Audio Doc. "Sound" Board

An Image! It's Distribution and Circulation...

ON A GLOBAL SCALE!

Artwork a product of Jeremy and Gabrielle's imaginations.

Documentary

The documentary genre is a combination of capturing a slice of life, and manipulating it to be aesthetically pleasing as a presentation of its subject. Fiction is not too different; it captures a subject, and seeks to present it in a captivating way too. What makes documentary and fiction different, however, is fiction’s creation of a fabricated subject. Even documentary with a strong political agenda concerns itself with tangible subject matter as it exists in the non-fiction world.

Some other elements are exclusive to documentary film. The capturing of the subject, either with audio recording, video capturing, or photography, is different than the invention of fictional subject. Since documentary does not require the creation of a fictional subject, creativity is expressed in visual angling, audio filters, clipping and editing, and countless other techniques. In fiction, creativity can be applied to style and form as well as character traits and clothes. The palette for expression is quite different from one to the other.

My definition of documentary would not allow Parks and Recreation or Pirates of the Caribbean to be classified as documentary features or programs. The television program seeks to emulate the format, but it has created its characters, and it has created a fictional universe for them to inhabit. As such, it is more mockumentary than documentary. Similarly, although Pirates convincingly creates a romantic swashbuckling past, it is essentially an invented one.

Google Doc

Here's the google doc representing our class's collective intelligence

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tA6rQUe3Cv_8CPMLX3EC7b99aadZK0_VpHegRSXJpIQ/edit

PARATAXIS VIDEO!!!!

http://youtu.be/XPafDC0N4_A


Gabrielle and Jeremy and Rashmi and Mark!

Parataxis

Much of what I've learned from Walls' video short on authenticity and the New London Group's writings on Pedagogy is that at a very human level we have selective awareness. For this reason, agents such as advertisers or teachers can emphasize key important aspects of a specific theme. The ramifications this has on culture spans modern colonial history, as cultural, linguistic, or racial others were tokenized by what seemed to be defining characteristics of them, when in fact what was represented was a simplification or an exaggeration of some larger trait. In this way, "authentic" can lose its literal meaning, and instead it can be used as a symbol to introduce ideas that could be a selling point.
This means that we are capable of understanding language in multiple ways, and that sometimes this can happen outside of our control or awareness. Our instinct to see a symbol and associate it with a concept proves that we are multilingual creatures, and that we communicate in ways besides our most obvious uses of language and body language. Our brains analyze, interpret, and offer our bodily selves a mash of things we can recognize, so conclusions are drawn instantly.
What we can do, despite what seems to be totally out of control, is work within intellectual thought processes to unpack what it is our brains are doing to us. We can realize that conclusions may be rashly made, and like Wells says, we can actively pair advertising words with products that don't agree, and see how the effect can be tonally dissonant. By feeling this reaction as instinctively "wrong" in the same way that authentic Mexican feels instinctively "right," we can understand the "authentic" provides a superficial satisfaction.

Link to Google Doc Manifesto

Manifesto Below!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aeLols8jFIxaoBGhCYRXQISLCE8aBsM2wshcfFLhciM/edit

Tom Petty

Tom Petty's official Facebook page offers little interactivity for a web fan. There are no obvious links to embedded photos or videos. The main feature of the page is an excerpt from Petty's wiki page. On his wall, posts include fans who have filled this role - fans have recorded themselves doing covers of Petty songs, and 1000s of discussions can be read and accessed.
The page could probably use some high quality official video, perhaps something from one of his many live concert recordings, or some rarely seen behind-the-scenes documentary footage. That would make his page a more fan-focused experience.

Metonymy Video

Look at how great we look online! We wore our nice clothes today, so we thought we'd share them with you.

Rhetorical Figures - Mark + Michael + Jeremy

Chiasmus - A rhetorical figure that signals a repetition and a subsequent reversal of structure or meaning.

Here is structural Chiasmus. The lines try to mirror one another in structure and content, with F and F1 serving as the climax.

A Remember
  B Jesus Christ
    C raised from the dead
      D descended from David. This is my gospel
        E for which I am suffering
          F even to the point of being chained like a criminal
          F¹ But God's word is not chained
        E¹ Therefore I endure everything
      D¹ for the sake of the elect, that they too
    C¹ may obtain the salvation that is in
  B¹ Christ Jesus
A¹ with eternal glory.
(Bible: 2 Timothy 2:8-10)

Anaphora - A rhetorical figure that signals a repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of a sentence.

Notice the repetition of the words "It was." By using this phrase at the beginning of each sentence, this series exhibits anaphora.
It was Monday morning. It was cold. It was winter. It was English class. It was real.


