link to Snow Fall

In case you're interested, here's the NYT story Dr. Yancey referenced at the end of the Q&A.

journal 3

My key term was 'audience.' The three artifacts I chose were a bible, a diary, and a textbook. These three artifacts teach us about rhetoric because audience is one of the main components in the rhetorical situation. It comes to to show that anything that forms exigence, or a reaction, requires an audience. An audience can range from a group of people, to one person, to even yourself, which is why I chose a diary as one of my artifacts.

I think Edbauer's circulation is very relevant in today's media. I find her more flexible idea of circulation to be the most applicable in present rhetoric. Design played a huge role in the final exhibit of this project no matter what key term you used, and the idea of material affordance is interesting because we are working with print exclusively.

journal 2

For the rhetorical situation model purpose by Lloyd Bitzer, I would suggest an example found in pop culture might be the Kanye West/Taylor Swift phone call last year, where Swift signed off on a lyric in his song "Famous" that was not very flattering for Tayor, to say the least. According to Bitzer, the rhetorical situation would have been Swift's response on social media to the exigence of Kim Kardashian's leaking of the snapchat recording of the phone call. Jenny Edbauer claims that Bitzer needs to take it a step further in order to account for how rhetorical situations changes and evolves. To me, a clear example of Edbauers rhetorical ecology would be the popular meme about Harambe the gorilla. Although, it didn't impact politics, it brought nation wide attention to a humanitarian issue and came through to society through marketing, like every meme does. Bitzer would have seen the rhetorical situation as the memes creation in response to the event with Harambe, whereas Edbauer theory takes it one step further to realize how society has changed because of it. I would definitely say they agree on the main points; that an exigence (event) has to occur to incite rhetoric, but then that is where Edbauer theory changes into something more. 

I think I like Edbauer's theory more. Bitzer's theory is very set in stone and has it's offical points. Edbauer's theory is more of a bigger picture on the rhetorical situation. 

Project 3 Update

After evaluating multiple potential organizations for our project, I think the best one to work with will be the Advance Party of FSU. Their big campaign is over, but they are always putting events on around campus that could use some promoting. One of my friends is on the senate and will be able to coordinate with us how to best put their message out there. Since college students spend a lot of time on Facebook, that would probably be the best platform to reach them. I know that whenever I see things on my newsfeed related to FSU campus activities I am at least interested to see what they are about. Another great way to reach college students is physically campaigning for a cause on campus. This can be as easy as holding up a poster on Landis and informing people that pass by, or just planting an informational poster alone. I think we will be doing two things online and one on campus, or vice versa. I am excited to see how this will pan out.

Project 3 Update

My group is Joe Marselli, Erika Suarez, and I. We are working with Gaines Street Garage. So far we have only met with the in person, but we also have their contact information including their personal numbers with which we can reach them. Our point person within the organization is the owner and we will be running our texts by him. They need an increase in traffic seeing as not many people are aware of the business, and want to be represented in a way that illustrates the business and maintains the rustic feel of Gaines Street Garage. Each of our group members bring a certain unique perspective and we are using this to talk through potential ideas and share what each of us are good at doing and what softwares we are familiar with. We are hopefully going to create a social media account, some fliers, and a catalogue of their inventory. The category is proving to be the hardest because we need to log all/at least some of the objects we have which requires going in and personally logging them. 

Project 3 Update

Over break, the progress was very stagnant. The executive director that I am communicating with was out of town and so is not able to get back to me until this week and so I drafted to him a couple of ideas of what we could be useful for and he said that he liked the ideas but that he would get back to me with a specific set of choices for what he needs done. I am feeling very confident and comfortable with this project right now and actually really enjoy it. I think that this is my favorite project so far and is preparing me the most for the professional exposure I need for my future career paths.

Journal 1

What is writing?

According to dictionary.com, “writing” is the activity or skill of making coherent words on paper and composing text.

There are many different forms and styles of writing that are each unique in their own way. Writing is an art of symbols put together to form a piece of work. These symbols can include letters of the alphabet, numbers, punctuation, and spaces. Writing can be seen as a method of representing language in a visual form. There are so many different components to writing. Such as different punctuation symbols to represent how a letter or word is to be pronounced when reading it.

I’ve always wondered who came up with “writing” as it is a very genius thing to think of.

Writing is a combination between material, the author, and the audience.

Some words that come to mind when I think of writing is:

1.)  Creativity: because you have to be creative to write or compose a work.

2.)  Conscious: you have to be conscious of your thoughts. Even when you are just writing to write, it is a stream of consciousness.

3.)  Text: because that is what comes of writing is a text of some sort.

4.)  Impression: when you compose or write something, the main purpose is to leave an impression. No matter how you look at it.

5.)  Support: because when you write, you are supporting a central theme in most situations.

