Watching this again, it is so blatantly obvious that I lost focus of my point just as I did in the paradigm shift paper. Instead of focusing on the new generation of younger people holding a cynical view of the media and political system in the United States there was still too much of a focus on The Daily Show which is derived from my the mistake I made in my paradigm shift paper.
With that out of the way in terms of the presentation of the speech itself, it is pretty clear that I started off nervous which is evident in the stuttering, repetition, and choppiness of my voice. As the presentation continued this got slightly better as I got more comfortable, but I definitely need to find a way to get comfortable quicker so that I can set the tone of my speech right off the bat. Speaking of tone, I felt as though I could have found a better tone as I was more of a soft spoken tone. By finding a better tone I also think it would resolve the time issue as well which was well over the five minute range.
Overall, this definitely was not my best speech but it does provide me with a lot of lessons to take away from and improve on so that in the future my speeches have more of an impact.
Topic: Satirical television entertainment, particularly The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Purpose: To take a deeper look into how Jon Stewart and The Daily Show helped create a new “breed” of individuals who can smell the media and politicians’ B.S. unlike any group seen before.
Thesis Statement: As Jon Stewart’s methodology of mocking politicians and the media became increasingly popular throughout the country amongst, impressionable, more educated younger viewers took particular interest in The Daily Show and thus a new generation of media consumers was born.
Introduction
Attention Strategy/
Orienting Material:
“A while ago around 2014 I was watching
Jon Stewart host his final episode of The
Daily Show and I couldn’t help but ask
myself, how? How could a man that looks
like (insert funny thing) use his unique
satire of the media and politicians to give
birth to a new generation of thinkers who
much like him that know how to smell the
b.s. of the world. I thought about this for a
while and I thought that the only thing Jon
Stewart could give birth to was something
That maybe looked like this (insert ugly
picture of Jon Oliver) or this (Stephen
Colbert ) or this (insert picture of Samantha
bee) or even this (insert picture of Trevor
Noah hosting The Daily show).
Short clip of Jon Stewart.
Body
Main Idea – Due to Stewart’s unique comedic style and methods of satirizing median and politicians The Daily Show was able to engage a younger people in the news.
Support: Stewart’s Ethos. How it is established
1) Specific Support: “To begin with, exposure to the show lowered trust in the media and the electoral process. This may be the result of Stewart’s tendency to highlight the absurdities of the political world…Stewart’s style of humor paints the complexities of politics as a function of the absurdity and incompetence of political elites, thus leading viewers to blame any lack of understanding not on themselves but on those who run the system. In presenting politics as the theater of the absurd, Stewart seemingly simplifies it.”
2) Specific Support: more people site Stewart as one of their favorite journalists
“While no individual journalist was named by more than 5%, Stewart was still volunteered by 2% of the American public.”
Support: Studies show that more and more young people are watching Stewart.
Specific Support: “Stewart also rises to the top among younger Americans, being named by 6% of those younger than 30 years old.”
Main Idea – The Daily Show has created a new generation of more informed and better educated young people through the Stewart’s style of satire Complete Sentence
Most of Stewart’s jokes and jokes on the show require viewers to be informed on the basic facts of the current news.
Specific Support: “In addition, The Daily Show not only assumes, but even requires, previous and significant knowledge of the news on the part of viewers if they want to get the joke.”
Support: The younger generations are watching the news to get informed on the basic information surrounding current events but then resorting to The Daily show for the “truth”
“The Daily Show performs a function that is close to journalistic in nature—getting people to think critically about the public square.”
“The survey also suggests Daily Show viewers are highly informed, and indication that The Daily Show is not their lone source of news. Regular viewers of The Daily Show and the Colbert Report were most likely to score in the highest percentile on knowledge of current affairs.”
“‘My students tell me they read the news for facts, but they watch Jon Stewart for the truth,’ Professor Steve Lacy of Michigan State University has observed.”
Main Idea – Reaching a younger audience that since become bored with “hard” news and re-focusing their attention on the issues in the media and politics through satire, Jon Stewart and The Daily Show have successfully created a new generation that have a special power, the power to smell all of the B.S. in the world around us. Complete Sentence
“The Daily Show is clearly impacting American dialogue. The audience numbers are significant, and its hold over a particular audience demographic of young people may magnify that influence even more … It could be that the show’s anti-Administration perspective has struck a chord.”
