Media and Information Overload

Here are some treats from the Columbia Journalism Review. One of our tasks in this class is to consider not just how media impact messages--things we may wish to say or hear--but how media impact us, our thinking, and our relationships with other human beings.

The video clip below is a short description of the research Maggie Jackson is doing on our ability to pay attention to the world around us. Watch the clip and consider two different ways we can apply our mental energy: in a focused, precise way, or in a diffuse and complex way. We can think of it as the difference between meditation and multi-tasking.

The structure of digital media and the aggressive way advertising solicits our attention pulls our mind into a natural state of diffusion--our thoughts change rapidly, and no thought remains very long.

The above photo: Scientists quantifying the mental energy of a Buddhist monk meditating. source: TheBuddhistblog.blogspot.com

Ad Analysis Assignment

I've posted today's slides on Blackboard that deal with Wednesday's Ad Analysis assignment and the Radio as a Medium slides. The Ad Analysis is pretty straightforward if you just follow the format below:

1. Description:
–The medium of the ad (TV, print, radio, web...)
–The source of the ad (the TV station, or magazine, for example)
–All the elements that help tell the story of the ad
•Music (happy, sad, vocal, instrumental, genre….)
•Visual images (what objects, what style, colors…)
•Text (including fonts, size, location, information…)

2. Analysis
–Why is it constructed the way it is (how does the design of the ad help persuade the audience)
–Who is the targeted audience
–What is the argumentation form
•Logos (logical argument providing evidence)
•Ethos (persuasion based on someone’s reputation)
•Pathos (persuasion based on an emotional appeal)

3. Evaluation
–How well do you think the advertisement worked?
–Is the argument persuasive?
–What were the specific strengths of the ad?
–What could be improved?

More Resources

Once you open the floodgates to a topic like independent media--individuals telling their stories through film, radio, animation, music, and on and on--then it can be hard to stop passing along more material. Take a look below at a few sites which will not only give you access to great storytelling (and much of it by young adults), but the resources to create your own stories.

Everyone in this class has a compelling story to tell--one that would make us stop and think quietly about it, or would double us over in laughter, tears, or both--most likely both.

The world will be a better place to the extent that you tell these stories.

Your production assignment can be about anything. And it's just your next step in a longer series of stories to tell.

http://www.listenup.org/index.php

http://transom.org/

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/