In chapter 8 “Designing Arguments” multiple ways or organizing and presenting information were presented. These include decorum, integrating images, paper layout, abstracts, and visual arguments.

Before I can utilize any of those things, I must define my argument. Without a definite argument I am not able to persuade my audience. My writing style and way of presentation must cater to my audience as well, this way I am able to get the maximum results possible from my argument.

            This project is a “multimodal” project, so it will have multiple mediums of which we make our argument. We will be using at least a website, video, and text in this project. The main challenge is to organize the all the different components in a manner that is comprehensive and logical.

            With all those things considered, we must choose a decorum that fits our project. The middle style of decorum will most likely be best for us. It contains some ornamentation but it is informal enough to reach our audience. The writing style of a paper is very important but the actual paper layout is of importance also.

            The integration of images into our project must be done in a way that does not detract from the formality of the paper. You should include a caption on all photos so that you know what the image is about. In addition the paper component of our project will be MLA formatted.

            The abstract is a useful tool to express the whole project in a condensed form. You can choose to present the argument or not. The abstract can be very specific or it can be more general.

            Visual arguments are a crucial part of our project since our entire project is video based. We need to convey our message in a manner that is attention getting and informative. We can create and manipulate photos to get them to help our argument. The process of reusing goods is called remixing. Remixing is an important part of any modern non-original media project.

            If we are abel to combine all the aspects talked about in pages 169-189 then we should be able to produce a informative, concise, and captivating multi modal project.

How ones position in the world shapes how he or she might feel about identity, society and culture.

An Individuals position in world has a significant impact on how they view the world. Their views on identity, society, and culture are affected by how they live and what they see everyday. When an average American sees the pictures of disaster on the child’s poster on page 500 they are likely to not feel very strong emotions. This is because there is a true disconnect between our situations. A person seeing the poster is not being directly affected but a person who lives in that disaster area will certainly have some strong feelings about the incident. The photographer most likely tried to capture an image that would evoke some emotions and by doing that the photographer could have possibly missed truthfully reporting the event.

How a person reacts to different photos can reveal a lot about that person. If they respond strongly to an event happening far away, they might have some sort of tie to that place. If a person reacts negatively or in an annoyed manner when seeing the “99%” protesters in the streets of America you can deduce that the individual is not in favor of what that movement is doing.  How people react to and interpret photograph can show what type of person they are in many aspects. It can tell you whether they are liberal or conservative, have lot of money, or where they are from just to name a few. That is why it is very important for photographers and editors to know what their audience will respond to when choosing photos to run on the front page of a newspaper.

Annotated Bibliography

Andrew Todd

Mr. Stow

English 103

18 October 2011

Music Piracy: Annotated Bibliography

Blackburn, David. “On-line Piracy and Recorded Music Sales.” Ariel December 2 (2004): 1-42.

           

            This in depth analysis of file sharing provides me with a large amount of background info about the music industry at the time Napster became popular. The author is attempting to find the truth between two conflicting positions on file sharing. Mr. Blackburn took a rather neutral approach to the subject by using studies that have findings that both support and contradict the idea that online piracy negatively affects the music industry. Also, It contains several useful charts about the sales of the music industry.

Friedlander, Joshua, and Jonathan Lamy. "Illegal Downloading = Fewer Musicians." RIAA - Recording Industry Association of America. RIAA, 19 July 2010. Web. 17 Oct. 2011. <http://www.riaa.com/blog.php>.

This article is disproving the earlier findings of certain professors by showing a study that supports the articles argument. They tell why a certain study is inaccurate due to its data collection method. This source is rather biased since it is from the record industry, but they do bring up some good points to consider. I plan on using one of their charts to extrapolate information and their counterargument to support my thesis 

Giliespie, Nick. "Music Meltdown." Reason 35.7 (2003): 18. EBSCOhost. Web. 17 Oct. 2011. <http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost>.

            This brief article presents data about CD prices and record industry revenue. It features the opinions of two editorialists. Source should be rather unbiased seeing as how they are simply presenting data. Provides very useful data and few quotes that will contribute to my paper.

Kusek, David, and Gerd Leonhard. The Future of Music: Manifesto for the Digital Music Revolution. Boston: Berklee, 2005. Print.

