Advocacy in Civic Life

Today’s Rhetoric and Civic Life class centered around the concept of advocacy, which is essentially the placement of one’s support behind a cause, a group, or a concept. What I found most interesting about advocacy is that a person is changed by what he or she advocates and he or she in turn affects and shapes the advocacy group in question. I was personally intrigued by a story by my classmate John Lee regarding how a light suggestion for him to swim turned into a position on the team and furthermore roles as a lifeguard and a swim instructor. Looking back on his story, I thought I might share my own experience in an advocacy that has changed me and I hope to change.

Five years ago I reluctantly began attending my church’s youth group in order to have something to do after school that my mother found constructive to my spiritual growth beyond Sunday school (which I had just outgrown). It seemed like the natural next step in my journey yet I did not really embrace it until I met lifelong friends in my first mission trip in Philadelphia. Since then I have been changed in so many ways; not only have I participated in missions from Montreal to Guatemala City, I have witnessed a spiritual growth within myself. I am currently with my third “youth group”, a campus ministry called Reformed University Fellowship (RUF), and while my youth ministries have affected me, I am poised to affect my youth ministries as well.

Although I am merely a freshman, I am prepared to take on any leadership roles that may come across my path in my coming years in college with RUF. I have led in one bible study already and have even returned to my high school ministry to lead middle school students in their study of scripture. This summer I also plan to begin work at my home church to coordinate a college ministry for students home from college starting this summer. The student ministries I once so hesitantly advocated became a force of great growth in my life, and in turn I hope to do the same in my mission to strengthen these groups.

"For Your Viewing Pleasure"; Visual Rhetoric

This week’s lecture in LA101H focused on the rhetoric of visual images. As humans we are a very visual species, and images can have a powerful effect on emotion and a strong influence on the way we approach things. Our love of aesthetically pleasing images has transcended the canvas, and now visual art has found a home in some of the most surprising locations. With the advent of the computer and sophisticated software in particular, technology pushes the boundaries of artistic expression in ways never before seen. One example of art is album artwork; the covers of music CDs and formerly records.

Album artwork is the first impression between an album and the potential consumer; it is the sales pitch which finds its importance in the fact that we simply can’t help but “judge a book by its cover”. These are some of my favorite pieces of album artwork from my own music collection:

One of the keys to an aesthetic image is the utilization of a focal point in order to present an image the eye can follow its focus upon. The album The Resistance by Muse does this so well with the clear lines formed by the bridge-like structure and all of the geometric shapes meet at the image of the earth. Meanwhile, a mosaic of hexagons creates an array of colors that give the entire image an interstellar, science fiction feel. Meanwhile, all colors are brighter toward the center, adding to the focal point, while the gray border enhances the color vibrancy.



Another intriguing cover is Audioslave’s Revelations album. Coincidentally, this cover also has an image of the earth on it, in this case featuring a continent shaped like the band’s flame logo (Visible in the “O” on the right-hand side). Focal points play a big role in this cover as well in that the image is of a portion of the earth causing the image to be broken up between the planet and the blackness of space. Meanwhile, the band’s name is spaced so that it appears to wrap around the back of the cover and the name of the album is offset from the artist name with a smaller font size and is interestingly upside down.  All images are slightly off-center and it serves an important aesthetic role in that it is much less boring than having all images perfectly centered.

Copyrights, Memes, and Clichés; Oh, My!

In class the other day, we learned of the importance of copyright laws and the powers they hold over electronic media today. On top of that, we learned the limitations of copyright in the form of fair use. One of the more notable examples of fair use we covered regarded the use of films. When using a copyrighted motion picture, the limits of fair use include the nature, amount, and commercial impact of material used. Basically only small portions of a film can be used in a way that does not serve as a substitute for the original work.

The use of movies often is found on the internet in the form of internet memes, which are ideas spread throughout the internet and take on a pop culture status. These concepts are both dispersed throughout the internet and are reshaped in a variety of ways; the memes are at the mercy of the creativity of those who find them. Memes are such a fascinating aspect of the internet that there is an entire website dedicated to following and analyzing them.

