Week 12: Photojournalism: The best of both worlds.

1) Find a photojournalistic news story from any newspaper or magazine and answer the following questions:

a)                  Why did you choose this news over others?

I choose this news because I feel that this news is very persuasive and the visual image attracts me for the first sight. It was reported that thousands of lives and millions of pounds were lost needlessly because of a "dangerous delay" in the response to the East Africa famine. The international community has failed to take decisive action on early warnings, which caused a six-month setback in the relief effort. The report found out the leading aid agencies took time to spend money on those in need, resulting them have now hit out at governments and humanitarian organizations. According to Oxfam and Save the Children, who compiled the review, this is mainly because many donors wanted proof of a humanitarian catastrophe before launching action to prevent one. A Dangerous Delay showed this only came when media coverage reached particularly high levels. Chief executive of Oxfam, Barbara Stocking, said "We all bear responsibility for this dangerous delay that cost lives in East Africa and need to learn the lessons of the late response. It's shocking that the poorest people are still bearing the brunt of a failure to respond swiftly and decisively. We know that acting early saves lives but collective risk aversion meant aid agencies were reluctant to spend money until they were certain there was a crisis."

b)                  Is the narrative component of the story necessary or is the picture enough to express the intended message of the news?

For this news, I think the picture is already enough to express the intended message of the news. However, e narrative also plays a role in the story to anchoring the picture. If the picture stands for itself, audiences may think that it was just another common picture of famine in Africa, but when they read the story they know how bad the issue is as they hardly get the fund from the leading aid agencies.

c)                  Did the picture and writings capture the “truth” of the event?

The picture and writings did capture the “truth” of the event, as we already know the situation in Africa, famine in this case particularly.

References:

Belfast telegraph. (2012). Late Famine Response 'Cost Lives'.

Week 11: Information Graphics: Who says data and graphs must be boring?

2)      Compare the two graphs below. What is the ethical problem here?

Figure 1



Figure 2

If you can see, there is ethical problem in these two charts. The main ethical problem presented in the 2 graphs is the way InformationWeek displayed the bar charts. The bar chart represents the number incorrectly. Therefore, it affects the data as a whole.

When I do research on numbers of respondents, I’ve found out that there is inadequate number against the total of 400 respondents. For example, I calculate the 80% of the respondents who agreed that Windows software are quality and vulnerable that shown in Figure 1. This equates to 320 respondents. Then, we can assume that among the mentioned figure, there are also some who has ‘no concerns’ about Windows since this survey allows multiple responses. It is not acceptable if 1 of the 320 respondents who had chosen first option also choose the option ‘no concerns’, because these two options contradict each other. It is not possible for someone to choose ‘no concern’ option if he/she already had concerns about Windows.

This is also occurs in the Figure 2. I calculated the 35% of the respondents who agreed Lunix lack of a clear product road map, which equates to 140 respondents. If we calculated all the percentage of the respondents, the responses they give are actually not the same as the actual total of 400 respondents. Therefore, these two bar charts are not ethical as they allowed multiple responses, as they can create confusion to audiences.



Week 10: Games and Avatars in the Information Age: Don’t tell me World of Warcraft isn’t real. I got married there.

1)      Do you agree that you are cyborgian in nature?

With the development of technology, people in nowadays are always depended on their material objects such as their phones, laptops, tabs and other type of technology to identify them with is a cyborgian idea that needs to be looked into. Giddens (1991) stated that “The increased use of electronic media, from radio to television to the Internet, is an inseparable consequence of modernization”. The virtual world is not defined as reality or imagination but rather as a simulacrum. Simpson (2001) states that the emergence of highly advanced and futuristic videogames and virtual world technology unfolds design games to the practically boundless probabilities of the digital field or domain. People nowadays are cyborgians, they are not only communicate via mobile phones, but also by virtue of video games.