Metonymy - A rhetorical figure in which a word can be replaced with another with which it is closely related. A strategy of describing something indirectly.

SEE VIDEO FOR METONYMY!!!

Meme Essay

I've analyzed Epic Fails for everyone's viewing. In the essay I identify a whole array of Epic Fail types, including the meme's most likely origins. It is still a growing and mutating meme, and it can be found in all sorts of places online. I have included some of my favorites, so if you like what you see, check out my meme analysis and maybe sites like Failblog.org and Epicfail.com. News Anchor Fail Compilations on Youtube are pretty incredible too!

Keep bloggin'
Jeremy

*************
*************

Jeremy Lerner

Digital Rhetoric

Meme Analysis

Rough Draft

February 13, 2012

Epic Fails Online

            The meme I am examining is the phrase “Epic Fail” as it appears on standard websites, blogs, Youtube channels, and through social sharing. This includes photos, galleries, postings, videos, GIFs, compilations, and others that incorporate the phrase into their tags, titles, or descriptions. The content of this meme is expansive and varied, with the common theme of humorous human error. The part of the audience is to enjoy the humor at the failures’ expense. This meme is successful in its many forms because, like many memes, it does not depend strictly on nuances of language, and the substance of its content is virtually limitless, making it more or less universal in its appeal to a huge internet audience.

The origins of Epic Fail are not impossible to trace, though they are difficult to pinpoint exactly. Slate has found message boards saying, “You fail it,” with eventually shortened “FAIL” and “EPIC FAIL” comments, tracing their roots to a poor Japanese to English video game translation that ultimately achieved cult status online. Similar references date to 2003 on Urban Dictionary and the Doomworld website, where the message boards also refer to subtitles in early Japanese/American console games. These original incarnations communicated directly to an English speaking audience familiar with the foreign game title. More specifically, it catered directly to those who also frequented message boards as well.

The meme has since undergone countless mutations and permutations. Knowyourmeme.com has identified 2006 as the start of the Epic Fail Guy, a stick figure series of images from the image site 4chan, a “character who is bound to fail at everything” (Know Your Meme). The Fail Guy meme can be consumed by reading the texts, captions, titles or subtitles, and speech bubbles, and by quickly analyzing the crudely drawn figures to find the humorous failure. This communicates to a bigger audience because the content is less specialized; it is mostly image based, and the forum is image sharing as opposed to more obscure message boarding. As such, the Fail meme succeeded in incorporating more people into the growing joke.

Another mutation can be found by looking at Fail specific websites. A boost of wide public awareness of the meme spread it into less self-contained groups, and spawned the creation of sites like Failblog.org, Epicfail.com, Todaysbigfail.com, and others. These sites feature regularly updated content, much user submitted, of any kind of humorous error in photo or short video form, such as car crashes, bad tattoos, poorly answered trivia questions, injury as a result of hubris, and others. The content is essentially limitless, as long as the photo or short video clip obviously refers to the error within it. What has changed is the incorporation into the meme’s content of live action shots, photos from peoples’ personal collections, and real injuries documented. Again, the audience can grow and include more people with these changing formats. Before long, these sorts of videos were easy to find and upload on video streaming sites like Youtube, and the output of photos not just on Fail specific sites, but all over the internet, became bigger and faster.

Since Fails achieved meme status online, one mutation that exists on much of these sites includes the creation of Wins. Essentially the opposite of Fail, a Win can be a close call, an impressive ability, or something else with a similarly positive result. Wins can be featured on sites dedicated to Fails, dedicated to Wins, on Youtube, Imgur, or through other forums on which one can share information. Like Fails, they too can be photos, GIFs, or videos, and they communicate a similar message to a similarly web based audience.

Another way the Epic Fail has mutated online includes the creation of genre-specific Fail compilations. News Anchor Fails, Sports Fails, Cute Animal Fails, Car Fails, and more all exist. They also exist in huge, regularly updated numbers. Many are codified by date, making them easy to search for and find. They can be edited into complete compilation shows with music and effects as well, making them easily consumable and highly entertaining. These are catered towards people who, like those who frequent Fail specific websites, are dedicated to enjoying the Fail meme in large numbers, not necessarily as a one-off find in passing. Since they can last more than ten minutes of constant Fail in video form, they have proven to be captivating and popular to the online user, racking millions of hits.

