Thursday, November 11, 2010

Mini Mystory: From Interpretation to Invention



 Interpretation:

This photo was taken on the way back from our Key Club convention my junior year of high school. We decided to take this photo because we thought it was hilarious that our friend fell asleep like this on the ride home on the bus. Once we realized it everyone on the bus started taking pictures to capture the moment. As for composing the image: at first  I took the photo from behind the sleeping girl’s seat, but soon we realized that in order to get the full effect the photo needed to be taken from in front of her in order to fully show the humor in her sleeping position. What shaped this photo was that since Brooke was sleeping, it was in no way posed and we could take multiple shots to capture the perfect picture. We assumed that she would not wake up. Other background knowledge that shaped this photo was all of our familiarity with Brooke’s funny and quirky personality.

Reflection:
If Broke were instead to take a picture of me it probably would not be as funny, because I would be in a much more normal sleeping position, therefore it would be a lot less entertaining of a photo. If I were to be in an equally funny of a position Brooke would most likely have captured it the same way I did. The caption she would put under such a photo would be something along the lines of “Typical Christine” or implying a dirty comment. She would assume the same things I assumed about her, that she slept like that all the time, and that she was strange.
Invention:
This exercise will change the way I take travel photos because I now realize I never take pictures of strangers.. All of my photo albums on vacation are composed of the people I’m on the trip with, landscapes, or the sights. From now on I want o capture the strangers around me. If I were to take pictures of “others” I would inherently make assumptions about their lives based off their actions or appearance. I think there is no harm in composing photos of others in this way; people naturally make assumptions about the “other” and capturing a photo does further contribute to this. A different way of representing others would be to capture the first photo as a candid and then the second with their permission. This method creates a contrast of how we perceive the other and the way the other wishes to be perceived.

Friday, November 5, 2010

Picniking :)

This week in class we learned about the ethics of digital manipulation. How do we know when a photograph is natural or when it is digitally altered? And is it ever ethical to digitally alter photos? For this blog I decided to alter a photo of my boyfriend and I using picnik.com.

Original Photo:



Digitally Altered Photo:


I made several modifications to my original photo in order to make us more appealing to society’s ideals. For instance I used a "boost" tool as well as adjusting the color saturation to make both of us look more tan and vibrant. This is because in today's media the men and women in advertising always appear tan and sun kissed. Another tool I used was"insta-thin," even though Picnik's tool didn't do much it horizontally shrunk the photo making everything within the frame to appear leaner. This once again shows how society’s ideas influence us, enough to make an "insta-thin" tool on a free photo editing software. Other tools I used were the blemish remover which allows you to remove any imperfections from your skin. I used both Picnik and Windows Live Photo Gallery in order to remove both of our freckles and imperfections. I also used teeth whitener to make my teeth appear whiter. All these tools show the how easily photos can be manipulated to fit into a more ideal form of beauty. One last tool I used, which I found quite funny was "Fake beard." This tool allowed you to paint on a beard in the color and "dapperness" of your choice. Even though I think they invented this tool as a joke, it also can show how males also have a masculine ideal that society pressures them to fit into through media.

Friday, October 29, 2010

Metaphors In Media

I chose to analyze the song Drops of Jupiter by Train because of its extended space metaphor. Here are the lyrics:

Now that she's back in the atmosphere
With drops of Jupiter in her hair, hey
She acts like summer and walks like rain
Reminds me that there's a time to change, hey
Since the return from her stay on the moon
She listens like spring and she talks like June, hey, hey

But tell me, did you sail across the sun?
Did you make it to the Milky Way
To see the lights all faded
And that heaven is overrated?

Tell me, did you fall for a shooting star?
One without a permanent scar
And then you missed me
While you were looking for yourself out there?

Now that she's back from that soul vacation
Tracing her way through the constellation, hey
She checks out Mozart while she does Tae-Bo
Reminds me that there's room to grow, hey

Now that she's back in the atmosphere
I'm afraid that she might think of me as
Plain ol' Jane told a story about a man
Who was too afraid to fly so he never did land

But tell me, did the wind sweep you off your feet?
Did you finally get the chance
To dance along the light of day
And head back to the Milky Way?

And tell me, did Venus blow your mind?
Was it everything you wanted to find?
And then you missed me
While you were looking for yourself out there

Can you imagine no love, pride, deep-fried chicken
Your best friend always sticking up for you
Even when I know you're wrong?

