Blog Post 2

"The XKCD comic in Figure 2.5 is funny because it’s often true. First, look at the “things people go to the site looking for” list. Do you agree with this list? Why or why not?"

I looked at the “things people go to the site looking for” list and I agree that the topics listed on the site are things that students and other individuals probably frequently search for. The academic calendar, department/course list, and campus map are all useful things for incoming and/or returning students and other people to search for on any university website. Initially, it struck me as odd that students, faculty, and other individuals might want the number for the campus police, but I guess having the number might be useful if an individual has neighbors who are frequently very loud at inconvenient hours. Everything else on the list seems like things that people would search for.

"Second, visit your University website homepage and see if it follows the patterns listed in this comic. If so, why do you think this is the case? If not, what differences do you see and how do you think they matter when it comes to the purpose and audience for your University’s homepage?"

The Gonzaga University website follows some of the patterns listed in the comic including the website having the full name of the school, a campus photo slideshow, and statement of the school's philosophy. Having these things on university websites seems to be a popular trend which is used for the purpose of making the university look good and to attract new students.  

Chapter 1: What are Multimodal Projects?

Do you think there is a difference between the term "multimedia" and "multimodal"?

Currently, I do not know of any major difference between the terms "multimedia" and "multimodal." They appear to both refer to content that uses video, audio, text and more. Perhaps, multimodal has some modes such as gestural which differ from aspects of multimedia. Aside from that, the two terms seem to refer to very similar concepts.

Response:The Linguistic Mode

I noticed some linguistic choices in this statement such as the phrase “Japanese friends” and “America will stand with Japan” which publicly show camaraderie and American support for Japan. The first word choice that captured my attention was “prayers.” I am not certain what the specific purpose of this word choice is, but I am convinced that it was intentionally used as part of a rhetorical strategy.   

Response: The Visual Mode

The profile on the right consists of darker colors, whereas the profile on the left consists of lighter colors. The left profile has a picture of a person and the right profile has a picture of an cartoon animal. Some obvious assumptions can be made from viewing each profile. Some of these assumptions might be that the owner of the profile on the right likes animals and possibly animation. I have no idea what either of the individuals use twitter for. I have a twitter account. I believe the visual template is the default for new twitter users. If my memory serves me correctly, I did not select a specific visual template.  . 

Response: The Aural Mode

The speaker’s voice is soft and clear. Her emphasis of certain words and lack of monotone voice make listening to her message easy and enjoyable. The choice of background music fits the video well. The sound seems to be fairly well synchronized with many of the images that are shown. If the music were changed to country or bluegrass, it might not fit the video as well. Additionally, it might also distract from the speaker’s words.

Response: The Spatial Mode

My eye is drawn to the middle of the page where the changing images appear and to the left corner where it says Washington State University. This spatial layout makes it so that the information that is read first is learning, research and community. This communicates a particular message about the university. By presenting this information in the center of the page, it asserts that learning, research, and community are three aspects of the university that are significantly emphasized. If the information in the middle of the page was switched with the information at the bottom of the page it would make the page seem unbalanced, like it was heavier at the bottom. It would look very strange and take away from the visual rhetoric that is being applied to the homepages current spatial layout.

Response: The Gestural Mode

I watched the “Putting Country Ahead of Party” video in which the president adresses issues surrounding the topic of the video. Throughout the video, Obama frequently uses hand gestures and also uses facial expressions. Obama is a gifted public speaker and can be very effective at persuading his audience. I do not quite see how his hand or facial gestures strengthen this speech though. Perhaps this is because I do not yet fully understand the rhetorical value of the gestural mode in this particular context (the video speech). I look forward to better understanding and eventually applying this mode.