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A Semester in Review

[Title:  Digital Media Marketing in Delhi NCR. Source: Flikr]

As we approach the end of the semester and course, I can’t help but to feel sentimental. I have learned so much having been challenged in a way that would probably remain permanent for the rest of my life. The class has opened avenues of thought processes in which have changed and caused growth intellectually. I have always been somewhat of a technology amateur and never approached it to such an extent as I have been in this course. With that, I’ve learned different softwares, website creating templates, tools, and navigational techniques. Alongside the media aspect, I’ve learned new analytical strategies that could be implemented on any form of media or sources such as Stasis, or Stuart Hall’s Encoding and Decoding process. The Study of Semiotics was also very helpful and useful  in helping establish an analysis on signs or practically anything with meaning or significance. This past week, we’ve been working on our final project and therefore implementing everything we’ve covered the past semester. In comparison to the first project earlier in the semester, this time around, it all seemed to be a lot easier to accomplish. The process of creating a website no longer seemed unfamiliar or strange along with the analytical process and what was expected. Comparing both my website in progress and my previous website project, I can visually see the progress that has been made. Everything is much better organized to an extent where the reader can easily navigate and understand the content. Also, the content is much better in terms of its analysis and in implementing the theoretical processes we have discussed throughout the semester. With recent discussion, we have had to consider additional aspects in our Website creation process that were not considered in our last website or project. To be specific, our class discussion of the “disabled” and their influence in media writing was to be considered and implemented in our website by making it user-friendly as much as possible for those who don’t have the same literate abilities that someone without a disability has. It is not easy, but it allows for room of growth and further knowledge on the various media techniques and software the web and technological world has to offer. 

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Diversity and Environment

[Title: Disability Housing, by 19zzz71. Image shows a map and layout of a housing area for disabled people. Source: Flikr] 

In the past week, our topics of discussion and assignments primarily revolved around people with disabilities and the means used and lack thereof to incorporate them and their needs into the literate world. What I mean by literate world is the media, websites, and so forth to even the Academic system and its environment. In  Survival, Disability Rights, and Solidarity: Advancing Cyberprotest Rhetoric through Disability March, we see how the media or internet can be used as a means to connect and be heard for people with Disabilities who are unable to do it physically or cognitively in person. In the article, the media is seen as a bridge of understanding between people with Disabilities and the rest of the world, yet it itself is not manifested in a way that is feasible or easily accessible to a person with a disability at fault. And that is where our discussions came into play. How can things from a computer be encoded and decoded in a way that fits all diverse sets of people, especially those with disabilities? With that, we were assigned a group assignment to brainstorm an idea, and came across various hurdles barely feeling the severity of just how complicated it can be, starting with nothing of course. In the following class meeting, we went over Introduction to Web Accessibility, which discussed the various ways the media has changed its coding system to meet the needs of those with disabilities. Although the efforts seems straightforward and practical in theory, they were flawed in terms of the encoding process. People with disabilities still didn’t find them perfectly decipherable, even though they were more successful than not. The class discussion revolved around little is done to include and meet the needs of people with disabilities in our Education System or our Campus specifically. People with disabilities are an enormous part of our population, and not having them acknowledged in the most fundamental ways is a very negligent and ignorant thing to do. 

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Semiotics

[Image by Shane Bzdok, Titled: Semiotic,  Source: Flikr]

This weeks discussions and homework assignments revolved around Semiotics and their relevance to our culture and class. The reading were a general overview to Semiotics and the sub-topics that branch off of it such as encoding/decoding, coding, articulation, intertextuality, and D.I. Y. Semiotic Analysis. It was a very gray thing to study, since everything was rather abstract and complex in terms of how Semiotics works. Encoding and decoding in semiotics is the basic principle to what is being put and taken from signal or texts. Articulation how these intricacies or codes are placed in order to communicate a specific message connected the the exterior context it is placed in. Intertextuality is how a certain code or text is connected to other codes and texts, characterizing it as a separate entity from its source. D.I.Y. Semiotic Analysis is a process stated to be applicable to anything of significance within a culture, which is practically anything. In the class discussion, were asked to submit questions regarding the article we had to read, and most had to do with definitions of a term. That was again a very abstract thing to do, since the article did not give a clear definition for each term, but rather their applicability and their use. With that, we discussed their applicability to what we learned and how semiotics can be applied to the theoretical processes discussed throughout the semester such as Stuart Hall’s Theory and Stasis. For example, the way information is processed and how it is encoded can be applied to Semiotics quite easily. Since Semiotics applies to almost anything with textual context, coded, or meaning, Stuart Halls can be used to convey the process behind semiotic practice and how audiences decode it and so forth. In terms of everything we’ve covered, Semiotics seems to cover more ground than any other topic since it is a general term pertaining to almost everything, to even the way we perceive signal lights to road signs. 