Look again at how Jon Stewart has “given birth” to this generation and specifically look at Trevor Noah
Conclusion
Concluding Remark – A closing statement; last words
In this column, offer brief slide description and its function alongside the idea it is intended to support.
Intro:
NEW YORK, NY – FEBRUARY 21: Stephen Colbert visits “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon” at Rockefeller Center on February 21, 2013 in New York City. (Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images)
Slide One
Side-by-side images of Oregon and Standing Rock protests to establish example of bias in government responses.
In 2012 Hurricane Sandy shocked the East coast by hitting New York City hard, even flooding Ground Zero. This was just six years after Al Gore made the controversial prediction that the downtown New York City, including the site of the 9/11 memorial, would flood as a result of rising sea levels and storm surge in his 2006 documentary An Inconvenient Truth. Although his prediction of these effects of climate change may not seem to be soundest, Gore also referenced a more notable and measurable effect of climate change; the melting of the North Polar ice cap by 40 percent its original size. This along with many other natural phenomena caused a variety of different groups to avidly fight for reform in climate change policy around the world. One of the most credible and active of these groups is the World Wildlife Fund or the WWF. In 2009 the Climate Change policy conversation around the globe was at its peak, the United Nations held their Climate Change Conference or the Copenhagen Summit with attendance from governments of nations all around the world. In the months prior to this conference the WWF came out with an “Emergency” ad campaign and a “9/11” advertisement in order to influence society to take notice of climate change effects and to urge them to take action. Although both the “Emergency” and “9/11” WWF ads invoke strong intrinsic proofs in conjunction with stylistic elements, the “Emergency” ad stresses the urgency of preventing climate change from accelerating whereas the “9/11” ad calls society’s attention not climate change to be as serious, if not more serious, of a threat as terrorism.
The WWF’s manipulates the power of intrinsic proofs accompanied by particular imagery to establish logical reasoning to support their claim about climate change in their “Emergency” ad. There are many logical reasons behind why acting quickly in an emergency is a vital part of our society, some of which include: preventing further damage from occurring, protecting the surroundings, and saving the lives of those involved. Evoking the power of logos, the ad suggests that since it is already a social norm to react quickly during emergency it would seem ridiculous to act slow or not at all. Furthermore, the WWF draws a connection between small scale emergencies, in terms of the number of people it affects, and the much larger scale crisis that is climate change. Despite the fact that the imagery in the ad helps the audience visualize this notion, what makes the reasoning clear is the statement “You can’t afford to be slow in an emergency. Act now for the planet” written in larger print to the right of WWF’s logo. This quote serves to allude to the fact that society is no stranger to identifying urgent situations and acting accordingly. Additionally, the second portion of the quote establishes the connection between emergencies and climate change through its call to action. Therefore, the WWF advises that climate change is the world’s emergency and instead of watching the destruction to the planet from a distance as a society, action should be taken sooner rather than later.
Although the WWF’s “9/11” ad offers a strong contrast to their “Emergency” ad as it compares the very serious threat of terrorism to climate change, their use of logos is still central in it urging of urging of the audience to consider the latter to be ever more serious than the former. Utilizing a juxtaposition of imagery with the quote in the top right corner the WWF provides powerful cultural context in comparing a terrorist attack to a tsunami. By depicting countless planes headed for The World Trade Center, the image implies there being a larger death toll if 9/11 involved dozens of hijacked planes. It is not until the audience’s attention is directed towards the quote “The planet is brutally powerful. Respect it. Preserve it” that they realize that this image is actually supposed to represent the death toll of the 2004 Asian Tsunami. The quote implicates the effects of climate change as being the cause of extreme natural disasters and, in turn demands that the audience respect and preserve the planet to avoid future disasters. Furthermore, this can be seen as an allusion to society’s comprehensive actions to prevent future terrorist attacks due to the amount of lives that our lost. This being the case the WWF reasons that it is only sensible to do the same for natural disasters, especially when the death tolls are much greater. Thus, the WWF uses this juxtaposition to elevate the exigence of climate change to the seriousness of terrorism and urge society to take the necessary actions in order prevent further, more severe adverse effects of climate change such as natural disasters.
