B/D game

I do believe that I have put a good amount of effort and work into trying to perfect the rhetorical analysis. I have spent more time rewriting sentences and shifting around quotes more than I did for the other papers that we had to do.

I do doubt, however, that I still put my best effort into the paper. There were times where I stuck in quotes that I didnt fully understand in order to lenghthen the paper, then had to go back and change them out with more sentences or diffferent quotes because they made the overall paper not make sense.

I feel my overall performance, howver, has been very good. I have gone to almost every class, and listened in depth to all the lectures and notes that have been given, and tried to incorporate them into my writing. The only things I belive that are left to be done for this paper are perfecting strcuture, and making a works cited.

Re: #OpKKK: Anonymous Unmasks KKK, Reveals Identities Of Prominent Members

I think anonymous is an interesting group, in reason because they do the dirty work everyone says should be done, but never actually gets done, especially when concerning topics on social media. They have had many campaigns I have supported, but these recent slacktivist act does not gain my full backing. I do not like how anonymous listed the address and phone numbers in their lists, but I do think they were right in publishing the names of politicians who are in the group. I also do not disagree with releasing just the names of the members themselves. I believe if someone is part of any group, and participates in it wholeheartedly, whether it be doctors without borders or the KKK, they should not hide behind a mask. If you are going to be part of a group that discriminates minorities, you should not hide your face while doing so. I do not however, have a problem with the KKK does because they have the right to assemble and organize protests and demonstrations; I just believe that it should not be behind a mask.

Microtheme Final Draft

Joshua O’Keefe

Dr. Kyburz

College Writing 2

13 October 2015

Slacktivism via Social Media

            I see posts every day on social media to promote causes such as feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, or helping refugees. This had me thinking a lot about whether people actually feel a sense of accomplishment or a connection to others or a cause when they share or like posts such as these. Just how successful are these posts in promoting the causes they detail?

            One consequence of social media news is people posting in order to promote or support a cause in order to form an identity of a person who cares. Posts of Syrian families in distress are making their rounds on social media, but it is often questioned whether these photos are seen of as real people, or another topic to make a status about.  This leads to another consequence of depersonalization from one another, as problems such as these are seen through a digital screen, which makes it difficult to form a physical connection with the post topic. This leads to a final consequence of the rarity of updates on social media as to what happens after these posts are made, and social media just tends to move onto the next injustice, without every really showing if liking, sharing, and spreading these posts makes a real life change to those effected.

            If we could think about why we post these activist posts, we would see that more personalization needs to be done, possibly through the poster relating the post to an event in their own life. If this happened, more would get more done than just hitting the like button and moving onto the next crisis while forgetting the last, and would begin to undo the dehumanization and depersonalization social media causes. 

Microtheme Draft #2

Joshua O’Keefe

Dr. Kyburz

College Writing 2

26 September 2015

Microtheme

            For followers of social media on sites such as Facebook and Twitter, seeing posts to promote causes such as feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, and helping refugees are a daily occurence. This had me thinking a lot about whether people actually feel a sense of accomplishment or a connection to others or a cause when they share or like posts such as these. In general, does online media dehumanize the causes and movements it promotes?

            One current example of this is the Syrian refugee crisis. Posts of Syrian children and families in distress are making their rounds on social media. I feel as though when people see these posts, they know it is a disgrace to mankind to let these atrocities take place, but do they actually see these photos are of real people, or another topic to make a status about? There are rarely updates as to what happens after these posts are made, and social media just tends to move onto the next injustice. We never find out if liking, sharing, and spreading these posts makes a difference, which leads me to believe that these posts dehumanize the people in them because we believe the amount of likes we get is making a change, but likes hardly ever correlate to change.

            This brings me to the conclusion that people, when they see these posts, they should put themselves in the shoes of the children and families in distress, or think about if their family was suffering as much as people in third world countries do. If they did, maybe we would get more done than just hitting the like button and moving onto the next crisis while forgetting the last and start to undo the dehumanization these posts cause. 

