9/8/16
Nancy Fraser makes a wealth of great points in her essay. Her critique of the current public sphere is both informative and thought provoking. Fraser argues first that our democracy is not as democratic as we'd like to believe. In pointing out how social status is bracketed. This means that while in an ideal democracy every voice should be heard and considered equally this is not the case in modern America. In today's world who gets to speak is chosen by a select view while maintaining the illusion of proper discord. Fraser goes on to point out that while the media seems to persist in their idea of a single public sphere we would be much better off to acknowledge that this is simply untrue. She explains that many groups exist within our nation all under different conditions and circumstances. Trying to ignore these fundamental differences and speaking purely through logic is downright impossible in reality. Instead we should accept our differences and try to understand all points of view instead of forcing a singular one. Lastly Fraser states that discussion in the public sphere should not be limited to exclusively common concerns. Individuals should be able to deliberate in favor of their own needs. Even if it was only to the benefit of a small minority the public sphere should be a space where all can be heard as is the ideal of a truly democratic society. All in all i found Mrs. Fraser’s arguments strong and compelling. It’s definitely brought a lot of concepts to my attention that never occurred to me previously. Hopefully we can one day rectify the issues Mrs. Fraser outlined in her essay.
I found reading Radio: An Illustrated Guide to be very enjoyable since i myself am a fan of comics. The format made the reading assignment easy and engaging. The main story revolved around the process of producing a radio program. This included things like recording process, mic positioning, the importance of editing, and tips on conducting a proper interview. However the comic also offered a wealth of information on structuring a story. Things like how to properly transition events and keeping the listener interested. I found it very informative and i'm sure some of this information will aid in my audio bio project.
9/12/16
This project drove me to reflect on a lot of the positive and simpler times of my life. The past few months have been marked by a lot of despair in my family since my father lost his battle with cancer. While this tragedy obviously occupies my mind regularly i decided that i wanted my poem to cover the simple little life i enjoyed before my world was rocked. Thus i focused on things like the happy memories of our family trips to various historical locations. These trips inspired my passion for history and eventually spurred me to pursue Historic Preservation. I also chose to remember the ‘good ol’ days’ of grade school where i formed everlasting bonds with the kids i still consider my best friends till this day. I couldn’t help but smile remembering the countless nights we spent in each other's living rooms with eyes glued to the tv screen until nearly daybreak. I chose to reflect on these memories because in my mind these happy albit simple moments are the ones that made me who i am, not the tragedies that have shaped my recent history.
-
I am from safety and suburbia
-
I am from goofy friends and a good home
-
I am from playing Halo 3 until 4:00 in the morning on school nights
-
I am from family vacations to philadelphia, fort william henry, and Gettysburg
-
I am from sugar fueled sleepless sleepovers
-
I am from a dedicated working man who'll always be my hero
-
I am from an intelligent middle school teacher with a heart of pure gold
-
I am from midnight drives going nowhere in cars packed with my closest friends
-
I am from the smell of fresh baked cookies floating through the halls on a birthday
-
I am from screeching rock concerts and impromptu trips to NYC museums
-
I am from mom’s sunday night dinner with a full table
-
I am from those moments a student, a historian, a friend, and a son.
9/15/16
What is the worst way to talk to someone about their refugee experiences?
What kind of questions should you avoid?
What do you wish more people would ask about refugee issues?
What is the hardest part about sharing your story?
How should i handle strong emotional responses from people i'm interviewing?
9/19/16
9/26/16
Part 1
The talk with Chanda and Sana was brief but powerful. I could tell how passionate there where after just a few minutes into the discussion. The refugee crisis is something i have been familiar with for a long time but this was the first time i saw it personified. It became a hundred times more real for me when i could hear, see and even feel there emotion. I think its people like Sana and Chanda that will change the way people perceive refugee issues. I see the most important take away as the need to humanize refuges. We need to find ways to help the American people connect to these displaced people in need so that more US citizens can realize the reality of this crisis.
