Multimodal Project

     The reading discussed many different ways that someone can use when presenting research. The different levels of decorum are mentioned and which situations are appropriate to use each one. This will help our group decide which type of language we should put in the presentation about our topic. Another thing the reading talked about was using images. It talked about having a purpose when using an image and how it can relate to what is being presented. Images should not just be put in to take up space. The images should have a purpose that helps them to rhetorically appeal to the audience. The reading goes on to later talk about an opinion advertisement. Opinion advertisements are similar to regular advertisements because they promote something, but instead of promoting a product they promote an opinion. In a way this is similar to what we will be doing with our multimodal project. We are not necessarily giving our opinion about something, but we are making people aware of an issue. We will primarily use videos and images to get our point across to the audience. A photo essay would probably be the best form of presenting our ideas to the audience. This would include text, but the images provide the basis for most of the arguments. The text explains the picture but only to a certain extent.
     The ideas of a photo essay will be used for out project, but it will be more visual than textual. A multimedia montage will be the optimal choice. It involves all kinds of modes of media to be used. I really liked reading about the multimedia montage because it gave me some ideas of what we could do for the project. I think our temporary plan is to have a slide show of a lot of different pictures for our topic with music playing in the background. The music will be relevant because the music will most likely be recognized by the audience. We will then transition to videos. These videos will sort of lighten the mood for the audience since animal cruelty can be a somewhat depressing topic to think about. But then we will move to giving examples of animal cruelty in the world, such as the Michael Vick scandal. We will then move to a more personal note and discuss how we personally feel about animal cruelty. Then to end the presentation, we will give ways for people to actually help fight against animal cruelty and how they can make a difference.

Perceptions of Society

In just about any given situation, many people will view it from differing perspectives. This is especially evident in events when people give eyewitness accounts of what happened. These people view the exact same thing, but they perceive it in different ways because of all the emotions that arise during the commotion of everything. A person's background or position to an event will cause him or her to perceive things differently.

One of the articles discussed the tsunami back in December 2004. One of the pictures used in many of the newspaper articles across the country was a picture of a mother crying over her dead children and in the background were pairs of children's feet covered by a white blanket. Most people that see this can assume that most, if not all, of those children are dead. People that are not from Thailand might see it as being just fine putting pictures of dead children from Thailand in the newspaper. However, people from Thailand might see that picture as being too much, just like someone from the United States might see it as being too much to be putting pictures of dead American children in newspapers here in America. It depends on where you are from on how you view many things in society, such as pictures in a newspaper.

This is situation is similar to the one with the picture of the fireman holding the small infant in his arms after the bombing in Oklahoma. Many people called in and thought it was unacceptable showing the picture of the presumed to be dead infant on the front pages of newspapers across the country. If it was an infant from another country, they probably would not see it as being as unacceptable. This just goes to show that where a person is from and his or her background shapes how he or she will perceive society around the world.

Annotated Bibliography

 

Jendrick, Nathan. Dunks, Doubles, Doping: How Steroids Are Killing American Athletics. Guilford, CT: The Lyons Press, 2006. Print.

This book gives an in-depth analysis of steroids and its role in sports. It gives examples of athletes that have been caught using steroids and the effects it has had on their careers. The book includes interviews with doctors and psychologists on why athletes use steroids. They discuss alternatives to steroids, such as sports psychology.

Carroll, Will. The Juice: The Real Story of Baseball's Drug Problems. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2005. Print.

This book discusses steroids and its role primarily in baseball. It talks about the history of steroids and how performance-enhancing drugs began. The book highlights how steroids work and the effects they can have on the body. This book also brings up the point on whether or not steroids rewrite the record books and if athletes found using steroids deserve the awards they have achieved.

Doherty, Allan. Steroids in Baseball. N.p., 2009. Web. 18 Oct 2011. <http://www.steroidsinbaseball.net/>.

This website gives a history of steroids in baseball. It talks about the different cases involving steroids throughout baseball. It also talks about how steroids have come over here from Germany, and then how it has integrated into American sports. The website also includes articles about the different cases involving steroids.

Jenkins, Chris. "Players Admit Steroids Changed Baseball." USA Today. (2005): n. page. Web. 18 Oct. 2011. <http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/2005-03-15-steroids-mlb-cover_x.htm>.

This article discusses players’ opinions on steroids in baseball. The players say that steroids give baseball a bad name, and the game needs to be cleaned up by taking steroids out of the picture. However, some players think that the steroid policy in baseball is strict enough. Later on in the article, players give their opinions on whether the accomplishments of players who have used steroids should be stripped.

