Final Class Reflection

This class started out by me needing an English credit so I picked something that sounded easy, but it turned out that it has taught me a lot more real-life skills than many of my other, core classes have, and was actually pretty interesting. 

The assignments that we got in here all had a point to them, and by doing these assignments and discussing them in class we learned valuable writing skills that we may need in the future for our job, applications, etc. Beyond that, we also did the whole project with the deployment strategy, campaign, and grant proposal, which was a great first step in experiencing the process of creating and deploying a groups ideas in hopes to better change the world. The grant proposal was also pretty difficult to make because there are so many factors involved. It wasn't just a typical essay, and that made it much harder. 

The discussions we had were also really interesting. We talked a lot about society's dependence on media and technology, and how it shapes our lives and causes us to think in different ways. The discussions were pretty heavy though, in the sense that the questions weren't simple if you really wanted to give a good, honest answer. It was also really cool to listen to what other people in class think or believe because everyone thinks differently. Some people have completely opposite opinions and it's interesting to hear what they have to say. This was a big part of our campaign groups because we all had to compromise when we had different opinions on things.

Overall I liked the class. If I have room in my schedule I may consider taking another English course at some point. 

Campaign Video

Here's the link to our video that we used for our campaign.

The goal with our video was to create something positive and lighthearted that showed that UF students are more than what they're stereotype defines them as. We asked people to tell us their year, their major, and then anything about themselves that's not racially or gender oriented. We got a lot of results, and it was really cool because all these students walking around UF, who we don't know at all, all have interesting things to share about themselves. Just creating the video was really inspirational for us because it just reinforced the strength of our campaign - almost everyone we talked to had nothing stereotypical to say about themselves, which was great. Hopefully this would be similarly inspirational to those watching the video.

However, creating the video wasn't easy. For starters, none of us were really film experts. I volunteered to make the movie because I had made one before using Windows Movie Maker (which is horrible) and figured I had some decent experience. It helped when it came to editing the movie, but some things still didn't come out right (the sound would be choppy when I tried to change the volume).

Beyond that, actually getting people was pretty difficult. The first video we made was actually our favorite - we had so many cool interviews, but the production values of it were poor. It had that phone-look to it and you could hardly hear anyone. We remade the movie, and although the results were still good, it wasn't as good as the first one. We figured this had to do with differences in when we shot the movie. The first one was shot during a busy, mid-week early-afternoon. The second one was shot during a quieter, Friday late-afternoon on exam weeks.

It was a great learning experience though. What started as a simple idea of, "Hey let's make a movie!" while we were in class turned out to be a bit more complicated and harder than we expected.

Campaign Social Media

Here are the links to our Twitter and Instagram for our campaign.

Our Twitter was created with the idea that we want to post about stereotypes around campus and in the world, but also give that feeling of a unification with school pride. This is to make it appeal more to UF students, which was our target audience, because we definitely all feel more at home in a club when it advertises itself as unifying us all as Florida Gators.

Our Instagram was created with a similar idea, however the emphasis on Gator Pride is lessened. The hashtag, profile pictures, and main goal remains the same - however, the Instagram is more focused on stereotypes. This is largely because of the way Instagram's layout is. Twitter allows us to modify colors and add a cover photo, which means we can make it have more of a Gator feel. Instagram, however, doesn't, and so we stuck with our Instagram being very heavy on stereotypes. We actually preferred this too. Although we are Gators, we don't need to be bombarded with pride, and the disparity between the Twitter and Instagram is nice because each site serves its own purpose.

Our goal with the social media itself was to have an easy way to spread our campaign and reach many UF students at once. Social media is very essential to the younger population of today's world, and as a result the best way to communicate with this population is by utilizing this social media. If we were to focus our campaign into a physical process rather than virtual, we probably would get less supporters.

