This week, we looked into the topic of accessibility. Before this week, I did not really understand what that meant and as a result, learning about this topic has been very eye opening. Not only does it make me appreciate the fact that I am not hindered in accessing things, but it puts a different light on why certain things are designed the way the are (ie: snuggies). For the first part of this week, we looked at two articles. One was a review of the Disabilities March that occured online. In a similar way to Twitter and Tear Gas, this inclusion was really only possible because of the technology that we have now. From this perspective of the possibilities that the Internet and technology present, I find it very surprising that things are not more accessible for those with disabilities. The other article that we read was an analysis of the social model for approaching the topic of disability. It was also an interesting take on how to view the topic as it would be addressed in the past under a cure model. For the second half of the week, we looked at the WebAim introduction page. On this sight it demonstrated what it is like to use a computer for those with different disabilities. There are things that I never took into consideration in regards to why someone may not be able to access certain information. Side note, my dad is color blind and I never even considered how his Internet experience could be different from mine. In regards to our projects, it provided a list of people that we should keep in mind so that the sites that we create can be accessible. It also provided instruction of how to complete the small extra steps to make these changes.

This weeks class discussions have been one of the most complex thus far in the semester. I’m still trying to wrap my head around the articles, but have a better understanding now that we have explored them in discourse. Speaking of discourse, the word is better understood when practiced, and even more so discussing it withing it’s own context as we did today. In discussing The Cultural Studies Reader: Stuart Hall’s Encoding, Decoding article, he explains the fabric of discourse in a statement reading, “The ‘object’ of these practices is meanings and messages in the form of sign-vehicles of a specific kind organized, like any form of communication or language, through the operation of codes within the syntagmatic chain of a discourse” capturing it as a a product of multiple ideas and concepts that are all interrelated(p.91). In the discussion, the complexities of communication seemed to be amplified to an extent that I never thought they could. The subtleties and intricacies of how media influences communication and miscommunication in the process of encoding and decoding seemed to be under magnified under a microscope in terms of the depth of his analysis. To further these complexities as if it were not complicated enough, Henrik Bodker does exactly that, but with a twist. He not only complicate Stuart Halls Concept to philosophy of encoding and decoding, but leaving the discursive influence they had on the product. He clarifies this in his conclusion on page 420, reading, “While he allegedly attempted to give equal weight to both sides of the model, his interest in the technology and material aspects of medium in question (television)... stopped at the moment of the issuing of the discursive product.” He furthers the topic by discussing how the process of encoding and decoding is still within a larger discourse that Hall doesn’t discuss. 

As far as the physical environment around me while I’m writing is concerned, not much really hinders me, although I do work better in certain environments. That being said, I’m more proficient in my writing if there is a strict deadline. Being under pressure as a writer can be an advantage, it forces the writer to create without much of a second thought or reservations. Besides the whole 11th hour of turning in an assignment, I prefer to write between the hours of 12-5 am, primarily because a majority of the people I know are already in bed and cannot disrupt me.  A nice cup of tea or an alcoholic beverage on the side is also a great bonus to the quality of my writing.

This week was geared towards wrapping up our work for the semester. By the end of this week, we were to have the “2nd Draft” of our final project completed along with some first drafts of some other assignments. For me, this project was not as overwhelming as I was making it out in my mind to be. This helped me out a lot when it came to organizing and formatting my website. During the beginning of the week, we checked in about where we were with our final projects. It was noted that my project would have a lot of visual elements, and to keep that in mind when designing my site. This was helpful since before that point, I wasn’t sure how I wanted my site to look. After this point, my ideal website would have the cartoons in the background and the text overlaying that image. That way, when the reader was viewing the content, especially the analysis of the cartoons, they would be able to easily reference the cartoon. However, finding the template to do that proved to be difficult. I was excited once I had pretty much everything, such as text, where they needed to be. At this point, I wanted to run my site through the WAVE program to see how accessible or not accessible it would be. To my disappointment, my site was not error free. To add on to this disappointment, these errors included changes that involved editing the source code, which I could not do through the website editor. This week, we also completed peer review of the sites that we had created. For my review, it was noted that I might want to try to adapt the backdrop color of my site so that it was easier to read. There might be a few more additions to the website such as a video and maybe other pictures, but for the most part, I feel that the website is completed. I will be working on trying to remove the errors for accessibility, but some seem to be inherent with the website designer platform. Overall, I think through the creation of this site, it demonstrates how far I have come since the beginning of the semester when I was nervous about a Tumblr blog post. It has been challenging, but I truly appreciate the experience this course has provided.  