Can you imagine no first dance, freeze-dried romance
Five-hour phone conversation
The best soy latte that you ever had, and me?

But tell me, did the wind sweep you off your feet?
Did you finally get the chance
To dance along the light of day
And head back toward the Milky Way?

But tell me, did you sail across the sun?
Did you make it to the Milky Way
To see the lights all faded
And that heaven is overrated?

And tell me, did you fall for a shooting star?
One without a permanent scar
And then you missed me
While you were looking for yourself?

And did you finally get the chance
To dance along the light of day?
And did you fall for a shooting star?
Fall for a shooting star?
And now you're lonely looking for yourself out there

My interpretation:

I believe this song is about the emotions a friend or lover feels when their loved one decides to grow apart from them and chooses a different life path. This is made evident through the metaphor of space, such as the first line "Now that's she back in the atmosphere." This line is a metaphor for the singers loved one coming back into his life after escaping reality or "the atmosphere." I interpret it as his lover leaving her smaller life and town to explore the world and getting caught up in all the superficial intricacies only once again to return back to home.

The metaphor of space is extended throughout the song by using diction such as "Milky Way, constellation, and shooting star." These all show how she got caught up in her new life and forgot about her roots down on earth. This is shown in lines such as "And tell me, did Venus blow your mind? Was it everything you wanted to find? And then you missed me. While you were looking for yourself out there." In this line Venus is a metaphor for the new life she was chasing after, and he is asking was it all that it was cracked up to be? He implicitly answers the question because he states that she missed him regardless. This reminds me of the saying “The grass isn’t always greener on the other side.”

The lyrics depict his lover changing by using a metaphor of the seasons: "She listens like spring" or "She acts like summer." Just as the seasons change so has his lover after her journey.

One last metaphor I thought was interesting was heaven as the destiny she was after: “To see the lights all faded. And that heaven is overrated?” This is similar to the Venus metaphor in that both as her search for the better life, but the use of heaven emphasizes the goal or dream she was after in her new life. Just as some people strive to live a life to lead to heaven. He mocks her dreams by stating that heaven or her dream destiny was in fact over rated and that everything surrounding it, “the lights”, were not as bright, or as great as they seemed from far way.



Thursday, October 21, 2010

Iconic Images and Brand Names

I chose the Coca-Cola logo as my iconic image because hopefully my future career will be in Brand Management, and as one of the most widely recognized brands in the world, Coca-Cola is the epitome of an excellent marketing team. The original Coca-Cola logo written in “spencerian script” was designed by Frank Robinson in 1886, the same year the first ad was published in the Atlantic Journal. The logo was also used on oilcloth signs hung up in store awnings, and by 1904 it appeared for the first time in a magazine. What once started as a small, modest company selling an average of 9 drinks a day is now a global corporation selling an average of 1.4 billion drinks a day in over 200 countries. What drove the expansion of the company had much to do with its advertisements and brand image. The signature logo and contour bottle has made Coca-Cola a recognizable name over the past 124 years.
During World War 2, the company’s president, Woodruff offered to give any man in uniform coke for 5 cents a bottle. This campaign not only spread Coke overseas, but also created a great marketing campaign, because since then people have related the Coca-Cola company with the American spirit. On Coca-Cola’s website they explain this effect: “Post-war America was alive with optimism and prosperity. Coca-Cola was part of a fun, carefree American lifestyle, and the imagery of its advertising -- happy couples at the drive-in, carefree moms driving big yellow convertibles -- reflected the spirit of the times.”
Throughout history the Coca-Cola label has been associated with fun, happiness, and good times. In 1985 the mistake was made to change the Coca-Cola flavor along with the design and logo and renamed it “New Coke.” This created a huge demand to “bring back the original” which the company brought back as “Coca-Cola Classic.” This goes to show, that ‘when it ain’t broke don’t fix it!’
The classic “spencerain script” is an iconic image because it is such a recognizable logo that can be seen all over, from little league fields to the Olympic Games. In fact the Coca-Cola logo is probably used in every advertising medium imaginable. I think Coke utilizes new media with brand placement in movies and TV shows as well as online sponsorships. But as always as a company the largest way Coke promotes their products is through sponsorships and community based programs.




