Mash-up Observation

     To me it was very interesting to read both the articles on "mash-up" artists and there songs. It was a interesting concept that was neat to hear about.

      I think there are two clear sides to the argument about weather mash-ups should be legal or they should not be allowed. In my opinion both sides have legitimate arguments. On one hand I think that they should be allowed because if they were not we would not be able to hear the music from people like Brian Burton who give unique spins to our favorite songs. It can be really neat to hear a fresh mix of or top songs. This is the upside to mash-ups; the down side is that in many cases it is illegal. This was seen when the beetles sued a DJ when he made a mash-up of one of their songs. We must have laws that respect artists work because they are the ones that came up with the track in the first place. I know that if i worked relentlessly on something then saw that somebody had taken my masterpiece and changed it slightly to sell for profit I would be irate. 

     The thing that we need to understand is that there are two sides to this argument and that we need to find a balance between the original artists and the creative DJs that change these songs around.

Thesis Statement Observations

Thesis Statement 

My visual rhetoric paper is going to be about a Nike ad. The photo is very simple but implies that to be the best at a sport you must have a determination and a work ethic that does not take breaks, no matter what. In this paper I look to play off Nikes theme “Just do it.”

1. Write down your observations.

The first impression I get when I look at the Nike advertisement that I will be writing about is that it is kinda of a grimy photo with no demonstrative colors. I think that this implies hardness and work; this ties right into what the picture is trying to imply. It says that in order to become good at a sport you have to really assert your self and work hard. 

 

2. Observations for preliminary thesis statement.

I think that my thesis statement does a good job tying in the ad and telling what it is all about in a simple way. My thesis statement is clear and tells just what is going on in the ad.

3. Ask Questions to refine your statement.

One question that can be asked is in the ad is if the photo of the swimmer was not as close would it help to imply the task at hand for the swimmer.

4. Then I polished my thesis statement to get my final draft which is displayed above.

Rhetoric Assignment Photo

 This is the photo ad that I have decided to write my visual rhetoric assignment on. I feel like there is a lot of things to point out in this fairly simple image. My main point will be to incorporate Nikes slogan, Just Do It, by analyzing the image.

Selecting my Visual Rhetoric Image

This blog is just to post the answers to the questions asked on page 21 of our writing textbook to analyze the picture we have selected for our visual rhetoric assignment.

1. The short video I selected does try to persuade the audience by asking "is it in you". This could imply that in order to succeed in sports you need there product.

2. In the short commercial there were many different images to analyze. One example was that they showed three different athletes in clutch situations. 

3. I think that the author intended for the audience to feel like they needed the product when that saw the commercial because it showed three celebrities drinking gatoraide

4. I think that this commercial did a good job of convincing people to buy this product but didn't do it in a obvious way. 

Privacy when it come to Technology

     I just read a article on eef.com that talked about how technology is a great thing in modern society however the more technology grows the more our privacy is put in jeopardy. The article talked about how cell phones are such a necessity these days and that every one seems to have one. The only problem with this is that it is not very difficult to invade someone privacy when it comes to cell phones. It also mentioned that text messages can become accessible by third party people. The main point was made was that we need to determine where we draw the line on what is privacy when it come to cell phones. I agree with this article in the way that there should be laws protecting peoples cell phone privacy unless the person is suspected by the government as a threat to our nation. I just hope that as technology progresses we can distinguish what is proper and right when it comes to privacy. 

Different Views on Copyright Laws

     I just read two very interesting articles with contrasting views on the laws of copyright. Both articles were very interesting and produced valid reasoning for their points of view. After I had finished reading the articles I could not take a side for either one because I felt like both of them were sound arguments.

     The first one I read was about was from the point of view that copyright laws are essential to protect the producers of the information. He brought up a great viewpoint and talked about an animated Disney film that had taken four years to produce because so much new technology and been invented just for the one film to be produced. He also went into depth about how when the film was being created massive amounts of information had to be compacted and condensed on many separate computers just so that all the time and effort could be saved. He said all this to say that even though millions of dollars had been put into the project along with countless man hours it could all be undone if just one copy of the movie was prematurely copied and put on the internet. Not only would the Disney company lose money because people would be able to access the movie for free via the internet the anticipation and eagerness for people to see the movie would be dimmed because it could be freely accessed through the internet. This argument had many valid points and showed how copyright laws were essential to protect peoples ideas, money, and work.

     The second article did not completely disagree with the fact that copyright was needed but rather put a different spin on the subject. The man point of view from the writer of the second article was that for people to continue to invent and  develop new ideas they would need free access to works from the past. One quote the author repeated multiple times was, "Creativity and innovation always build on the past." I thought that this quote put a lot of things in perspective; one thing I think you can get out of it is that in order for people to evolve and come up with new ideas they would need access to prior works so that they could learn from previous works and ideas. In some ways this outlook is good because one can not truly know where he are going until they have seen where they have been. 

     To conclude I think it is fair to say that copyright laws are essential to society but can sometimes hinder creativity because information is not always easily accessible to people. 

Persuasive Advertisements

I have never realized how much information is thrust upon us every day; even just walking to class there is constantly information in front of us. Today when I walked to class I tried to notice all the information that was in my short path. I saw everything from ads for Chinese restaurants to fliers on school events. However as I started thinking about all the ads I had seen that day I noticed that I had never been conscious of them before. This could only tell me that either the ads were not as effective as the they should have been or I had been totally oblivious of them. One kind of rhetoric I noticed was specific context rhetoric. I could see this kind of rhetoric the most in the fliers for student activities and events. Specific context rhetoric focus on a certain groups of people by advertising what the might be interested in. This was defiantly seen in the school fliers because they main recipient for the information was the college students that walked past them every day. To conclude I would like to say that it was really neat to see all the advertisements and information in our world. Even on a short walk I was able to notice many fliers and ads.