Visual Literacy-Wag the Dog Movie Reflection

For my Visual Literacy class we were to watch the movie, Wag the Dog. This was going to be the last movie of the semester, and after reading the summary for the movie, I was really excited to watch it. One of my favorite TV shows right now is Scandal and I felt this movie was going to be a similar story line, and I was eager to watch it. I was very impressed with the story, and it might have been my favorite this semester.

Watch the trailer below to see if you would be interested in watching this movie:

If the video does not play: Wag the Dog

I think the director is trying to show how much the media can affect the perception of the American people, just by what the media decides to cover. We were also able to see how twisted the world we live in can be, where it is acceptable in our presidents mind, to cover up his scandal with the idea of a fake war.

Throughout this movie I continually thought how today this movie is even more true, and it was created in 1997. I would say we are now even more affected because of the amount of media coverage and social media available.

Barry Levinson was the director of the movie Wag the Dog. He lived in Washington DC when we was younger, which could have influenced the film and the story he wanted to create about the politics and people he met during this time. 

I believe the people that may be offended by this movie because of the dark humor that runs throughout the movie. Also the people within the government may be offended by the representation that is portrayed throughout the movie.

This movie has added a lot to my visual literacy. I was able to see how a visual, that was not even authentic, could convince people there was a war going on in a different area. I was also able to see how the commercial was put together. It was interesting how they were able to manipulate the video through the different screens and the tools that they used, and I think it would be an interesting job. I also believe the advancements we have made with technology would make it hard to produce a video where people do not hear about it from another source and do not test the authenticity of the video. 

Overall this was a great movie and I encourage you to check it out!

Also, here is a clip of the show Scandal I talked about earlier. If you enjoy Wag the Dog I would encourage you to check this out next. 

If the video does not play: Scandal

Aha! Visual Literacy-Emoticon Reflection

Ever since talking about emoticons in class I have noticed how much I use emoticon to help support the meaning I want to come across, especially when texting people.

Source: Screen shot taken from iPhone.

My friends and I have developed a special language with the emoticons and an outsider would not understand the exact meaning we wanted portray with the emoji. I like to think of emojis not as a substitute for words, but more as a substitute for people to convey their feelings and emotions. Below is an example of an emoticon that has special meaning for my friends and I. If you were to say something, such as who would like to go to Cherry Berry, more than likely one of us would respond with this emoji. To us it means, we are definitely down to go and get some Cherry Berry!

Source: Screen shot taken from my iPhone.

One place I do not use emoticons is in the workplace. I send a lot of emails, but within those emails I use only text, I do not support what I want to come across with emojis. I wanted to do a little research to see how emoticons were being used in the workplace. I found an article which was The communicative Functions of Emotions in the Workplace Emails, and it states emoticons serve three communicative functions when used in the workplace email. The first function is when they are used following signatures, they are a way to portray a positive attitude. The second function is when they are used to show the text is suppose to communicate as humorous. The third function is when they are used as hedges, when used with expressive speech they work as strengtheners and when following directions they are used as softeners (Skovholt et al., 2014).

Source: Screen shot of signature for email taken from computer.

My signature at the end of an email from my Camp Adventure work email. Creating a happy feeling with the text Catch the Magic! and the smiley face emoticon. This is an example of the second function of using emoticons to communicate.

I am interested to see how emoticons continue to integrate into our lives in the future! 

Works Cited

Skovholt, K., Grønning, A., & Kankaanranta, A. (2014). The Communicative Functions of
Emoticons in Workplace E-Mails: :-). Journal Of Computer-Mediate Communication, 19(4), 780-797. doi:10.1111/jcc4.12063

Visual Literacy- A Single Man Movie Reflection

The movie A Single Man was interesting, I was enticed the entire time I was watching it, and ended up really liking it although I do not know why. I believe the message throughout this movie is that although life is tough, there is more to push through for. George Falconer is the main character and is a professor. He recently lost his boyfriend of 16 years to a car crash, and does not want to continue going and is going to commit suicide. Throughout the course of the events of his life and the people he coincides with end up changing his mind, and he decided to burn the suicide notes and lock up the gun by the end of the movie. Unfortunately passing away at the end of the movie due to a heart attack.

The director for this movie was Tom ford, who is known for being an American fashion designer. I believe his life experiences molded this movie into what it because. I also think the characters were very well dressed because of his profession!