McCallum, Jack. "Steroids in America: The Real Dope." Sports Illustrated. 03/11/2008: n. page. Web. 18 Oct. 2011. <http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/magazine/03/11/steroids1/index.html>.

This article discusses the idea that society is what has caused steroids to be used in sports. Sports reflect society, and since steroids are being used in sports, that says quite a bit about our society. The article goes on later to discuss how the hip-hop industry has been a major influence to steroids in our society. It also talks about kids getting involved in steroids and how dangerous it can be.

"Mitchell Report: Baseball Slow to React to Players' Steroid Use." ESPN. 12/14/2007: n. page. Web. 18 Oct. 2011. <http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3153509>.

This article discusses the big case of the Mitchell Report. It includes all the players that were caught using steroids. It gives a breakdown of the different teams included in the report and the number of players on those teams using steroids. The article then goes on to discuss the idea of the Hall of Fame and whether or not these players will be allowed in the Hall of Fame.

Schmidt, Michael S. "Risk, Reward, Steroids." New York Times. (2009): n. page. Web. 18 Oct. 2011. <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/12/sports/baseball/12steroids.html?pagewanted=all>.

This article discusses why some players got involved in the use of steroids. Some of these players, such as Troy Glaus, started using steroids to help get back on the field. He had been injured and began to use steroids to speed up the recovery process. The article also mentions the man that provided many of the players with steroids, and why he justified giving it to them.

"Steroids Sides Effects." Steroid.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Oct 2011. <http://www.steroid.com/steroids_side_effects.php>.

This article discusses all the effects steroids can have on a person. It lists the health problems that steroids can cause to someone, such as kidney problems and high blood pressure. It also talks about other effects that are not as unhealthy. Some of these effects are stunted growth and growth of excessive body hair.

Torre, Joe, and Tom Verducci. "The Man Who Warned Baseball About Steroids." Time Magazine. 02/23/2009: n. page. Web. 18 Oct. 2011.

This articles talks about Rick Helling and how he was the first person to bring up the rampant use of steroids in baseball. He was a pitcher for the Texas Rangers and noticed all of these players and their steroid use. The article mentions many instances that helped make Helling notice this steroid use. However, many people just blew him off and didn’t think much of it because things in baseball were going so well.

"List of Players Linked to Steroids and/or Human Growth Hormone." Baseball's Steroid Era. N.p., 08/09/2006. Web. 18 Oct 2011. <http://thesteroidera.blogspot.com/2006/08/list-of-steroid-hgh-users-in-baseball.html>.

This article lists all the different players involved in the steroid scandal. Some of these players admitted to using steroids, while others were found to have tested positive. It gives a short summary of every person involved in this scandal. These summaries include things such as why the player started using steroids, what he said when he confessed, and what drug was used. Players that were suspended and those in the Mitchell Report were also included in this article.

Tobin, R.G. "On the Potential of a Chemical Bonds: Possible Effects of Steroids on Home Run Production in Baseball." American Journal of Phyics. 76.1 (2008): 15-20. Web. 18 Oct. 2011. <http://scitation.aip.org/journals/doc/AJPIAS-ft/vol_76/iss_1/15_1.html>.

This article discusses the effects steroids have had on home run production. It first discusses what steroids do to someone’s body. It later discusses the effects it has had on the batters and why steroids cause more home runs. It then turns the attention to the pitchers and what steroids can do them. People rarely focus on the pitchers involved in steroids so this article mentions this towards the end.

"Anabolic Steroids and Sports: Winning at any Cost." New York State Department of Health. N.p., 10/2008. Web. 19 Oct 2011. <http://www.health.state.ny.us/publications/1210/>.

This article discusses why athletes begin to get involved in using steroids. Most athletes want to be the best, so they believe steroids will help them achieve this. It also discusses different supplements to steroids and the dangers those supplements are capable of. Lastly, this article outlines the different health risks steroids can cause, especially when athletes abuse these steroids. 

Research Freewrite

An ongoing debate throughout recent years is whether professional athletes get paid too much money. Many people claim that it is unfair for professional athletes to make more money than other occupations, such as teachers, military, police officers, and firemen. These other occupations play significant roles in our society and without them our society would not be what it is today. Therefore, people say professional athletes do not contribute much to our society so they should not be paid near as much. Other people argue that professional athletes help provide money to our economy with all the money that goes into professional sports and therefore deserve the amount of money they make. I am going to examine the negative effects that the high salaries of professional athletes has had on athletes and on sports. These negative effects include lockouts, increasing ticket prices, players going bankrupt, and more. My preliminary thesis is the high salaries of professional athletes have negatively affected sports and athletes.