Sources Used:

Friday, October 1, 2010

Representing the Other

Media has the ability to blur the lines of reality - what was once a tragedy may transform into entertainment once it is published and put into the hands of the general public. This shift from atrocity to spectacle is clearly evident in today’s mainstream media from car crashes, medical dramas, and of course the brutalities of war. Susan Sontag explains this effect in her book Regarding the Pain of Others, “In this view, a beautiful photograph drains attention from the sobering subject and turns it towards the medium itself […] The photograph gives mixed signals. Stop this, it urges. But also exclaims, What a spectacle! “ (76-77). I believe Sontag claims that when people see a war photo they feel a sense of shock, but this shock in turn may diminish the sympathy that society should feel when they are presented a picture of war. War has developed into a source of entertainment, which consequently may make people forget the true pain and suffering experienced behind the battle lines. Clint Eastwood tries to avoid this common misconception in his movie Letters from Iwo Jima, in which he brilliantly portrays the Japanese perspective of the famous battle. He depicts the other so that audience feels emotionally attached to the main character. Eastwood decides to include a flashback of the main characters wife and their unborn son. Instead of just dramatizing war, Clintwood depicts the war from the view of ‘the other,’ and he also brings ‘the other’ closer to home, so the audience can relate to the character. In doing so Clintwood grants the audience the ability understand the pain that the Japanese soldiers and their families suffered. I think Clintwood’s intended purpose was to make a statement about how our culture always turns war into an action packed movie, and by alternatively incorporating a personal account the viewer no longer is being sent “mixed signals” of how they should react. 

Friday, September 24, 2010

Social Networking and Your Online Identity


In my personal life I have an array of personas; each tailored to the group I am with or the event I am at. The online world is a different story though, my singular Facebook persona must be appropriate for my different groups of friends, as well as co-workers, teachers, and family members. In order to fit this wide arrange of subcultures my Facebook persona seems to me an idealized version of my life. The majority of my statuses are ending with smileys and my pictures are limited to ones of me with friends having a good time. At the same time, you can find out a lot about me from my profile: my networks, my friends, relationship statuses, events, pictures, posts, links, and all else that Facebook offers is available for all my 'friends' to see. But, once again, it only offers a glimpse into my life- I rarely will post a status about the mood I'm in or my personal problems. Overall though, my Facebook persona is an appropriate, idealized, and optimistic version of the 'real me.'


The idealized version of myself is evident just from looking at this screenshot of my wall. For instance, my current status reads: "trying to get all my work done so I can fully enjoy my weekend with the twinsey Lisandra Chacon. Mall, gator game, and downtown... going to be an awesome weekend :)" This does honestly depicts my weekend, but yet I purposely leave out how stressed I am over all my assignments and my mini freak attack about my two exams next week. This is due to the peer pressure of seeing all your other friends happy-go-lucky lives, which I feel I must also portray. Not, that this is bad either- just because you can share all the details of your intimate life does not mean you should. Another idealized part of this screen shot is my profile picture. This photograph is obviously posed, and the motive behind it is the attempt to portray that I am happy and that I am in a loving relationship. Luckily, this is not idealized, but it is still posed picture.






Another idealized part of my page is all of the tagged pictures of myself. A majority of my pictures show me with friends either smiling or being goofy. This is a false ideology, because I am not always surrounded by friends, and even if I am, it does not inherently mean I'm having a wonderful time. This social and happy persona is part of my personality and lifestyle, but it also leaves out day to day activities or pictures of me by myself. I choose to display this persona, because honestly, who wants to look at boring pictures of me by myself in my dorm. So instead I display the idealized happy side of my personality. This is why if you browse through all the photos you are likely to see me out with my friends or more recently partaking in school spirited event like Gator football games. However, what the pictures do display is appropriate, because I realize that a large variety of people are able to view them and judge freely. I do not think people need to take pictures of themselves doing illegal or inappropriate activities because even though it may be perceived by one subculture one way, it can be misinterpreted by a more conservative group, therefore I do not take inappropriate pictures in order to avoid this awkward situation.


