Pink Think and Gansta Think

When reading the article by Lynn Peril, you can't help but recognize the stereotypes she describes. Another type of stereotype that influences our society is called "gansta think." This stereotype is that black males dressed like gansters, must be getting into trouble and commiting crimes. We see this because of the way movies and tv shows have been portraying gansters. It helps feed the racist attitudes of our society. For example, watching the movie Be Cool, the gansters in the movie are all black. They drive black hummers with spinners, play really loud rap music, and make it a daily routine of killing people. When watching that movie, you can't help but think "you know, that is what it's like," when in fact it is mainly a stereotype that they feel they must play into.

Our troops

Before the war even began, I didn't think that going to Iraq was a very good idea. Granted, I wasn't very old, but I still knew that there wasn't any real, definite reason for going to Iraq that had to do solely with the United States. We were after Al Qaeida, which was in Afghanistan, not Iraq.

With that, I have never been fully supportive of the Iraq war, and after reading the posts, now I am sure that it wasn't a good idea to go to Iraq. Recently I also watch a war movie about troops in Somali, called Black Hawk Down, that helped put into perspective what war is like nowadays. It is so intense and so brutal and reading the posts from the soldiers, it makes my heart hurt. Reading the real stories brings home the feelings I experience while watching the movie and now I think they should be brought home.

Simple Criteria, Which Makes the Problem

The criteria for marriage is really very simple, however, the discussion of that criteria has become one of the most controversial topics discussed today. The Constitution legally defines marriage as the union between a man and a woman only. That is the only criteria of marriage: it is between one man and one woman. Gays and lesbians have the exact same right as everyone else, the only problem is they would probably much rather have the union between the same sex. They are still getting the same marriage privileges, they just aren’t what they want, which is the only problem.

Editing the Essay about Coldplay

When I read the essay about the guy who hated Coldplay, I decided that I would have given him a B on the essay because he only gave one reason why they are horrible, talked circles around it, but defended it well.

When reading the essay, you find out somewhere in the first or second paragraph that the writer does not like the band Coldplay. He states that he doesn't like them because of the range that the songs are written in; they are too high for the lead singer to sing. This is a well constructed argument and he has clearly thought of many defenses to the argument

He goes on to state that they should lower the songs and that would make them a better band. But he it seems he could have said this in a much shorter amount of writing. Maybe it is because I am a very analytical writer; I like to get to the point and just focus on it. The writer uses examples of songs and lyrics to help prove his point, but he seems to also put a lot of extra words into a sentence to just make it more elevated. This isn't effective, because he loses his audience in his flowery wording and misses his chance to captivate them.

All in all, he did a good job defending his one and only point, he just should have got rid of the extra wording and it would have been worth an A!

Evaluation

When discussing what makes a good NFL quaterback some of the criteria that should be used to evaluate the choice should include:

1. Record breaking number of passing yards
2. Record breaking number of touchdown passes
3. Ability to read the defense quickly, find the wide reciever or tight-end immediately and make the split-second decision on what should be done.
4. Not be afraid to do something daring, like pass well to someone well covered and have faith in them
5. Be able to recognize the possibility of a blitz and still execute the play successfully.

These are all things that are necessary for a quarterback to be excellent instead of just average.

Now if I were to evaluate spoken word poetry, which I know nothing about, I would want to research this topic using poetry archives that include performances, the library, and perhaps even visiting a coffee house on the weekends! Once I do these things, I will be able to come up with criteria that would defend my evaluation of a great spoken word poet.

Milblogs4

This time while reading the milblogs, I had the chance to incoporate something I learned from my Anatomy and Physiology class in high school last year. I felt like I may have actually help explain something that was talked about in a post. I felt kind of important....

Analyzing a website's graphics

The site I chose to analyze, graphic wise, is www.bfro.com. I think this site does a really good job at arranging pictures and information to make it the most effective. The fonts are different and are used to emphasize the points they are making. For example, the title of the website is supposed to be ominous and the creator used an ominous type of text, which is very smart. Also, the points that are important are bolded and larger than the rest of the text. When the text is related to the graphics, it is usually to the left or very near to it. It makes the viewer know for sure what picture the text is talking about. The website also does a good job with displaying the appropriate colors when needed. It kind of uses a scheme of dark colors, once again to emphasize the ominous fashion of the website. It easily engages the common viewer, like me, which is why I chose this site over the other one given.

In 1998, Clarence Williams won the Pulitzer Prize for his powerful images showing the troubles of young children with parents addicted to drugs and alcohol. The photo I chose is particularly powerful due to the placing of the mother and daughter and the brilliant elements used to prey upon viewers emotional weaknesses. The mother is at the front of the photograph with only her arm, where she is shooting up, is showing. Behind her sits her daughter burying her head into her knees. Having the mother in front of the daughter with her back to her depicts how the mother really acts towards her daughter. The girl is in the background suffering, just as she does in life. Seeing this photograph, viewers can’t help but feel bad for the little girl and her situation, making the argument that these kinds of things are happening and we, as a society, should not be ignoring it, we should be helping.

WIKI

www.allaboutjen.pbwiki.com

I think that this wiki idea is going to be a good way for all of us students to get to know each other better!