The website is called KnowYourMeme.com and it is a database attempting to organize the incomprehensible breadth of the countless memes circulating throughout the internet. Although it is not a perfect website (searching can be difficult and popups can occur), it is both informative and extremely entertaining.

One especially entertaining meme is titled “Supercut Movie Clichés”. This particular meme encompasses varying movie clips that share a commonality such as a catchphrase (i.e. “He didn’t make it”, “We’re not in Kansas anymore”, etc.) and cycles through the commonality in each of the different movies. The comedic value lies in the worn-out phrases in critically-acclaimed movies. It would seem like a no-brainer to avoid these lines (such as “no-brainer”), but they constantly occur in these films. With respect to copyright, the videos are applicable in that the clips of the movies are extremely brief and serve a separate purpose so as not to replicate the original work.

Several examples can be found on knowyourmeme.com, but this is one of my favorites:

“We’ve got company”

Something Strange in the Hidden Valley Pies...

Since I showcased my favorite motion picture advertisement, “Write the Future”, last week, I thought I would show you one of my favorite still picture ads for this week’s installment of Rhetoric and Civic Life. This one is brought to you by Hidden Valley Ranch, and I discovered it so long ago that I can’t quite remember how I stumbled upon it. All I know is that I can vividly remember the image of the boy stealing that broccoli pie!

The style of the advertisement oozes classic Americanism from the polka-dot drapes to the windowsill pies. Hidden valley is clearly trying to recreate the mid-20^th century in order to invoke a classic image. This is important because the dominant portion of the advertisement is the image of the kitchen itself. The old-fashioned setting invokes images of the simplicities of the 50s and 60s and may even conjure up images of grandma’s kitchen.

All in all, the image is one of familiarity, a common tool of advertisements (especially those of a more comedic nature). The goal is to begin with a familiar scene and then introduce an element of the unexpected. The setting is so large that it does not take the reader much effort to notice the kitchen, so in that regard it is recognized first. The unexpected occurs in the focal point of the advertisement, the image the eyes are easily drawn to.

Although the setting is apparent first, the eye is actually drawn to the image at the center of the ad, the boy sneaking a pie off the windowsill, neatly set apart from the inside by the window. Here we find the beauty of the advertisement: the alteration of the American image of the apple pie and the mischievous boy (a la Tom Sawyer) with a Hidden Valley edge to it. The viewer recognizes that the apple pie is in fact a broccoli pie with hidden valley ranch as the lattice. It makes the broccoli look downright decadent and it exemplifies the caption of “Where Vegetables Are Delectable”, a perception of a literal “Hidden Valley” where broccoli is as tasty as homemade pie.

One final point of note is the use of reds and greens; the two colors are complementary and make a clear contrast between the kitchen scene inside and the pie theft scene outside. Also, there is no accident over the incorporation of the boy’s red hair and the cherry tomatoes topping the pies for added aesthetic effect. I find this advertisement simply memorable!

Write The Future

Since we nearly wrapped up speeches today in LA101H based on rhetorical analyses of advertisements, I still find myself in a commercial state of mind. Up until the point in which I realized there would be a 4-6 minute time limit on the speech (including the time of the advertisement!) I had one commercial in mind. Sadly, the ad is a marathon clocking in at 2 minutes 53 seconds. It is definitely a worthy 2:53 spent however, and it is the kind of video where you pick up something new with each view and are never entertained any less than the first watch. However, such an ad would not possibly restrict itself to the time limit of the speech, so I thought this would be a better arena to state my case.

The name of the commercial is “Write the Future” and it is under the Nike label. As my classmate Tessa Johnstone so eloquently put it, often times Nike is not trying to sell a product; rather, it attempts to offer consumers a lifestyle. Although in this ad Nike clearly hopes to generate interest in the world cup (personally, they had me at “Drogba”), it makes the World Cup out to be a grandiose cosmic force of destiny impacting the players, fans, and nations involved instead of just a sporting event.