This movie really added to my visual literacy. I do not know if it is because I am getting good at picking out the significance of the visuals or if the visuals were very obvious throughout the film. There were many times, where it was with the next door family or his flashbacks where only visuals and music are present. During this time we are left wondering the significance of the moment and what exactly what is happening. We are able to use our knowledge of the film and our personal life experiences to help mold the story. There is also a point in the movie where you are staring at a mural with eyes staring right back at you. The visual of the watching eyes, when he pulls up to the liquor store is also very important and could be interpreted in many different ways. I like to think it means that people are there to look after him and that people care very much and he matters. One of the most powerful visuals I saw was when he first put the loaded gun into his mouth. I cannot begin to image what was going through his head, but it was very powerful. I imagine people going through a hard time can relate and make a connection with this visual, when thinking about the battle of giving up and pushing through. The visuals were definitely used to help support the story line and the message being portrayed.

 

This is a picture of the mural I was talking about in the above paragraph. I decided to take a screen capture because I wanted to show how powerful the image is.
Source: A Single Man 

Visual Literacy-Crash Movie Reflection

The movie Crash is an intense story told about the tense race relationships in the city of Los Angeles. The message being portrayed is that racism is still heavily out there, and we need to be educated and do something about it. Often times, just as in this movie, people feel their stereotypical beliefs of someone are justified and therefor they are not being racist. When people are in a place of power, such as the police officer in this movie, it does not mean they can treat people differently because of the color of their skin. In fact, I believe that should make it the exact opposite.

Throughout this movie there are plenty of stereotypes of different minorities. I do not think that it does an accurate job of representing the minorities. This movie does a good job at showing both “typical stereotypes” and examples of people that defy the normal stereotypes. I like how we can see the good and the bad parts of a person. This movie shows a very intense dramatic representation of what people may go through just because they are a certain race. Throughout the film you see Caucasians, African America, Asian Americans, Hispanics and Middle Eastern immigrants.

This film was directed by Paul Haggis, who is an award-winning filmmaker. I believe his life impacted the way he views the relationships that are created in our society. He really wanted to portray how prevalent racism and microaggressions are no matter where you look and no matter what the persons skin color is. I also think it was very important to notice that we have the power to change ourselves and help better the way people are treated.

I believe a lot of different people may be offended by this movie, but I also believe that is the point. Not only do we know not everyone fits these stereotypes, but it is almost embarrassing to see how people treat each other and abuse their power. Throughout this movie we see the way society feels about stereotypes, but we are also able to see the stereotypes people have about themselves and their culture.

 This movie added to by visual literacy by showing me how words do not have to be used to send a message. I liked how sometimes we just watched as the story developed. We were actually able to see the transformation of some characters. It was also startling to see how fast he shot the young man just by assuming he was going for a gun in his pocket.

Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/gagilas/10681597536/in/photolist-hgTYNL-MWGQ9-5QPSx-4BDEWk-4BHXvY-4BHXqy-4BHXxY-GpqgA-6bPdqF-5fGhUn-78eQog-n9pZ5-3X39bB-apFuHv-bAQy2x-cJPiS-51Ubf4-4BCNxv-nqHmEt-37ofKA-4BH72d-6GCHw3-4LKDtk-7RpNqd-7yoDnQ-9Sjf9N-dATqzX-8UH65e-8vZhGK-3ZW1Z1-3X39mv-c9rbJY-bsL36b-3X39gr-75PdC-iiidWy-3X7r8y-iiivNt-iiidUu-5eo2hq-a2kcob-6aVBVh-2f4tu6-6YNBPZ-5XY23x-i82p6z-3VrWU2-3ZW2vU-csg3DY-4y7xdg CC Public Domain

My hope is that we can ditch the stereotypes and start treating people as people, no matter their skin color!

Visual Literacy- Thank you for Smoking Movie Reflection

I really liked the movie Thank you for Smoking. I thought it did a very good job at showing this industry during this time and the different ways it impacted individuals within the United States. I would rate this an 8/10. My favorite part was watching Nick Naylor as a lobbyist. I thought the way he worked was very interesting and he was a very talented lobbyist. There was nothing that stood out to me as annoying.

Source: http://pixabay.com/p-78001/?no_redirect CC Public Domain 

In the movie everyone is "working their own angles". They do this by knowing what their intended audience wants. They also appeal to what they know the people are going to want, and twist their words to promise they are going to be able to deliver on that promise. Nick Naylor had a great line that stated, “If you argue correctly, you are never wrong.” I thought this did a great job at stating that you must choose your words and the way you represent something wisely.

