Comm 406: Relay and Public Service Advertising

In our Public Relations group for Relay, we are working to maintain the public image for the campaign. Our job is basically to make sure the students as well as the community in Shepherdstown,WV are aware of what the campaign is actually about. We are basically the information providers. Our jobs include sending out press releases and making sure that information and ads for the campaign can be put into newspapers, fliers, etc. For each idea, our group has come up with various events. For all of the events, we decided that it would be a good idea to create a "like" page on Facebook. We also thought about building dinners and bake sales (which would raise money) around each event. For the Pirate theme we thought it would be a good idea to have a movie night at the opera house showing "Pirates of the Caribbean" which would also raise money. We also thought that it would be a cool idea for everyone to change their language to "pirate" on Facebook for that day. For "Rockin' Relay" we came up with the idea of having a Rockband contest where you would donate money to play the game. The winner's name would be posted on Facebook after. For the superhero theme, we thought of having everyone change their Facebook picture to their favorite superhero for the day. We also brought up having a Spiderman web-shooting contest in which people would donate to play. We also thought it would be a good idea to give all the cancer survivors capes to wear during the events. We thought that advertising all of these events at local schools would be affective. Fundraisers at these local school could also help to raise money. Even though we have all of these ideas, I think that they could use some extensive work. Comparing it to the "Public Service Advertising," article, it seems that we have a lot more work to do. I think that Relay for Life needs to be thoroughly researched in regards to just how much Shepherd University has raised in the past years. It would also be good to see where we rank in comparison to other universities. The most important thing that we would need to do would be to stress that Relay for Life is not only for Shepherd students. We need to come up with some other good ideas to urge the Shepherdstown community that all of the events are open to general public as well. In order for this campaign to be effective, we need to make sure that students as well as general public know what Relay for Life is all about. The campaigns that I read about in the article were successful because of their constant drive to stress the issues as well as come up with creative events. I think that our events are very creative, but there is always room for improvement.

Jeffrey Simms Photography

Comm 203: Vals Survey

The Vals survey considers my first type as a striver and my second type as an experiencer. First of all, strivers are fun-loving and motivated by how much they achieve in life. They also seem to be concerned about the approval and opinions of others. For strivers, money defines success and dont have enough to get what they really want. Strivers look up to individuals with money and measure success by it. It also says that they favor stylish products that often wealthier people tend to have. Strivers are basically people who strive to become the most successful by having the nicest products which value "greater material wealth." They are consumers and shopping is considered a social activity as well as an opportunity to demonstrate their wealth (even though they may not be that wealthy).They are also often impulse buyers. A lack of skills and sense prevents them from moving ahead. To be honest, I don't think that I really fit into the opinions of others category because I am just me and never really cared what other people thought about me. However, I do agree that I do like to be fashionable and I would like to have nice things even though I do not own anything like them right now. I don't think that money measures success but I do enjoy a few of the finer things in life in general. I am not much of a shopper in real life at the moment so I don't know how this could be very accurate in that sense. But I it is true that I don't have much money, yet I would love to have a few of the finer things in life. Overall I do agree that I am somewhat a striver, but my second type as an experiencer sounds like me as well. My second type is an Experiencer. Experiencers are motivated by self-expression and easily enthused by new possibilities. They seek excitement, variety, and like to enjoy the "risky, new, offbeat" types of things. They are very socially active and spend a lot of money on fashion and entertainment. Experiencers like to have the "cool" things in life and like to experience what's cool. I think that this sounds a good bit more like me than striver. I am very much an experiencer in life and like to have the coolest new gadgets that I can find. I do in fact spend a lot of my money on clothing, cd's, movies, and games. I believe that my second type, the Experiencer is correct in evaluating my Vals type. Perhaps I am a mixture of Striver/Experiencer because a lot of the traits seem to merge together.

Comm 203: The Maxx

The article focuses on the understanding of the "original and adapted media" shown in "The Maxx." The article talks about how the movie was adapted from the first 11 comics. "It can help us see more precisely what comics can easily do that television has traditionally had difficulty doing, and vice versa."(Smith)In the movie, the same size frame is used on television just like it was used within the comics. Surprisingly, the expressivity used while keeping all the frames gave off a similar effect to that of the actual comic (even though the standard television frame had to be used). The difficulty comparing the comic to the televison series is that the comic was able to use different sets of frames. In order to express these frames, "The Maxx" movie/television series had a camera set up at certain lengths such as vertical camera movements substituting for tall or think frames used within the actual comic. Here, the expressive device used would be giving off nearly the same effect as the visual medium used within the actual comic. It is also shown when the wide frames in the comic are transferred in to horizontal camera lengths in the movie. To communicate these frames within the movie, it was simply all about the camera movement and how to get the viewer to follow the movie in the same way they would view the frames. So in a way, comics communicate in a very cinematic way because of the moving frames and pictures used within them. "Once "The Maxx"'s animators understood the value of using frames-within-the-frame, they then recognized that one need not present frames one at a time as television tends to do. They realized that they can present multiple frames on the same screen, treating that screen more like a comics page. They could arrange frames on that page-screen to lend their animation some of the expressive capability of comics." (Smith)Here, he is basically saying that the multiple frames being used within the same screen makes the television screen much like that of the actual comic page used in "The Maxx."