Microtheme

The topic I will be researching and discussing for my microtheme is Kony 2012. Kony 2012 is a viral video that reveals the horrible conditions children in Uganda are living in under the war lord, Joseph Kony. There are two reasons I chose this topic First, Kony 2012 is one of the first slacktivist movements. It was a Hollywood-style production video, that was so well made it received 21 million views in three days. in 2012, this did not happen often, even though it now happens almost every day in social media. I would like to research how this video was created, what it's actual goal was, and how it effected viral videos of today. The second reason I chose this topic is because, when this video first came out, I knew of it almost immediately like most other people, but never followed up on it, or found out what the outcome of the video was, which is now a social norm for viral videos and many slacktivist movements. I would also like to research how viral videos become famous so quickly, and whether this is good or bad, and whether the people featured in videos such as Kony 2012 are de-humanized, or feel non-existent because of videos like these.

Summary Reflection

What have I learned about summary writing in the past week?

Although I already knew the hard basics on how to write, and what should be included, in a summary, this past week has really shown me how to refine my summary writing. I learned that adding a ton of information and repetition of information does not necessarily make things more clear for the reader, and can also defeat the point of it being a summary, if it is too detailed. I also learned that you do not have to spell out all of the main characters, and what their purpose was, and that you should just highlight the actions of the very main characters, who are in the story the majority of the time. Finally, I learned not to infer what the central message of a documentary, or any medium, or try to get into the author's head. Instead I need to just explain exactly what the medium shows and physically says. 

Documentary Reflection

1.) What has been your experience with documentary films? Have you seen many? Why? Why not? Do you have a favorite? Why? 


I do not have much experience watching documentaries, because usually when I am watching a movie, I am usually with friends or family, and most people do not consider watching a documentary as something that is fun or interesting to watch. Although I have not seen many, I do overall like documentaries very much. This is because documentaries, most of the time, have one main subject and focus on that throughout, so you do not have to worry about multiple story lines, or figure out what symbols or messages mean. I also like how documentaries are usually simplified and directly tell you what they want you to take away from the film, unlike most conventional films where you have to find the meaning thru inferring and subtle clues. Documentaries are also good way to get out information about activist causes and raising awareness.


2.) How can using documentary films as subject matter for this course help you as a writer? Relate to things we have discussed, or add new ideas from your deep reflection.


Documentaries can get you thinking about things you never would have before or introduce you to new ideas or art forms. These new ideas will then resonate in your head and come into play while writing. For instance, if you were doing a paper on the effects early child labor has on adulthood, and you lived in the US, you would not have much to go off of in your real life experiences because child labor is illegal in the US (except on farmland). Therefore a documentary would help in such a case, because you could watch a film on the extensive use of child labor in third world countries, that would have been impossible for you to see or hear of, and with this new found knowledge, you would have much more information to write about in a paper and make an educated discussion out of it, instead of blindly making accusations, thinking no one will fact check it. 

3.) Assuming you have watched your film for the Documentary Project, tell us a bit about your response to it, adding some reflective writing on how watching the documentary will help you as a writer and communicator (aka "rhetor"). 


The documentary I watched was Super Size Me,  and I have a very negative outlook on fast food after watching it. As someone who eats fast food about twice a week, I have always wanted to watch Super Size Me to see what the long-term affects of eating fast food would do. Even though what Morgan Spurlock, the main character, did was very extreme, (eating McDonald's only for a month straight) it gives a good insight into what fast food does to the body. After just a few days, Spurlock's cholesterol and blood pressure were severely more high than they were at the beginning, before eating any fast food. His doctor even recommended he not continue with the experiment over health concerns. After seeing this film, I thought very differently about the way I eat and where I eat. I already rarely go to McDonald's, but now it will be very hard for me to go there again. I think documentaries would help me as a writer because they usually explain things in a very precise and coherent manner, in a language that anyone could understand. I could apply these attributes to my writing to make it more clear and concise. 



This video does not have to do with documentaries, but I do believe it fits in with the idea of slacktivism and raising awareness via the web.