The truth can be a difficult subject. There is going to be the absolute truth, but then there are going to be truths that are subjective. How can we expose the weakness and appeal to the people to make it seem like something is more important than the truth. For example, not talking about the individual who now has lung cancer from smoking cigarettes. Morals are definitely subjective. In class we did an exercise where we had to talk about different morals, and even though we all used the same photo, we had different beliefs on if it was moral or not by the exact definitely of morals we were looking at. In the United States we are free, but we will never totally be free. We are influenced by many people and have to follow a set of rules produced by the government, social rules created by our culture and communities, and the moral rules we choose to follow.

I think one spin that I often hear is the need for new products and technology in my life. I often see a commercial that will put a spin on a new technology (camera, tablet, and phone) that will impact the way we live and the reason I will need to have it. I am easily convinced these are important tools that will help me better my life and productivity.

Source: This photo was taken in the Rod Library by Robyn Bredvick

I really try to give the facts and the logic of the situation. I do not want to “spin” people to choosing the same as me, but I want them to feel educated in the decisions they are making and I want them to understand how something will affect their lives.

This movie was able to add to my visual literacy. Throughout this video it is evident that people of United States are being manipulated by the use of visuals by big corporations. A great example of this is when Nick Naylor knew if they were able to get the cigarettes back into the movies they would see a rise in tobacco products. I was able to see how visuals and speech can manipulate the way people look at a product.

Aha! Visual Literacy- Magazine Articles-Women in Advertising

I am a person who does not typically purchase a lot of magazines, I am more of an Internet user. I get my news, gossip, and information from the World Wide Web, more than I do from anything else. If I ever were to flip through a magazine, I just glance at the photos and look for anything that peaks my interest, but this is normally done for 30 seconds as my groceries are being checked out.

I decided to go to the library, to see if they had any magazines I could flip through and use for my blog and to show my classmates. While I was a students at Iowa State I distinctly remember where all the top magazines were located, but when I went to Rod Library, it was not as easy. I was told I could find magazines downstairs, so I headed down and walked around and flipped through the different magazines they had. These were magazines such as Forbes, Money, The Economist, Time and Advertising Age. I could not find where US, Cosmopolitan, People, and Vogue were located, so I decided to look at the visuals of the magazines I typically would not pick up. I thought they would not have many of the degrading ads or depicting visuals throughout, but who knew. I think after watching the movie Killing Us Softly I was expecting to see proactive and degrading images throughout every magazine I picked up, but for the most part I didn't find any. I searched at least 10 different magazines and did not find the examples I was looking for. If I did find one I would possibly use in my blog, it was more centered towards gender stereotyping.

Although I did not find the exact images I was looking for, while I was flipping through the September 1st, 2014 addition of the Advertising Age I found something very useful for my visual literacy course. They had clips that talked about women in advertising, which showed the different timelines of the way women have been portrayed in advertising over the years. 

Source: Advertising Age, September 1, 2014

Source: Advertising Age, September 1, 2014

Source: Advertising Age, September 1, 2014

Source: Advertising Age, September 1, 2014

I thought it was very interesting to look through and see how it has transitioned and moved through the media. I thought this last visual summed up what should be happening in the advertising world!

Source: Advertising Age, September 1, 2014

Aha! Visual Literacy-Whiteboards

Throughout our class time we often utilize our white board to make connections with the material learned and we use the visuals to help make different concepts concrete in our minds. Now we are by no means artists, but I thought we did a good job at depicting what was asked of us. 

First we were supposed to use images and text to support individuality. We wanted to show a picture of a person who wasn't afraid to stand away from the group and be their own person. The line that everyone else is already taken was important because it is such a true fact. If you are yourself, then you shouldn't worry about what others think because they should only be worrying about themselves. 

Source: Taken during Visual Literacy Class, Schindler Education Center, Cedar Falls, Iowa

The second image reflects what we have learned in the visual literacy class thus far. The way I would describe this visual is the fact that we are now more self-aware of the visuals that affect us. We can look at an ad in a magazine, which was our specific example, and know they are trying to hit a target audience by using strategies they know will attract people’s attention.



Now that we are becoming more self-aware we are able to be educated about how visuals are affecting us. We can also use the visuals to help support and bring awareness to the topics that we believe are important. Before taking this class I did not understand the value a visual could bring into my work. I find myself using visuals more this semester than ever before in supporting my argument.

Source: Taken during Visual Literacy Class, Schindler Education Center, Cedar Falls, Iowa