Comm 203: The Web at 20

The most salient point in this article is that the Web "as we know" it is being threatened in a lot of ways and we need to preserve it with our human rights. It is basically saying that we, as humans with rights to use the web, should care because it has become an important resource in our world. We need to make the web more valuable by using it correctly. The threats to the web's universality are the most recent. Social networking sites like Facebook, Linked-In, etc. are valuable because they store so many bits of important information such as who is who in a picture, birthdays, likes, and email addresses. But it is only within these sites that you can access this data. You cannot use this data because the site blocks off other websites from accessing the same data because it is "walling them off." "You can access a Web page about a list of people you have created in one site, but you cannot send that list, or items from it, to another site." It is saying that social networking sites become central platforms for locking you into that website once you've entered bits of information. This, therefore, makes the internet vulnerable to becoming fragmented. The drive to preserve the principles of the web is basically what this article is telling us to do. We also need to have legal standards to preserve our privacy within the web since linked data confronts problems in that sense. We as web users need to preserve the web as it is so that our future generations will be able to use it and create even better things with it.

Comm 203: 3-D

I have to say that I do agree with what the author is telling us here. They are basically saying that the experience of 3-D is really not that "big of a deal" when you're seeing a movie. The basic point here is that even if it is in 3-D, it still does not change the movie. The movie is going to be the same movie not matter if it is in 3-D or not. People who say that it gives them a sense of actually being there probably just mean that it gives them a different feel. But the truth is, it is not really that mind-blowing when you think about it. 3-D is only merely effects added to the experience of the movie but does not change the movie itself because it is still the same exact movie. The experience cannot make you feel like you're really there if you are not there because it will never be the same representation of the way we truly see things in real life. Three-dimensional movie-seeing experiences only have to do with the experience of seeing the movie itself, but in the end the movie does not change whether it's in 3-D or not. The movie theatres like to over-price these things just like their popcorn and soda because they know that people want to make the EXPERIENCE more fun an exciting. But nonetheless, the movie is still the same movie and it does not change the experience of real life.

Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Comm 203:Most interesting thing in class to date.

The one thing I have found most interesting in this class was when we went over the five key concepts and questions to media literacy.As a class, we have learned that being media literate gives us a framework to "access,analyze,evaluate, and create messages in a variety of forms." It also helps us to build and understanding of the actual roles that media plays in society.When we learned to analyze advertisements and as well as other forms of media such as videos,pictures, and songs we used five key concepts and questions to gain a better understanding. I found this method very creative and easy to use in analyzing media. I think that it helps our minds develop and open up to newer and different ideas that we may have not even thought about before. There is nothing better than building a mind more open to ideas that are different from your own perspectives about the world and how to read things.

Five Core Concepts
1.All media messages are constructed
2.Media messages are constructed using a creative language with its own rules.
3.Different people experience the same message differently
4.Media have embedded values and points of view
5.Most media messages are organized to gain profit and/or power.

Five Key Questions
1.Who created this message?
2.What techniques are used to attract my attention?
3.How might different people understand this message differently from me?
4.What lifestyles, values, and points of view are represented in, or omitted from, this message?
5.Why was this message sent?

We learned that using these core concepts and questions can help us in analyzing ads and gain better understanding of the various messages being sent. We did a project using this method in order to analyze advertisements as well as other media. My project focused on how to analyze an advertisement. In the project, I went through each step and thought carefully about each concept and question for every possible answer i could find in what the message was saying. I just think that this was the most interesting thing in class to date because it taught me how to open up and think in different ways in order to read messages in media.I am very much enjoying this class to date and look forward to each class. I enjoy the lectures because they are so open and allow us to discuss our thoughts freely.

Graphic Novels: Jason Shigna's "Meanwhile"

I decided to review a unique comic called "Meanwhile" by Jason Shigna. The comic directs the reader with tabs at each side of every page. This allows readers to choose the next step in their adventure/adventures reading it. The comic allows readers to go through it not only once, but various times. This may seem time consuming, but it is a very fun and unique experience. Though it will take time to go through each and every different path while attempting to avoid destroying mankind, it could become quite addicting. Your story starts out with the main character/hero Jimmy who is deciding whether to buy a chocolate or a vanilla ice cream cone. From here on, your story begins with this type of everyday choice. The comic allows you to choose your own adventure which is very similar to books from childhood. Further into the story when Jimmy(you) meets Professor K, you are given chances to play with one of three inventions:a memory transfer helmet, a time machine, and a Killtron 2000 (destroys the planet). Once you get familiar with the types of choices you make, the choices begin to get more difficult such as deciding to kill everyone on the planet or deciding to travel through time. Overall, the comic is based on the decisions you make much like role playing video games such as Fable II for Xbox 360. The branching story definitely communicates in many ways through words, pictures, and frames. The way it is framed through branches communicates that you are able to decide your story and control what is going to happen. It gives the reader the benefit of going through the story various times. Like in all comics, each picture communicates what Jimmy (you) are going to be doing. The pictures mostly describe an action or an option of what you will be choosing between. Words are shown in the puzzle-like storytelling comic to describe the action in situations you get into throughout the storyline. The comic uses simplistic language which makes it easy for the reader to find out exactly what they will be getting theirselves into. The colors of the pictures give into each feeling and a sense of where you are. For example in the lab with Professor K, blues and oranges are used to give it a more scienfific feel. The beautiful thing about this comic is that as the reader, you have the right to choose which paths you will take and which story the graphic novel will tell. The whole thing is very mathematical and the various options you have available as a reader is just mind blowing. The unique non-linear fashion is a very creative idea given you are reading through pipes which move you onto the next panel.