            This source discusses the future of what music distribution will look like and how the record industry can capitalize on it.  They theorize that it will turn into monthly service much like a cable bill. Where consumers would have access to (in theory) a limitless amount of music in their home. Provides good information about the possible benefits of developing a good P2P file sharing system.

Liebowitz, Stan. "File Sharing: Creative Destruction or Just Plain Destruction?" Journal of Law and Economics 49.1 (2006): 1-28. SSRN. Web. 17 Oct. 2011. <http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=646943>.

            Liebowitz provides an extensive amount of information filesharing activity and record sales. A vast amount of background information on past copyright issues is also presented. He takes a very numerical based approach to his decisions, which tends to make it less biased. I will be able to use the great background work done by liebowitz to make sure my reader fully understands the issue I am writing about.

London, Eversheds. “Online piracy of recorded music.” Journal of Brand Management 11.2 (2003): 129-132.

           

            London’s comments on technology are a bit dated but his incite into legal matters are useful. The paper also talks about solutions that the industry could explore. He is basically summarizing the various aspects that contribute to online piracy. For my paper I can definitely use the viewpoint coming from England and his reader friendly summary of the issue is great.

Montoro-Pons, Juan, and Manuel Cuadrado-Garcia. "Digital Goods and the Effects of Copying: An Empirical Study of the Music Market." 14th International Confernce on Cultural Economics (2006): 1-19. Print.

            This paper provides a very theory based looked at the economic affects of piracy. Author makes the point that by breaking the copyright laws, incentive for both artists and record companies is dramatically decreased. His findings and theorizing conclude with him finding a substitution affect between downloading and purchasing of goods. His non data based approach will provide some good discussion material for my paper.

Pietz, Martin, and Patrick Waelbroeck. "Why the Music Industry May Gain from Free Downloading — The Role of Sampling." International Journal of Industrial Organization 24.5 (2005): 907-13. Science Direct. Web. 17 Oct. 2011. <http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167718705001682>.

            This paper focuses on the potential profits of the record company by allowing downloading and not allowing downloading. It claims that through sampling that the industry could stand to make more money by allowing music to be shared. It allows users to refine an albums utility to them, therefore making them more likely to purchase. Provides very insightful information into a position seen as illogical by the record companies

Pietz, Martin, and Patrick Waelbroeck. "The Effect of Internet Piracy on Music Sales: Cross-Section Evidence." Review of Economic Research on Copyright Issues 1.2 (2004): 71-79. SSRN. Web. 17 Oct. 2011. <http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1145904>.

This paper by Pietz and Wealbroeck used Macroeconomic data (not theory) to test the affects of piracy. The took a multi country sample and looked at things such as GDP, music “quality”, and other media substitutes. This time they found information to support the record industries claim that their sales are being affected negatively by file sharing. This contradicts Pietz other finding. More economic data to support my argument will be used.

"Submission to Hargreaves Review." Featured Artists Coalition. Mar. 2011. Web. 17 Oct. 2011. <http://www.featuredartistscoalition.com>.

            This paper submitted to the government in the UK is list of things this group of artists would like to see done to the copyright laws in the UK. Their points are very logical as far as fairness go, but they fail to provide substantial evidence as to how more money would be made. A collective of artists wrote the paper so it brings a good point of view to argument that is mainly argued by academics and lawyers. I will definitely use their prospective to provide an alternate point of view to my paper.

Sudip, Bhattacharjee, Lertwachara Kaveepan, Gopal Ram, and Marsden James. "Economic of Online Music." ICEC '03 Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Electronic Commerce (2003): 300-09. ACM Digital Library. Web. 17 Oct. 2011. <http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=948005.948045>.

             Article compares 5 different scenarios with varying styles of piracy and traditional sales options. It then compares the results to find the options best suited for the involved parties. It is a well developed study and its results should be unaffected by bias since it is numerically based. The large varieties of graphs and tables will provide a lot of great data for my paper.

Zentner, Alejandro. “Measuring the Effect of Online Music Piracy on Music Sales.” Knowledge Creation Diffusion Utilization (2004): 1-32. Mendeley. Web. 17 Oct. 2011.

< http://www.mendeley.com/research/measuring-effect-online-music-piracy-music-sales>

Provides an all encompassing look at the issue. Provides background data, empirical based results, and a thorough analysis of the data it presents. The statistical test it runs seem to be well designed and they are reported in fair way. The fact that this covers so much information in one document will be very useful for summarizing information.