Part 2
My classmates provided me with great feedback. They helped me to realize i need to clarify the narrative of my bio. They suggested i might add a portion in the middle of the bio where i connect the first and second half bringing the story together more clearly. They also recommended i add more sound to the silent background portions of the bio. I was also pleased to hear they enjoyed the sounds i did choose to incorporate as well as praising my speech patterns. Going forward i will do my best to implement there suggestions.
Part 1
The Keep or Kill: Story Structure chapter detailed methods and ideas for keeping your story consistent and precise. The chapter also pointed out the importance of not over emphasizing certain aspects of the story while still keeping the story intriguing. It also demonstrates the need to disregard and remove excess portions of the interview.
Part 2
I will consider this chapter heavily when putting our interview together. Mom Elizabeth gave us a lot to work with but was sporadic with her information at times. I think it will be our duty to put said information in an order that makes it most impact full and easy to follow. I hope we can avoid loosing any of the message in our attempt to make it clearer.
10/13/16
Chapter 4 has proven to be my favorite from Out On the Wire. The chapter explored the use of sounds, music, and effects in audio story telling. The chapter uses the idea of the deep sea as a metaphor for the role of sound in radio. The idea being the characters in a story are like two people in a small boat on the ocean. Then things like music and sound effects are all the wild stuff happening beneath them in the deep sea. In a sense music has an awareness of the story the audience dose not. The music tells us when something bad is coming or when a moment should be perceived as tender or funny. In our video story's we can use sound to emphasize these moments. While in radio sound is much more important as it conveys all things you cant without video. Sound helps to highlight the moments of emotion on a persons face portrayed in a video. However as they mention in the chapter "with great power comes great responsibility". Its important not to tell people how they should feel with music. I hope to avoid overusing music and sound so we dont drown out the message of our interview.
10/24/16
Part 1
Editing is using a combination of tools to cut a story down in a way that will most effectively deliver the message. Sometimes only minimal editing is needed while other times it completely re-frames a piece. Editing can be citing, extending or warping a cretin clip of audio. It can also be adding music or sound effects. In video editing one can add transitions, pictures and other video clips to bring the project together.
Part 2
Signposting is a message usually placed in the beginning of a piece. The siginpositng gives a summary of the message that the wider piece will cover and allows the viewer to prepare themselves to receive it.
Framing is the process by which the author makes the content relateable to the audience. The author might compare cretin concepts to common ideas to make it easy to understand.
11/3/16
1. Summarize the primary feedback you received from your colleagues (How did they understand the purpose? What did they say about pacing? What were their primary suggestions for revision?). How do you think your group can address this feedback in your revisions?
Generally my classmates said the addition of ‘chapter headings’ between different phases of Mom Elizabeth's story greatly improved their ability to understand the story overall. Almost every review said we should focus on cutting down on dead air time. More than one recommended cutting out some minor clips that feel unnecessary. I think it's important we focus on this however i'm sure it will be difficult as i feel much of the footage we have now helps complete the narrative and helps the viewer better relate to Mom Elizabeth. I think it's important we consider changing the music as one review said it didn't feel like it fit the interview. I'm not sure i agree but its definitely something we will look into. I was pleased to find that almost everybody understand the message of our interview was to tell the story of Mom Elizabeth's journey, the struggles she faced, and how she overcame them.
2. Summarize the feedback you received from your outside viewer (What did they understand about its purpose? What were their take-aways? Where were they confused?). How do you think you and your group can address this feedback in your revisions?
My outside viewer understood the central idea we were trying to achieve about depicting Mom Elizabeth's struggle and how she overcame it. They said the chapter headings could be more informative and said it would be helpful to have a wider understanding of the Liberian Conflict. I think we will add black screens with text to explain some things people might not typically know.
11/10/16
Part I
I see oral history as the method of sharing memories. We can not share the images, sounds or feelings associated with a memory. Instead we can only try to put these often disconnected aspects into words that make some sort of sense to another person. This is what mapping coherence onto the disorder of lived experience is to me. Its a well known fact that memory is fickle and inaccurate. Memories aren't neatly categorized, remembering insist like pulling up an old picture on Facebook with dates, locations, and names. Memories, like life, are chaotic and messy even within our own minds. For instance when i tell somebody about my fathers passing they cant feel my emotions, to share them i have to put those emotions into common terms we can both understand. During our interview Ma Elizabeth told us about how they could go for days with very little to eat during the war. I have never known hunger like that and she can only tell me what it was like. This is what oral history is to me. Its sharing our own memories in common terms and trying to construct them into a narrative that another individual can relate to.
