WW #5

Weekly Writing Prompt-

The most prominent topic I've learned so far in is class is analyzing both visual and written works.  Before this class I had a general idea of ethos, logos, and pathos, but now I can successfully apply it to both analyzing visuals and articles as well as using it in my own work to make it stronger. This class also helped reinforce the ideas behind research such as popular vs. scholarly sources.  One of the most helpful things I've learned regarding research was the time we spent learning about the library research page online.  This has not only helped me narrow down the number of results when I use databases such as EBSCOhost or PubMed, but also helped me make sure I cite my sources correctly.  Now, because of the visual rhetoric assignment I know how to properly label a visual in a paper.  Also, because of the increasing number of types of media I've used in this research paper so far, I can successfully cite a number of different types of sources.  Regarding the assignment of the research paper, I now a better idea of how to create an argument and what I need to do make not just a research topic, but a research question and how I can make it relevant to today's society.  All of this will no doubt be helpful in the future when I have to write papers on a number of different topics.  Everything that I have learned so far in this class such as analyzing visuals, constructing a research topic, and even creating an outline will be beneficial to me in the future with future assignments in a variety of different classes.  I also think the book we used in the class, Envision, helped out a lot because it provided a lot of examples of outlines, papers, and articles on a broad range of interesting topics.  I also liked writing the blog, especially the research log part, because it helped me organize my thoughts and apply what we learned in class to a short assignment outside of class. 

Research Log #3

Social Lives and Social Media

The ever increasing role of technology in our lives is portrayed in a humorous but predictive manner in a cartoon by Mick Stevens. In the visual a just born baby clutches a tablet device and exclaims something it has read off of it, presumably a Facebook status.  This visual attempts to show that technology is affecting children at younger and younger ages as time goes on.  The current and future generation will grow up with technology and its social media and will presumably heavily rely on it more than people in today's society.  Since we manage our lives through the technology we use games and social media have a better chance of accessing us through this technology.  The example of blogging in "Social Media and Young Adults" is an example of how our society is pushed to be more streamline and communication is expected to be fast.  Long, detailed blogs and dwindle to simple one sentences on Facebook or under 140 characters on Twitter.  This can also be seen in the decline of reading for pleasure in our generation, instead of reading lengthly blogs, people are skimming through short statuses about breakfast eating habits and the status of relationships.  Entertainment through this social media is now not meant to be time consuming but used whenever the person is bored for short durations.  Interactions between people and friends have evolved as more and more people create a Facebook or twitter account.  Through games such as "Farmville" or "Words with Friends" people interact solely through a screen and keypad instead of face to face.   Social media is not necessarily used for entreatment, but for monitoring a person's online status.  In Clive Thompson's article "I'm so Totally, Digitally Close to You" a women with a Facebook profile is mentioned as saying she has to monitor her profile to delete unflattering or unwanted pictures or see if people are talking about her.  This issue portrays the negative aspect of being so connected to everyone; everyone knows everyone's "life" with one click of a mouse.  A questions arises, how well does our online selves portray our real life selves?  This is a second issue of social media, it can be unreliable and false.  Through this growing use of technology for future generations, caution is advised.

Research Log #2

Mickey-Ds

Once of the first apparent voices regarding "McDonaldization" in chapter 15 is a picture (Fig. 15.2).  This figure is an example of visual rhetoric in which the artist is attempting to convey a message of Western society spanning the globe.  This simple picture lays out the basis of the argument of the issue of "McDonaldization" in today's world.  The image uses only American companies and icons to portray Western society as they link together with each logo to cross seas on the globe and surround the world with their products.  This picture has a very literal sense to it in that America's companies are literally covering the globe and impacting the world's different cultures.  In another article "A Brief History Of McDonald's Abroad" Randy James speaks of the rise and possible fall of the McDonald's empire.  Since 1948 the company has been on the up and up but because of weak economies and new negative feelings towards the fast-food chain McDonald's influence could loosing its grip on people's appetite.  This article points out that McDonald's future was once bright but is now receiving criticism for its "bad food" and how it is part of America's globalization.  In "McBastards: McDonald's and Globalization" by Paul Feine the issue of "McDonaldization" takes on a new perspective of that of a customer.  Feine's article takes on a first hand account of a part of culture condemning McDonald's or its expansion, even invasion, into other cultures. Feine's word choice in his article is a perfect example of how McDonald's has influence our society and even made a culture of its own.  Every thing from "McSpotlight" to "McBastards" is associated with the fast-food chain simply because of the "Mc-" prefix.  I think this would be a strong point Dexian Cai could add to his research assignment because explains and exemplifies how McDonalds have taken over and how it influences our speech.  I noticed a lot of the articles were talking about "McDonalization" from the view of an American or a person of Western society.  I think if Dexian Cai wanted to add a different perspective or view point for his assignment he should look into finding a source from Asian culture to see their take on this globalization.