For the first part of this week, we looked at comics and how the strictly only visual component appeals to the other senses. For the reading, it described how the gapping between each of the frames created multimodal gutter. Within these spaces, the reader fills in the blanks of what has happened in between frames without pictures to depict every moment. This gutter also exists when there is juxtaposition in film (such as the tone of the sense not matching the actions and feelings being depicted). This allows the viewer to better understand the message that is trying to be conveyed. However, within this space, there can be chances for misinterpretation as there is not explicit depiction of what the creators want the viewers to walk away with. For the video portion, this idea that an image can create more than image was made clear in McCloud’s lecture. There were components of being aware of the remediation factor in the mediums used to display comics, creating a format that would be a “durable mutation”. McCloud also proposed ideas that would make viewing comics a more immersive experience based on how the comic is displayed. For the second part of this week, we shifted to concepts of sound theory. The sound clip for Sound Rherotics was eye opening in the impact of the sound and how it can create a mental visual component. We also got to look into some of the theories surrounding sound theory. Although most of aural rhetoric study applies to how speeches are made impactful, there is something interesting in how sound can have a big impact based on people’s experiences. Understanding how visual and sound components impact the viewer, this can help with creating our final projects such as understanding where there might be spaces for the multimodal gutter. That way the message we are trying to convey has a better chance of reaching the reader.

This week we covered two item that furthered our understanding of rhetoric and the theories that we have learned in the semester. The first item that we looked at was a poster about the use of the word “lol.” Within our discussion, we addressed McSweeney’s rhetoric of the word and then the rhetoric of her poster. In a sense it was like rhetoric inception. It was interesting as we could see how she was applying, or how there were elements, of her applying Hall’s theory of communication. As she notes, “lol” has more implications than simple literal meaning of “laugh out loud.” The fact that she even has a poster of how to decipher this word demonstrates the encoding and decoding in texting. It can be easy to see how there is often miscommunication over instant messaging as people use words like “lol” in different senses depending on their experience on how to use the word. One of the aspects that was interesting the fact that this information was displayed on a poster. Why not show it through the use of animated GIFs of the messages appearing on something like powerpoint? It almost seemed odd that she would be discussing something that has such strong ties to technology on something that seems pretty old school. Although this is a biased generalization, it might have appealed to the older audience who viewed her poster. The fact that it is discussing the deeper implications of “lol” would seem to me that the audience is not as aware of this fact. For the younger audience this seemed like a very obvious idea that gets articulated in fancy terminology. Another item that we looked at was the website Enchanting the Desert. It was very helpful in understanding what we need to make our websites look like. It was also interesting in seeing an example of remediation and people’s desire for immediacy. As this website is a recreation of a book, there is the aspect of the old folding into the new. This was a good example of a website as it not only showed the potential of what can be done with the use of technology but what needs to be considered for the interest of the audience. It is apparent that there is a lot of freedom provided to the viewer as there are multiple way to go about exploring the site in a way that the book would not be able to provide. In this way, the site addresses people’s desire for immediacy as they can not only experience a deeper sense of immersion of the Grand Canyon but have their expectations met of what this platform should be able to should be able to provide.

This week has been very enlightening in understanding how everything in this course is related to each other. At the beginning of week, we discussed the concepts of remediation, mediation, and immediacy. I had a difficult time trying to understand these concepts since they are so broad in their definitions. However, once I applied the four stasis question to these definitions, it became clearer why someone would write a whole book on something that is taken as as given (the advancement of technology). These concepts of this change and why it happens directly correlates to the Medium is the Message, which Hall responds to in his Encoding, decoding. In increasing our use of technology, we have begun to change the medium in how we receive information. Bush has had an impact in this category as he dreamed of the memex which was to allow access to all human knowledge. The argument in the Medium is the Message would  seem to hold true as there has been studies on how information is presented impacts how people behave. Hall’s writing holds more importance when considering the reading we did with Bodker. Bodker provides some insight on why or how Hall came to the conclusions that he did. This can be seen in the quote given from Marx who described at what point a product becomes a commodity. This same process is what leads an idea or definition to become a universal definition that which would remove miscommunication from the communication loop. Before reading Bodker, I had questions on how relevant Hall was in the current day of age with how information is distributed. With information moving at such a high rate, it would then seem impossible for the full communication loop to be completed. Also, with social media providing a global platform, would it be possible to create “universal” definitions to prevent miscommunication?

As we move closer to the end of the semester, we are learning a bit better on how to apply these theories to the final project that we are creating. For myself, having a clearer conceptualization of Hall’s communication loop has helped me narrow down my entry point and exit point for what I will be focusing on. As we will turning in an annotated bibliography, this has also been helpful in determining what kind of resources I will be needed to best complete my website.