"You yellow bastards! Come back and take what's coming to you!"After a four year hiatus, ML4ML is back. Why? More on that after the jump. For now, enjoy this classic moment of hilarity in gratuitous medieval violence from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and consider how you and your learning community might select video clips or gifs as metaphors in multimedia messages in your communication. So, yeah, this is still disturbingly funny, and, yeah, I am using it as a metaphor for prolonging the glory/agony of ML4ML.
Showing posts with label techniques. Show all posts
Showing posts with label techniques. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 17, 2019
Not Dead Yet! ML4ML REBOOTS
Saturday, June 27, 2015
Classic Daily Show Satirizes Apophasis in News: The Rhetorical Art of Asserting by Denial in Media
I'm not saying you're an idiot if you don't use this post to teach about my favorite rhetorical device, but I think you'll find this classic Daily Show clip from 1999 both hilarious and useful for making media literacy learners aware of apophasis, or assertion by denial, if you're not an idiot (see what I did there!). The comedy in the clip comes from correspondents ironically critiquing news media for focusing on critiquing news media, for example: "Media talking about media makes me sick." See if you can note each instance of apophasis in the clip, and I'll list my notes after the jump below.
I remember a philosophy professor explaining the power of apophasis in relation to the power of suggestion as he told us, "Don't think of pink elephants." And, of course, everyone did. Linguistic signifiers of negation may frame our understanding, but they do not negate our attention to the images we see or hear expressed. Becoming sensitive to persuasive rhetorical devices supports learners in developing heightened awareness of such media techniques, but I wonder whether this awareness has any mitigating effect on the persuasiveness of the message or whether it affects our view of a speaker's credibility. Once you start to notice apophasis, you see it and hear it everywhere, particularly in political discourse. And, as the clip above shows, you can use its simple irony to great humorous effect. However, I don't think I'd have learners practice using the rhetorical device themselves since it ultimately seems deceitful to me. Perhaps the way to go would be to start a discussion about how learners feel about the use of apophasis in communication--is it ethical, deceitful, effective, justifiable, etc.? Then, maybe you could use a tool like Mediabreaker to expose egregious uses of apophasis in politics, news, or advertisements.
Still, studying apophasis raises a perennial issue in media education about studying harmful media messages in order to recognize (to avoid) and perhaps mitigate them, a dilemma captured in Vance Degeneres's comment,
[AFTER THE JUMP, my list of examples of apophasis from the classic Daily Show clip above]
I remember a philosophy professor explaining the power of apophasis in relation to the power of suggestion as he told us, "Don't think of pink elephants." And, of course, everyone did. Linguistic signifiers of negation may frame our understanding, but they do not negate our attention to the images we see or hear expressed. Becoming sensitive to persuasive rhetorical devices supports learners in developing heightened awareness of such media techniques, but I wonder whether this awareness has any mitigating effect on the persuasiveness of the message or whether it affects our view of a speaker's credibility. Once you start to notice apophasis, you see it and hear it everywhere, particularly in political discourse. And, as the clip above shows, you can use its simple irony to great humorous effect. However, I don't think I'd have learners practice using the rhetorical device themselves since it ultimately seems deceitful to me. Perhaps the way to go would be to start a discussion about how learners feel about the use of apophasis in communication--is it ethical, deceitful, effective, justifiable, etc.? Then, maybe you could use a tool like Mediabreaker to expose egregious uses of apophasis in politics, news, or advertisements.
Still, studying apophasis raises a perennial issue in media education about studying harmful media messages in order to recognize (to avoid) and perhaps mitigate them, a dilemma captured in Vance Degeneres's comment,
"I have a clip, but I should warn you, it involves shocking sensationalism that should not be shown except as an example of what not to show."I suppose the solution to the pedagogical dilemma around whether or not to show bad media to "innoculate" learners lies in balance and shared agency. I think that we need to learn to question and recognize techniques in all sorts of media messages, and that we might be better off selecting texts for analysis and messages/modes for media productions collectively, with our learning group, or at least taking turns, with an eye for balancing our exposure to positive and negative models of communication, and for developing ways for determining such value. It's tough to keep learning open, collaborative, reflective, creative and critical, but I think it's worth the effort, not that I'm saying you're a lazy disgrace to the profession if you don't try to do so.
[AFTER THE JUMP, my list of examples of apophasis from the classic Daily Show clip above]
Sunday, March 16, 2014
Clearing Social Media Debts: Do You Need a "Human Bandwidth Manager"?
Overloaded with email? Tired of tweets? Pissed at pinterest? Instaslammed? If you ever feel guilt from neglecting social media participation or fatigue from trying to fit in connecting to all your online "friends," you're in good company. On last week's Portlandia episode (Season 4, Episode 3), Carrie Brownstein declares "Social Bankruptcy" taking the "nuclear option" to erase herself from the Internet and social media against the advice of her "human bandwidth manager." Kick off a discussion about love/hate relationships with social media using this clip.