As the polar opposite to the WWF’s “9/11” ad , the “Emergency” ad creatively and subtly implements an arsenal of visual elements in its structure that provocative commentary on the current state of the world as well as humanity’s selective attention to its surroundings in order to urge society to prevent the acceleration of climate change all while maintaining its effectiveness. The viewer’s attention is initially drawn to the picturesque sunset that illuminates nearly the entire image including the large, bright red coast guard boat on the left side of the image. That is, until we notice what is going on in the darker right side of the ad which portrays a ship slowly sinking along the outer edged of the sunset sending two flare into the sky that serve as its only source of lighting. The particular use of lighting reveals the tendency of society to focus on what is in the spotlight rather than the full image often right in front of them. What society chooses to pay attention, or chooses to put in the spotlight, depends on things such as issues on the pollical agenda; events that occur in the world; and how the media portrays such events. Often times, this selective attention comes down to what society feels that they affected or not affected by. This is precisely why the WWF uses the particular choice of imagery of emergency personnel in order to make their advertisement effective. Due to the fact that emergencies are common occurrences, there is a higher chance of the audience to have been affected by or know someone affected by an emergency in their life. Through this imagery, the WWF targets the audience’s emotions in order to provoke shock at the sight of an unusual image of first responders neglecting to act. Nonetheless, the WWF uses the choice of the bright red coast guard ship and the beautiful orangish-yellow sunset for an alternate purpose as well. The particular use of both of these images is to show that although, for the most part, things in the world and in nature may seem bright and beautiful, there is a dark and ugly truth about climate change that society continues to ignore which is represented by the sinking ship off in the distance. If this societal disregard for this truth’s presence continues, Earth’s fate may look much like that of the ship as it will sink into darkness that society may be unable to climb out of.
The distinctively controversial “9/11” ad portrays a horrific scene created by the particular manipulation of light and choice of imagery in order to convey their message about the seriousness of the effects of climate change. Applying dull and muted colors, the somber and dreary tone that the images of the actual events on September 11th conveyed. The WWF establishes these tones through their use of an image of a New-York City prior to the events of 9/11 with all of the colors drowned out by the gloomy blue skies and dark blue waters that engulf the photo. Although the colors themselves just establish the dreariness that is reminiscent of the emotions attached with 9/11, when combined with the imagery of countless airplanes all headed straight for the Twin Towers the image suddenly becomes horrifying. This depiction of the terrorist attacks on this day on a level completely in-conceivable to the audience is where the advertisement and the WWF capture the attention of their audience, in the wrong way. Due to this subject’s fragileness, especially only 8 years after the fact, the WWF’s manipulation of emotions in order to grasp the audience’s attention caused controversy to arise from their ad. Ultimately this choice of imagery used to provoke emotion and grasp the attention of the audience distracted from the purpose of the WWF ad, to illustrate the seriousness of climate change and its effects, as it instead surrounded the ad with controversy and subjected the WWF to intense criticism.
Even though the WWF’s “Emergency” ad and their “9/11” ad differ in their purposes as one calls the audience to act immediately in order to hinder the progress of climate change and the other attempts to elevate the exigence of climate change to the seriousness of terrorism. Both ads invoke intrinsic proofs and a variety of stylistic elements in order to support their respective purposes. Although the “9/11” ad proved to be ineffective in focusing the audience’s attention on climate change, both ads intend to influence society to take action to prevent what the WWF recognizes as the world’s largest issue unfolding before our very eyes. In order to have any chance at preserving the planet we must widen our perspectives beyond the spotlight and look at the whole picture because the Earth’s flares are calling us to look in the darkness, look into the truth of climate change. In fact the Earth has been calling society for years, but we invented voicemail. The Earth kept calling, but then we put it on hold. Now is the time to answer these calls; the time to act, because if we continue to ignore them they will continue to become louder and louder. Until, the Earth is silent.
Works Cited
Guggenheim, Davis, director. An Inconvenient Truth. Lawrence Bender Productions, 2006.
Sweeney, Mark. “WWF: 9/11 ad ‘should never have been made’.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 3 Sept. 2009, www.theguardian.com/media/2009/spe/03/wwf-911-tsunami-ad.
“WWF: Boat.” WWF Print Advert By Ogilvy: Boat | Ads of the World, Clios.com, 1 May 2009, adsoftheworld.com/media/print/wwf_boat_0.
Purpose: To provide insight and analysis regarding two WWF ads released in 2009.
