Challenges

My project is coming along really nicely, and I'm learning more about photo manipulation as I go along, but here are some challenges I've come across during my project so far:

The editing is taking longer than I expected. I had hopes of creating three different photo before/after series, I'm putting the final touches on the first one when I'm in the lab today, and then I'll begin my second one. Depending on how long my second series takes, I might have to cut it down and leave it with the two.

I'm not really sure how I want to host my presentation. The photo series' are either going to be displayed as well, a series (with one photo at a time), and I'm also contemplating turning them GIF's, so after my presentation, they can be housed as a picture family together. But, since my digital media artifacts are pictures, I'm not sure how I want to present them. Most people are putting together websites, and I thought about making a tumblr with my photos, but I feel that if I made a webpage, it would need a lot more substance than what I have. Maybe a solid powerpoint is all I need.

(Just kidding, as I was writing that paragraph, I decided I'm going to make a tumblr page as planned, but then just make one really long essay-like entry. I had previously worried about the fact that I was going to need to create several, if not dozens, of tumblr entries, and I was struggling with how to present my info in any particular order in that fashion, but if I just put it as one long post, It'll be a great host for my argument.)

Design Plan

Statement of Purpose: I would like to show how skewed photos can become from when they were originally taken, through forms of editing and manipulation, and to show how these altered photos can create a "hyerreality" for people (namely young women) to base their realities in and around.

Audience: Anyone who doesn't know what drastic edits can be placed onto a photo to alter it, especially high school/ college age women who value personal beauty as self-worth.

Exigency: There exists this notion that the only way to be beautiful is to be skinny and flawless, as seen in celebrity photographs and magazines. In reality, there isn't a person who actually looks like the photos, those photos have been doctored and altered to the point where the model can sometimes become unrecognizable. However, people who take in these doctored photographs don't know they are altered and base their own beauty on the altered, unrealistic and often unattainable appearances of the models.

Audience's "fitting response"/ Potential Change: I would like to see the audience realize how "fake" these photos are; and to be able to recognize and separate the hyperreality of doctored images from our actual reality.

Strategies: Right now, through finding before/after pictures of celebrities, finding statistics on alteration, and showing some before/after photos that I will be creating.

Medium: I will be setting up a blog that I can post onto in a "timeline" like manner, with my postings in order of my arrangement.

Statement of Purpose

For my rhetorical argument for major assignment 3, I will be discussing the cons of use of Photoshop and image manipulation and how the photos can become a hyperreality to the audience of my fellow digital media students who may or may not know the extensive effects that can be placed onto an image, through the use of before and after photos of photos that have been edited.


^^ I think all we have to write is our statement of purpose, so I hope I don't have to say more! :)

Response to Wysocki- Lynch

After already doing 3 hours of homework tonight before even getting to reading today's article, I was in no mindset to read 30+ pages to blog on, so I will admit I skimmed. The article seemed fairly easy to digest though, so I'm glad I wasn't stuck reading Baudrillard on a stressful, homework-filled night like tonight ;)

This reading speaks of how easily an argument can crumble if one of many components isn't well built. A solid statement of purpose is key to building the context of the argument. Also, the audience must be remembered when deciding on your medium for your argument. Also, when formulating an argument, consider specific strategies, orders for your different points to go in, and above all, test your argument to see if its as practical as it is theoretically.

Response to Copyright Issues

So all four of the websites we had to read seemed eerily related to my first Major Argument assignment. (I guess I had a clue about what I was talking about all along ;)

With this new wave of hands-on, shareable technology, us Digital Natives have a new, interactive relationship with the internet. The new generation of internet is meant to be shared, reworked and republished.

Here's what a musician in the digital age has to say about reworking music:

(Upon trying, the "insert video" option on Blogger only allows youtube videos, and the "embed" option from the website with the video only gave me code when I tried to post my blog, so I've updated to include the link to the website that includes the video here. 

One of my good friends from back at home is going to college for Musical Production and he has an incredible talent for taking popular songs and remixing them. In fact, that is a common practice now -- some major label recording artists endorse remixed versions of their songs and host contests to see who can be most creative remixing an already published, copyright songs. Lawyers, corporations and people who don't understand this new interactive form of media seem to think that doing anything with a song that isn't used with "permission" is illegal. Speaking on the subject is Copyright and Internet Lawyer and Harvard Professor Larry Lessig who explains the fragile line of reworking and editing copyrighted works for creative purposes:

(Again, the posting the video within the blog didn't want to cooperate, so here's the link to the source.)