It can be seen that since its original inception in the early 2000s, the Epic Fail meme has grown and changed in many ways effecting its terminology, form, audience, and subsequent memes. For my remix segment, I will post an original photo gallery of Fails I have found separate and isolated online. By compiling them in my own format and reposting the collection on my own blog, I will be working within the parameters of the meme while still changing it slightly. As such, I will be contributing to the growth of the meme in a unique and original way.

Fail Photos

Fail Photos are here! Here are some of my favorite Epic Fails I've found online. While some them are just photos, others are in text form and I found them at different places, like image sharing sites, Fail sites, and Yahoo message boards. I hope you enjoy!

Note to all: Post your own below if you have seen any good ones. Nothing is funnier than some Epic Fails.

Audio Clip

Dig Rhet Assignment Fin

Credit due to Mark Buckner for gracing Grossman with the power of speech. Here we have Grossman and I in conversation over drinks, talking about the internet, constantly evolving browsing habits, and his article in 2006.

Short Script

Cafe - day

Grossman is already seated, finishing an espresso. Jeremy arrives.

Jeremy

Hey, I hope you haven't been waiting.

Grossman

Not at all. Please, sit, sit.

JEREMY

So I read your piece for Time on the way over here. Helluva piece, really top notch work.

GROSSMAN

Why thank you. And congratulations on all your success, by the way. You, one of Time's Persons of the Year. No small feat.

Jeremy

Thanks, bud. Yeah, like the rest of us I pretty much just spent a lot of time online in 2006. Didn't go out much.

Grossman

But it paid off, ultimately.

Jeremy

Naturally, naturally. Yeah.

GROSSMAN

So where did you start? Where did the bulk of your success stem from?

Jeremy

Realizing we were in an increasingly stagnant, analog world really got me depressed, you know? I could only have one conversation at a time, could only watch one television program. Then I realized it didn't really have to be this way.

GROSSMAN

How so?

Jeremy

I'm sure you know where I'm coming from.

Grossman

I do, I wrote the article, Jeremy. But it would be really helpful if you explained it in your own words.

Jeremy

Yeah, word, I hear ya dude. Um. So, yeah. What was the question?

Grossman

You were spending a lot of time online...

Jeremy

Right. Yeah. I don't know. It just kind of happened. I got bored watching just one TV show, so I went online and opened a few tabs. I got bored just talking to my friends one at a time, so I went to my computer and talked to a few of them at once. It was a pretty natural progression.

Grossman

So it was an organic happening?

Jeremy

Probably the most organic thing I've done since, yeah.

GROSSMAN

So when you -

Jeremy

Excuse me. I really want to take a break, can we take a break?

Grossman

We've only just started.

Jeremy

I know, I know, but this is like, the opposite of immediately gratifying.

Grossman

Excuse me?

Jeremy

Sorry, go on. I'll get through it.

Sounds of seats stirring.

Grossman

Thank you for bearing with me. So, have you used the internet in a different way now than when you and those like you broke ground back in 2006?

Jeremy

I've never been personally at the forefront of social media. Wasn't the first kid to get a Facebook, never had a Myspace, but ignoring it all has also become less of an option. Twitters, Tumblrs, there are so many people and so many options for connecting with them online.

Grossman

And now?

JEREMY

What about it?

Grossman

How do you interact with the internet now?

Jeremy

I don't know, it still just happens. I will sit down at my computer at 12 and I get up around 1:30 or 2. I have about 12 more songs, two more posts, a few more pictures, and I've seen two videos I'll forget and one I'll send to my dad. It can happen like that 2, 3, 4 times a day.

Grossman

So your relationship with the internet has been a passive one?

Jeremy

Actively passive, yeah.

Grossman

How so?

Jeremy

Not so sure.

GROSSMan

Contrary to my article, then, it seems like the internet is happening to you more than you are happening to the internet, no?

Jeremy

It certainly seems that way.

Grossman

Do you feel like you are losing control of, or have already lost control of, how you interact with the internet?

Jeremy

Not til I sat down with you, no. Can we take a break?

Grossman

Can you sit still for a moment?

Jeremy

Hey listen, would it be too much to ask if I could do this from home? From my computer. Can we do this online? Do you have Vchat, or maybe you could just email me your questions?

Grossman

No, I do not have VChat. There's probably something to be said about having this conversation in the analog world, Jeremy.

Jeremy

Probably. But it's really totally easy to download. I brought my laptop, let me show you.

Grossman

Can it wait, Jeremy? We're almost done.

Jeremy

Yeah, we can wait. But do you mind if I just open it up and put it right here though?

Sound of computer opening, being put on table, and whirring to life. Mac OS's start up sounds.

Grossman

Are you going to be using it for anything?

Jeremy

Just having it here soothes me.

Grossman

And why is that?