Orienting Material: Climate change has been a huge issue throughout the world due to many factors, one of the largest being carbon emissions. These ads was released in 2009 which is around the precise time Climate Change or Global Warming became a popular issue in the United States but failed to remain at the top of our issues for long. Often varying in how much it is discussed in the media, in political debates, or in daily life; Climate Change has been a controversial topic that causes a lot of upstir when it does get its spotlight. The second ad also depicts a horrifying image of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 in New York City, New York. The attacks on the World Trade Center, The Pentagon, and Flight 93 made up the deadliest terrorist attack on US soil in history. All of these attacks involved the high jacking of planes by armed terrorists who intended on crashing them into multiple different targets including the World Trade Center and The Pentagon.
Although both the “Emergency” and “9/11” WWF ads implement the help of strong intrinsic proofs in conjunction with stylistic elements, the “Emergency” ad stresses the urgency of preventing climate change from accelerating whereas the “9/11” ad calls society’s attention not climate change to be as serious, if not more serious, of a threat as terrorism.
The WWF’s reasoning provokes the audience to think about the urgency of climate change and prompts them to take action to aid in halting its acceleration. The ad suggests that it is common to react quickly to emergencies in which human lives are at stake. Furthermore, the WWF draws a connection between small scale emergencies, in terms of the number of people it affects, to the much larger scale crisis that is, climate change. Although the imagery in the ad helps the audience visualize this notion, what makes the reasoning clear to the audience is the statement “You can’t afford to be slow in an emergency. Act now for the planet” written in large white print to the right of WWF’s logo. This not only informs the audience who the advertiser is and of their credibility, but also suggests that society is no stranger to identifying urgent situations and acting accordingly. Therefore, the WWF advises, we should be rushing to the scene of an emergency that effects the entire planet rather than just watching it unfold from a distance.
Although the WWF’s 9/11 ad contrasts extremely with the Emergency ad as it compares the very serious threat of terrorism to climate change, they still do this by implementing reasoning in order to urge the audience to consider the later to be as serious if not more serious than the former.
The WWF uses the imagery in conjunction with the quote in the top right corner to explain its line of reasoning in comparing a terrorist attack to a Tsunami.
By depicting multiple planes headed for The World Trade Center, the image implies there being a larger death toll if the 9/11 involved dozens of hijacked planes.
This implication is further used to depict what the death toll of the 2004 Asian Tsunamic looked like as it too effected and the continent as it crashed on to the mainland.
This reasoning implies also that just as terrorism is a serious threat to humanity, so is and nature and the damage our world is capable of causing. Therefore, the WWF argues, we must respect it and take it seriously just as seriously as we treat the threat of terrorism because it could have many other adverse effects if we fail to do so.
By creatively and subtly implementing an arsenal of visual elements in its structure, the advertisement provides provocative commentary on the current state of the world as well as humanity’s selective attention to its surroundings. The viewer’s attention is initially drawn to the picturesque sunset and the coast guard embracing the beautiful scenery in the foreground. That is until we notice what is going on in the darker, background of the ad which portrays a ship slowly sinking as it sends flares into the sky signaling one last cry for help. The particular use of lighting here shows how we initially pay attention to what is bright, visually appealing, and closer, the sunset, and that we fail to notice the ship sinking off in the distance. The WWF strategically uses this to reveal that as a society we choose to pay attention to what is in the spotlight or what is put directly in front of us. A multitude of reasons can contribute to this selective attention that has become one of the lesser known epidemics of modern society. Some of these reasons include but are not limited to: what issues are chosen to discuss politically; what the media reports; what events occur in the world; and how we discuss these events as a society. For all of these reasons, along with multiple other factors, humanity continues to neglect one of the worlds’ largest crises, climate change. Just recently for example, a string of hurricanes lined up one after another to terrorize The Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Texas, Florida, and caused damage to multiple more areas. As a society, these four hurricanes were scene as horrific natural disasters in which we recognized that many people lost their lives and many others lives were drastically affected. What has yet to be discussed by society is the human race’s possible effect on the weather events due to our contributions to climate change. The choice of visuals here is also vital in aiding the WWF in expressing their commentary on state of our planet and where it is headed if society continues to ignore climate change as a serious issue. With the use of a sunset to show natural, aesthetically pleasing image in the background of a bright orange Coast Guard ship the WWF comments on the state of our planet. Although at the moment everything may be seemingly beautiful and bright in nature, if we continue to ignore the truth about climate change that is right in front of us the Earth’s fate will be much like the fate of the ship off in the distance in a sense that we will sink into darkness that we will not be able to pull ourselves out of. This analogy is created by putting the ship in the dark background signifying the future of the Earth and the foreground representing society’s obliviousness to the urgency of the situation at hand.