The Sims, for example, enables a person to present themselves as an avatar by choosing the gender they want, clothes, skin color, hair style, horoscope, and ultimately he/she controls and acts out as desired.

figure 1

Figure 1 is an image of The Sims where gamers interact with others by using their avatars. These avatars can “talk”, “tell a joke”, “insult”, “compliment”, works, have a relationship, and even married in the game. This technically represents “real life”. Therefore, this validates that we are not only attached to technology, it is essentially part of our lives; it makes human as cyborg.

Humans can also illustrate themselves as cyborgs through social networking and instant messaging services to interact and socialize with others, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, MSN, which replaces the original form of communication. Nelson and Erlandson (2012) mentioned, "In multi-user worlds, all human-directed characters in the world are continuously represented by avatars". In other words, an avatar is consider as a presentation of human in the first-person perspective to personify and incorporate the person's action through the surrounding or sphere.

Nokia 5730 Xpress Music.

I also identify myself with a few items of technology that seem to shape my identity today. I seem to create dependence to my phone. It plays a major role in my life, and I always bring it along with me all the times. Without it, I can barely focus even for a minute. I am usually use and depend on this piece of gadget to communicate with other cyborgians be it via texting, calling, or via online through my Facebook/MSN account. Other applications that I can be use in my phone are to capture events through my camera phone, to write notes, and to look up the calendar.

Other few things that I really rely on are my spectacles. It is an important part of me and I always wear this most of the time. I can say that this gadget is actually me because without it, I can see nothing, thus I cannot function well in my life. My phone and my spectacles have become a part of me and from a cyborgian point of view it already is me.

References:

Nelson, B.C. (2012). Design for Learning in Virtual Worlds. New York: Routledge.

Simpson, D.M. (2001). Virtual Reality and Urban Simulation in Planning: A Literature Review and Topical Bibliography. Journal of Planning Literature 15, no. 3: 359-76.



Week 9: Cinema and television: Cultural literacy and the question of “What’s it for?”

1)                  Name your favorite television and film. Explain how the film or television show could shape a person’s identity.

One of my favorite films is Toy Story 3. It is about Andy who is now ready to go to college, leaving his toy-box gang to the attic. However the toys are accidentally donated to the Sunnyside Daycare center. The toys are welcomed by Lotso Bear, they are initially overjoyed to once again be played with, but sooner they discover that the children mistreat them. Further, they are imprisoned in the daycare by Lotso and his gang. Woody later knows the intention of the evil bear and returns to the daycare to help his friends to escape. All of the toys band together in one final, crazy scheme to escape their confines and return home to Andy.

This film for me gives influences and I can say that it shapes my identity. Woody’s character who always loyal to Andy gives me an inspiration to be a loyal person, and his kindness to help his friends whenever they need shapes my identity to be helpful to others. Lotso Bear can also shape a person’s identity in a way that his character as the evil in the film. He becomes like that because he feels devastated when his owner accidentally leave him. This could shape someone’s identity especially when they are brokenhearted.

Nevertheless, I think that identity is something that is constructed over a period of time and can constantly be updated or changed completely. People will be in contact with many different influences ranging from different kind of situations in different kind of time and places. Popular media gives an immense impact on the identity’s construction. As Brown et al (1994, 813) stated that “…individuals actively and creatively sample available cultural symbols, myths, and rituals as they produce their identities. For teens, the mass media are central to this process because they are a convenient source of cultural options.” Grodin and Lindlof (1996) supported “With a simple flip of the television channel or radio station, or a turn of the newspaper or magazine page, we have at our disposal an enormous array of possible identity models.”

References:

Brown, J Cr Dykers, Jr. Steele, Ab White. (1994). Teenage Room Culture: Where Media and Identities Intersect, Communication Research 21: pp813-27.

Grodin, Debra & Lindlof, Thomas R. (Eds.) (1996). Constructing the Self in a Mediated World. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.



Week 8: Photography: Reconceptualising culture, memory and space.