Response to "The Rhetorical Situation"

Phew! This was a long read, and I did have to read it out loud to myself. (If a piece is particularly wordy, I force myself to read it out lout that way I can't skim over it as a result of boredom.) While I did have to force myself to pay attention and interpret the information every so often, I do think I understand the piece. (I mean, we'll see tomorrow for sure, but let me see what I can do right now.)

A rhetorical situation is a man-made situation that requires man-made change (or if not change, at least requires to be addressed) through the use of rhetorical discourse (or speech.) An extingence is the topic of conversation. The obstacle or even that needs to be address or changed. (An exstingence must be realistic - as opposed to fictitious, - and an exstingence maybe be short- or long-lived. An exsitngence may change and evolve over time, may die out entirely, or may live on forever.)  The audience of a rhetorical discourse must be a mediator of change, or the people being spoken to must be capable of being influenced. Someone who opposes the viewpoint of the exstingence would not be a rhetorical audience. Typically, it is a constraint of the exstingence that holds an audience back from becoming a rhetorical audience. A constraint is something that holds the audience in opposition (a religion, personal belief or attitude, background, facts, tradition, interests and motives, and so on...) A constraint is also something that can influence how the rhetor gives his discourse. For example, a religious background can influence how a speech is written and presented by the rhetor, and a religious background can also influence how that same speech is interpreted.

A fast example that just popped into my head: an episode of the TV show, Intervention.

Exstingence: A family member has a drug addiction problem and that needs to be addressed and/or changed.
-- This is a rhetorical exstingence because it is a man-made situation not naturally occurring (like a natural disaster) and because it requires man-made change (as opposed to natural fixation.) The exstingence of a drug problem may evolve to address ever-changing severity, or the changing drug of choice. While the exstingence may evolve, the need for a resolution remains the same.

Audience: The rhetorical audience in this situation would be the family staging the intervention, and in only certain instances include the person with the substance abuse issue.
-- This is a rhetorical audience because the family staging the intervention would be mediators of change. The family members are trying to initiate the change.
-- In some instances, if the abuser approaches their abuse with ignorance or denial, they would not be capable of being influenced into change. In other instances, the abuser might be open to change, and in that case would be a rhetorical audience member.

Constraints: Would include anything influencing any audience members to feel the way they do.
-- These might include religious beliefs, personal attitudes and backgrounds, facts or motives.
-- These can relate to both why the audience members might want to initiate change (how the rhetor uses constraints to influence the discourse) and to why the opposition is not open to change.

A rhetorical discourse is more than just persuasion, because in fact, everything is persuasive, as Bitzer argued.

Lack of Phone Access in the UP

Lack of Phone Access in the UP

The UP, and Houghton in particular, is a diverse area. For being in “the middle of nowhere,” as far as location is concerned, the area has plenty of “outsiders” and has a constant flow of traveler traffic. From students who move here to go to school (like me,) to people visiting us students, to vacationers here for the scenery, the population is consistently made of various groups of people originating from various places. According to Detroit Free Press, approximately 20% of Michigan Tech attendees originate from out of state, and consequently, many of us students have cell phone plans from companies that don’t service the UP.  While this also has to do with a tower/signal issue, I’m mostly concerned with the lack of phone stores in the area for us students with non-Michigan serving phones, and the problems that result from that. The lack of cellphone stores in the UP leads to a lack of access of technical help and resources.