Through their use of imagery, lighting and other stylistic elements within the 9/11 ad, the WWF portrays a horrific scene in order to convey the message that the effects of climate change such as tidal waves are un-imaginably horrifying.
WWF’s use of dull or muted colors a re-establishes the grim mood that the images of the actual September 11th acts conveyed.
The image of a pre-9/11 New York City with all the colors drowned out except for the gloomy blue skies and the dark blue waters that engulf the photo with their omniscient mood.
Although the images of the first plane on September 11 headed straight towards the North Tower are already horrific alone, the WWF introduces dozens more planes to the image as they are headed for both towers to convey just how un-imaginably horrifying the effects of climate change can be.
By taking an image like the image of the Twin Towers with a plane headed right for them, an image that is already an emotional depiction for millions of people, and intensifying it with the addition of dozens of other planes headed for the towers the WWF manipulates the emotions of the American people that are tied to this event in order for their message to catch the audience’s attention
Using this emotion further the WWF tries to get the audience to take their emotional pain and suffering that they relate to 9/11 and extend that to the natural disaster of a 2004 Asian Tsunami wave that killed hundreds of thousands of helpless people as it crashed into their country without warning.
Ultimately the imagery chosen by the WWF tells an interesting and controversial story as they attempt to compare the attacks of September 11 to a Tsunami and show just how horrifying a Tsunami is by evoking emotions from the audience with intense imagery that is all too familiar to them and un-speak ably horrifying.
The dominant ideology of the value of lives during an emergency, as represented by the imagery chosen, is applied to climate change as a whole.
Valuing lives during an emergency is dominant ideology that stems from the common that emergency personnel will act fast when called upon.
Therefore, when the imagery of an emergency rescue boat ignoring an emergency off in the distance to stop and take a picture of the sunset appears to be ridiculous to the audience.
This image almost causes the audience to disbelieve the realities of such an image due to the fact that this ideology is so dominant within society.
Therefore, the WWF manipulates this ideology and the audiences expected reaction as a result of this ideology to portray an image that would seem unrealistic when in fact it is what is going on in society right now as we all continue to ignore the urgency of climate change as it sinks our planet.
Taking advantage of society’s dominant ideology regarding terrorism as a threat the everyday lives of humanity following the events of September 11th, the WWF draws the comparison between the threat of terrorism and the threat of climate changes effects on the world around us.
The ad manipulates this ideology through their use of an imagery referencing one of the United States’ deadliest terror attacks assist in intertwining this ideology within their ad.
Due to the fact that a majority of American felt that terrorism was a serious threat to the way of life following the events of 9/11 the WWF tries to use this ideology and attempts to spread another separate ideology that climate change is a serious threat to humanity.
Again they do this through their use of the image of dozens of planes headed for The World Trade Center in order to compare the toll of 9/11 that shook the US to the core to the toll of a Tsunami that rocked Asia.
Purpose: The purpose of my speech is to offer analysis of a WWF advertisement regarding climate change.
Thesis Statement: The WWF stresses the urgency to prevent climate change from accelerating through their use of intrinsic proofs created by the comparison of a sinking ship to the global crisis, that is climate change.
Introduction
Attention Strategy: How will you begin this presentation in a way that appropriately garners audience attention? I will begin the presentation by showing the audience the left side of the advertisement alone and then pose a rhetorical question asking if there is anything wrong with the picture. This will serve as an attempt to prime the audience to think about the innocence of the image of members of the Coast Guard taking in the natural beauty of a sunset by taking a digital photo of it. This will help make the effect of the ad more memorable when it is shown in full. Once I zoom out of the blown up left side of the advertisement to reveal the rest of it which includes a sinking ship and the words “You can’t afford to be slow in an emergency. Act now on the planet” I will once more pose the same rhetorical question as before. Hopefully this will provoke thought from the audience and spark an interest in the rest of my speech regarding the advertisement and climate change.
Orienting Material: Climate change has been a huge issue throughout the world due to many factors, one of the largest being carbon emissions. This ad was released in 2009 which is around the precise time climate change became a popular issue in the United States, but failed to remain at the top of the world’s list of urgent issues for long. Often varying in how much it is discussed in the media, in political debates, or in daily life; climate change has been a controversial topic for many years that almost always causes a lot of commotion when it does get its spotlight. As the effects of climate change begin to make themselves clear and even intensify, society is running out of time to make a decision about its future.