Friday, September 17, 2010

Project 1: MultiMedia Blog

"The Situation"


"Everything Happens For A Reason"
What the...?
This is a joke right?
This is not a joke…
Oh please god, oh please.
This is the documentation of the quickest emotional reaction in the history of my mind.
Within 20 seconds I was confused, afraid, and shocked.
This was supposed to another boring Tuesday night at work, just like every other Tuesday. These were the last customers of the night, Mat was closing the door… how can this happen in the little town of Venice! What will my parents do if I died? Will anyone miss me, what about Skyler, this is too much… this can’t be happening. Are they going to hurt me?
On, November 17th, 2009 at around 9:30 PM, two young men dressed in all black, wearing Darth Vader masks, ran into my local TJ Maxx. My work friend, Mat stood in the doorway, waiting for the last two customers I was ringing out to leave. Glancing back at Mat, the two gunmen ran in. At first I thought it was a joke, just friends of Mat playing around. But then one of the men jumped over the rows of carts separating my cash register from the entrance yelling at me and my two other co-workers to get to the ground, holding a gun in his hand. My heart felt like it just stopped beating; I immediately dropped to the ground and hid my face.

After tying all our hands behind our back using zip-ties the man ran out into the store. The three of us were left in fear. Should we try to escape - no. Should we call 911- no stay down. Why did they tie us up, they didn’t even demand any money?- I don’t know. So we waited, for the longest 10 minutes of my life.
We couldn’t hear anything, so my boss decided to grab the telephone on the counter and call the police. Then once again we waited.

Sometime during all this waiting, Mat crawled over to us. I could see he was just as upset as the rest of us. I looked back again at Mat, and I just prayed that we all made it out of there alive. Mat was texting vigorously on his phone. Probably his parents, I assumed. I would be texting my mom right now if I had the chance.
Where the heck are the police! After some time, my manager decided we should run out the front doors. I didn’t want to. I wanted to just lie there, lie there and wait for someone to save me. But everyone else got up and she grabbed my hand, and we bolted out the front door.
Police were all around, yelling at us to put our hands in the air. Why are you not inside helping us?

The police then escorted us to the laundry mat several hundred feet away from the store. There I saw two of my other co-workers, who apparently ran out the back door when they heard the gun men come in. When they ran out they set off the stockroom alarm. They immediately called the police.
Even though it was a relief to be out of the store, no one knew where the gunmen, or the other four employees and the customers were. I hugged my other co-workers, including Mat, who let me use his phone to call my parents. Someone helped me cut off the zip-ties around my wrist. There were red lines all over my wrists from the struggle of trying to wiggle out of them.

There was so much confusion and questions, the police came in and told us that we needed to fill out incident report forms. I still could not believe this was all happening. The sound of helicopters streamed through the air. Why would they need a helicopter?
After some more time passed they decided to move us into the Taco Bell next door to question us. The walk over there was surreal, a crowd had gathered, there were hundreds of locals in the parking lot. There were police, reporters, and news trucks all around. This can’t be happening.
Just as we were about to enter into the Taco Bell, someone tried grabbing Mat. I was offended that they were singling him from the rest of us. Mat has nothing to do with this I thought. So my mom and I defended him and walked into Taco Bell.
I just want to go home. I want all of this to go away. The rest of the night kind of all blurred together. Detectives came in to question us. Then Halley, one of my other co-workers came in. We bombarded her with questions; asking what was happening. My intern advisor also showed up. She saw me through the window and wanted to talk to me. This later posed to be a bigger problem, since I was an intern for The Herald Tribune, but I’ll get to that later.

By the time I got home, it was after 2:00 AM. I came home with my mom, to find my Dad watching the local news, it was so surreal to see my store was getting so much media attention.
I woke up the next day tired, but I decided to go to school anyways. I had perfect attendance and something as stupid as this was not going to get in the way of my record. Plus, I was excited to tell all my friends the story of the night before. This later I found out was a wrong decision. Since I was an intern at the Herald Tribune, my name was included in the article, this meant that everyone knew who I was, including The Today Show, CNN, and all the other local media.

So even though school was overwhelming, and by the end of the day I had to retell the story too many times to count, I got through it. So after class I drove over to my internship, not thinking that I should probably stay away from the media until this whole “situation” blew over. I told my advisor too many details that should have been kept secret until the police had caught the gunmen.
Afterwards I was excited just to go out with my boyfriend after school, all the attention was overwhelming, and I just wanted to unwind. This was not really an option though, because when I called my Dad I found out that media and reporters have been calling our house the whole day and knocking on our door. This can’t be happening!

So instead we went to the beach, which, anyone from southwest Florida can tell you, is the best place to unwind. After that life went on; people stopped pestering, and I even went to work that weekend. I was glad to have it all behind me, but was still eager for the detectives to catch the gunmen.