Millblogs3

I just got a chance to read about a post dealing with Church and State separation. I am a strong Christian and it hurts me to hear that anyone is being pushed into ANY religion. Freedom of choice. Of course I have my own views and of course I try to share them with people, but I would never push it upon someone. Something has to be done, because government and religion don't mesh and shouldn't mess with each other.

Analyzing politcal blogs

The blog I chose to analyze was www.andrewsullivan.com. In this blog, entitled “The Daily Dish” , the author goes into detail about many different daily events. These events range from information about the Pope, to different interviews that are likely to happen on Fox News.
When reading some of the authors posts, it seems that he comments on events; not necessarily ones that are attacking a newspaper article, but also ones about announcements. For example, he writes about an announcement that says that a general and an ambassador are giving Fox News an exclusive hour long interview. He precedes to say that if they are agreeing to appear on Fox, then they should also appear on other than a purely Republican network. If these two individuals don’t, then they have to disclaim their neutrality.
To me, it doesn’t seem that he is pointing out fallacies of these events or newspaper articles. I think that he is relying on the fact that his readers understand what the fallacies are and understand the point that he is trying to make.
The only fallacy that is somewhat evident is moral equivalence. He talks about how descendants of Holocaust victims seem eager to support the “evils of totalitarianism.” He exclaims that he doesn’t understand how these two things are morally different, pointing out the fallacy of moral equivalence.
Another thing that Andrew Sullivan does is he cites different passages from some of his readers posts on his arguments. This makes him seem like he is trying to rope in some of the other readers into continue to write to him because he MAY or MAY NOT reference you in his blog.
Overall, Andrew Sullivan doesn’t really point out any flashpoints or fallacies, I think he expects his readers to be read on things like that and be in tune to the fallacies of news stations.

Women's role in advertising

In the presentation on women’s role in advertising, the strategies used to convey the message that ads are influential and women are being exposed in them, are very useful and successful. Jean Kilbourne begins the advertisement by saying some alarming statistics about the amount of ads that a person will see in a n average day. This is a very strategic movie, because most audiences tend to remember the first and last thing the most when hearing a presentation. Stating this set of ad statistics allows for the audience to remember the ads when they hear them and to think about the possible effect it might be having on them.
Jean also makes sure to have a clear and organized structure to the presentation of her argument making it easy to follow and to get the main points out of her argument. She makes sure to pause right before she switches points in her argument. She also uses good diction and syntax.
Jean uses visuals to also help get her argument across. Her use of these visuals is very effective. She uses examples of ads that are proof of what she is talking about at that moment. She also uses popular ads as visuals knowing that her audience will recognize them and make them think twice about the ads they see regularly.
Another way to increase effectiveness of her argument, Jean dresses and acts the part. She dresses very conservatively and acts conservatively. She makes sure to have good eye contact and mean what she says. She is fighting for the image of strong independent women and when she presents herself to the audience, she is conveying the type of women she is trying to support.
The most memorable thing that I heard while listening to the presentation given by Jean is the amount of ads a person sees in a day and the amount of teenage girls with an eating disorder. Having statistics in the presentation definitely causes something to remember it, making them very useful. I had no idea that we see around 3000 ads a day and that 1 in every 5 girls have a legitimate eating disorder. Those numbers are incredible.
I believe that Jean’s presentation was effective. She used lots of different strategies to get her point across and it proved to be memorable and left an impression upon me. Now, that is what I call “effective!”

Millblogs2

I got a chance to read a few more of the posts on the millitary blogs website, and I was once again blown away by the stories of courage, violence and peace. It was another chance to break free of the filtered news shows and stories highlighting only things that the public "needs" to hear. It was once again a breath of fresh air.

Puma Mongolian Shoe BBQ

The website that I chose is a puma shoes website that allows you to make your own shoe in a fashion that resembles a Mongolian barbecue restaurant. This website communicates that message digitally better than it would if it were orally given or in a presentation because of the nature of the product. The target audience is young adults and where are young adults mostly? On the web! Also, the special effects of picking your colors for your shoe and creating the design of your shoe are better shown on a website than they would be in a printed presentation.

Seeing the puma shoes on a piece of paper is way different than getting a chance to create the shoe and then purchase it online. You have the chance to interact and make your own shoe. Kids want to be in charge of their life these days, and this website allows them to be in charge of what kind of shoe they want. It is easier to get an audience’s attention when there is a possibility of them making all the decisions. If a teenager were to see a pair of shoes in a catalog, it may not catch their eye, but seeing their own creation online will hook them instantly.

If you were to take this material and change it into a print or oral presentation, you would definitely lose some of its creativeness in the process. It would take a lot of pictures and colors to change the format of the advertisements. The presenter would have to print out directions on how to make the shoe and what kinds of options a customer might have. A presenter, if giving the presentation orally, would have to give a demonstration or have some models on display. Doing this, you would lose the one of the most important aspects of the online advertisement: the interaction. The interaction of the customer creating the shoe is the most important part of selling the shoe. If the customer can’t pick what they want directly, then they may not be so inclined to spend that much money on the pair of shoes. Therefore, having the online website to sell the make your own shoes by puma is the best option.