WORKSPACE
9/8/16
Politics, Culture, and the Public Sphere by Nancy Fraser
"The public sphere is a site where social meanings are generated, circulated, contested, and reconstructed” (287). Fraser’s writing resonates with me because of my major in Public Relations. All the work I aim to do resides in the public sphere, typically on social media. Everyone in our democracy has the option to participate in the public sphere and their own portion of it. You share your views, comment on other views, and communicate with eachother. In terms of democracy, everyone has the right to freedom of speech and freedom of expression. This is incredibly important in terms of the public sphere in giving each citizen the ability to participate in the discourse occuring. Topics discussed in the public sphere become ways to influence democracy and decisions made for the common good. Fraser argues for the recognition of multiple publics, since the assumption that there is one, unified public based on social equality is not true. Fraser believes there are subaltern publics that need to be acknowledge and made visible in order to make any advancements in public discourse. There is also an untrue assumption that discourse should be restricted to public matters, barring 'private' topics. But if these private topics are not allowed to be discussed, there is never going to be a solution for those issues.
Source: negativespace.co
9/12/16
On the Wire Takeaways
1. Radio stories require some of the same structures of a written essay. The authors discussed how they look for stories to have background, characters, a conflict, and a resolution. For example, the story of the couple returning to a town after 30 years and wanting to fix it up while the new residents did not was a conflict that the story could explore.
2. It is important in an interview to keep asking questions to the subject in order to acheive a soundbite of them saying something with real meaning that can stand alone and be highlighted in a radio piece. If the direction of the interview is not going where it needs to, it is okay to keep asking questions and shifting direction in order to get that result.
3.Radio editing can consist of long hours where 12 hours of recordings can be cut down to a half hour or less. Outlining can be done first to really highlight the parts of a recording that the editor wishes to use. Not everything is important.
4. Stories and larger topics were brainstormed months in advance and were not finalized and scheduled until closer to the airdate. Interviews, recordings, and editing are completed nearer to the air date. Also, even though the stories are not live performances, more parts of the broadcasts may be.
9/15/16
Reflection on I Am From Poem
When I was beginning to write my poem, I was nervous about finding details I didn't mind sharing with the class, especially since I only know two other people in it. I was glad we had a structure to follow and guiding factors for what to write. I mostly wrote the first idea or two that came to mind when I thought of each topic, but as I wrote I kept having more to add and thus made each "line" into a sentence or two. I am surprised after sharing my poem that I became emotional when discussing the passing of my uncle since that occured almost 6 years ago now; I haven't gotten emotional while discussing it for about two years. I'm comfortable with sharing that fact because of the love I have for him, the effect he had on me, and all the positive outlooks I have had since that time in my life. I'm not sure which parts of my poem tell the best story of who I am. I really view myself at this time as a work in progress and I have a lot of goals but I don't think I'm really where I want to be yet. Also, while listening to other classmate's poems, I was surprised that their were large parts of me that I didn't even think to mention.
9/19/16
Possible Questions for Sana and Chanda
1. What is your earliest memory from before you left your home country?
2. What is the biggest change from your past to now?
3. What is the hardest question you've had to answer - or not answer?
4. What would you recommend we do to make our interviewee feel comfortable sharing their story?
5. Since we had to write stories about our own lives in order to share them with the interviewee and make them more comfortable with us, how do we make them feel the most comfortable with that in order to show our understanding of how vastly different they will be?
6. Is it easier to just tell the story of what happened or have it broken up into pieces?
7. Is it easier to be asked questions or to talk as more of a conversation?
8. How would you like us to deal with emotions regarding the interview?
9. Does telling your story make you feel -empowered, saddened, etc.?
9/26/16
Takeaways from Meeting Sana and Chanda
After last class, I can't wait to interview a refugee and hear more about their story. Chanda helped me to understand how the dynamic should be in sharing a story with the refugee I interview. She kept telling me "your story is valid." She wanted me to know that I don't have to worry about offending them by just talking about how my life is different; what is important to me will be worthy of sharing in order to let them get to know me. Sana was so open to sharing her story and helping us understand how to make our interviewee feel comfortable. She wanted us to allow for emotions to flow, to be patient with each other, and to make the interview as much of a conversation in tone and style as possible. Reading body language is important in the interview to make sure the interviewee is comfortable at all times in sharing parts of their life. Both of them wanted us to be sure to empower the refugees' stories and create a final product that puts everyone's stories in the spotlight. Overall, I really appreciated the time they took out of their day to spend helping us and I think it will help us as we go about planning and executing the interviews in the future. I was happy to be able to hear Sana speak after class as well.