Part II
The Olive Project is an excellent example of multi model writing. It combines images, text, and audio in a very unique way to portray a woman's life story. I love that the projects creator did not choose to write her grandmothers story in a traditional narrative format. I think the Olive project encourages the viewer to explore this persons life by following the parts that interest them. When one talks about an event in their life they dont start with their childhood and work up to the event. Instead they talk about why that event mattered and how it relates to the individual they are telling it to. The Olive Project simulates this experience by allowing one to follow the stories in the subjects life that interests them. For instance after i listened to one clip where the subject mentions her pastor off handily i decided i wanted to know more about the subjects religious life. Thus i followed the link in the text marked 'pastor' which took me to a clip on her church family. In a sense its like the viewer can ask the subject questions about her life by following the links that grab their attention. To me this is an excellent way to represent a life, it gives the viewer a much closer feeling of actually sitting down and sharing memories with someone.
11/15/16
Part I
The purpose of this article is to help define what the different terminology surrounding multimodel text actually means. The article puts specific emphasis on the fact that many scholars have very different opinions on what these terms means. The article is important in a scholarly sense as terminology is an important part of any intellectual pursuit. While the format is not the traditional journal article or text book i think it accomplishes what it sets out to do as a scholarly work.
Part II
While i wish the interviews where longer i enjoyed listing to them. I found the varying opinions of the scholars intriguing. I would have enjoyed hearing their ideas flushed out more fully. The contextual information was helpful. Being an amateur historian i deeply enjoyed the idea of historical situated termonolgy building on what came before but retaining its central idea.
Part I
My group consisted only of Jennifer and I so we each had a heavy work load to take on. Firstly i recorded the actual interview and was the first in our group to meet with Mom Elizabeth at the meet and greet. I took charge of keeping track of our files (especially after almost losing them the first time). I did this by always keeping our most up to date drafts on my flash drive witch i kept on me always and keeping backups on my google drive and laptop hard drive. I also took on the job of completing the log that we started together. I think my biggest contribution came in the technical aspects. I took the time to learn how to navigate Final Cut Pro even though i have little experience with Macs. While Jennifer made most of the aesthetic choices such as font, colors, and wording. I handled the actual process of adding all these things to our video. I also took the time to add the subtitles to our video. The most frustrating and most crucial task i took on was uploading our videos. This took hours at a time and put my laptop out of commission until it was complete. Since we where a group of two i knew we would both have to pull our weight to craft a great interview. I can confidently say i did just that. While i found it stressful at times but i felt this was a worth while project and am happy i put the time and effort i did into it.
Part II
The thing that bothers me most about our video is at times i fear that Mom Elizabeth's story might not come across as clearly as it could. While it think it will make sense overall i think their a moments that might prove confusing and will only make sense after seeing the whole film. All things considered i don't think this is the worst thing that could have happened it was very difficult to pull together the story in the first place due to the sporadic nature of our interview.
Part III
Prepare and ask more questions during the interview. I think it would have helped to keep our video more concise if we asked more questions to keep the interview on more of a track. It would have been much easier to deliver a clearer message if we asked more precise questions.
11/17/16
11/21/16
I'm happy with the direction of my final reflection thus far. The plan is to continue with the format of text supplemented with audio recordings of myself going more in depth on some topics mentioned in the text. For example i plan on recording one on how the project has greatly improved the structuring of my personal radio show. I will continue to describe the editing process and how we came to make crucial decisions that lead to our final project. I will write on what it was like to begin adding effects and how i came to realize that less is more sometimes. I will also go over the value I found in our peer reviews given in class. I will finish out the paper by pulling together the topics i discussed throughout and explaining how they will shape my future writing.