The definition of access is quite simply just having connection. (Blackmon) While phones from US Cellular and Cellcom, (the two most popular Wisconsin-based cell phone companies) do transmit signal to the UP (barely,) the lack of stores in Upper Michigan and resources to go to for technical help limits our phone access dramatically.  For example, around the second week of school this year, the USB port in my HTC Merge smartphone broke. With my USB port cracked and not recognizing anything plugged into it, I wasn’t able to charge my phone; the only solution to have my phone repaired was to have it analyzed, and then either sent in for repairs or to be replaced. “No big deal,” I figured, I’ll just bring it into the nearest US Cellular store. It turns out, according to US Cellular’s Location Finder, the nearest store is 210 miles away, in Green Bay, Wisconsin. That clearly wasn’t a trip I could just make one night after class. I also researched to see if I could find an external battery charger for my phone, to bypass the USB port; but the HTC Merge is a phone made specifically for US Cellular, so parts for that phone are only sold in stores. So, for the next three weeks, until I was able to travel home for the weekend, I had to live almost cellphone-less. I say almost because I could ration out my battery power over the course of the weeks, but anyone who has a smartphone knows that a battery doesn’t last more than a few hours, so essentially; I was left without access. And if the same would have happened to someone with a Cellcom plan, they would have been slightly better off, only having to drive a quick jaunt of 93 miles to reach their store location, (one way of course.) (Cellcom)

When I interviewed a friend at Tech who has a plan with Cellcom, he said, “It becomes very inconvenient when I have questions about my phone. Trying to troubleshoot a problem with someone over the phone is so much more difficult than if I was able to walk into a store, where the associate could see and work with my phone in person, rather than trying to give me step-by-step instructions over the phone so I can try to fix my phone myself.” Technical problems happen all the time, especially on pieces of metal that are designed to be short-lived. It’s as if phones these days are designed to fall apart after a certain amount of time. So it becomes very problematic when people with technical problems or questions have nowhere to go for help.

If there is a “plus side” to be considered, the majority of people who move up here for long periods of time with an out-of-state provider are tech-savvy young adults. So at least we can be considered “Digital Natives” and can do a great deal of problem-shooting ourselves with minor issues on our phones, since we are characteristically fluent in the ways that our phones are set up. (Palfrey Gasser) However, if for some reason afamily with older “Digital Settlers” or “Digital Immigrants,” who didn’t have quite the versed know-how in how to deal with ever-changing forms of technology, had moved up to the UP and didn’t switch providers to someone who has a location in the area, they would have no place to go to ask an assistant for help when they needed it.

But, no matter how tech-savvy a person is, if a phone is broken, a trip to the store is pretty much the only solution. Calling an IT help number and having the phone shipped to them to inspect is an option, but it is a long, expensive, and equally limiting option.

Also, when the nearest phone store to Houghton is around a hundred miles away, the phone company assumes that the users don’t leave the radius made by the stores. I do receive nationwide signal, but as soon as I leave the Green Bay area, I’m instantly roaming. Roaming can drain a battery from looking for a nearer tower and can slow loading and downloading times. And, if my family didn’t have a nationwide plan, having a roaming phone could rack up fees for my phone very fast. For some people who rely heavily on their phones for minutely updates or impromptu business information, having a roaming phone could be a deterrent from traveling away from home.

Living almost 300 miles away from home and on my own, having a cellphone is essential. I use my phone for calling my parents back at home. I use my phone for checking my emails and newsfeeds between classes. I use my phone for looking up information during class. I use my phone as a security system through the school. Without a working phone, all these daily tasks were revoked from me, and with a phone that only works when the roaming signal lets it, these access-privileges are only conditional. When my access is limited or removed completely, I’m not able to function to my full capacity.

Clearly, there is an easy solution to this problem of lack-of-access. The expansion of a company to offer services closer to the UP area would be expensive, but might be worth their while considering how many Wisconsin students attend school up here and how many visitors the area draws. Access to a fast, reliable, working phone, and access to help when that phone breaks should not be a privilege, it should be a right.

Works Cited

Blackmon, Samantha. "(Cyber)Conspiracy Theories? African-American Students In The Computerized Writing Environment." Labor, writing technologies, and the shaping of composition in the academy. Cresskill: Hampton Press, 2007.

"Find A Location." Cellcom - Clearly the Best. New Cell, Inc. , 2012. Web. 13 Oct 2012. <http://www.cellcom.com/location.html>.

Jesse, David. "Michigan Colleges Go Out of State For Students." Detroit Free Press. (2012).

Levande, Justin. Personal Interview. 12 10 2012.

Palfrey, John, and Urs Gasser. Born Digital. New York: Basic Books, 2008. 1-15.

 "Store Locator." US Cellular: Hello Better. US Cellular, 2012. Web. 13 Oct 2012. <http://www.uscellular.com/storefinder/index.html>.