The premise of posing a financial counselor for social media participation may be particularly poignant for college students, powerfully casting our time spent online as an investment. Possible discussion questions to pose before viewing: What are the techniques used to deliver the humor? What's the premise for each joke? What messages does the sketch deliver about the costs and benefits of retreating from social media use? What values and lifestyles are represented? What would happen to you or your friends if you took similar action to Carrie? How do you balance and value your social media participation and offline activities? Discussion could connect to classic media literacy activities like keeping a media diary/log for a week to assess your own time management and types of engagements, or experimenting with a media retreat to gain perspective on our investments in online culture and relationships.
The opening sequence of the Portlandia sketch visually communicates the prominence of social media messages in Carrie's character's life. How would you visualize the role of social media in your life? Production activity extensions might include making short documentaries on your social media commitments, or those of friends and family; or making your own comedy sketches to exaggerate the cost/benefits and parody media management strategies. You might even try creating interview scripts for the "human bandwidth manager" and improv roleplaying to discuss media management strategies.
Using humor to introduce discussions of love/hate relationships with communication technology may help to keep participants open to learning about each others strategies and styles of media management, rather than slipping into a mess of judgmental jockeying and defensiveness--especially with this sketch that gets at familiar feelings, both positive and negative. By showing the costs of extreme immersion and extreme withdrawal, the sketch opens up space discuss strategies of balance for digital media participation.
The premise of posing a financial counselor for social media participation may be particularly poignant for college students, powerfully casting our time spent online as an investment. Possible discussion questions to pose before viewing: What are the techniques used to deliver the humor? What's the premise for each joke? What messages does the sketch deliver about the costs and benefits of retreating from social media use? What values and lifestyles are represented? What would happen to you or your friends if you took similar action to Carrie? How do you balance and value your social media participation and offline activities? Discussion could connect to classic media literacy activities like keeping a media diary/log for a week to assess your own time management and types of engagements, or experimenting with a media retreat to gain perspective on our investments in online culture and relationships.
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| An avalanche of messages buries Carrie. How would you visually portray your relationship to social media? |
Using humor to introduce discussions of love/hate relationships with communication technology may help to keep participants open to learning about each others strategies and styles of media management, rather than slipping into a mess of judgmental jockeying and defensiveness--especially with this sketch that gets at familiar feelings, both positive and negative. By showing the costs of extreme immersion and extreme withdrawal, the sketch opens up space discuss strategies of balance for digital media participation.
Saturday, March 15, 2014
Soundtracking Senator McConnell: Mobilizing Remix in Politics
Last night, Jon Stewart invited Daily Show viewers to join in the fun of setting a two and a half minute wordless campaign ad from Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to music. As a moderate liberal democrat incensed by McConnells socially conservative republican leadership, Stewart regularly mocks McConnell on the show, often simply for his diction and appearance, which Stewart apes in the character of Cecil the Turtle from Looney Tunes.
Aside from the obvious juvenile derision of a political adversary, Stewart's bit poses as pure Internet silliness--fun with remix culture. He shows the same few seconds of the ad with several different songs, showing how the music can change the message in myriad humorous ways. This suggests a fun and fruitful media literacy exercise lesson for any age group (hint: you don't have to use McConnell!). I'll offer some specific ideas and reflections on my experience doing similar remix activities with students (and Girl Scouts!) to develop media literacy after the jump. However, partisan political attacks aside, this Daily Show clip is more than just a call to mockery; buried in the lead is an important lesson on remix and convergence culture in politics. Stewart points out that McConnell most likely posted this 2m30s wordless ad in order to facilitate Super Pacs (political action committees) using and remixing the images in their own ads to support his campaign. Super PACs can collect and spend unlimited funds on political ads without disclosing sources of the money (as candidates must for donations over a certain amount), provided there is no collusion or communication between the politician and the Super PAC [Colbert did an absolutely hilarious series of segments exploiting and exposing how Super PACs work--a brilliant teaching resource on the topic]. Ask: How does McConnell's alleged strategy work? How does he intend to benefit? How do voters lose out in the process? So, McConnell offers these images to the public, affording him some direct control over his public image portrayed in remixed ads by the Super PACs supporting him without directly communicating with them.