Campaign Topic

My campaign group chose to do our project on stereotypes. It was pretty funny how this came about. When we were first assigned our groups we sat down and looked at each other and realized that our group was very diverse in itself, and then we proposed the idea of talking about stereotypes. It felt like we had to do stereotypes because of how our group was composed of minorities, but it was also something we all felt passionate about since we had all felt the effects of stereotypes before. 

There was really no argument after that, we all agreed that stereotypes was a good topic. We wanted to focus on racial stereotypes, and we actually ended up gearing our campaign towards that, however gender stereotypes can be seen too, just with less emphasis. The reason for this is that talking about multiples forms of stereotypes would cause our campaign to be too broad. Having a narrow focus would allow it to be much more powerful and reach a more dedicated audience. If we were broadly focused, some of our audience may only be interested in one form of stereotype and some in another, which would cause a split and it would be hard to unify everyone. 

Making a campaign about stereotypes was easy in the sense that stereotypes are everywhere and it's easy to talk about them. However, it was hard because the content had to be very specific. For example, what we decide to post on social media can't offend anyone, and there has been discussions on whether certain posts were too harsh or not. Our video also had to show diversity - we had to include all the races and genders and make sure that no single race was dominating. Stereotypes in general is a very sensitive topic, and to create an effective campaign about it you have to be very careful of what you post because the audience is going to be very critical if even the slightest thing seems off. 

Deployment Strategies

The deployment strategies project that we had to do really got me thinking about how much work is required to deploy rhetoric and incite some sort of movement. On the surface you would think, "Yeah, just hang up some posters here and there and you're done." But there's so much more than just that.

It starts with the actual piece of visual rhetoric. You have to tailor it to your target audience, which means that your first attempt at creating the rhetoric may not be the best one. As a younger person, I would naturally create rhetoric that would appeal to a younger audience, however if I wanted to appeal to an older audience I'd have to put a lot more thought into it - the colors, the layout, the size of the text, everything has to fit the target audience.

Then there's the actual message of the image. A lot of times someone supports a good cause, and then they create an image that represents their cause well, but the real question is, does that image actually inspire others to act? It takes some sort of interesting edge - sarcasm, humor, bitterness - to actually get a message across that will cause people to think about what they saw/read and act upon it. This can be a bit difficult because the type of tone that you decide to use has to fit your topic and purpose. You can't just talk about things like abortion using a humorous tone.

I would have to say pulling numbers and statistics and deciding where to put the rhetoric was the hardest part of the deployment strategy for me. For example, it may seem that putting up your rhetoric in a certain area is a good idea, but knowing exactly how many people and what type of people walk by that area is very important, and also very hard data to find. A spot may have high traffic but if only old people walk by when you're trying to communicate to a younger population then that spot turns out to be very bad. Likewise, if a spot has only younger people walking by it, but very low traffic, it may also be a bad spot too. 

Blood of the Condor

Blood of the Condor was a very interesting movie, particularly because of the way it was filmed. For me personally, I found the movie to be very boring. It was slow-paced, lacked color or much English, and didn't feel very eventful or climactic. It was just a slow ride through these natives lives and situation with the peace corps, shown in a very dull manner. However, "boring-ness" is personal and doesn't mean that the movie is bad.

For what it was trying to accomplish, and for the way it portrayed the information to a population of natives who had never really watched films, it did a fantastic job. This goes back into why the movie was interesting - the way it was filmed, especially with its low budget, appealed to an audience of natives and got them to revolt, but I would have to bet that if you put this movie in theaters today, many people would get bored.

I would have to say that my favorite thing about the movie was the way it portrayed the magical leaves. I'm not sure how much of it was a true story or not, but by showing the leaf ritual and then showing in the movie that the leaves were right was an extremely effective way of relating to the natives. The director likely had no faith in any of the natives beliefs, but he showed in the movie how the natives beliefs were powerful and correct, and this probably incited a lot of positive response from the natives. 

