This American Life

I really enjoyed listening to these stories. I thought that "2o Acts in 60 Minutes" was wonderful. It combined all of the elements of creative nonfiction that I love with sound. I like the universal quality of these stories, and how they seem to focus on the idea that it is the little things that make life so interesting. I noticed the use of sound and the absence of sound throughout the stories. Sometimes sound was used to add to the story and sometimes is was used in the background. There would be funny sounds for comic effect or music to enhance the story. The song that the girls sang at the end had such an emotional quality that would've been missed if the story had have just been read or even told.
The second episode I listened to was "New Beginnings". I think the story of Luke being told by Lawrence Steger was very interesting to listen to. It included the story with active discussion about the sound clips being played like the use of, I think it was "Road Warrior", and Steger telling them to stop the clip because it wasn't the right part.
I guess what I liked best about these was the personal feel that each of the stories had which were the product of quality of voice, intonation, voice overs, music, and sound effects within each narrative.

Soundscape

The discussion of the soundscape in Reading Sounds made me think about something my mother said one day. She told me that she loves staying at my house because it reminds her of how her grandmother's house sounded when she was a little girl. We live in an old adobe house that is set back a bit from the road, so other than the occasional tractor or crop dusting plane, there aren't a lot of 'city' sounds.

It is easy to overlook many of the sounds that fill our soundscape. And, I think even easier to overlook the way our soundscape affects us. I can think of different places that I love, and a major part of those memories involve sound. Sitting on the porch of the cabin, I could hear the locusts, frogs, waves from the lake hitting the shore, the creak of the porch swing...All of these background sounds come together to form the memory that I have.



I listened to several of the sound clips, the first being Aporee Radio which was a collection of city sounds accompanying a Google map. It highlighted the busy city soundscape. The second clip I listened to was called Ground Truth. It was a video with more of an educational theme to it. The meteorologists were using video and sound to express the purpose for Ground Truth, and stress the need for us to protect our environment. The third site I went to was called The Listening to Birds Blog. It combined written text about the birds with a link to a sound clip of the bird calls. I think each of these sound clips offer a different example of how incorporation of a range of modalities can lead to more effective forms of communication.

Political and Civic uses of Blogs

Blogs are or can be useful in civic discourse by offering the public a place for free and equal access to participate in public debate. Anyone with access to the web is welcome to join in the conversation either by viewing and/or contributing.
I really liked how Barton stressed the importance of students finding their voice, learning how to use that voice, and eventually being able to contribute to a group of voices that can work together for a greater good. I think Barton was getting at the fact that we must acknowledge how privileged we are to have these forms of communication such as blogging, wikis, and discussion boards, and that if we don't protect them they will become the exact things that they were developed to oppose.
I think the greatest role blogs play in the political conversation is that they allow for more access and participation in the political arena. By looking through different blogs we are able to study both sides of every issue and come to our own opinions.

The Blogoshpere

Blogging allows everyone a forum to for his/her voice to be heard, or at least read. I think blogging has changed the ways in which people can react to the world around them by providing them a place to share their thoughts and feelings about anything imaginable.
I also think that the immediate nature of blogging might make people more willing to share responses to things going on in the world. For example, taking the time to write a letter and sending it to a news station that may not even acknowledge it is not as appealing as just posting one's thoughts on a blog for the world to see.
The idea of blogging is really starting to grow on me. I like the idea of connecting to people that share my same interests. I have been looking at knitting blogs and baking blogs, two things that I love doing but don't really have anyone to talk to about.

Rhetorical Conventions and Blogging

First of all, let me just say that I had no idea that the blogging community was so enormous! This is all very new to me. These readings really clarified a lot for me in understanding what blogs are, how they work, and what they are for.
As with any discourse community, it is important for participants to learn the accepted language and methods that are practiced. The rhetorical conventions of writing play a huge role in the blogging discourse community. The rhetorical conventions in blogging require us to make good choices concerning ethics, such as honesty and truthfulness, while also expecting us to consider our purpose and intended audience.
After comparing the reading selections, it is clear that the blogging community expects the rules to be willingly followed by all participants. Grammar, spelling, and punctuation are each as important as honesty, truth, and giving credit to sources in blogging. There are many different types of blogs, and many different reasons/uses for blogs and it is up to the individual to be a responsible blogger.

New Media

I think that new media refers to the ever-changing digital and computer language that is used to create every aspect of what can be seen and articulated on (but not limited to)the computer, television, and/or cinematic screen. New media is related to technology, and can be multimodal (meaning that it can be audio, visual, and/or textual).



I was watching the news this morning and saw the new issue of Esquire magazine. The cover has a digital screen on it, and I thought it really went well with our topic. I wonder, is this going to become more common for magazines? It will be interesting to watch.

Post #2: Media Production and Me

Reading the first selection, I was reminded of an experience I had in a high school English class. I remember choosing to do a video assignment instead of a research paper. The video assignment was fun, and involved little to no writing. I got an A, but looking back I didn't deserve a grade for the minimal amount of actual work I put into the project. As a future English teacher I can use the ideas expressed in this article to help students create a project that is worth while. One relevant point I can take from this article is to place emphasis on the process (brainstorming, research, and refeltction) of creation and not just the final product of my students work. I also liked the importance of Interdisciplinary partnerships; we can do a lot more when we are working together.

Each of these selections address the rhetorical issues of creation. In any project, professional or personal, we need to be aware of some basic questions: what are we saying, who are we saying it to, and what is the best way of saying it. Each of these questions aid us in designing the final product. It seems like the multimodal resources available in text and media make any creative idea possible.