[After the jump: More on this, w/ the Daily Show clip and ideas for soundtracking lessons for media literacy]
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| Click the pic to see Stewart's call for remixing McConnell's campaign ad. |
[After the jump: More on this, w/ the Daily Show clip and ideas for soundtracking lessons for media literacy]
Friday, March 14, 2014
Limitations of the Medium: The Gettysburg Address Powerpoint
As I prepare for a few speaking engagements at academic conferences next weekend, I am keeping in mind lessons learned about what powerpoint presentations giveth, and what they taketh away from effective communication by sharing this classic by Peter Norvig--The Gettysburg Powerpoint Presentation.
Exploring various media in terms of their affordances and limitations is a classic approach to semiotics, and I wish all presenters considered how this powerpoint totally decimates the power of Lincoln's speech while still abiding by many principles for presenting clear information. It's a great piece to discuss with students before they design presentations, particularly in public speaking classes. What does the speech communicate that visuals do not? What makes the speech effective? Why are the visuals less effective? It also presents an opportunity for social studies students in middle school and high school to create a more effective powerpoint presentation for the speech. I'd introduce an audio recording or professional performance in a still shot on video, then show the powerpoint, and then show the clip from Ken Burns' Civil War--and ask students to shoot for something somewhere between Norvig's satire and Burns' film. Students could also go the other direction, and add all sorts of flashy visuals, video clips and preposterous image collages to create their own Gettysburg Address Powerpoint presentations that humorously show the limitations and common abuses of powerpoint features in public speech communication. Norvig has also posted a great story about the making of his powerpoint and the response he's gotten from it.
Back in 2003, Wired magazine hosted a "debate" of sorts pitting the view that "Powerpoint is Evil" from Yale Professor Edward Tufte, author of the Cognitive Style of Powerpoint monograph, against "Learning to Love Powerpoint" from new wave rock God and avant-garde artist David Byrne (front man of the Talking Heads). Tufte bemoans the use of Powerpoint in schools, arguing that the constraints of the software encourage poor visual communication. Byrne discusses how he moved from feeling limited by the software to exposing its limitations through mockery to transcending its constraints in art. Especially for college courses discussing multimodal composition, Tufte's tirade and Byrne's celebratory transcendence make for a fascinating contrast to approaching communication tools and how they shape our discourses. For any class, Byrne's art illustrates how playing with the affordances and limitations of media offers avenues for both critical commentary and self expression. DJ Alchemi posted a nice review of Byrne's powerpoint art in 2004 after arguing that the Tufte/Byrne "debate" was bogus. He also links to an NPR discussion with Byrne and some more presentation software art from DJ Spooky (using Keynote). I really like the idea of designing multimodal composition lessons starting with Tufte's critique and following Byrne's learning curve from mocking the medium in the medium as a means for learning its affordances and limitations, to transcending the rules and habits of communication imposed by the medium for artistic commentary, critique and self expression. So, there's an idea. Any takers?
And here's a bonus image for your Friday pleasure...
I want a poster of this in my classroom.
Exploring various media in terms of their affordances and limitations is a classic approach to semiotics, and I wish all presenters considered how this powerpoint totally decimates the power of Lincoln's speech while still abiding by many principles for presenting clear information. It's a great piece to discuss with students before they design presentations, particularly in public speaking classes. What does the speech communicate that visuals do not? What makes the speech effective? Why are the visuals less effective? It also presents an opportunity for social studies students in middle school and high school to create a more effective powerpoint presentation for the speech. I'd introduce an audio recording or professional performance in a still shot on video, then show the powerpoint, and then show the clip from Ken Burns' Civil War--and ask students to shoot for something somewhere between Norvig's satire and Burns' film. Students could also go the other direction, and add all sorts of flashy visuals, video clips and preposterous image collages to create their own Gettysburg Address Powerpoint presentations that humorously show the limitations and common abuses of powerpoint features in public speech communication. Norvig has also posted a great story about the making of his powerpoint and the response he's gotten from it.
Back in 2003, Wired magazine hosted a "debate" of sorts pitting the view that "Powerpoint is Evil" from Yale Professor Edward Tufte, author of the Cognitive Style of Powerpoint monograph, against "Learning to Love Powerpoint" from new wave rock God and avant-garde artist David Byrne (front man of the Talking Heads). Tufte bemoans the use of Powerpoint in schools, arguing that the constraints of the software encourage poor visual communication. Byrne discusses how he moved from feeling limited by the software to exposing its limitations through mockery to transcending its constraints in art. Especially for college courses discussing multimodal composition, Tufte's tirade and Byrne's celebratory transcendence make for a fascinating contrast to approaching communication tools and how they shape our discourses. For any class, Byrne's art illustrates how playing with the affordances and limitations of media offers avenues for both critical commentary and self expression. DJ Alchemi posted a nice review of Byrne's powerpoint art in 2004 after arguing that the Tufte/Byrne "debate" was bogus. He also links to an NPR discussion with Byrne and some more presentation software art from DJ Spooky (using Keynote). I really like the idea of designing multimodal composition lessons starting with Tufte's critique and following Byrne's learning curve from mocking the medium in the medium as a means for learning its affordances and limitations, to transcending the rules and habits of communication imposed by the medium for artistic commentary, critique and self expression. So, there's an idea. Any takers?
