Literacy in Three Metaphors – Sylvia Scribner

Basically the article is saying that there are many definitions of the term literacy, each of which are different, and incomplete in some way. Sylvia has broken the definition down into three metaphors that when put together can become the definition of literacy, but when apart are not a complete defenition.

Literacy as a state of grace: Literacy gives intelectual meaning to a literate persons life, and fills it with knowledge of human kind.

Literacy as power: Literacy has always been used as a tool to seperate people into classes. The more elite are literate, while the poor etx are illiterate. It creates a social/economic standing.

Literacy as Adaption: Literacy allows you to adapt to regular life. It is important for jobs, going through town, grocery shopping. Basically everything you do in daily life in western culture involves literacy, and without it you will not adapt.

I think that the arrangement was such that Scribner seperated the different metaphors to teach us what they all meant seperately, but also brought it all together to conclude that one didn’t work as a deffinition alone, but only together! The invention of it is quite interesting, becuase I have never heard literacy being put in this way, but when you think about it, everything she is saying is extremely true.

Chapter 10 – Television Shapes the Soul

1. I beleive television has shaped my own sole in many ways. Television has such a strong influence on people, from ads to how we say people act on a show. Everyone watches tv shows, espescially those that are claimed to be ‘reality’ tv shows, and think “oh thats what im supposed to do and be like”. But really, reality tv shows are just as far from reality as every other show we watch. Nonetheless, television plays a large roler in shaping society and shaping people.

2. There are particular television shows that havent particularly shaped my development, but have influenced me in some direction. For example I watch Grey’s Anatomy and all of a sudden want to be a huge successful surgeon. This could develop me in a positive way making me want to go to school and work really hard to become a doctor. This is how television can develop people.

3. Other popular culture influences that play a role in shaping your soul or identity are those such as music, the radio, etx. We listen to music and it can inspire us, it can give us an impression of what is right or wrong. For example a music all sexually oriented might send out the message that being all permiscuous is acceptable and is the way people are now days.

4. I can’t say that I actually know what it means to be an American, because I am Canadian. This is an interesting question then for many reasons. From my point of view, and many Americans would not agree with this, Canada and America are compeletely different. I believe that Americans are much more success and goal oriented almost in a selfish way, always trying to search for more in their lives. This is a good thing because most people strive for success and America offers the means to reach it. But it is bad in that people are never quite satisfied with what they have. In Canada, I feel that life is way more relaxed. We work and get jobs so that we can support a life outside that job. The job is not our life it is just what we have to do to live the life we want. We are more family oriented and you hear many young adults in Canada exclaim that they can’t wait to get married and have kids, something that is diminishing in America.

Chapter 5 Readings

Disney’s Dolls – Kathi maio

1. The first animated Disney film that I ever saw was probably The Lion King, or Aladin. It was so long ago I can’t really remember, and I grew up with so many Disney movies that I am not quite sure which one I saw first. I was probably about 3 or 4 years old when I watched my frist Disney movie. This really shows how popular these films are and how much of an impact Diney has on childrens’ lives.

2. I do think if I were to rewatch a Disney movie right now I would interpret it differently, but only because I am older and understand more things now. I would think about it more, and not just see it in the simple way that a child views a movie. However, what would not change is how much I love these movies. That will never change, they are almost a part of me.

3. My favorite movies were Disney cartoon movies, and I also loved tv shows such as Arthur, Barney, Dragon Tales, and The Magic School Bus. I think these shows try to be neutral towards genders and races, but they can’t help but be stereotypical. They are childrens shows and therefor show the world as simply as possible, and by doing this they result in many stereotypes. Boys are bullies, girls with glasses are nerds. In Aladin the Arabic looking character is the bad guy(Jafar), while Aladin is more american looking and sounding and is the good guy.

Blog 8 – Reading a Video Text,” Budweiser commercial, Project IV proposals

“On Reading a Video Text”

Main Argument: Anything is possible, and a video commercial shows us what we really want in life and we like anything that is advertised in this way becuase it makes us believe that the product will help us get to what we want.

Key Terms: Inspiration – shows us what we want to see and makes us believe we can get there. Images – make us see what we want. Entertainment – video’s are more interesting than reading something.

Budweiser:The Rookie Umpire, 1982

Main Argument:  Umpire is the king of the game, Budweiser is the king of beer.

Song in the background is singing about you can make it etx, the umpire is a black man and its saying he can make it and is encouraging him. A guy from a less fortunate family is reaching his goals and becoming what he has always wanted to be.

Key Terms: Budweiser, baseball, umpire, player. The player buys the umpire a beer at the end showing respect and showing that he is the king of the game just like budweiser is the king of beers.

Blog 7 – Controversy by Kevin Phinney – Connecting to your Culture

1. The roots of the music I listen to are mainly struggling childhoods, lack of parents and exampls etx. For example, one of my favorite songs, and the one I also have to be writing about in project 3, Little Lion Man by the Mumford and Sons – its roots are from a bad childhood that lacked his father.

2. My Favorite artists’ main influences are always trying to explain the past and how it has effected their present lives. Also there are always a lot of influences on sex and relationships and such.

3. My favorite genres have a lot of influence on sex and relationships. During the 20’s, 40’s and 60’s the kind of messages that are being sent out in music today would never have been accepted. A relationship message back then would be as much as saying that they loved someone, where as now its all about who the singer finds attractive, who they want to have sex with etx. which would never have been sung about in earlier days.

Blog 6 – Music Analysis

Elvis Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel”

• Audience would mainly be people who were alive during Elvis times and experienced him
• Elvis is the author
• Its a concert, and he is trying to entertain his fans with signature hips, and its working because you can hear the screaming girls
• Not as appealing to men of the time, screaming girls are heard not screaming boys
• Reveals how different music was back them compared to music now – simple swing of hips gets crowd going crazy whereas now we are only overly impressed when people wear dresses made out of meat like lady gaga or if music videos have a lot of sexual appeal – eg people grinding up on each other.