This epic advertisement takes the viewer from a meager home in the Ivory Coast to the halls of the British monarchy and everywhere in between while highlighting soccer's impact. Meanwhile, it is combined with the perfect blend of comedy (the lackey getting his butt kicked at table tennis is Roger Federer, priceless!) and soccer action to make a believer out of any World Cup doubter.

You may not know who Wayne Rooney is, but the commercial makes you want to know who that bulldog-faced Brit is and why he has England’s fate on a string. Even if you don’t recognize the mastry of Ronaldinho, you still want to know where you can see moves worthy of the emulation of Brazilian dancers and Kobe Bryant. The ad may even have female viewers hoping to get better acquainted with the Portuguese stud with the perfectly coiffed hair (Cristiano Ronaldo).

Nike might not be trying to push a lifestyle this time around, but if they are trying to sell us anything it is the idea that these players are titans who shape the world from the ends of their cleats. If you don’t know their names, you better start catching up.

Here is the commercial itself...

…And here is the “Making Of”

Letter by a Rhetor, Pt. 2

I suggest you read my post from two weeks ago, “Letter by a Rhetor” in order to understand this situation in its entirety, but I will still summarize here.

My roommate owns a very odd pair of shoes; they are called Vibram Five-Fingered shoes and they are essentially a low-top shoe with individual compartments for the toes (like toe socks except they are sturdy like a shoe). The two of us were in the fitness center two weeks ago when, to my roommate’s dismay, he was approached by a member of the staff and was asked to leave the fitness center and change his shoes because the Five-Fingers were prohibited due to safety concerns which the staffer did not specifically explain to my roommate.

My roommate was naturally less than pleased with the situation because his shoes re designed for exercise. Therefore, he decided to write a letter to the head of the fitness building in order to have his shoes reinstated on the grounds that they are exercise shoes and offer no less protection to the feet when walking around a weight room than a pair of running shoes.

He naturally hoped for some sort of acknowledgement, yet he has received no reply in any form in the last two weeks. He was aware that by this point his letter would most likely go unanswered without further correspondence from his part. Therefore, he wrote out a follow-up letter in order to re-establish his aims.

It is important to note that my roommate began by establishing himself as a patron of the fitness program and the sender of the previous letter. He then appeals to the director by underlining the redeeming qualities of the fitness center as well as the improvement in the behavior of the employee who curtly excused him from the premises two weeks prior. He demonstrates his desire to continue working out at the same fitness center with his attention to the qualities of the fitness center. Then, however, he makes a claim that the fitness center has the potential for further self-enhancement, yet this effort is being held back by “restrictive footwear policies”. He goes on to build a strong logos argument by reflecting on his professor’s dismay over the policy and by underlining the purposes of the footwear found on the Vibram website. He also makes it clear that he understands the goal of marketing on the website yet the information should still be considered. Finally, his call to action personally confronts the director and implores him or her to try these shoes for themselves to truly understand their benefits (establishing his ethos as an owner himself).

It is still in the form of a first draft (POSTED BELOW), so let me know what you think about it. What can he do to help this letter yield a timely response from the management and possibly a change in policy?
To Whom It May Concern:

My name is (Name), and I am an active member of the (Fitness Program) and regular (Fitness Building) attendee.  Two weeks ago I wrote a letter to the Director of the (Fitness Building) about an ill-fated encounter with a white building employee and my distress at hearing that five-finger shoes were no longer permitted on the (Fitness Building) premises.  This is simply a follow-up letter to confirm that the first letter was received and inquire about any review of policies.

Since the incident, the offending employee has acted with grace and professionalism toward me and my gym partner.  I can most likely attribute this change to effective management, and I thank you for any action you may have taken.  In general, the (Fitness Building) is an enjoyable place to exercise, play sports, and meet socially with friends and teammates; however, restrictive footwear policies keep the fitness center from achieving its maximum potential.