And here's a bonus image for your Friday pleasure...
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
Remix Food Ads to Highlight Health Effects
This hilarious satirical ad from the Onion uses the trend towards "extreme" themes in snack food and soda advertising (think Doritos and Mountain Dew) to deliver a striking message about health costs of junk food [click image to see Onion news brief article].
The Onion article goes for laughs by posing the design of the chip to impact the heart as a good thing, which calls attention to the real negative health effects of such foods. While the Onion exaggerates the detrimental effects, inverting the typical exaggeration of positive effects, you could also have fun remixing food ads to simply tell the truth about the nutritional value of snack foods in the overhyped style of their ads. You could do this with print ads, rewriting slogans and adding images. Or, make videos of commercials for products that pitch their health costs ironically as super fun. This would make a great media literacy lesson in health and science classes for middle school or high school students. Ads could be posted in hallways or online.
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| Onion headline: "New Snack Chip Evades Digestive System, Burrows Straight Into Heart" |
Monday, February 3, 2014
Step Right Up and Teach Ad Appeals with Tom Waits
The pitchman cometh! Given the Superbowl blowout last night, most viewers likely paid more attention to the ads than the game. Here's an amusing old song from Tom Waits' Small Change album (1976), "Step Right Up," which I recommend as a fun way to introduce a session on advertising techniques.
Using the lyrics, try grouping the various types of ad pitches in categories and them giving names to the techniques or types of appeals. Compare what you come up with to a classic list of ad techniques, like this or this. Challenge students to find or create commercials to exemplify the pitch techniques in Waits song.
The ultimate challenge: Make a mash-up of bits from commercials with a soundtrack lined up with the song. If you have a big enough group, with a few savvy video editors in it, the work could get done reasonably quickly to great effect--everyone will know and recognize those techniques! [So what?] Here's why that could be a good thing...
Sunday, February 2, 2014
Blog Recommends Opinion Essay Satire for Learning about Opinion Essays
Why do we share opinions on the Internet? Why use an opinion essay form? What does the style in terms of opening or closing down dialogue? Are we speaking to the choir, or reinforcing like minds among readers? Engaging opposing views or convincing the uninitiated? Or just venting? What elements of an opinion essay are effective for whom?
Continuing the meta-humor theme from Brooker's, "How to Report the News," from our previous post, today here's a bit from the opening of Edward Sharp-Paul's satire, "An Opinion Piece on a Controversial Topic":
Continuing the meta-humor theme from Brooker's, "How to Report the News," from our previous post, today here's a bit from the opening of Edward Sharp-Paul's satire, "An Opinion Piece on a Controversial Topic":
Sharp's essay makes a perfect introduction to news-related opinion or argumentative essays for English or other writing classes (advanced high school/ introductory college).
No doubt you will have noticed that Issue has been in the news lately, due to the scandalous behaviour of Public Figure, and the controversial comments of Publicity-Hungry Commentator. The editor of this site and I were discussing the Issue just the other day, and we agreed that making a glib reference to that discussion at the start of this piece would add a sense of authority to my authorial voice, as well as suggesting that the site upon which this piece is being published shares my opinionated stance on this Issue.
I was inspired to write this piece by Currently Fashionable Polemicist, who summarised the Issue better than I could when they said “oversimplification that makes me feel smart”. I have a strong opinion on this Issue, and my sharing it with you at this time is in no way attributable to opportunism on my part, due to the Issue’s sudden prominence in the news cycle.
Saturday, February 1, 2014
Blog Recommends Satire of TV News Segment for Learning about TV News Segments
Why is it funny to reveal the conventions of storytelling and reporting in local TV news in a local news style? Is TV news format absurd? Ridiculous? Inane? Or, does the humor come from seeing something so familiar stripped down to the bare bones of its rules and internal logic without the narrative and connection to reality? This clip from Charlie Brooker's brilliant 2010 BBC4 Newswipe series, a show designed to reveal the inner workings of television news, presents us with a fun way to learn the typical techniques used in local TV news segment.
The obvious application here is to support learning conventions and techniques in TV news. Simply taking notes from the video would make a nice introduction to local news format. That could be a springboard to analyzing the techniques of other news broadcasts to compare to Brooker's satire.
The obvious application here is to support learning conventions and techniques in TV news. Simply taking notes from the video would make a nice introduction to local news format. That could be a springboard to analyzing the techniques of other news broadcasts to compare to Brooker's satire.
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