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Don't try to sound as if you know more than you do.
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Not all about sadness - don't exploit them
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"Quest for refuge" doesn't end when they get here
So, in order to edit my audio bio, my group gave me feedback to cut down on additional background music and work on fading out noises and songs, especially the washing machine noise. Overall, my group had a positive reaction to my audio bio and how I set up my story. They loved that I had a background track throughout the entire piece. They like my tone of voice, even though I think I need to annunciate more and flow more with the music (although that'd be way to hard to perfectly accomplish). My plan for editing is now to focus on the music. I will cut down the extra music, work on fading, take out the background noise from my voice track, and lessen the volume of the track when other noises are present.
10/13/16
Out On The Wire Chapter 4: Keep or Kill
This chapter talked about writing in the space between two people. Once I do my interview, there will be main points that I want to focus on, but there will be a lot of information I do not keep, especially since it will be condensed from over an hour to about 5 minutes. The hard part will be picking out those important parts of the story, realizing that collectively within the group, and empowering those words. Another thing the book discussed was that there are no rules. I can pick the things I want to talk about and create a final product that is whatever I want. That kind of scares me. I do not view myself as a typically creative person. The whole point is storytelling. Once we do the interview, hopefully the story that needs to be told is quite apparent. It will be extremely important to find the story to be empowered. We may have to take a tape of seemingly separate ideas and really structure them together to form a true story.
This chapter made me feel more comfortable with the structure of the interview. I would typically be very nervous about creating a narrative as our community member talks, but I can just ask the questions and form the narrative later. Its her words and stories that matter, not my ability to tell a story (not yet at least). I now know I can ask questions that get her to tell us about her life, as much as possible. WE can talk about positives, or negatives, and then search for that pivotal factor that will show a change. It might be different for our situation, since she always lived here, but she still has a story to tell. That will be the thing to search for through the questions we ask.
10/24/16
Deep Sea: Sound in Out on the Wire
The metaphor between deep sea and sound meant that there are endless possibilities between what you can do in a piece using sound, much like the multitude of things you could find if you explored the deep sea. The characters talked about how sound effects were sort of looked down upon or viewed as cheesy, but they believed that they can be positive additions to a story if they are used in the right way. There are many sites to go to to find sound effects, or you can create your own. The amount and times when they are used are what is important; it is all about how you tell a story. They also talk about how long it can take to get everything completely as you want it. For an entire piece, one character claimed to work 12 hours on sounds alone. In our video stories, it will be important to use sound to help tell the story and not act as a barrier or outlier. The story is most important but the sounds can help keep the interest of listeners and supplement the words, not overpower them. Sound supports the experience.
11/3/16
YourBaby: Editing in Out on the Wire
Editing is a long process that is extremely in-depth. In the book, the editing process was explained as relating to group editing sessions looking at one or more piece at a time. This is relative to our project because we not only started a group editing process last class but also are working in groups so we have to decide on every edit together as well. The purpose of the edit is to create the best story possible. Our goal is to empower Chanda's story and we want to excel at that task. We want to be proud of our work but more importantly she needs to be proud of her story as we are retelling it in a way. We have roughly edited a first draft to try and pick out the main pieces of the whole interview that we wanted to highlight in a five minute segment. We now have to go back and look at our footage so that we can make a more cohesive product. This will require a lot of editing and a lot of time spent asking our classmates for their opinions on the piece, as those in Out on the Wire discussed.