Class Reflection

Reflecting upon the class so far, I would have to say the experience is quite good. I don’t take very many English classes because I’m a science major, but I always liked English. It’s a lot less emphasis on studying and memorizing material and a lot more emphasis on interesting discussions about the world, human nature, etc. It’s quite a nice break from most of my normal coursework.

Unlike most classes, I actually like attending this class and going to the screening periods. It’s really laid back and often we just talk about things. The coursework hasn’t been too demanding at all, and the writing assignments tend to be engaging at least. I would have to say that my favorite thing about this class are the movies or shorts or documentaries that we tend to watch, such as Blackfish. I usually don’t watch these things by myself in my free time, so coming here to watch them is nice. I learn a lot of interesting things that I didn’t know about, like the extremist performance artist Marina Abramović.

Looking into what’s coming in this class, it seems that we are about to start doing some group projects. I think this will be fun to an extent, getting to work with a group on a campaign assignment seems interesting. Although I have no idea what it’s going to be about, I don’t really have any negative thoughts. I guess if there’s one thing that I dislike about this class it would have to be the timing of the screening period and the discussion section. The 4.5 hour break between them is a bit awkward in terms of scheduling. 

UF Landmarks

There are many landmarks across UF that serve as powerful tools of visual rhetoric to convey a message not only to the outside world but also to the students who attend the school. I chose Turlington because it is right in the center of campus and everybody, including visitors, knows about this building. I also found it a very interesting building – the fact that it had a more positive effect on visitors due its visual feeling of power and pride and a more negative effect on students due to its inefficient architecture, bad classrooms, and a general sense of overcrowding was a very unique quality. However, there are other structures that are phenomenal.

Century tower is another key landmark. The ominous bells that ring every so often give off a nice, almost homely atmosphere to the area. The tower is also huge and can be seen from miles away, and can also be used to navigate when you’re lost. One of the biggest things I’ve wondered about it is how it would be like to climb that tower and actually play the bells, or the view one would get from up there, seeing all of campus.

The French Fries outside Marston Library are also very interesting. I think the biggest visual impact they give off is rather funny, and it is the question of “Why?” When I first saw the French fries I was a bit confused – why would UF just arbitrarily decide to put giant yellow French fries right outside a library? It felt so out of place, but at the same time was a bit comical in that sense. Other people who saw the French fries were just as confused as I was, and although I still don’t know why they are there, I think the fact that the French fries cause confusion and questioning amongst those that first see it is pretty funny. 

Medical Marijuana

My visual rhetoric assignment was done on legalizing medical marijuana, a substance that, when used for its chemical extracts, can be very beneficial in helping many medical problems. It’s not legal largely because of its potential risks and potential abuse by patients, but that same argument can be made for every other drug prescribed – there are side effects, and drug abuse and OD’s are always an issue.

My original idea for the assignment actually dealt with education and increasing the efficiency of it to match other countries by removing unnecessary courses and only requiring those applicable to one’s future career. I then scratched that idea as it was actually pretty complicated seeing as foreign countries have all sorts of different systems.

Then I changed it to pro-choice for abortion. I was pretty sure about sticking with this idea until it came down to formulating an actual piece of visual rhetoric. Turns out, there’s not really an easy way to use visual rhetoric to support pro-choice ideology. Finding the right picture or image or video would be hard, especially since I wanted to focus on cases of rape and unwanted pregnancies. I didn’t want the picture to be unappealing or come off as harsh, so many options actually got ruled out because of that.

I then finally changed it to something dealing with marijuana legalization. At first I wanted to do something funny like make a reference to Pineapple Express, but then I realized that not only would people probably not get the reference, but it also wouldn’t be rhetorically powerful enough to convey a message, and people probably wouldn’t take it seriously anyway after seeing a picture of Seth Rogan and James Franco. But then I focused on specifically medical marijuana, which was much easier to do because creating a visual instance of sympathy through say, a cancer patient, is always rhetorically powerful. 