Research Freewrite

The rapid expansion and improvement of technology over the past couple decades has changed many aspects of our lives. This includes how we get our media. The internet has enabled the sharing of music files through torrents and other downloading services. This has affected the music industry in various ways, many of which are negative.  In this paper I will analyze the affects of online piracy on the music industry. Record sales have been declining recently due to the increased availability of free music. Having all this music available for free lessens the importance of owning the CD, therefore hurting the industry from the ground up. Stores sell less, which means less money for labels, which in turn gives them less money to promote current artist and to sign new ones. Torrenting and other forms of online piracy have negatively affected the music industry by decreasing record sales and lowering the revenue of the labels.

            I will use a multitude of sources in order to strengthen my argument against piracy. I want to use CD sales information for data so that I may interpret it myself. Also, I will be looking for commentary on the subject from people familiar with the industry. Studies relating to the matter will also be used to further refine my opinion. The music industry usually puts out a yearly report on how the year went; it typically covers the affect of piracy on their sales; so I will be using that as well. I will also look at what the Featured Artist Coalition has to say about the issue, because they are artist who are for having more freedom over how their music is distributed. This will be a good counter point because they are a group of experts who disagree with me on the issue.

            A potential issue that could arise is that very recent sales numbers may not be available yet. Since I do not download music illegally there will not be any interference with my own behavior. I will need to fully refine and flush out my opinion on the issue since it has many layers that interlace with each other.

The effects of the digital age on the Music Industry

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1145904 - A 4 year examination of data to analyze the monetary losses due to digital piracy.

suffolk - discussion of the positives and the negatives of having all digital music instantly available to us in our home for a small monthly fee, much like water or gas.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167718705001682 - a counter point to my argument paper is trying to see benefits beyond the instant loss of funds. says record companies could possibly profit from free music.

gillespie - details growth of illegal activity and the proposal to decrease CD prices

poor sales - talking about how a #1 chart topper for nielson sold less then 50,000 copies in one week. which is extremely low.

Research Ideas

Demise of Hard Copy media and how it negatively affects the entertainment industry.

The rise of digitally downloading of music, movies, books, and other media has changed the way most of us get our entertainment. We are now able to get media instantly from our computer, often times it can be found for free. This wide availability has led to people, especially in my generation, to download music/movies illegally from various online services.  Without the revenue of physical and digital sales many record labels have seen a decrease in profits.  With less of a profit margin labels will tend to spend less money on signing new artist and promoting them.

Being a bi lingual person has multiple benefits related to business and personal life.

I would be looking into differences of people who speak only 1 language and those who speak multiple. The differences I would be looking to observe would be pay rate, position in company, how many times they have been fired/laid off, along with other aspects of their personal and professional life. I would argue that people who speak multiple languages are more valuable to companies then a person who can only speak 1 language.  Also, there are several benefits for mental health that come from being able to speak 2 languages.

Thesis

The visual elements of this photo make an effective appeal to every aspect of rhetoric, whether it is the official presence of the military, the emotion of mourning family members, or the way the photograph was taken.

Options for Paper

Blog #4 "Fat is an Advertising Issue"

In some cases, the title says it all. This article by Susie Orbach is certainly an example of that. In the paper titled “Fat is an Advertising Issue” she chronicles her journey to get the Dove campaign for real beauty put into action.  These ads were created with the tough job of changing how beauty is seen in our media reach culture.  Despite the success of this ad campaign, it has not majorly affected the way beauty is seen in our culture. This ad campaign was released about ten years ago and the vast majority of ads we see today still feature incredibly skinny girls and photoshopped images.

            The models seen in most of today’s ads still share the same basic characteristics of the models seen ten years ago; they’re tall, beautiful, and skinny. While some women are able to manipulate themselves to fit this contorted view of beauty, many are unable to reach this goal. This can leave them with low self-esteem and a poor body image. You can’t really blame them either, when you look at every magazine cover you either see a model or a celebrity who has been digitally altered in some way. On the rare occasion that someone is willing to do a photoshoot sans digital alteration, it becomes a huge story for whatever publication it involves. If our image of true beauty hade indeed changed, a pictorial of a woman without her make up would not be a front cover story.