Exactly one week later at school, I heard rumors that the gunmen were finally caught. My phone started buzzing from my internship, but I ignored it. All of a sudden I got a call from one of my teachers asking me to come to her classroom. I was confused, but figured it was probably nothing too important. She told me not go to internship today and to call my mom. At that point I realized something must be wrong.
So I quickly called my Mom who told me that authorities had found the gunmen that morning and they were arrested, but she told me not to tell anyone about it. She also told me that it was employees of the store.
This fact really bewildered me, who the heck would rob their own store? But I hung up from her. I told my boyfriend, Skyler, “It was an employee who robbed us, but it must have been someone who no longer works there because I know all the guys at our store, and none of them would ever put us in danger like that!”
During the next class period I could not focus. Who would rob our store? So I pulled out my iPod and searched the Internet hoping to find some answers. The first thing that popped up showed a new article titled “TJ Maxx Hostage Situation leads to arrests.” After clicking the link my heart sank, Mat’s picture was there, along with another recent employee, and someone else I did not know. My hands began to shake.

Mat? My friend Mat? Mat who I trusted? Mat who I almost dated? Mat who I talked to last night? Mat who hugged me right after the incident? Mat who seemed just as afraid of the rest of us? Mat?
My world crashed down around me. How could this be? Someone I thought I knew so well was the accomplice in a robbery.

Although it was his roomates who wore the masks it was Mat who played the victim. I felt so betrayed that he would do that to me, to my coworkers, people who had known him for years! His mom and his brother worked there too. This can’t be happening.
This was by far the worst part of this whole situation. I broke down. I questioned my judgment, I questioned my life. What would have happened if we did start dating? Would this have never happened? I was in despair. After a day this sadness turned to anger. How could he do this to me. What was he thinking?!

Luckily though as time passed I let go of the incident. After some thinking, I realized that everything happens for a reason. I was so lucky that I had such a supportive family and boyfriend. I also realized that it was such a blessing that I never dated Mat, and I thank Skyler for that all the time. For if it wasn’t for Skyler, who knows how traumatic the whole situation would have been if I would have been more than a friend to Mat. I feel lucky that everyone in the situation is now in a better place and for Mat and his two friends, they are curently sitting in a jail cell. Everything happens for a reason.


News reports of the incident:
In this first video there was still little information about the robbery.


This video is the following night, where some of the details were cleared up.

This is a video after the arrests.


Analysis:

All three of these mediums seem to tell a different story. The first, with the images alone, the reader can infer the basic plot of the story, but cannot really decipher the message behind it. When the text is combined with the pictures, many more details that cannot be expressed thorough the images alone, become evident. The text alone, is not as powerful without the images though. They express ideas and emotions that are hard to express through written word, such as the girl crying  illustrates how distraught I was after learning the news of Mat. The image alone tells of the emotion, and the words tell why I was feeling the emotion.

I included three different news reports to show how media is constantly changing. The first video contains a lot of inaccurate data and assumptions. This media also gives the reader a different perspective of the situation, since it is not from a personal point of view. They are also powerful in their own way since they can incorporate action and motion in their visuals, but they lack the emotion of the narrative.

Friday, September 10, 2010

The Sixth Sense: Through Bathe's Writerly Perspective

Opening Scene: Heavy traffic, officer questioning civilians "I'm okay officer." Camera continues to go between the car. Before the camera goes to Cole and his mother’s car, you hear her voice. *HER. Enigma: "What happened, who is in the accident, why is this important." **REF/SYM. The viewer can infer that there is a car accident based off clues such as the officer, the damaged cars, and the heavy traffic. We know this because of our culture to recognizing poilice officers in uniform and well as the symbolism of the fire, the officer is carrying to symbolize authority and danger.


"I'm ready to communicate with you now" says Cole. "Communicate?" questions his mother. "Tell you my secrets.." he responds. "What is it?" answers Mom. *HER. Enigma 2: What is his secret, what is he going to tell his mother about?" This statement includes formulating the enigma when he tells us that he's going to tell us his secrets. This also promises the audience of an answer to the enigma. However, Cole only provides us with a partial answer and suspends his answer, by first telling his Mom that someone died in the accident. This is also partially fraud, because the mother does not immediately realize Cole is telling her that he is seeing the ghost of the women. So she attempts to look at the window looking for the dead women's body. ** ACT. The mother slides her hands off the steering wheel and faces Cole, to demonstrate her interest in what he is saying. This also creates suspense for the audience waiting for the answer to the enigma.