2.      Why do we consider photography as a form of cultural critique? Is every photograph able to do so?

Photography was introduced by Joseph Nicephore Niepce in 1827, during the industrial revolution era, replacing the painting's role. Today, photography has become a powerful tool of communication and a mode of visual expression that touches human life in many ways. It has become well known for documenting or capturing memories. Most of the times photographs taken now are snapshots- casual records to document events such as graduation, birthdays, and weddings. Wright (1999, p. 146) supported this, "...use of the photography with the aim of changing views and opinions- sometimes with the ultimate intention of changing the world in which we live." A photographer’s ability is to use a medium to present people what they do not usually see.

Photography can be consider as a form of cultural critique because with the combination of culture and photographic representation, it provides a new way of record and seeing things, hence develop new perception (Moholy-Nagy, 1924, cited in Wright, 1999, p. 146). Photography is a powerful media tool that can produce representation, change the perception of audiences when they see it.

figure 1

Anyone can repeatedly tell the event and audiences may choose to believe what is being said as true or false. For example, Figure 1 shows an image of a soldier who point out his gun to a child. Some might think that the soldier is mean in a way that he point out the gun to a harmless boy, but the soldier is might not have an intention to harm the boy, it is just the boy is suddenly afraid and cries. As Time (1985) said that words recorded can be mislaid or lost, then therefore was recreated and duplicated depending on the memory it can summoned up. Baker (2012) supported that statement, "Image is more important than words, our brains will retain the impressions more than what is said, so image control is paramount." A photographer has the ability to use a medium to present people what they do not usually see. They placed themselves to a privileged position and also location to promote their personal causes and to challenge the concepts as well as stereotypes of visual imagery (Wright, 1999).

References:

Baker, F.W. (2012). Media Literacy in the K-12 Classroom. USA.

Time (1985). Life At War. Hong Kong: Time-Life Books Inc.

Wright, T. (1999). Photography Handbook. London, GBR:Routledge.

Week 7: Visual Narrative and the Media: An image speaks a thousand words – because I made it so.

1.      Why is narrative important when shaping a visual image to the audience?

This week we learnt about narrative. From what my understanding, narrative is re-telling of something that happened in words. Gennete (1990) stated that story tells the totally of the narrated events and discourse is the very fact of recounting. Therefore, any visual media needs both story and discourse in order to attract audience's attention. Audience will not entertain with a dull and not attracted story line. Discourse helps to form the rhyme and climax of visual image. Narrative is important to be use in visual media to help audiences to understand the context and easy to immerse the message of it. Without a narrative in visual image, audiences would not understand what the story about. Salmon (2009) stated that “The fact is that narrative is the way that humans communicate information: whether it’s a book or a screenplay or a magazine story, if there isn’t a narrative there, virtually no one will read it, and when they do they will read without pleasure, complaining about how “dry” it is. So if you’re a journalist — if your job is to make stuff that people want to read — then yes, you need narrative.”

I take an example from my own experience. I love games, and one of my favorite games is Spyro the Dragon. That game is full of adventures where Spyro travels to different kind of places to help his own kind which has been spell by the evil. Its story line is very interesting. I have to know what I am doing there and what my missions are. Thus narrative inspires and brings me into a world. A game without narrative is like a book with no words. A game with deeper and more meaningful the narrative would give more memorable the gaming experience and thus people keep coming back or thinking about it after they have stopped playing.

References:

Gennete, G. (1990). Narrative discourse revisited. French: Cornell University Press.

Salmon, F. (2009). The Importance of Narrative.

Week 6: The Ancient Art of Rhetoric and Persuasion.

2. Explain and exemplify how an insurance sales person would sell insurance rhetorically and how he/she would hard sell the product.

“Rhetoric is an instrumental use of language…. One person engages another person in an exchange of symbols to accomplish some goal. It is not communication for communication's sake. Rhetoric is communication that attempts to coordinate social action. For this reason, rhetorical communication is explicitly pragmatic. Its goal is to influence human choices on specific matters that require immediate attention.”