Throughout my research, I want to look at the salaries of professional athletes in previous years and how they have increased throughout the century. I also want to find information on lockouts of different sports and how they were related to salaries. I want to find information on former athletes and where they stand financially after having a very large salary. I will attempt to find how these high salaries have had a negative impact on the fans. I need to find newspaper and magazine articles.

The most difficult part of this assignment would be finding opinions on why professional athletes do deserve a high salary. Almost everyone says athletes are paid too much, but there are very few people that say they deserve a high salary so this will be my most difficult task.

Research Paper Sources

http://blogs.payscale.com/ask_dr_salary/2007/06/pro_athletes_an.html

http://www.businessinsider.com/10-ways-sports-stars-destroy-their-finances-2009-9#

http://articles.cnn.com/2011-07-10/opinion/greene.football.basketball_1_owners-lockouts-athletes?_s=PM:OPINION

http://www.jstor.org/stable/3592783?seq=1

http://go.galegroup.com/ps/retrieve.do?sgHitCountType=None&sort=DA-SORT&inPS=true&prodId=AONE&userGroupName=clemson_itweb&tabID=T003&searchId=R1&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&contentSegment=&searchType=AdvancedSearchForm&currentPosition=1&contentSet=GALE%7CA20518001&&docId=GALE|A20518001&docType=GALE&role=

http://www.lexisnexis.com/hottopics/lnacademic/?shr=t&csi=8213&sr=HLEAD(Players+alienate+their+faithful+fans)+and+date+is+August,%202002

http://www.lexisnexis.com/hottopics/lnacademic/?shr=t&csi=152786&sr=HLEAD(Athletes%27+salaries+make+no+sense)+and+date+is+October,%202010

http://www.lexisnexis.com/hottopics/lnacademic/?shr=t&csi=8176&sr=HLEAD(Fans+pay+big+price+for+allure+of+stars+Ticket+costs+rising+as+free+agents+sign)+and+date+is+December,%202000

http://www.lexisnexis.com/hottopics/lnacademic/?shr=t&csi=144579&sr=HLEAD(Are+lockouts%2C+labor+wars+new+normal+in+sports+world%3F)+and+date+is+July,%202011

Research Topics

The first research topic that I am interested in is "Have the large salaries of professional athletes had a negative impact on the athletes or sport?" This question is very relevant in today's time because of all the lockouts that have occurred recently. The NFL was in a lockout for such a long time, and the NBA is currently in the middle of a lockout. Nowadays, the news always reports different athletes refusing to participate in a team's activities because they want more money or a better contract. It seems that the athletes have lost the love for the game the athletes of the past lived for. This topic is interesting to me because I love sports so it is definitely a topic that will not bore me. My argument in this topic is that I would say that the large salaries have impacted sports in a negative way over the past years.

The second research topic that I am interested in is "Should college football change to a playoff system?" When bowl season comes around every year, there is talk about changing to a playoff system for college football. It would be similar to that of the college basketball March Madness tournament but without as many teams. People always say there is controversy with the BCS system and how it calculates the winners, so moving to a playoff system would remove this problem. Like the previous topic, this topic relates to sports, which is why I would want to do it. This topic is an ongoing discussion in today's society so it is definitely a relevant topic. My argument would be that I do believe college football should move to a playoff system.

Either one of the topics would be a good choice for a research paper because of their relevancy in today's time. Both of these topics have a lot of information that could be used during the research.

Thesis

     This anti-smoking advertisement immediately grasps the attention of the audience by relating a cigarette to a lethal bullet in the sense of both being alternate forms of suicide, and it also appeals to the audience through the use of offering help with the phone number to aid smokers attempting to quit.

Image ideas

Women and Advertising

     Advertising has come a very long way over the years. Advertisements effectively appeal to viewers in many different ways, some of which include humor, famous celebrities or athletes, and gorgeous women. Almost everybody hears the saying "sex sells" at some point during his or her life. This is definitely one of the most effective tactics for advertising, however, this tactic can have drastic effects on females of all ages. Advertisements featuring beautiful women plant the idea in every female's head that they must look that way to be considered "normal" in today's world. Susie Orbach strongly opposes these sort of advertisements because of the negative effects they have on women. Working together, Dove and Susie Orbach successfully help to change the idea that not all women have to look like the ones pictured in advertisements in everyday life.

