. While I am aware that I am a college student and that young people frequently make idiotic mistakes, I am shocked by how frequently I have seen people getting behind the wheel after two drinks too many. So, doing a visual argument about stopping drinking and driving and increasing the awareness of its dangers is one of my ideas.

I also am considering doing an argument preventing texting and driving. Again, in California, there is legislation about talking on your cell phone while you are in the drivers seat, and recently, they have tightened these laws even further, making it illegal to even hold your phone at any point while you are behind the wheel. Obviously, this is a hard law to regulate, but I think it is a good start. There are too many risks while you are behind the wheel and the fewer distractions the better. Texas does not have any regulation about cell phones and driving, so I think that honing in on the importance of not being distracted may be something that I want to argue.

While I've been writing this blog post, I decided that I will definitely end up doing one of these topics. The visuals I may come across for this project will likely be very graphic, but I think these arguments will benefit most via visuals rather than the redundant rhetoric of being told what not to do.

Website Crunchtime

SO as it turns out, building a website is HARD. I swear there has to be an easier way to build a website with four pages than Dreamweaver makes it, but I'm slowly figuring it out. Thankfully, the deadline has been pushed back a couple days, allowing for me to tinker around with the software (and actually build a working website) before it's due. 

I have been having a lot of trouble with both Dreamweaver and the online server, as my website and server are refusing to sync. Although that sounds like a detrimental issue, at the end of the day, I can still save all of my files onto the server manually and just work on the website on Dreamweaver in the local files. The only risky thing about this is that I can't upload the files until I'm completely done working on it so if my program crashes, I'm done for. Also, if I forget to save even just one file, or can't find a file that is integral to the navigation or design of my website, my entire website could be skewed. 

While I am very stressed about this project and am wishing on a lucky star at this point that I can figure out how to make this process run a little more smoothly, I am really thankful that I know a least a LITTLE about coding, website design, servers, CSS, HTML and all the rest of the lingo that I never thought I would be acquainted with in my lifetime.