Framing is how the creator chooses the show the story, including the angle and perspective information is presented. Without framing the listener may not understand the events of the story and the context surrounding it. If framing does not occur, the viewer may not be able to connect with the story, relate to it, or understand it as a larger concept. Signposting is announcing when an important fact or point will occur. The storyteller has to make sure that the story is presented as clear and concise as possible to get the listener to understand the important parts of the piece.
11/10/16
Feedback on Draft 2
Some of the feedback my group received from our classmates was encouraging, and some was more constructive. Different people had differing views on what worked and what didn't, but most people did understand the main point of the piece. We knew we wanted to add music to the beginning, we just did not do so in this draft; therefore, I agree with the comment that it is necessary in the beginning. In regards to the introduction, some people believed we should start directly with Chanda speaking, while others liked the text slides of historical background first. In terms of story flow, some people enjoyed the arch of the story but another student suggested we should end with Chanda discussing her pride in her heritage and move the thoughts of a trip to Cambodia to earlier in the piece. We also agree that transitions can be improved and elongated between clips. Someone said the story was a bit jumbled still, so we will need to take another look at that and see if better transitions or connections could help. One classmate commented on the fact that we only used one picture in the video. While we do have some b-roll footage that could be added, I think it is important to focus on Chanda and since that tis the only picture she has of her childhood, I think it is important to use and fine on its own. I think it was helpful for someone to comment that we need to not make the ending so abrupt. We got a lot of specific information on where to focus our attention towards making the video smooth and cohesive in terms of transitions and pauses where people would’ve liked more time to reflect. We also should think about zooming in on important pieces of the story to provide emphasis and keep the viewer’s attention. All of these comments and suggestions will be incredibly helpful to edit our video.
I had my friend Courtney watch the video. Her understanding of its purpose was similar to those of us whoo are in the class, which I view as a positive; she got the point. She questioned why we only had one question in the video, as it seemed random. She also focused on the length of the transitions needs to be expanded.
11/14/16
The Olive Project
Oral history provides an outlet for a writer to instead pass along a story in spoken words instead of written ones. Just because it is spoken does not mean it has less thought involved or less preparation. It is just a story or history book in a different form; for a lot of people, this is how they learn of their family history, from other people. Oral histories may not come from only one source. There may be many people's stories that come together to form the oral history you know. This can be thought of as "a co-constructed process of narrative composition." The person hearing the stories has to piece together the things they have been taught in order to fully understand the history. An oral history may not be told in chronological order or any order that makes sense in understanding it; it may just come as stories as they are remembered or as something makes the storyteller think of something else. Therefore, the person hearing the oral history may have to "map coherence" of the stories told in order to organize the "disorder of lived experience." Even if the person telling the story is doing so about themselves, there may be things they don't remember until the end and have to backtrack. Thus, the listener has to piece it all together and find a concise and coherent way to understand and retell the oral history. This relates to the Quest for Refuge project because we are tasked with telling another story in a visual and audio-based way, not through text on paper. Our community member told her story, relayed the oral history she has learned from her parents, and then we have to condense it, retell it, keep the intended meaning and empower the story.
This project helps me to see all the types of things you can do with a story and the ways to can display it as "multimodal composition." There is no right way but there may be better ways to do something than the typical first ideas you think of; every story doesn't have to be an essay. Erin created this project about her grandmother and managed to share it in a way that an entire public audience could understand and relate to. I really feel as though I am learning about her family history like it is my own. She doesn't make you feel like an outsider, but instead as someone on the same level as her that just wants to know more about one life.
It is a big task to take on to try to tell someone else's story for them in a way so that they look as you want them to - accurate. We are trying to empower stories and progress, not focus on emotional tolls and hardships not overcome. We owe it to our community members to do the best we can to tell the story they want to tell and a story told in a way that they will be proud of sharing. The Olive Project helps to see how another person took on the role of telling someone else's story that meant a lot to her, and I believe Erin does a great job in doing so. Our editing and storytelling purpose has to be aligned with the subject of the story's purpose, especially since conveying their purpose is the most important part of our job. We do not want to overstep our boundaries or overpower their story or purpose. We are just here to share their voices. Our goal is to help them empower their stories.
