Saturday, October 27, 2012

"Our Visual Persuasion Gap" by Martin Gurri, Craig Denny, and Aaron Harms


The article “Our Visual Persuasion Gap” by Martin Gurri, Craig Denny, and Aaron Harms focuses on the importance of visuals in conveying a message and how much they influence people’s opinions. The authors of this article are focusing on showing how persuasive different kinds of visual pathways can be and how these pathways deliver different messages.

This article does not include a statistical study or survey but it does show relationship between the author’s concepts and real life events. This relationship describes how different visual channels influence memorable historical events. A limitation that can be seen in this article is that the study is based on a governmental aspect and focuses mainly in this. Ways that visual channels impact society and other ethical issues are not described.

Visuals, according to Gurri et al., are powerfully persuasive because it creates a more personal connection from the audience to the issue in hand. Visuals introduce a link where instead of just hearing about an issue, the audience feels part of the issue as if they were bystanders.

The author’s concern regarding visual rhetoric and government communication practices lies in the power used through this channel. Government can take this channel and corrupt it and abuse by promoting certain ideals and beliefs that are anti self-governing and encourage misconduct and criminality.

The author locates many aspects of visual rhetoric, some of them are “…persuasive themes, master narratives, content and technical signatures, and indicators of audience resonance and effects.” (Gurry et al., 2010, pg. 104) Persuasive themes describe how visuals are used to target a certain audience to persuade it in maintaining certain ideals. Master narratives appeal to the audience through touching relatable stories such as martyr stories. Content and technical signatures demonstrate certain artistic and atmospheric patterns that are significant of a media. The indicators of audience resonance and effects focus on the response of the audience on certain visual media. The audience’s response helps the media understand and strategize visual connection.

The author’s suggest that understanding visual communication will help the government decipher more accurately foreign messages and prevent further attacks on the US. The author expects for the audience to understand the importance that visual communication plays in today’s society. Although an important communication channel, it can also be corrupted and used negatively to induce disaster. These ideas will help us use visuals effectively in our documentary and website.

Reference
Gurri, M., Denny, C., & Harms, A. (2010, Spring). Our Visual Persuasion Gap. U.S. Army War College, 40(1), 101-109. Retrieved from http://www.carlisle.army.mil/USAWC/Parameters/Articles/2010spring/40-1-2010_GurriDennyAndHarms.pdf

Thursday, October 25, 2012

"Countercultural Architecture and Dramatic Structure" by David Mamet


The article “Countercultural Architecture and Dramatic Structure” by David Mamet focuses on purpose driven architecture and movie making. The author’s interest is to show how common mistakes architects and films makers run into when creating their art. In concentration of this concept, the author tries to show that the final product is not more important than the planning process.

This article does not involve any kind of study to support its claim. Although no study or research was done the author’s credibility lies in his previous experience of film work and his educational achievements.

According to the author, many architectural buildings have failed at its foundation. Most buildings that were built during the 60’s are not usable today because of a main reason, purpose. According to Mamet, these buildings lacked purpose. Most architects of that time focused on their own idea and vision for a building and would create the building for self-expression instead of its purpose, for it to be livable and useful.

Preproduction is the foundation for a strong, lasting, and useful building, a concept that architects in the 60’s were not familiar with according to Mamet. The concept of preproduction allows for versatility and maximum optimization of the building. When preproduction is done, an architect or builder has time to focus on the purpose and use of the building. After this is set and finalized, the architect or building can add their creativity and design.

Mamet points out in this article that human perception is an important concept to consider when creating a movie. Human perception works with an orderly timeline manner. As the brain processes different concepts trapped through the eyes, it tries to piece up all of these concepts to rationalize what is being seen. A director should be aware of this concept to create a connection between the purpose of the movie and the audience in a way that the audience can easily put together and not be confused.

The author suggests that we understand this concept in order to connect with the audience. First focus in the purpose of an assignment and then add creativity and design. For the documentary assignment, purpose will define connection with audience and will create meaningful moments and concepts. 

Monday, October 15, 2012

"Argument as Emergence, Rhetoric as Love" by Jim W. Corder


The article “Argument as Emergence, Rhetoric as Love” by Jim W. Corder focuses on ways people deals with arguments when confronted with different ideas and accounts that oppose theirs. The author gives different explanations to conflicts and analyses these definitions from which he derives an explanation and possible solution to healthy arguments.