-          Gerard A. Hauser: Introduction to Rhetorical Theory  (1986)

Rhetoric is the study of effective speaking and writing. As Covino and Joliffe (1995) stated, “Rhetoric is primarily a verbal, situationally contingent, epistemic art that is both philosophical and practical and gives rise to potentially active texts.” In other word, rhetoric is the art of persuasion. Bitzer (1968) supported “In short, rhetoric is a mode of altering reality, not by the direct application of energy to objects, but by the creation of discourse which changes reality through the mediation of thought and action.” Rhetoric is very useful tool to influence people to trust and buy our words, thus it is very important to use for insurance sales person, for instance, in order to get customers to buy their insurances.

There is variety of insurance that people sells. Some insurance sales people sell property insurance, policies that cover losses caused by any damaging events that can affect a home or business. Some sell life insurance especially for people who care for their loved ones after their death; they pay money to named beneficiaries when the policy holder dies. Car insurance is another product an insurance sales person may sell to help people to stay covered in the event of a vehicle accident. An insurance sales person may also sell health insurance to help pay for medical care when necessary.

In order to sell their product, an insurance salesperson would need to give explain the benefit of having an insurance to the future policy holder. This requires an effective skill to persuade the customers. Rhetorically, the sales person would have to give a brief explanation to the customers of what will happen in the future when they are gone, having a car accident, or when they are ill. Let’s take insurance sales person who sell life insurance for example. They have to persuade customers by asking questions to uncover problems which product they can address, like how many dependents the person has. They could ask what will happen to them if the person dies. By asking questions which draw out the implications of the problem, the customers get to feel the pain that will drive them towards the product. Then the insurance sales person would try to persuade the customers to buy their insurance in order to solve the problem.

In addition, the insurance sales person can use advertising to solidify information. Advertising is very effective and persuasive tool to be presented in order to attract the audience. It is important to present the style of a life insurance advert, for instance, whereas it determines the amount of impact it shall affect the audience. They mainly use the suitable medium and genre to make a persuasive advert, and also with the help of creativity being shown by using images and the production team must come up with a strategy so that the message can reach the audience easily.

References:

Bitzer, Llyod. (1968). "The Rhetorical Situation".

Covino and Joliffe. (1995). Rhetoric: Concepts, Definitions, Boundaries.

Gerard A. Hauser. (1986). Introduction to Rhetorical Theory.

Week 5: Gestalt Effect and Schema Theories.

Gestalt Effect and Schema Theories are mainly focused on how consumers read, analyze and understand the visual world. Gestalt theory claims that “the whole is different than the sum of its parts”. Here is an example to illustrate:

If you look at the image very carefully, you can see it is a dog sniffing the ground. There is actually no clear image that it is a dog, instead we only can see discontinuous line and dots of black and white. Even so, we still can identify the image by using the law of closure. Our mind tried to “correct” the contradictions and missing lines until the image become complete.

There are 5 laws of Gestalt Theory; proximity, similarity, common fate, pregnantz and closure. Let’s 

 clarify more three of these laws.

1.       

1. Law of proximity.

•  Objects are placed near to each other.

• Purpose: eye fixation.

Circles are group together to create an arrow.

Snickers are group together and create a circle shaped.

Law of similarity

• Tendency of like parts band together.

• Purpose: emphasis of message, creates unique effect.

 

Man icon, all in black except one in orange color.

Group of fruits classify in same kind.

3.      Law of closure

• Things, objects or shapes tend to be grouped together and seen as a whole.

•  Purpose: manipulate perception, create subtle effect.

  

No continuous line, but create a zebra image.

The missing lines in the picture, yet the mind still can see it as a giraffe.

Another concept in the Gestalt Theory is called Schema. Schema Theory is a mental pattern that describes how we create psychological representations to conceive and understand what is being represented. In order to observe the world, framework should be adapted to fit reality. It is important to study Schema Theory because it helps us to be able to identify, recognize and remember the concept and ideas of the images much faster. Advertisement always create schema to make consumers to buy their product. Without schema, consumers would not be able to remember any kind of advertisement they read or even they would not be bother to look at it. Below are some examples to illustrate my points:

references:

Dr.Chris Woo lecture notes.