Preview: Give us a brief synopsis of what we can expect to hear from you—main points
Reasoning of the advertisement.
What we choose to see vs what we ignore or have trouble seeing and how the ad hints to
If we value helping others in times of crisis, we should value helping the entire world during its crisis, that is climate change.
Style
Lighting
Image choices
Ideology
How it is established
Commonplace
Body
Main Idea – The WWF’s reasoning provokes the audience to think about the urgency of the climate change and to prompts them to take action to aid in halting climate change.
Support: The WWF reasons that it is common to react quickly to emergencies in which human lives are at stake which it compares to climate change.
Specific Support: The quote, “You can’t afford to be slow in an emergency. Act now for the planet”, stated in the ad suggests that society is no stranger to identifying urgent situations and acting accordingly. Therefore, we should be acting accordingly for the emergency that effects the planet, climate change.
Main Idea – The advertisement creatively and subtly implements an arsenal of visual elements in its structure in order to provide provocative commentary on the current state of the world as well as humanity’s selective attention to its surroundings.
Support: The viewer’s attention is initially drawn to the picturesque sunset and the coast guard embracing the beautiful scenery in the foreground. That is until we notice what is going on in the darker, background of the ad which portrays a ship slowly sinking as it sends flares into the sky. one last cry for help into the sky
Specific Support: The particular use of lighting here shows how we initially pay attention to what is bright, visually appealing, and closer, the sunset, and that we fail to notice the ship sinking off in the distance. The WWF strategically uses this to show that as a society we only pay attention to what is in the spotlight or what is put directly in front for us to pay attention to. Which can be due to multiple reasons such as what issues are chosen to discuss politically, what the media reports, and what events occur in the world.
Specific Support: The choice of visuals is vital in aiding the WWF in expressing their commentary on state of our planet and the where it is headed if society continues to ignore climate change as a serious issue. With the use of a sunset to show natural, aesthetically pleasing image in the background of a bright orange Coast Guard ship the WWF comments on the state of our planet. Although at the moment everything may be seemingly beautiful and bright in nature, if we continue to ignore the truth about climate change that is right in front of us the Earth’s fate will be much like the fate of the ship off in the distance in a sense that we will sink into darkness that we will not be able to pull ourselves out of. This analogy is created by putting the ship in the dark background signifying the future of the Earth and the foreground representing society’s obliviousness to the urgency of the situation at hand.
Main Idea – The dominant ideology of the value of lives during an emergency, as represented by the imagery chosen, is applied to climate change as a whole.
Support: The ideology that of the significance of human life during an emergency stems from the commonplace that emergency personnel will act fast when called upon.
In the ad, the WWF depicts a particularly unusual situation of an emergency boat failing to be urgent to go help those in need on a sinking ship. This image is not what society is used to seeing when they think of emergencies and first responders due to the ideologies and commonplaces that are in place today.
Conclusion
Summary Statement – Remind us of the main points you addressed: Through their implementation of reasoning, choice of imagery, and a dominant ideology the WWF calls upon its audience to act in response to the Earth’s call for help as environmental first responders.
Concluding Remark – Taking into account what the we know about WWF’s advertisement, take one last look at the add and ask yourself if you are going to continue to be slow to act in the biggest emergency in history.
Below are the final two advertisements that I decided to analyze for the Rhetorical Analysis speech and paper. I posted both photos, but are slightly pixelated. For the best photo quality use the links provided below each photo.
Initially when I started my search for artifacts I knew I wanted to look for something discussing climate change. Although both ads are WWF ads I found that they use very different appeals, but ultimately the same message that provokes the audience to stop and think about climate change.
In the vast world that is photography information regarding the topic is so abundant that it is often difficult to find what you need without falling down the internet rabbit hole. That is where Fstoppers comes in as the ultimate guide for photographers and videographers of all levels of skill and experience.
Fstoppers serves as a all-in-one source for anything related to photography with articles specializing in over 30 different categories ranging anywhere from Aerial photography to Photojournalism. Overall the website has a very simple, aesthetically appealing layout. Running across the top are all the tabs which include ‘Articles’, ‘Store’, ‘Community’, and ‘Groups’. The home page defaults to filter the articles so that the latest are shown first, but the user can choose a different arrangement of the articles from reviews to news and more. No matter which filter you choose a preview of the article will show up along with a thumb tab photo or video to draw your attention. Another eye catcher are the editor’s picks photos submitted by members of the Fstoppers community which are located in the upper right hand corner of the website. If there is such a thing as a good way to waste time, scrolling through these photos would be it. This is also a great feature of the website that serves more purpose then just being eye candy as it is a common meeting grounds for photographers to critique each other and find some inspiration for their next photo shoot. Ultimately this sense of community among photographers across the world is what keeps the content of the Fstoppers website so intriguing and rich.