The author uses different sources from which he dissects and interprets ways that arguments are handled and seen. His study includes articles from authors Carl Rogers, Richard E. Young, Alton L. Becker, and Kenneth L. Pike, among others. Some challenges his study faces could be support for his idea of rhetoric as love. His idea seems compelling but additional supportive ideas could help his reasoning.

Corder explains in his article that each person has a story to tell. Daily, people are confronted with decisions and many of these decisions enclose people into their own stories of matters and views of the world. According to Corder, as storytellers people tends to close themselves to other stories and neglect to view other options as possible parts of their story. This kind of thinking puts people in an opposing position where they become obliviously fastened to their own criteria and knowledge.

The author claims “…argument – rhetoric itself – must begin, proceed, and end in love.” (Corder, 1985, p. 28) In order to become open to other’s ideas and effectively become part of the discourse, a person must enter the argument with love and understanding of the audience’s emotions and feelings towards their story. In the case of two arguers with different perspectives, both must become understanding of each other’s emotions and beliefs behinds that hold their claim, this way, both arguers can openly take part of the discussion in a healthy manner.

It might be that the author’s idea of rhetoric as love is undeniable, both arguers must enter a discussion with comprehension of the other’s idea, but it seems somewhat complicated. The definition of love varies among many and peoples own narrative might influence this definition and position when entering the argument. As we progress in the Literature Review, comprehension and an unbiased mentality of other’s ideals are needed to understand the opinions of others.

References
Corder, J. W. (1985, September). Argument as Emergence, Rhetoric as Love. Rhetoric Review, 4(1), 16-32. Retrieved from JSTOR.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

My experience with plagiarism

As long as I can remember, I cannot recall an instant where I have plagiarized or been tempted to plagiarize. I have never been in a situation where someone has accused me of plagiarizing. I consider myself as a rule follower and I try to keep myself within legal lines almost always. The thought of being caught and possibly get expelled from school completely frightens me. The fact that I fear trouble and try to avoid conflicts has led me to try to avoid plagiarism as much as possible. If in any instantce I have plagiarized unwilllingly or unknowingly, it has been because of incorrect citing or common knowledge.

Plagiarism - To take, knowignly or unknowingly, other people's ideas, creativy, or design without giving the author proper credit for the work.

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

"It wasn't me, was it?" Plagiarism and the Web by Danielle DeVoss and Annette C. Rosati


In the article “ ’It wasn’t me, was it?’ Plagiarism and the Web”, the authors Danielle DeVoss and Annette C. Rosati emphasize on how the vast amount of information available to people in the Web has facilitated ways for students to plagiarize. The authors address techniques and exercises teachers can include in their class curriculum to help students avoid plagiarizing. The authors based their study on experiences teachers had in the past of students plagiarizing. These experiences were used as supporting evidence and explanation of ideas.

The terms “patchwriting” or “kidnapping”, sometimes used as nouns of plagiarism, differ from the concept of plagiarism as theft. When referred as theft, plagiarizing means taking ideas that belongs to someone else without permission. When used as patchwriting or kidnapping, the student is able to put themselves is the writer’s shoes and evaluate the writing with a different perspective. From here, the student can develop new ideas and concepts.

When a student is asked to develop a correct and/or original idea, the student must back up this idea with supporting evidence. When the students look for supporting evidence, most of the time this supporting evidence becomes their “original idea” leading them to plagiarize.

The Internet provides a great amount of information that is available in just a click. The ease in availability of information, leads the student to find easy and fast information to complete an assignment where many times plagiarizing is involved. Common computational controls such as copy and paste also facilitate the student to obtain information and transfer it to a paper and claim it as theirs.

The authors explain of an interesting term for plagiarizing, “intellectual property”. The stealing of ideas does not only apply at an academic level, but also industrially. Intellectual property refers to the rights a person has to their creativity or design. The ideas and creativity of a person must also be seen as property. Such creativity and design can be copyrighted and trademarked for security purposes.

The authors suggest a couple of exercises a teacher can do with the students to make them “Web smart”. These exercises involve knowledge of credibility, different types of plagiarizing, and ways to correctly cite sources. When working on the Literature review, knowing how to borrow and give credit to people’s ideas and concepts is important to avoid plagiarism since we will be using a lot of sources.