11/17/16
What’s in a Name?
The purpose of the article was to determine why people used different terms to talk about the same topic. The author focused on “new, multi, modal, digital, media texts” and whether there was any determining factor for the labeling chosen by people who use either one or the other. I thought the format of the article as an online form and also as more of a interactive site than a sectioned article allowed the reader to dive deeper into the piece. The title referred to Romeo and Juliet and incorporated the idea of a rose. To me, I thought of the fact that a rose has many petals. Each time I had to click through the site, it was like peeling back a rose petal to get the the heart of the flower; the meaning behind the metaphor but also behind the definition of each term. The format can also help to show how much the author thought about the topic and kept searching for an answer to her question.
I thought the idea that the use of terms are audience-oriented made the most sense to me. The author defined the concept to mean that definitions are not always the same. Depending on the audience, the terms may be used interchangeably or even further simplified so that the person will immediately understand and not have to ask what a term means. I can relate to this in everyday life when I talk about what we do in this class. No one ever really gets what “multimodal writing” is, and i really didn’t either when I signed up. The author also explained that terms are limited. They cannot always represent the same things even though they may seem - to those who know the meanings - to be the same. The author also talked about the concept of relative and how terms are often defined in relation to other terms. It is helpful to understand what is similar or different about each. Cheryl Ball's comment on the concept of multiple was the most interesting comment to me. Ball believed that there was no need for consistency in using the terms because everyone can use terms in their own way to explain their own ideas. I agree with that completely even if it may make a larger look at conversations on a bigger scale.
11/21/16
Video Reflection
For our community storytelling project, I first purchased the SD card. I was the notetaker during our interview and the contact with our community partner. After the interview, I watched half the footage and detailed the different topics she walkabout about and any key points we may want in the video. (Leah is the only group member with iMove on her laptop and offered to be the one who keeps the video file, so Jasmine and I decided to help detail the entire video in this way to make the editing process easier.) I then helped Leah to piece together video clips for the first draft of the video. After taking notes in class on peer feedback, I helped Leah edit the second draft of the video. For the last draft, I will help Leah edit, add subtitles, and make sure the piece is exactly how it needs to be.
I am pleased with the video at this point because I think it tells the story we wanted, from the information we received form our community partner. I am not yet satisfied with the transitions between topics, because if I could I would just present the whole hour of video. Since the interview was more like storytelling, it is a bit difficult to chop it up, and it seems kind of odd for us when we need to move stuff around. We are just searching for the best order and the best topics/transitions to make the video what we want.
If I could do it over, I would have gotten more camera angles during the interview and maybe have a better background. Right now, the background and shot are so similar throughout the piece, which may be boring to watch but is also annoying when editing and trying to find specific pieces of video. After looking at the other multimodal pieces we have seen in the last week, I might have liked to either have made the video into a site as something more interactive (maybe just important pieces separated and not necessarily transitioned between or maybe have the choice of doing a video or some other multimodal-type piece. Overall, I enjoyed the opportunity to meet my community member and learn first-hand about refugees in a way that gave me much more of an understanding on their struggles than the news could/would ever.
12/5/16
Final Reflection
What did you see in the final reflections you reviewed today that you admire and want to emulate? How can you draw on those examples in your revisions to your Final Reflection?
I enjoyed seeing the different formats the class has chosen to display their reflection. Viewing other's work has helped to see what I like and don't like as options for my own piece. I liked simplistic designs but I realized places where I want to add more to my own reflection and work on connecting things more. I want to be sure my piece is easy to navigate for viewers. I want it to be clear when I move on to different topics but in a way that shows progression throughout.
What is your plan for moving forward with your final reflection? What do you still need to accomplish and how will you go about it?
I want to look at more of the class's reflections and see what else I could add to my own. I know that I need to work on connecting the learning objectives and tying in language, quotes, and examples from the readings and classwork. I want to focus on the flow of my piece and make sure it doesn't seem choppy or disorganized.