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Algorithms in Society

This week we discussed algorithms and how they are used across different medias to influence what we see, read and perceive consequently influencing how we view ourselves as a Society. In Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism, Safiya Umoja Noble looks into the various assets that influence the Google Search engine and how we perceive ourselves as an effect. She discusses inadvertently the encoding and decoding processes that occur within Google and its search engine and the way that shapes what we search and what we see as a result. Aside from algorithms recording our every move as Google Users, their are also power structures at play in influencing what is being shown online where Google “promotes its own business interests,” through advertisement in efforts to please large business corporations. Our homework was to find three articles that discussed algorithms as a societal influence. Mine discussed algorithms in various professions and as serving multiple purposes such as identifying crime hot spots, as well as the likely hood of domestic violence. We were to identify their use and influence in the writing and digital media and how much power they yield in over what we see in the internet, as well as in articles, news broadcasting stations, books, and so on. During our Thursday session, we applied what we learned about algorithm to theoretical processes that we learned such as Stuarts Halls encoding and decoding process. With that, we were able to approach the topic in a new way that allowed for a better understanding toward it stasis and in general. It allowed us to better grasp where and how the information was being processed in its creation stage, and how that influenced how it is being processed in its receiving and analytical stage. It puts everything in perspective to be able to identify where certain things in the communication process can go wrong, and in the case of Algorithms in Oppression, where, how, and why information or Search Engines can be used to benefit only the elite and top percentage, and not the users or majority of people; specifically minority groups. 

[Image: Google Font with mathematical algorithms as a backdrop. Image by: Stathis Edel. Flikr]

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Reasoning with Sounds and Space

[Sound Painting by L. Javier; Depiction of splattering ink in response to sound.]

This week we discussed the use pf space and sound as rhetorical devices. It was interesting to learn their place in history and in the world of Academia. It made me realize how such a small thing was discussed with great severity in the past and today. I did not think much of both aspects in general, but seeing their use in everyday communication, it is more apparent to see how they influence our writing culture and theoretical processes. The first class session began with an activity that was very permissive with flexibility in what to write and how to think, since a set time wasn’t given neither a specific outcome. It was a moment of reflection that allowed me as a student to process what I had read and how to prepare for the discussion. In Understanding Comics, Scott McCloud discusses the innovative use of space comics use to push a certain rhetoric in their work. He explores new ways in which technology can be utilized to show comic books in new formats without sacrificing its comic thread or line of storytelling which has remained consistent in all its history. In “Exploring the Multimodal Gutter: What dissociation can teach us about multimodality,” the use of space is shown to prove effective in storytelling without giving detail to what is going on. It allows the reader to induce and make connections between two spacial entities to complete the story for themselves all induced through context. The following class discussion revolved around sound and its use in rhetoric.  The activity for this discussion was different since the topic was specified and we had to come up with different sounds that were important to each of us. At the end of the activity, I realized I had approached the activity more practically and wrote a list of things that influenced my daily routines, rather than emotional or intimate markers in my life. 

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Getting it Together

[By MedithIT, Source: Flikr, Title: Website]

This week has been focused on our website projects and why they are pertinent to our course and what we have learned in terms of writing theory and culture. After presenting our projects, how we presented our information and the way it was communicated through our websites was extremely different. None of our works were identical and we each had very different styles. This made me realize how differently we each thought in terms of website structure and variations of navigation. Mine was very practical and was structured to move downward. The idea of being creative with my website and the multiple approaches I could have taken to create one escaped my mind. I had forgotten and omitted that fun part of everything, and instead focused more on the actual sources and informative, analytical aspect of it all. If I could redo everything, I would have had a lot more fun with it and not be so boring. Looking at everybody else’s, it was easy to tell who took a similar approach and who had more fun with it. Those who had more fun seemed to have better overall aesthetic and creativity in their work, and therefore a far more attractive platform. On Thursday, we went over two very different forms of sources that discussed very different subjects of emojis to the Grand Canyon. After reviewing the website source over the Grand Canyon, it was more apparent just how far and creative one can go with a website. It never occur to me to reference previous websites, since I was overly concerned with the content. I didn’t consider a lot of things. All in all, it was a time when applicability was tested and I feel I did a solid job in that aspect. The incorporation of stasis to my analytical process truly helped me navigate my information a lot better, but not the aesthetics of my website, which could’ve used a little more work. 