Jeremy

The sounds. The light glow. The connection to those around me. The millions at my fingertips. Knowing I am at the fingertips of millions. It's really quite empowering.

Grossman

And crippling, it seems.

Jeremy

Yes. And crippling, it seems.

Microbloggin'

The internet certainly provides for the kind of pop culture enthusiast Jenkins identifies in his article, and I see nothing incorrect with identifying it as an environment where fans can interact with one another, gain exposure and engage not just new fans but also creators, artists, and writers they are fans of. To qualify the internet as fandom in and of itself seems a bit simplified though - a passive user may only go online to retrieve emails at work, wholly forgoing message boards, forums, and fan sites. The internet is no longer an elite place for coders, hackers, and forums, it has been commercialized in a more utilitarian way. Although Jenkins identifies something important, that even passive email checkers can become seen as grouped into a community of, say, fans of Convenience, it seems doubtful that the group would self-identify in that way. Another media, like cell phones, even those with internet access, resists qualifying its users as Fans, so it seems an arbitrary word for the whole internet too. What, then, makes a fan? Can any group sharing sentiments be considered a fandom, or are they required to share more than coincidental media preferences? Must they identify as being fans of something in particular, or is trolling the internet enough to unify all of these people?

Rhetorical Affordances

I. Affordances

>Blogs allow for both average people and technologically informed people to communicate with one another.
>Use of multiple media is readily available for a blogger.
>Blogs allow for mass amounts of information to be shared.
>Blogs offer an opportunity to write more substance than, say, Facebook or Twitter.
>Blogs also present less freedoms than books or journals because they exist within a blogging institution with its own rules and regulations.
>Wider accessibility without the constraints of traditional publishing (time restraints, editting restraints, marketability restraints, etc)

II. Audience Involvement
>Topics should appeal to a target audience.
>The voice should be directly engaging, directly addressing the specific audience to encourage a forum-like feel
>Use of multi media helps attract and keep an audience interested
>Organization of pages important
>Visual appeal is important
>Pages should be easily to navigate from one to another

Suggestions
>One should learn all the tools readily at the blogger's disposal
>One should use multi media
>Page organization and lay out
>Know how to market the blog to a wider community. Link it to other blogs, actively market to forums, twitter, facebook, etc. Use the internet to rise above the pack.
>Word of mouth in social circles, work collegues, classmates. Make blog relevant to your life.
>Make it very accessible

With Love,
Jeremy, Michael, and Rashmi

Post 1

My name is Jeremy Lerner, and I'm an English major. I'm a senior, so this is my last semester at the University, and probably the last time I'll live in Michigan for an extended period of time. And that makes me pretty sad.
Along with reading both fiction and non-fiction, I like reading and watching plays. Music is good too - I like to make it and listen to it all day, for the most part. Movies feel like a waste of time, unless they're super funny or make me feel like it was the most dramatic thing I'd seen until that point.

 I've never been too savvy with the true mechanics of digital media. The more specialized it gets, the more intimidated I become by how so many details spawn so many more. Even though this class is not tech-based, I feel like in confronting the web directly, I will inevitably learn a lot in the topic that intimidates me most. (Except for Math, but I've given up on that.)

Michael Wesch uses his web video to make a point about how the web works. In this way, he shows he is keenly aware of his audience, his audience's knowledge, and the critical time and place for this video to be most effective: online for a modern audience to find. By emulating a computer screen and relaying information across channels familiar to the computer user, the video makes the very points his text "narrates." Like his text says and shows, the web is a huge place which humans must create bridges within in order to navigate it efficiently. He links from page to page countless times with both speed and efficiency, showing how the internet is governed by both its huge size and the human need to access what is desired immediately. In this way, the rhetoric of the video accurately paints a picture of the scope of the web.

In-class Assignment I

In the video below, a politician expresses his personal anxieties to his advisors before he changes his attitude while addressing reporters in a news conference. This furthers my understanding of rhetoric because during his time on screen, the politician shows awareness of his audience and he tries to appeal to them with persuasion and carefully chosen language. Although he is disapointed that none of the reporters were present at an urban development project's debut that morning, he spins it in his direction by mentioning it again during this conference, which is otherwise called to address serial anonymous murders. Since this violent issue attracted more press, he brings the press's attention to what good his administration is doing. He addresses the audience, a group of reporters, directly, and by persuading them with the dangers a violent criminal poses to a community, the lack of morality a society must have to allow such a criminal to continue, and the helplessness of the murderder's victims, he is demonstrating pathos and ethos.

It's a super good rhetoric video, and you can watch it too. If you click, that is.