     In order to change society's view on women, Dove called in Susie Orbach to help them promote a new line of advertising. They used many techniques in order to get their point across. One of the effective techniques they used was the video of the daughters of the executives. These young girls talked about the things that they wish they could change about their bodies. The people watching that video easily could see how today's society molded these girls' thinking of how to be accepted. This strongly targeted the emotions of the people viewing the video because of how sad it is that girls so young felt the need to change their appearance to feel accepted. It is very mentally unhealthy for these young girls to be thinking this way. Many of them are still young and naive and should not be worried about how they look, but they cannot help but to do so because of all the advertisements they come across every day.
     Not only is it mentally unhealthy for females to constantly worry about their appearance, but it can also be physically unhealthy too. Many women believe the only way to look thinner is to not eat much food, which causes many to develop bad eating disorders. These eating disorders can, and most likely will, cause these females to start suffering with many health problems. Reducing the amount of advertisements containing all the beautiful women would most likely reduce the number of women that get involved in these eating disorders. There would be much less pressure on them to look like the women in the advertisements.
     Susie Orbach and Dove definitely made a significant change in the advertising industry of the world today but much more can still be done. By making advertisements that include women that are more like typical women in today's society definitely helps to improve self esteem of women everywhere. They would feel more comfortable with the way they look rather than being forced into thinking they need to have the perfect body to be considered beautiful. Dove's advertisements also got many more people involved in this issue. The more people to get involved, the better chance they will have at effectively changing advertising that we know today to picture more realistic and everyday people. This will not only help women out, but it will help improve society as a whole.

Apparel of Champions

The Nike advertisement featuring Dirk Nowitzki effectively grabs the attention of the audience in the sense that using Nike apparel helps to develop champions, and by giving facts about Dirk’s career, the advertisement also provides credibility to back up the Nike products.  

Is your child safe????

Companies and corporations will use many different tactics to appeal to all kinds of audiences. Advertisements that effectively use ethos, pathos, logos, and kairos will successfully appeal to the targeted audience.

The above image is a Michelin advertisement for its tires. Michelin does not bluntly come out and say that it has the best tires, but the phrase at the top of the advertisement helps to imply that it does. The phrase serves as an answer to someone asking, "Which tires should I buy?" Michelin answers by saying, "Michelin. Because so much is riding on your tires." The "so much" that the phrase refers to is your family, particularly young children. That means that children are worth way to much to be replaced, and therefore parents should pay strong attention to the type of tires on the car to protect the children.  Michelin effectively includes the appeal to pathos in this advertisement. When parents look at this advertisement, they immediately make a connection because the young child in the picture could be theirs. Parents always want to do anything they can to protect their children, and the best way to keep them safe in the car is equipping the car with Michelin tires. The advertisement clearly uses the appeal of logos as well. Obviously, the logical thing for parents to do is to protect their children. Parents know that they cannot protect their children from everything, but one thing they can control is the type of tires on the car. Therefore, using logical reasoning, parents should buy Michelin tires for their car to serve as the best way to protect their children on the road. The appeal to ethos is also evident in this advertisement. Since Michelin is such a well-known and respected company when it comes to tires, it does not have to explain why it has the best tires. The company has been around for such a long time that people know that Michelin clearly knows everything when it comes to tires. If Michelin says that using its tires is the best way to protect children in the car, then people, especially parents, will respect this claim without even questioning Michelin's authority. The targeted audience for this advertisement is a family that recently had a child, or a family in the process of buying a new car or tires. Therefore the kairos in this advertisement appeals to the families or parents in these particular situations.

When someone looks at this image, the first thing he sees is the baby. So if this person has a child or anticipates having children some day, then he can immediately connect with it. Also, the dark background strongly contrasts with the phrase at the top of the advertisement, which is the next thing that the audience will look at. After reading that, the reader most likely has a full grasp on what the advertisement is aiming for.

Visual Images Blog

Visual images basically consume the world around us. They are everywhere whether people notice them or not. Businesses and large corporations use this technique of visual images quite frequently in order to promote a new product or bring publicity to the company overall. Nike and other large athletic apparel corporations use professional athletes to appeal to people. Most people believe that since the best of the best athletes use, let's say, Nike running shoes, that they also should wear them to make them better athletes. This not only promotes Nike running shoes, but it also elevates the Nike brand name to a higher level since these famous athletes use their product. However, websites for social media also implement a considerable amount of visual images on their websites. Millions of people have a Facebook these days so putting ads on Facebook is an excellent way to appeal to numerous people. These Facebook ads might not appeal to everyone, but each ad is bound to appeal to someone. Ads on Facebook range from video games to apartments to online tax services and much more. There is no telling what someone might promote through the use of Facebook. TV is full of all kinds of ads. One way people make tv ads effective is to show them during times when many people are watching something, such as the Super Bowl. Ads during the Super Bowl appeal to such a larger audience than an ad on a normal day. Doritos does a great job at making catchy ads during the Super Bowl. 

Magazines such as the one above appeal to numerous people just from what is on the cover.