Personal Favorites

I am so excited about this post, because . . . it's all about me!  My favorite aspects of websites, my favorite designs, even my favorite colors - all are important features of any website of mine.

I checked out wix.com and felt like I was planning a party!  So of course, what is the first step to planning a party?  The guest list!

There are tons of important decisions to make when it comes to designing a website.  Who is my audience?  Who am I catering it to?  Why?  And most importantly, what decisions do I need to make in order to cater to my intended audience?

In my case, my intended audience is targeted to interest graduate school committees, future or potential employers, and internship opportunities.  So, my website needs to be polished and professional, to attract such an established audience.

The next step is to figure out the party (read: website) objective.  Simply put, my objective is to impress each of the above audiences.

So what's the strategy?  What is my party's entertainment going to be?  How can I establish and successfully complete my objective?

There are a lot of contributing elements to interesting these audiences.  First, I think a strong resume is essential.  It builds the argument for my experience (another very important element.)  I also think it would be really helpful to have my work, writing, etc. easily available for review on the website.  That way, with the click of a mouse, my audience can see the pieces that I want them to look at.

However, I don't think it's all about content (though I definitely think content is THE most important element!  It gives the audience the most to work with). I think the site needs to be easy to navigate, clean, clear, attractive, and organized.  I think it needs to have tabs to allow the audience to find the information they want to - maybe separate tabs for my experience, resume, example pieces, links to my videos, my contact information, links to my social media, etc.  I want my website to put everything out there - to show my audience my very best, and even more.

One element that I didn't think about until Professor Price mentioned it is "applicable life experience."  What a great idea to put on my website!  For example, I am hoping to attend a 3 week long Study Away in New Zealand this May.  The trip is all about media and culture in New Zealand - so my experience on the trip would likely apply to my future career.  That is definitely something that I want to be able to bring to the table on my website, so a tab for "applicable life experience" is a fantastic contribution to the site.

For my website design inspirations, I had so much fun checking out websites that I thought communicated effectively.  Here are some of my favorite elements!

I really appreciate how clean and simple the tabs are - really articulate.

I love the little blurbs about each person, and how readily available the contact information is!  Both of the above examples come from Melbourne Promotions - the site is available at this link!

In this example, I really appreciate that the title is BOLD and stands out, and I love the organization of the tabs across the top line.  Very accessible and organized!  Click to view the full blog 

I love the tabs, and the picture is beautiful and striking.  It definitely makes the website standout.  I also like the links to social media that this provides!  Check out the entire site here!

All of this "party planning" also caused me to become obsessed with logos . . . Here are some of my favorites!

I found all these logos through webdesignledger.com.  Check out more through this link!

So. Much. Fun!  This definitely made me want to design a logo for myself - kind of to brand myself!  I will have to get going!

What are your suggestions for branding yourself?  For attracting these types of audiences?  What else should I aim to add to my website?

Measuring Morality

Part III of Open Sky by Paul Virilio was significantly less verbose than the previous sections.  In this section, Virilio explores ideas about what he has named “Eye Lust” – in short, the various exposures humans face to all different forms of media in everyday life.

One quote that I found especially striking regarded cultural beliefs regarding visual experiences.  Virilio says on page 90, “The ban on representation in certain cultural practices and the refusal to see – women for example, in the case of Islam – is being superseded at this very moment by the cultural obligation to see, with the overexposure of the visible of the age of image animation taking over from the underexposure of the age of the written word.”

Virilio asks of this a few sentences later, “Should we avert our gaze, gingerly sneak a sidelong look, and so avoid the exploitative focus on offer?  These are so many questions which are not exclusive to aesthetics but concern equally the ethics of contemporary perception.”

These quotes are of particular interest to me because they bring about the idea that what we as humans, choose to look at, has the potential to demonstrate our ethical or moral beliefs.

That is somewhat of a heavy statement, and I believe it to be true in some cases, but it definitely is not a hard and fast statement.  For example, I love magazines – all sorts.  I subscribe to lots of “mommy magazines,” but surprisingly, one of my favorites is Cosmopolitan. 