Lester, M. Paul. (2005). Visual Communication: Images with Messages. USA: Cengage Learning.

www.teamtechnology.co.uk/schema-simulator/home.html

Week 4: Visual Syntax, Semantics and Pragmatics.

We already have the basic concept of what semiotics is, but to understand more we should understand the three most important rules of visual language; syntax, semantics and pragmatics. Syntax, according to Lester (2006), "Syntactics is the study of the way signs is combined with each other to form complex messages". In other words, syntax is equivalent with signifiers, but it is more define in terms of color, lines, composition, spaces and information.

Semantics is the study of meaning of signs from the views of different people with their own perception based on their culture influences to create the description of the image. According to Lester (2006), “Semantics is an area of semiotics in which the researchers attempt to determine the significance of the signs within and throughout various cultures”. In other words, semantics is more likely as the signified and connotation of images. Below is the example:

As you can see, the image above is the picture of toys named Leggo. It could be said that a boy is looking at the mirror, or it could be mean that it is a girl who wants to be a boy, or it means that a boy who is looking at the mirror because he feels that he is handsome. Thus it shows that by just seeing the visual image itself will not give the exact meaning of the whole image.

Meanwhile, pragmatics, according to Lester (2006), is the study of the origin, common uses and communicative effects of signs. In other words, it is the use of signs in terms of social context to create meaning. Davis (1991) claims that pragmatics will have as its domain speakers' communicative intentions, the uses of language that require such intentions, and the strategies that hearers employ to determine what these intentions and acts are, so that they can understand what the speaker intends to communicate. It refers to the relationship between sender and receiver, which the meaning of the text is created by the sender. The readers then decode the meaning of the text with their spoken language or ant technological resources.

To make it clearer, let’s explore the syntax, semantics and pragmatics of the image of Adam Lambert below;

Syntax: larger area and background is black, allowing the smaller bright area to stand out, and giving the attention to audiences to focus on Adam Lambert.

Semantics: the makeup, accessories and clothes symbolizes the way of Adam Lambert portrayed himself as independent in music industry.

Pragmatics: The fashion shoot could be based on emo concept, or it could be represents the freedom of styles as Adam Lambert has his own fashion trademark of Adam Lambert. The image shows that Adam is independent in choosing his own clothes, the way he makeups, and the way he represents himself to consumers.

Visual communication theories of syntax, semantics and pragmatics play an important role in considering visual images. In our modern world, images are now all around us in our society and community which represented in any kind of media such as television, internet, books, newspapers and magazines. Each image has their own meanings, and as consumers we need to understand more reasonable account of human language behavior. Pragmatics give us more understanding way of how human communicate, how their mind works looking at the images, how images can manipulate human perception, and mainly how they use their human language.

Here is an example. A teacher wrote “Without her man is nothing” on whiteboard. Then she asked her students whether the sentence is correct or not. If it is not, students need to complete the sentence by giving appropriate punctuation marks. Some students wrote the original sentences because they think that their teacher tried to trick them. Some wrote “Without her, man is nothing”. If we can see the text, there are different interpretations depending on how different people reading it.

Below is another example;

Need to shape?

Exercise and Healthy Diet

Eating disorder and Depression

The two pictures above show two different ways to be good in shape. The first picture illustrates a right way to have a great body shape. However, the next picture shows the wrong way to get the shape. Even though we still can get the result we want, but the way of doing it is wrong.


references:

Dr. Chris Woo lecture notes.
Griffiths, P. (2006).  Studying Meaning. Introduction to English Semantics and Pragmatics. p.1-22. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Nordquist, R. (2012). Pragmatics: Definition and Examples of Pragmatics. Extract from About.com Part of New York Times Company in www.about.com.
http://commfaculty.fullerton.edu/lester/writings/viscomtheory.html