Performance Art

There was a day in class where we discussed a weird type of performance art performed by Marina Abramović. She would do odd things like scream for long periods of time, run naked into another person, stare at people across a table, and probably most famously, walk the Great Wall of China towards another person. For some reason, this was considered “art.”

If you ask me, most of the activities performed by Abramović were a bit senseless. What is one trying to accomplish with endless screaming? Or forcing people to walk between her and her partner naked? I suppose in one way, it may cause the viewer to ponder such things like personal freedom/space, the limitations of the human body, or persistence in actions. However, this was not the feeling that I got. Her performance art is done in such an extreme way that it arouses surprise and wonder in her choice to perform such odd tasks. The uncomfortable feeling her art gives you, along with this surprised feeling, causes the viewer not to ponder her arts meaning or goal, but rather to ponder why she is so weird and crazy. The extremity of her art actually lends itself to less interpretation and more criticism.

There probably are some people that find meaning in her art, otherwise I guess she wouldn’t be so famous. Her walk around the Great Wall of China towards her working partner seemed pretty interesting and actually a bit romantic. However I personally don’t see any meaning to her work, or at least any need for such extremity. 

Blackfish

The movie Blackfish was quite impactful. It portrayed Sea World in a way that completely conflicted with its message and image to the outside world – a happy place with happy animals.

Probably one of the movies strongest rhetorical techniques was the alternation between a happy Sea World commercial and then the harsh reality of its working conditions. It made Sea World seem extremely fake, and really hit the point about how much it seemed to hide to the outside world. The juxtaposition of these two ideas served to emphasize Sea World as a giant corporate scumbag that, in reality, had no care for its animals despite the commercials claiming otherwise.

Another thing that was so impactful was the extreme dramatization of the bad events done by Sea World. The people who spoke for the documentary were very emotional, and the music, tied in with the way the information was represented, really exaggerated the whole situation to make the viewer hate Sea World. The information could’ve simply been presented in an unbiased way, with a speaker unemotionally talking about the information, or with the information written in text.  However, the speakers that were so dramatic about the issue allowed the documentary to achieve its rhetorical effect.

After having watched Blackfish I feel a bit of the rhetoric myself. Although I was never really a fan of Sea World, I do see it in a much different light, a much more negative light. However, I do wonder – what if the information were presented in a much more positive way, like from the viewpoint of Sea World itself? Would people’s viewpoints change? Or would they still see Sea World as the scumbag they are as portrayed by Blackfish?

Uncle Sam

This image is a very important image from World War 2, depicting Uncle Sam asking citizens of the U.S. to enlist for the army. Multiple characteristics actually make this picture quite persuasive. For example, the whole poster is only in red, white, and blue colors, giving off a feeling of patriotism. Furthermore, the fact that the man in the picture is Uncle Sam and not just some random person gives it even more of a patriotic feeling. These two visual choices allow the viewer to feel more closely connected to America, which can help cause the viewer to enlist in the army.

In terms of layout, Uncle Sam is centered, the words are mostly balanced, and the colors are balanced too, giving the picture a harmonic organization.

However, the word "you" is slightly bigger than the other words, and redder, making it stand out. This effect is combined with perhaps the most visually powerful part of the picture - the pointing finger. The word "you" and the pointing finger together attempt to cause the viewer to feel as if he is being singled out, and as if he has an obligation to his country to enlist in the army. It also makes the viewer feel important and special, which can further cause the viewer to be more likely to enlist in the army.

I chose this picture because every time I think of a rhetorically powerful image I always think of this one. I've seen it so many times, and the fact that Uncle Sam is pointing at you makes it very convincing. Also, if you picture yourself in the 1940's looking at this poster, it becomes much more effective due to the events of WWII. Unlike most posters that ask you for assistance, this one makes it seem as if it is your duty and obligation to perform a task, which in my opinion is probably the best way to get a large group of people to act for a cause.