However, whenever I tell people about my love for Cosmo, they are shocked – apparently I don’t give off a Cosmo-girl vibe, which I can’t complain about.  But just because I read Cosmo doesn’t, in my opinion, indicate anything about my moral character one way or the other – it is a magazine for women, about fashion, relationships, business-life, and much more.  It is more than the stereotype. 

ThoughSports Illustrated, I do make judgments about his character.  But is the swimsuit editions of Sports Illustrated on the same level as Cosmo?  That I can’t answer.

I must say, that when I see a man “reading” the swimsuit edition of

My questions for discussion debate whether or not what a person chooses to look at or in many cases, read, indicates positively or negatively on his or her moral character.  If it does, why?  If not, why not?  

Before and After

One of the primary blog posts in Digital Communication requires a slideshow that tells a story.  The story that I chose to tell is the effect of Greenville publications on its residents.

In Digital Communication, we also learned how to use Photoshop to edit the pictures we took, in order to use the images we took in the clearest way.  Please see my edits below!

The New York Times

Before:

After:

The Greenville News

Before:

After:

Pace Magazine 

Before:

After:

The Greenville Journal

Before:

After:

Coffee Street

Before:

After:

I was amazed at the prevalence of printed publications when I went downtown.  I was expecting to see people reading newspapers and magazines, but it was a pleasant surprise to see so many people reading local media.

Reading Images

In the article "Reading Images" by Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen, the authors break down the composition of photographs, in order to depict the meaning behind the images.

Most notably among the various compositions, in my opinion, was Kress and van Leeuwen's explanation of why compositions matter.  The authors state that composition as it is selected by photographers and layout editors, develops the way that readers view the image (and often its corresponding article).

The type of photograph that I personally find the most striking is the "fly on the wall" photograph.  The authors explain this type of image as one that the subjects are unaware that someone is photographing them, unaware that this event or experience or time in their life is being recorded.  One example that immediately came to my mind was the following:

This photograph was taken by a "fly on the wall" and yet it had a tremendous impact result from it.  The photograph was taken by Wayne Tilcock of The Enterprise and was captioned, "University of California, Davis Police Lt. John Pike uses pepper spray Friday to move peacefully Occupy UC Davis protesters while blocking their exit from the school's quad in Davis, CA.  Pike is a retired US Marine sergeant twice honored for his police work on campus."

The image's photographer may not have known exactly what the media audience's reaction would be to it, but he still had a purpose in mind when he took the photo.  It was to very clearly make a statement about the almost "assailant" role the police officer played for the "victims" or students.

My questions for discussion are though, do all photographs have this same power?  Who decides the impact that a photograph will have?  Is this another case of the infamous "CNN Effect"?  How is the CNN Effect determined with regard to photographs?  Do all photographs have credibility if we know that photographers take certain pictures to represent certain perspectives?

Illusions

Within only a few seconds of beginning Sturken and Cartwright’s article “Viewer Make Meaning,” I had developed a conclusion about what the authors of the article were going to say.

The example that immediately sprang to my mind is the idea of an optical illusion.

Consider the picture below:

What do you see? 

This is a classic, perhaps the most classic, example of an optical illusion.  Some people see two faces looking at each other.  Some people see a wine goblet.  Some people still, see both.

But what did the artist intend to be seen?

This example mirrors precisely what Sturken and Cartwright’s article alludes to: First, that “meanings are produced through the complex negotiations that make up the social process and practices through which we produce and interpret images.”

Wow.  So everything we see as consumers is intentional?

Second, the article indicates that “most, if not all, images have a meaning that is preferred by their producers.”  The article cites advertisers as a great example of this.  To illustrate this point, consider the Dove campaign and ads.  Personally, I am a huge fan of the Dove campaign.  I see it as nothing but a dedicated, honest company’s attempt to show women how to embrace their bodies and themselves as beautiful.

However, my sociology class recently discussed the Dove campaign at length, and one of my classmates brought to my attention that perhaps – just perhaps – Dove was actually using their “Real Beauty” campaign as an effective advertising strategy. 

Now, I don’t necessarily agree with my classmates’ hypothesis (I am after all a huge fan of the company policies, classes, and advertisements after all!)  But the idea did get me thinking about what I see, versus what the company intends for me to see.  The two are very distinctly linked, and it is important that as a consumer of media (and especially of advertising) that I see that and remember it.  How do producers, especially advertisers, so effectively cause consumers to believe in products?  

