Group Activity: Account/interpret all modes utilized
in the slide about President Obama’s State of the Union Address
- Five
modes= linguistic, visual, spatial, gestural, and oral
o Linguistic=
·
The words on the chart/graph (title, stat
numbers, markers on chart, and hashtag on bottom of chart)
o Meanings:
hashtag encourages participation; the labels on the chart clarifies the visual
data
·
Obama’s words/ choice of words/speech itself
o Their
meaning conveys interpretation of the visual data on the chart; almost quoting
Visual=
·
Graph, which shows two contrasting lines with
different colors
·
Who the cameraman selects composes the visual of
the shot
Gestural=
·
Peoples’ body language and facial expressions; clapping or not clapping; standing or not standing; Biden
and Boehner’s facial expressions
·
Republicans are communicating through gesture
because they don’t have “the right to the podium at the moment”;
Aural=
·
Obama’s style or tone of delivery (slow and
tempered but optimistic); exclamations; clapping
Spatial=
·
Split screen, audience on left side and the
graph on the right
o This
is an important arrangement because people read from left to right, so we can
infer that what is shown on the right supports the left side of the slide
o Biden
on Obama’s left; Boehner on his right
Modal Ensembles
o All
modes happen for a reason
o Attend
to the meaning behind the modes
o What
are the relationship between the modes used?
Representation
of Modes:
-
Terms for multimodal composing are good terms
for modal ensemble
The class
related these terms to the modes used in the image of the State of the Union
Address and found the following:
o Redundant- Repeating words in the
address
o Complementary- Two modes operating
together can enhance the meaning behind the writing
o Supplementary- the graph/data
supplements Obama’s speech
o Juxtapositional- opinions;
clapping/scoffing; hope/disheartening; audience happy/audience unhappy
o Stage-setting- Obama meeting with leaders
Big
meaning(s) from the multimodal image=
o If
you were unknown to background knowledge, the image is communicating that the
data on the right is bad because of their facial expressions and gestures
o Looked
like a high school assembly because not interested, looking down
o Republicans
aren’t happy; uninterested
o Clear
that people are unhappy, but because we don’t know the background from the
image itself (in other words, the modes aren’t in full), it is unclear what
they are happy about
**Putting
modes together can create more complicated meanings
Kress “Gains and Losses”
-
Identifying a revolution
-
Page 6- modes of representation have shifted to
a more image based society; instead of books, people are more interested in
screens
Is there
a revolution? Or is he overstating?
-
Shift in medium (book to screen) challenges the
power of authority
o
Kress suggests that because of the “new”
revolution there is a shift in agency; readers decide all
Examples
o Book
from 1929 was the common communication; Now, writers have to choose what modes
to use based on who is reading
·
Writer communicated to the reader
·
Writer was most important
·
Author decides the agenda
·
Given order designed by the author and therefore
decides where the reader starts and where the reader stops
·
“Writer knows best”
·
Writer
dominates organization of words, context and content
o 2004
·
Writer and reader play equal role
·
Professor Craig gives example of Wikipedia as a
current multimodal writing
·
Open order
·
The reader picks what to learn and where his/her
knowledge starts and stops
·
21st
century theory is that everyone is different and reading for different readings
·
The reader designs their own reading path
*Kress notes that in a lot of ways people prefer written word and
some people prefer image; there is no longer a default and we now pick the mode
and medium apt for message/audience
In order
to understand Kress’s affordance theory, the class looked at an image and then
compared it to a written visual
-
Image of monk: Overwhelming, eyes first go to
the person on fire (in the middle); Scary, painful, disturbing
-
How fast to register image?
o Image
gives perspective to see everything at once; immediately present; we navigate
where to go from there
o Kress
uses kids drawing and science books for logic of the image
§
The logic of image
- Image evokes more emotion
·
Gain: provides background info
·
Gain/loss: Can choose how much you see and don’t
see
·
Loss: Less likely to believe it
·
Everything is a sequence in writing; gives
author power
*Gains and losses= each mode has a
strength and weakness
*Kress
has a problem with being overly focused with two modes; not a complete view of
multimodality
Class discussion:
Which do
we like better or find more useful, Writer/Designer
or Kress’s theory?
-
Textbook seemed easier to understand and easier
to apply; Kress was way too dense; Kress overcomplicates what he was trying to
say and at the same time he oversimplifies by only addressing two modes out of
five
Why is
Kress’s theory not new?
-
Adaption to writing technologies have always
occurred
-
There has always been a difference in people wanting
information fast without sequence and those who read/proceed in order
Class Tips:
- Use modal ensembles for project 1
- Office hours from 2-4 pm for any
questions about case studies/project 1
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