Blog #10: Reflecting on Media Discourses

For this (last) blog assignment, you will submit to me a draft of your topic page, "Entertainment." At this point, your draft only needs to contain text...we will work on the design and visuals later. Click on this link for the actual writing prompt.

Remember the goal, at this stage, is to move from reflection (an example of a media type that has influenced some aspect of your identity formation -- the more specific the better) to analysis (which ideologies were projected through this example?). Make a connection to something we have discussed in class to support one of your claims.

Submission: instead of posting this entry to your blog, insert the text to your topic page on your final project website. Copy the url and send me a link via email by 5:00 pm Friday, 11/19/10.

Requirements: 500 words minimum, 2 outside sources (discussed and cited), one connection to materials from this course.

Just for fun...

In-Class Blog: Picturing "The Other"

Key West, FL 2010. Tarzan picks up trash along the beach and

scolds napping native for not recycling his water bottle.

Mystory = moving from interpretation to invention.

**see Picturing Texts p. 247

(1) INTERPRETATION

[Analysis]

Why did you take the photo?

What decisions did you make in composing it?

How did your experience, background knowledge, or assumptions shape

this photo?

[REFLECTION]

Try to imaging what kind of photograph the person in your picture might

take of you.

What caption would that person add to such a photograph?

What assumptions would "the other" make about you?

(2) INVENTION

How might this exercise change the way you take travel photographs,

how you represent others, or what you assume when you snap pictures

of other people?

Can you conceive of a different way (or method) of representing

others in photographs?

Blog Assignment #8: Irony/Photoshopping

We have discussed two different, but related, topics this week: images as irony and the ethics of digital manipulation. For your blog assignment this week, you can choose ONE of the two following prompts:

(1) Answer this question: If you were to analyze your own photo albums (or your parents'), which ironies could you locate (either in the way you collect them, the method you display them, or within the collection itself)? Written portion of this post MUST BE 500 words minimum.

(2) Choose one photograph of yourself and alter it digitally. Post the before and after images to your blog, then discuss how you altered it and why you altered certain aspects of the image. It might be useful to think about the discourses (media, family, school) that have informed you about how an image should look. Written portion of this post MUST BE 200 words minimum.

WebSiteAssignment

Blog Assignment #7: Metaphors in Media/Creating Reality

For this assignment, you may choose to answer ONE of the two following prompts:

(1) Discuss the usage of an Analogy or Metaphor in a film or song that we have NOT discussed in class.

• Music = Please post the lyrics and a link to the song


• Film = Please post either still images from the film or a link to a clip from the film

(2) If you were to incorporate Forrest Gump's fictional character into an historical event from the 21st century, which event would you choose and why? Would you alter the event in order to incorporate Forrest into it and how? What would Forrest's reaction to the event be?

• Images = Please post a minimum of 3 still images or 1 video link

Minimum Requirements: 300 words; images, audio, or video (see above); fully develop and support all claims made; due by 5:00 pm Friday 10/29/10.

Blog Assignment #6: Iconic Images as Tropes

This week we have been discussing different types of tropes used in visual representation. Specifically, we talked about the difference between metaphors and metonyms.

We screened Munich (2005) to analyze the ways in which Spielberg used the metonym "Munich" (representative of the terrorist attack during the 1972 Olympic games) to create a new metonym (Israeli retaliation) and to make connections between "Munich" and another metonym familiar to us all, "9/11," changing it also to reflect moral questions about the American government's revenge acts against Al Qaeda.

In addition, we talked about how different iconic images can be utilized to create metonyms in new media formats. Now it is your turn to analyze an iconic image of your choice and reflect on the ways it acts as a visual trope. For this blog assignment, you should:

(1) Find an iconic image that relates to your major field of study (or future career)

(2) Analyze that image (What was the origin and history of the original image? In what medium was it originally produced? How has it been altered over the years to take on new meanings?)

(3) Discuss how this iconic image works as a trope (metaphor, metonym, analogy, irony, etc.) in new media formats.

Requirements: 300 words minimum, 1 image minimum, fully develop ALL CLAIMS you make.

(minimum requirements receive minimum points -- you can write longer, more developed analyses for higher grades).

Blog Assignment #5: Representing Others

For this assignment, you should respond to both Susan Sontag's Regarding the Pain of Others and Clint Eastwood's film Letters from Iwo Jima (2006), placing them into conversation with one another.

You should write one academic-style paragraph in which you make a claim about the topic we have been covering this week (representing "The Other") and use Sontag's book and Eastwood's film to expand your claim.

Remember: Make connections between the two texts and make sure your claim is broad enough to encompass everything you discuss in your paragraph. Also, give enough background about the quote you use and the scene/image you chose to discuss so that your reader understands what you are talking about.

Requirements: 300 words minimum. Use one direct quote from Sontag's book and discuss either a scene from the film or the film in general terms. Due Friday October 1 by 5:00 pm.