            While Orbach did have the best intentions in mind, the ad campaign she helped create became nothing more then a small portion of the ads we are inundated with daily.  The ads that do portray beauty the way it should be are certainly a step in the right direction, but until these ads are able to have the same effectiveness of the now stereotypical clothing or beauty ad they will remain an oddity of the marketing world.

# image and thesis

By showing the POM bottle with the noose around it, the ad is trying to draw your attention to the beneficial ingredients of the drink. The Picture along with the large text saying “cheat death” alludes to the ability of the POM beverage to extend your life.

#2 images and rhetoric

Assignment: Find an image or an ad and rhetorically analyze it using the terms ethos, logos, pathos and kairos. Also, consider visual elements that aid the appeal. You can and should consider multiple interpretations of each appeal.

          The images we see everyday contain rhetorical devices, many times we do not notice them. They are subtly present in this image promoting Gillette and influence the way the product is perceived by the consumer.  The most straightforward of the rhetorical devices is definitely Logos.  This image uses the clean shaven faces of these very famous athletes to show how well their razor works. This is saying nothing more then “hey, our shavers work for these awesome people, they’ll work for you!” its basic reasoning that anyone can grasp.

            These faces are recognizable to almost anyone who has watched sports in the past few years; these three men are all elite athletes. Many people, especially young males, aspire to be like them. The same young men that idolize these athletes are the same ones who need to start shaving on a regular basis. The consumer thinks to themselves that these people are so good at what they do, they must use a good razor. It’s making a link between the credibility of these people being “ideal men” and the type of razor they use. Interestingly enough though, Tiger Woods has recently fallen out of the publics good opinion.  When this ad ran, Tiger was still VERY popular, so it was properly appealing to the audience. The marketing team had taken into account Kairos.  Once the scandal surrounding him broke out almost all ads featuring him were pulled. That is because he would have reflected negatively on a product. When ads are made, it is crucial for the marketing team to pay attention to the timing of their ad. If they don’t it could have the adverse affect of what was wanted.

            Besides from being instantly identifiable, the guys are also giving their best GQ pose. They are trying to look sleek and confident; while still maintaining the manliness that they are known for. This is somewhat of an emotional appeal; the ad is trying to say that a side affect of using this razor is being as confident as these guys. The image itself is also planned to get your attention, not only do you recognize these men, but the colors they are dressed in pop from the background color. That way you are focused on them, then they are in a triangular formation leading to where the razor is being held, effectively drawing your eyes to the product. The background colors (orange and white) are two of Gillette’s three main colors. The other is blue, which is barely visible in the razor. The color scheme alone is enough to convey the company to most people.   It’s amazing to think that all this information can be taken from an ad that doesn’t even have the company’s name on it.

#1 visual images and their effectiveness

Prompt: Think about what kind of visual images you see on a day to day basis. What kind of images do you see everyday? (ads, Facebook, newspaper, tv, computer etc.) How are these persuasive, what makes an image more effective or less effective?

From the moment we wake up we are being influenced by images all around us. My usual routine consists of turning on the phone, seeing what people posted on Facebook and twitter while I was asleep. Maybe I read about and see a quick picture of someone’s antics from the night before. They’re usually nothing to crazy, at least from a point of persuasion. Typically within 30 minutes of getting up I’ve either turned on the TV or visited my homepage (Yahoo!), this is when most people start to see the images distributed by the media and companies that are constantly trying to get your attention. The images are trying to suck you in; they’re just begging you to click that link to read the whole story or to view more photos. Images that have a sense of depth or perspective always seem to do the trick for me.

This picture was on the Yahoo front page today. I don’t typically read articles about NFL football, especially the lions, but this image intrigued me enough to click. The way the image is focused really makes the player stand out. Also, how the ball is just barely in front of his hands really makes this one an eye catcher.

With all of the global reporting going on these days there are a multitude of opportunities for a photographer to snap a picture that can convey the situation much better then words ever could. This picture shows raw emotion. It is extremely effective in showing what is going on in Libya. The rebels are visibly angry and even though this is a picture, it’s evident that everything is happening very fast in this particular situation. It defiantly showcases the events in Libya from the perspective of the rebels.

While these pictures vary greatly they are both very effective. One got me interested enough to read its respective article, and the other gave me a quick rundown on a current event.  With all the images we see daily, we tend to not think about the finer details of each one and how it impacts our daily viewing experience.

Credit for photos go to:

The Shutdown Corner, a sports blog on yahoo

The AP, www.ap.org