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Circulation

[Photo of North Brunswick Library interior. Title: Circulation. Source: Flikr]

This weeks has been rather refreshing and has created a better platform for understanding where we stand as a class. On Tuesday, our discussion revolved around our Circulation Assignments and questions pertaining we had pertaining to it. Everybody got involved and we all shared out thoughts and concerns about the project. Mine deal with it’s specificity since that was what I struggled with the most. I couldn’t seem to be specific enough and struggled with finding sources to a specific topic of my choosing. So I chose to ask a question concerning why being specific was necessary for rhetorical analysis and why it mattered so much to be more specific with our topic. At the end of the discussion, it was apparent of everyone’s uncertainty towards the topic and how we approached it individually. After clarifying the implementation of all the theoretical processes of rhetorical analysis that we covered throughout the semester into out project, I had a better grasp of what was expected. It made me see my product a lot more clearly now that I had something to reference. Looking over what I did and using stasis to discern what I did, I realized what I had done well and where I was lacking. The reason I chose stasis as a platform or foundation for my rhetorical analysis is because it is the most straightforward and effective in determining the rhetorical tools used within a source, whatever shape or form. It is also the most general, and that would help me branch out into my own specific interpretations and analysis. Thriving into Halls theory seemed to complex for the topic I had chosen, and even thought I chose to do stasis, I could very well branch into more theoretical process from it including Halls Theory. All other theories seem limiting in that sense. I would have to work within their own means strictly, and that is not what I wanted. I wanted flexibility and the ability to encompass various theories which I felt stasis allowed me to do. It is an effective starting point. 

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Twitter and Tear Gas

[Image by Esther Vargas] 

This weeks readings covered racial discrimination and the organization of political and social movements and how social media has changed and influenced them. Incorporating that knowledge and applying it to the rhetoric and discourse of covered in our class allowed to visualize just how different things are in terms of language. The way communication was carried in the 60′s is very different to communication nowadays, and that had also changed the rhetoric used to convey it. The use of social media to organize and help aid a movement that is happening has become more easily applicable through simply taking a couple minute of your time, and typing up a couple words on cyberspace. To be resourceful nowadays looks completely different fifty-sixty years go. Their was more laborious work required, and a lot less spread of awareness in a global scale. In terms of applying stasis, encoding and decoding, and discourse, miscommunication can be seen to occur in both instances. In the twitter sphere, the spread of a specific data can become irrelevant over time and overlap more valid and updated information. In the 60′s information had to be spread withing a specific time period in order maintain relevance for a shortcoming event. This can seen in page 54 of Twitter and Tear Gas,, which read, “Ahmed saw that there was confusion about which requests had been fulfilled. Old messages were mixed with those still needing urgent attention. People would retweet the previous day’s calls for medical equipment without knowing the situation on the ground.” In the 60′s, they didn’t have the luxury to frequently update data, due to the mass amount of work and time and premeditation to put anything out into the public and create awareness. All this lead to a hesitance to have a set goal, due to the lack of resources to update information frequently, so things had to be premeditated as they went. This lead to a communication barrier due to the limited time they had and a plethora of work that had to be put into it.

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Encoding and Decoding

[Image by Karston titled Discourse. A statue of three people who seem to be in the process of communication or discourse. Source:Flikr]

This weeks class discussions have been one of the most complex thus far in the semester. I’m still trying to wrap my head around the articles, but have a better understanding now that we have explored them in discourse. Speaking of discourse, the word is better understood when practiced, and even more so discussing it withing it’s own context as we did today. In discussing The Cultural Studies Reader: Stuart Hall’s Encoding, Decoding article, he explains the fabric of discourse in a statement reading, “The ‘object’ of these practices is meanings and messages in the form of sign-vehicles of a specific kind organized, like any form of communication or language, through the operation of codes within the syntagmatic chain of a discourse” capturing it as a a product of multiple ideas and concepts that are all interrelated(p.91). In the discussion, the complexities of communication seemed to be amplified to an extent that I never thought they could. The subtleties and intricacies of how media influences communication and miscommunication in the process of encoding and decoding seemed to be under magnified under a microscope in terms of the depth of his analysis. To further these complexities as if it were not complicated enough, Henrik Bodker does exactly that, but with a twist. He not only complicate Stuart Halls Concept to philosophy of encoding and decoding, but leaving the discursive influence they had on the product. He clarifies this in his conclusion on page 420, reading, “While he allegedly attempted to give equal weight to both sides of the model, his interest in the technology and material aspects of medium in question (television)... stopped at the moment of the issuing of the discursive product.” He furthers the topic by discussing how the process of encoding and decoding is still within a larger discourse that Hall doesn’t discuss. 