Aretha Franklin “Respect”

• Empowering women – Respect!
• Trying to get a message across
• Black singer during a time when it wasnt as common for black people to be appreciated as much…
• Women love this song
• Reveal that it was still during the culture where men thought they could get what they want from women without showing any respect

The Buggles “Video killed the Radio Star”

• Brought about a new era of entertainmen – the music video
• Beat out radio
• Fulfills authors intentions becuase it is talking about the first music video and it is proving that there are music videos, becuase this song was the first video for mtv.
• Huge change in music

Arrested Development “Tennessee”

• Talking about being black and how hard it is to be black and live in society
• Everyone is messing up and giving him a bad reputation, and he hates that hes put down to that reputation as well
• Powerful to people of different race
• It makes the audience aware of struggles
• Reveals how the culture didn’t except people of color and what they had to go through becuase of such a culture

 

 

 

 

BLOG 5 – MLA Works Cited Exercise

1. Cornish, Edward. Futuring: the Exploration of the Future. Bethesda, Maryland: World Future Society, 2004.

2. Ulrich, Carmen Wong. “Stop Stressing Over Money-Now!” Health Apr. 2006: 126-28.

3. Greiner, Markus, Olaf Mandel, Tilman Esslinger, Theodor W. Hänsch, and Immanuel Bloch. “Quantum Phase Transition from a Superfluid to a Mott Insulator in an Ultracold Gas of Atoms.” 6867 (2003): 39-44.

4. “Childhood Obesity | Children’s Alliance.” Home | Children’s Alliance. 09 Feb. 2011. <http://www.childrensalliance.org/category/issues/childhood-obesity&gt;.

Project 2 ideas and questions!!!!!

Artifacts: 

• Rowing
• Boathouse
• Jenison – erg room, training room
• Smith Centre
• Jessssiiii

How are we supposed to write about this. Do you want a story about it and why it’s our artifact???? What do you mean by how people percieve our artifact? If it is an artifact to us, say a building, how would others percieve it, to them its just a building isn’t it?

Blog 2: Connecting to Your Culture/My Fathers Closet

I myself have never used clothing or a fashion trend as a form of rebellion, but I do understand why some might use it to rebel. Many use clothes as a way to rebel against their parents, and the boy in the story did this in a sense, but I really don’t think his intention was to rebel, it was more to express himself freely. I have, though, used clothes as a way to fit in and blend in with people my age. Like it or not, clothes play a huge role in life because they show personality and style, and the types of clothes you wear define who you are. Wear black eyeliner and all black and you are looked at funny, wear the latest pair of jeans and a lacoste shirt and you’ll be looked at with approval.

I’ve witnessed many people use fads or trends as a rebellion or conformity. All through highschool I watched the girls coming in new ‘dress to impress’, but they deffinitely weren’t trying to impress their parents or adults, they were trying to impress older boys and it was very clear by the tight low cut tops, and mini skirts. I had a very strong feeling that their parents had not willingly let them leave the house like this, and many young girls fight with their parents about what they wear because they want to have their own freedom and do what they want.

I do think clothing does achieve the goals of rebellion, of catching the eye of the older boy, and of looking like someone who is popular. Dress in the latest clothes and people will admire you, therefore: popular. Dress like a slut and the boys will notice you, therefore: catching the eye of the older boy. Dress in all black, changing after leaving the house, buying a certain top just to tick off your parents or school principle and you will be rebelling, therefore: rebellion. However rebellion is in the eye of the one who see’s from a person what they dont want to see. A parent see’s their daughter wearing short shorts and thinks she is rebelling, while the daughter is just trying to impress and has no intention of rebelling. However dress in all black, I think these people are trying to rebel against the impacts of culture and the impacts of others opinions.

Blog 1: First Project Ideas/In-class discussion

In my project im going to use an ad that most people of seen in the past couple months. I want to discuss how the contents have created so many different kinds of opinions, and how this shows just how influential advertisements are, but also how the response to one advertisement can be so different for so many different people. The advertisement I chose was the commercial with Sarah McLachlan, that shows a bunch of dogs and cats that are in shelters. The purpose of the commercial is to make the viewer see the animals and get emotional about their living conditions, so that the company who provided the commercial, BCSPCA, can encourage them to donate money in the form of adopting a pet. It reminds me a lot of the many commercials which show children from Africa you can ‘adopt’ by sending a dollar a day to support them. I feel like even though this commercial has had a lot of different responses, it certainly does help one become a more literate citizen because everyone who watches it becomes more aware of the standard of life for these animals. Just like the african commercials, we are learning more about the world, and I do believe that this proves how influential popular culture can be. Without TV, magazines, etx., we would not know nearly as much as we do the differences in the lives animals and people around the world live.

In class my partner and I analyzed an advertisement from a magazine of a new washer and dryer set sold at Lowes. The picture showed a very neat room with a washer and a dryer in it, and a women wearing blue jeans and a green shirt bending down to put something in. It was also branded by an “energy star” which shows the audience that it has been awarded the energy star title because it helps families save money and energy. We decided that the main person that this ad would be influential to would be a middle aged women or mother, most likely in the middle class, and probably had been raised in a western culture. Men would probably go right past this ad and head towards the pictures of power tools. Visually the ad shows a very neat and tidy room which might prove that this washer and dryer helps to keep things very clean. Also, the green on the womens shirt could remind people of money, and how much they would save with this energy saving washer and dryer set. Im assuming that this ad was found in a home magazine of some sort like homesense.