The anatomy of a typical Fstoppers article may vary depending on the topic however most articles follow a very basic structure. This structure consists of a title with an accompanying photo representing the article over all. Following this is the actual articles which is in simple easy to read format. Often one article has many sub-topics of which they are separated by another title pertaining to an even more particular subject than the original title. Visual aids are definitely not scarce in your average Fstoppers article as there are often multiple photos and videos included. Overall each article is clear, informative and easy to comprehend.
When it comes to my own blog my biggest take away is from the huge input that Fstoppers gets from its community. Whether it is from photos and videos submitted to the website or just comments of photographers who felt that whatever article they read really helped them figure out all of their cameras purposes, the website seems to serve the photography community for the good of bettering it as a whole one article at a time. That is somewhat along the lines of why I chose to base my blog on story telling because I hope that maybe just one person can find more meaning in their life from the meaning I found in my life after hearing other people’s stories.
Fantasy fiction has always held a special place in my heart; from The Lord of The Rings to Harry Potter and just about everything in between. No matter what world I dive into, through novels or cinema, I always try to fully immerse myself almost until it becomes part of my own reality. When I heard that HBO had brought Game Of Thrones to television I, as well as millions of other people, was hooked. As each season passed the show grew rapidly and it was not long before fans took to the internet to discuss the show with those alike in online public forums. In recent years however, the fan base has grown so large and the plot has become so elaborate that the public forum alone has proven to be unsatisfactory for as a means of spreading knowledge and ideas about the show, thus Watchers On The Wall was born.
Watchers On The Wall is a Game Of Thrones themed website that serves as a public meeting ground for news, episode analysis, conspiracy theories and a whole lot more. As a whole Watchers On The Wall is well organized in terms of the layout of their website. There is very little time wasted navigating as all of the posts are in chronological order on the home page from the most recent down. One of my personal favorite features of the website is the “Lexicon” tab which references the abbreviations and terms that are commonly used which a relatively new reader may not pick up on. Another great feature of Watchers On The Wall is its ability to build a sense of community among fans who seek to bond with those who share this common interest. One of the ways they do this on the site is by including various forums focused on certain topics in the Game Of Thrones realm. While the public forums in past have proven to be consumed by the sheer amount of information and knowledge that is constantly being shared when they were just by themselves, they have also proven themselves worthy of a place where knowledge can be shared when they have a particular focus rather than one broad topic.
When Watchers On The Wall is looked at solely based on the blog posts readers instantly notice its exceptional analysis of episodes, theories, and vital plot points of Game Of Thrones and how they enrich the story as the story as a whole. Before they begin to analyze anything they first start by providing context to what is about to be analyzed whether it is the history, a character’s background, or just a conspiracy theory there is always context. With millions of fans of the show across the globe providing context is important in order to make sure that the audience is on the same page. Of course it is nearly impossible to get all of the show’s fans on the same page because there are various different interpretations of the meaning of a particular scene and what it entails for the story. Understanding this, Watchers On The Wall takes into account these different perspectives and tries to implement them while still providing a detailed analysis of the show and a sense of humor. By the end of each post the audience ultimately walks away with a better understanding of a piece of the story, the story as a whole, or occasionally the audience even discovers a new never before seen connection within the story.
For my own blog Watchers On The Wall has helped me take away a few key points that I want to focus on and achieve in order to effectively reach my audience. The first thing that I noticed was the attention to the context, because I am trying to tell personal stories context is everything. Without context the story either would not make complete sense or simply would not have the same effect on my audience as it would lack the ability to relate to my audience. Which brings me to my second focus, relating to the audience. I want the readers to be left feeling nostalgic about their own lives and the lessons they have learned about life through their stories. Finally all of this leads to one of the most important things that I aim to incorporate in my blog,which Watchers On The Wall does as a whole, a sense of community. I want my blog not to just be about people reading my stories in order to further understand life but I want them to use my stories as inspiration to find their own story and their own understanding of life and connect with others on a level they have never thought of before.