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Rhetorical Connections

[Image by Chris Lawrence titled The Gateway to the Acropolis on Flikr]

This week has been the most interesting for me in regards to the article Understanding Misunderstandings: How to do a rhetorical analysis since it covers the miscommunication and misconceptions that occur through communication. As i pointed out in class, the word stasis stood out to me the most as it was referenced multiple times and seemed to be the center of what the article was about. After going over it’s definition and theoretical practice and origin, I could see it resonate with what I hope to do as a career, which is analyzing work and information. Tying this analytical to process to previous articles we’ve covered only made it much more clarifying seeing how it works and how it can be implemented to different genres of writing and mediums. It also conveyed how everything is tied together by this shared form of theoretical analysis. The reason I stress the word theoretical is because it is one of other forms of analytical processes used to decipher writing. Another aspect of today’s discussion I found interesting was how everyone seemed to have varying opinions and perspectives as to which component of stasis was more prevalent in the article. Discussions usually have disagreements, but to have them organized by the stasis process seemed to give more clarity to the different components within the text, enabling us to understand it a lot better than before the discussion. I thought the seriousness of the issue was the most prevalent aspect of the stasis in As We May Think since it seemed to highlight scientific research and it’s role in society incessantly, but once everybody starting discussing their perspective otherwise, I could see why they thought what they thought. Then again, the article could very well cover all four processes, but all in all, I still feel the most encompassing aspect was of the quality of the issue it was discussing  

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As We May Not Think

[Atomic Bomb Dome, Hiroshima. Photo by David Wilkinson(Flikr)]

The articles and discussions this week have been very enlightening. I’ve realized how much influence and power words can have, especially in a global magnitude by powerful people. Whether we agree with them or not, they create an environment that mirrors their convictions and tone. In As We May Think by Vannevar Bush, a man whose influence in World War II is impeccable, uses rhetoric to sway scientist a certain direction in which to implement their skills. I doing so, he discusses the use of science to which will extend the “powers of the mind.” He recognizes that war is near it’s end when writing the article, and transitions in interests in order to keep up his work as a scientist and innovator. Connecting this to past discussions, we see how the environment of the time influences his writing and therefore the scientific community. For example, in the time of World War II, much of the most significant resources and experiments undertaken in the scientific community involved weaponry and artillery, like those in the Manhattan Project. In his article, he seems to be jumping back and forth in time to reference various form of inventions, innovation, and ideas that may or may not be applied due to the social, economic, or technological constraints of the time. All in all, he focuses on the future to instill hope of possibilities of the technology that it can hold for us and lending that power to scientists and people like him. An important point I took from his article is the attention he gives on the scientific community and how much of the research and work that is being overlooked by the public. This is something that resonates with writing. People write nearly everyday, and the plethora of writing being produced surpasses the amount being published by the 100th power. Ideas are being thought of everyday, but not many are ever brought to reality. 

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Made My Bed

[Photo of a book, pair of glasses, and coffee on a Sunday Morning as titled, by Frederique Lemieux] 

The overall theme I found consistent throughout both articles are the intimate and psychological influences our environment and tools have on our writing or communication styles. Like Central Park, its vastness and natural resources lend themselves to the public to communicate with one another as a public platform. In my case, I’ve found refuge to write in my bed, since I don’t own a desk. Does it change my writing abilities or style? Maybe, but I don’t think one is necessarily better than the other. I do fine either way. I’ve found that focusing more on what is happening inside the brain to be more important than outside my body when it comes to writing. Growing up, I’m not quite sure where I’ve spent most of my time writing, but I did have a knack for moving from place to place, which lends itself to my ability to work well in different locations. Much like the various location settings, tools I’ve used for writing (Essays and such) have been more limited to paper or Microsoft Word. I’ve found that writing on paper to be more alleviating when I’m stressed or filled with anxiety. Maybe it has to do with the fact that it was my initial way of expressing myself. My early years typing weren’t the best, and much of it has to do with my lack of speed and typing efficiency. Unlike many modern day people, where typing comes easily without having to look down the keyboard, effortlessly getting the spelling and speed down very well, mine doesn’t. I type quickly, but I do have to look down on occasion to make sure I’m pressing on the right key, and simultaneously making mistakes along the way. I would agree that environment that certainly environment has a key role in our writing experience, but I would also agree that we are able to adapt when their is a change in that environment.