A Step in the Right Direction

Rowe’s article “Framed and Mounted: Sport Through the Photographic Eye” covers a wide variety of information regarding the area of sports photography.

The introduction of the article discusses the task of “unveiling” media sports photography – the characteristics of it, the propriety of it, the framing of it.  

Rowe says early on in the article that “still photography is . . . a form of communication that relies on the notion of ‘capture’ – frozen for all time is a gesture, an expression, incident, or landscape . . . . conducted like any other communicative act through processes of selection; many ‘snaps’ may be taken but only one shot [is] selected out of the multiple variations of angle, focus, composition, and light” (143).

I thought this quote was a marvelous representation of the true essence of what sports photography should be.  Rowe goes on to present many different examples of how sports photography is not as it should be, even arguing that it objectifies women.  Rowe cites an example of a dominant-looking male athlete standing next a submissive looking female athlete, and argues that the submissive stance of the female is objectifying.  Consider the images below from Vogue magazine, of Olympic hopefuls:

What do these images say about male athletes versus female athletes?  Why is Vogue magazine portraying gender roles this way?

I definitely do agree that Rowe presents some honest, realistic examples of the way females can be objectified by the media, particularly in terms of sports photography.  However, I also think that conversely, some media outlets do make attempts to show women as strong, athletic individuals.  The example that first comes to mind for me is the Nike commercial below.

Rowe certainly has a point when she asserts that the success of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue isn’t the result of the public’s sudden and short-lived interest in sports.  There is definitely media out there that is still objectifying women.  But I also think that companies like Nike are taking a step in the right direction.

My questions remain though - what do you think?  Is the sports journalism that you encounter day-to-day representing empowered, strong, female athletes?  Or is it seeking, in your opinion, to have women play a submissive role?  If the latter, how can we as consumers of the media, change this?  Either way, why do you think this is?  

The Reality Behind Photographs

“Images, Politics, and Power” by Sturken and Cartwright offers a extremely thorough perspective on the significance of photographs.  Whether they are icons, paintings, or photographs taken with a traditional or digital camera, images in general have an incredibly important role in our society.

Think about it.  What is the one thing that you absolutely can’t leave home without?  Drive without?  Travel without?  Purchase alcohol without?  Use a credit card without?

Your photo I.D.

I probably have to show or swipe my college photo I.D. card a minimum of three times a day.  Now that I am a junior in college and live in an apartment, I don’t have to use it nearly as often as I did in the past, but I still use it every time I want to purchase food or enter a university building.

Is it possible that nationally and even globally as a society, depend on photo I.D.s too much?  This article by Sturken and Cartwright suggests that may be the case.  After all, people are able to purchase fake identification if they want.  I.D.s can be reproduced.  Identities can be stolen.  Our photo I.D.s are easily the most prominently used identification methods in day to day life, whether it is for work, school, security, purchases, or driving.

Another aspect of the article that I found particularly interesting was the section regarding photo manipulation.  Photographs are so often used for evidence in courtrooms, in magazines, in our personal lives, on social media – and yet, Photoshop, iPhoto, and even editing options on our cell phones allow us to alter images.  This seems problematic to me, not only from an identification standpoint, as I already mentioned, but from a self-image standpoint.  An understanding of what is and is not real.  Of what should and should not be used comparatively.

The two main questions that this article caused me to reflect upon most are first, whether or not it is problematic that our society depends on photo I.D.s too much.  With so much opportunity for digital reconstruction at the average person’s fingertips, surely technology is emerging for professionals that could make identities stolen or created more easily.  How could this affect society?  

My second question is about what this will do for body image, particularly for women.  How will girls who are growing up at this very moment be able to remain confident in a time when images can be so easily altered? Will young girls increasingly compare themselves to people (especially models) who do not even exist?  I'm reminded of the Dove commercial that shows the inside scoop of an ordinary looking woman who receives a complete makeover, models for an advertisement, and then whose picture is digitally altered.  The end result is a woman who does not even exist.  It perfectly illustrates the realities of altering images.

P.S. Check out Dove's website here to view their social mission, beliefs about body image, and much more!