Let's Hope for Last Hope - P3 Progress

We’ve chosen to work with Last Hope dog rescue, which works around all of north Florida and south Georgia. We’ve been in contact with Rebecca Luedke, the organization’s social media coordinator. She no longer lives in Tallahassee, so we’ll be communicating with her via email and potentially through a videochatting program like Google+ Hangout or Houseparty. She has also proposed for us to meet with another local board member in person, but nothing is confirmed as they are busy with an upcoming event. Exactly what Last Hope is looking for has yet to be discussed, however our team is estimating their needs and has begun brainstorming pitches based on our understanding of the organization and what they might ask for.

Our team has beginner to intermediate experience with graphic design, pop culture, photography, Microsoft Office, video editing, event planning, and social media. Each of these skills will be utilized to produce our three suggested campaign ideas: flyers, an on-campus dog meet-and-greet, and a Snapchat account. Basic planning for each of these ideas has commenced, however nothing will be put into full production until details about Last Hope’s campaign needs/wants are officially nailed down .

Project 3 Update

We are sponsored by an organization that is working to fix the stray cat problem in Tallahassee. It is called "Meow or Never." We have been in contact with them in multiple ways. We first made contact with the organization over email. Since then, we have called, texted, and met in person. Our point person's name is Michelle Hartsfield. She wanted us to hand out flyers to all the local vets offices and ask them if they would consider being sponsors for the April 1st event. She also wants us to help out with their fundraiser event on April 1st. After that, we will be assisting with editing their social media and blogs and designing flyers, etc. Our group members can offer skills in Photoshop and InDesign, newspaper editing skills, AVS video editing skills, and prior experience working with animal adoptions. These skills will be used to create the flyers and any other requested texts and to edit the social media presence and output of the organization. So far, we have not started any actual texts yet, but we have finished going to the vet offices to hand out flyers and ask for sponsorships. So far, the process has been pretty simple and Ms. Hartsfield has been very nice to work with. We can't wait to work on more projects for Meow or Never.

Project 3 Update

The sponsor we have chosen is the Autism Speaks club on FSU’s campus. We are meeting with them at their by-weekly meetings, and we are communicating with them through text if we are not in person. Our point person in the organization is the Vice President, who also happens to be roommates with one of our group members making it much easier to communicate with her. They want/need a promotion video for the club, a t-shirt design, and a press release for the walk. Each member of our group will be utilizing their skills in this project. Haley makes videos and is super excited to make the promotion video. Emma is majoring in public relations and will write the press release. We all are going to work on the t-shirt design. And Alex is very good at presenting so she is putting together our final presentation of the project.

Project 3 Update

My group has chosen to work with the Elections Bureau of the Student Government Association for Florida State University. We met them through one of our group members, Louisa, and are continuing to communicate to them through her connections as one of the SGA members. There is no specific “point person” in the project since were working to make the election process better known to FSU students for the entire election board. Since Carlo is handy with his camera, he suggested that we use a photo shoot as one of our texts. Louisa is focused on creating an infographic to show people how to vote since she’s the one who knows the whole election process. I’m creating a flyer to put up around campus to encourage people to vote in general since I consider myself to be somewhat creative. So far I’ve started the poster outline which will have different photos of candidates (added after the break). Carlo will have a photo shoot with the members of SGA BSU after spring break.

Update Project 3

My group is really excited about project three. We are working with Tallahassee Pets Alive (TPA) which is a non-profit organization that is made of a group of volunteers dedicated to making sure that Tallahassee is a No-Kill area. They are involved with many of the different animal shelters throughout the city and we are excited to get to work with them as well. While we haven’t met with them yet, we plan on meeting with them during the week after Spring Break. We hope to talk with them about what they would like to accomplish and see how we can help them accomplish those goals. One of the things that our group hopes to gain from this experience is how to work with another organization and understand and learn their goals in order to better understand how to assist them with their needs. As writers, thinkers, and creators it is important that we also how the skills to understand and work with others. It will be important that we understand what Tallahassee Pets Alive would like to gain from working with us so that we can best accommodate them. One of the ideas we had was to work with their social media and showcase a ‘Pet of the Week’! This genre would be social media over Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter and would allow us to highlight different pets everyday with the hopes of getting adopted. The picture of the pet would be accommodated with a description of the pet including age, sex, breed, and personality type. I think that this is a really great way to highlight different animals. Because we haven’t had the opportunity to meet with TPA yet, we are unsure of their other needs and wants. But we are excited to pick their brain and see what they are willing to use us for. If they are interested in hosting an event or need a new banner for Facebook, we would be more than excited to make that using Canva.  We are excited to mean with their team in order to construct other ideas with the organization. I look forward to working with Magen because, after looking over her P2, I know how creative she is and I think that will really come in handy. Geneva is super artsy really in touch with pop culture which could also be a really interesting insight into our project. I’m excited to see how our strengths play into this project.