“She wanted me to tell you that she saw you dance,” says Cole. (Camera stays on mother to get her reaction, rather than shot-reverse-shot.) *SEM. This signifies that he knows a past detailed event. Proving to his mom that he must of actually spoke with his late grandmother to know of her childhood dance recital. **ACT/SYM. The mother reacts by placing her hand over her mouth and tearing up. This lets the viewer infer that she is shocked as well as upset about this. It also shows her realization of her son’s sixth sense powers.



Still shot of the car accident clip from The Sixth Sense.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLyYYHqVTsE

Friday, September 3, 2010

Blog Assignment 2: Image Analysis


This is a very basic typical high school prom snapshot. Without any text, the reader does not know where the picture is being taken, who is in the picture, or any other details. One can infer though, that the group is on their way to prom. Looking more closely at the image there is balance or symmetry - the people in the photo are equally distributed and the couples are all lined up. This causes there to be no focal point in the image since there is not a single subject.

Contrast exists in the image because of the bright coloring of the girl's dresses versus the darker colors of the boy’s tuxedos. There is a lot of detail in the photograph because the reader or viewer is able to see who is going with who to the prom and the different attire. There is no emphasis or metaphor since the picture is just a simple snapshot.

This picture is very conventional; there is nothing really creative about it. The teens are lined up in a row, in front of the limo, all facing the camera. There are no unique angles or deeper meanings behind the photograph.





After the photo is edited, it is less conventional because now it is an advertisement instead of a typical snapshot. I have edited the picture to look like the MasterCard Priceless ads, but I have changed the MasterCard logo to “ChristineCredit” for the purpose of copy write laws. By including prices for the different costs of the prom, it shows that even though it is expensive, it is worth the price you pay, because it is a once in a life time moment. MasterCard does this because they hope people will use their credit card for all the special moments in life. It also is very relatable and more heartwarming since it has the tagline “Your Senior Prom: Priceless”.

Something that is interesting is that without the text, the reader does not think about the expenses of prom, and not how they will afford it. With the text added, the reader focuses on how how expensive all the different aspects of the special occasion are, this is a great advertising technique on behalf of MasterCard.

Another point I would like to make is that without the picture that the advertisement would not be as powerful. According to Mitchell Stephens in his essay “By Means of the Visible” he makes the point that sometimes written word is more effectual than images and sometimes it’s the other way around. I feel that the combination of both text and the picture are what make the advertisement successful. In his essay Stephens quotes Aquinas saying that “images can be used to ‘excite the emotions, which are more effectively aroused by things seen than by things heard.’”

Friday, August 27, 2010

My First Blog!

I am very excited to say this is the first blog I have ever created! Through this blog I will be posting a series of assignments for my ENG 1131 course: Writing Through Media. I will be posting new entries weekly, and by the end of the semester there should be ten entries total. Some future posts will include analyzing my Facebook profile picture, analysis of iconic photographs, and venturing into the world of YouTube.


The Writing Through Media course is a modern English class that takes into account the large diversity of ways our digital age culture receives and publishes information. Our society relies on a plethora of sources to obtain information that is no longer limited to just written text. Through the use of the Internet, magazines, phones, television, and advertisements our culture is constantly bombarded with both visual and written text. The possibilities of combing these resources are endless and it’s only going to grow bigger and travel faster. I feel like this class will be helpful for any future courses I take at UF, as well as furthering my own personal knowledge.

Let me tell you a bit about myself, I am a first year Marketing and Public Relations major at the University of Florida. Like most freshmen, this is my first time away from my hometown and my parents and I'm so excited for this journey! I decided to take this course, not because I need the English credit, but because I really enjoyed my AP Language course in high school, especially the creative aspects of it, such as when we analyzed pictures. I’m looking forward to expanding my creative analyzing skills as well as my ability to create media too.
I am including a recent picture I took of one of the many UF bulletin boards. This particular board had at least 30 layers of flyers trying to convince students to join various clubs, buy products, and use particular services. I think this is a great example of one the various ways I mentioned early that we are bombarded with text. These flyers were competing for students attention, therefore the designers used color, visuals, and of course multiple flyers.