Over the past two weeks I have had discussions with friends and faculty about restrictions on five-finger shoes at the White Building.  Just yesterday I spoke with (Professor Name), a (College Name) mathematics instructor who shares my love for five-finger shoes.  When he heard about the (Fitness Building)’s policies he was taken aback, and informed me about his new favorite pair of shoes, the Vibram Komodo Sport.  Vibram’s website (vibramfivefingers.com) describes the shoes with sporty phrases like “with today's athlete in mind,”  “aggressive multisport design,” and “functional improvements that appeal to the most active fitness enthusiast.”  As I read the description, I thought about the kind of activities I do at the (Fitness Building) and how the shoes could improve my performance.

Of course, a company website must always champion its products, sometimes even with inflated words.  I encourage you to visit the site, as well as research other companies, read about both the medical faults and benefits, and perhaps even discover the joy of owning your own pair.  I was skeptical until I put on my own five-fingers and felt the closeness with the ground, the control of my body, and the thrill of barefoot running that only five-finger shoes can provide. The largest downside to the new method of activity, as Vibram strongly indicates in its literature, is that the athlete must learn to use the shoes properly and slowly. However, as with all equipment provided at the (Fitness Building), patrons must exercise with care and control.

Sincerely,

(Name)

“If you only knew the power of the Dark Side”

Today I was personally introduced to the dark side of rhetoric and civic life. I received news from home that a former teacher of mine was removed from my former high school due to a blog she published. In this blog, she vented her frustrations and propagated her disdain toward her profession by insulting students, parents, and other teachers.

Let me be clear that my goal is not to cast disrepute upon my former teacher and in no way do I feel joy from this situation; her class was a positive experience for me and I hope she will learn from this unfortunate mistake. That being said, the content of her blog was offensive, distasteful, and had no place online.

I naturally looked into this matter online to get clarity on the situation and see how people were reacting to it. On the Doylestown-Buckingham-New Britain Patch’s website, I found many comments located on both the story and directly on the teachers blog via screenshots that were posted on the site. To my dismay, many of the comments were inappropriate or utterly repulsive. I have learned in my study of rhetoric that although we have the freedom to speak our minds, it is a privilege we must exercise responsibly. The worst way anyone can treat another’s irresponsible rhetoric is by sinking to that person’s level to personally debase him or her.

However, there were some comments that were constructive; one user who claimed to be a member of my graduating class engaged in what looked like the beginnings of an open-minded debate with another user. Below is another notable comment, written by an employee of the site:

“I am almost finished my studies in secondary education and teacher certification at Saint Joseph's University so this story really hits home.

I just want to get out of the way that everyone makes mistakes. So I think this teacher should be given a chance to redeem herself, though she did not give her students that very same opportunity.

Now with that being said, there is NO way she should have posted her feelings about her students on a blog! Yes there is free speech, but sometimes we have to be sensible! You have to know that a stunt like this will cost you your job especially if you post on an identifiable blog. How could one be so careless?

Secondly, if you feel this way, and trust me teacher's deal with a lot and do need an outlet, why not keep a PRIVATE journal where no one can view it? It seems to me that not only does this teacher need a lesson on how to properly use the internet, she also needs a lesson on teaching. It seems from many of the responses, she was a horrible teacher, so maybe the students behavior was a reflection of her lack of classroom management.

This teacher needs to lay low and seriously consider whether teaching is what she was meant to do in life. If it's she needs to 1. Apologize over and over again. 2. Take classes on classroom management and teachers strategy. 3. Maybe take some anger management classes. And finally 4. PRAY that someone sees her efforts to rectify her mistake and give her another chance.

I HOPE she's learned her lesson!”

It is a quality comment because the author holds the teacher responsible for her actions without condemning her; meanwhile she provides possible reasoning for her actions and constructive solutions with which to move on from the situation. It is well organized, insightful, and informative; it was a far cry from other comments which were riddled with profanity and served no purpose other than as vulgar regurgitations of negative emotion.

The lesson to be learned here is that rhetoric must be used responsibly and appropriately; it should not be used to disparage others to provide an emotional vent for the rhetor. The teacher and the commenters are perfect examples of the false sense of superiority with which we equip ourselves when others act in a manner we find deplorable. By doing so, we threaten our own sense of dignity when our language becomes more caustic than that of the opposition.