There are thousands and thousands of websites on the Internet, and every single one has a different message to their viewers. Each website wants their viewers to get something different from their website for example newspaper websites want as much information on their page for the reader to view, and shopping websites use pictures so viewers can see products. Websites each have a different design, and type of language so their reader will be able to navigate and use the website in the appropriate way.

One website that I often frequent is, www.gap.com. I work at the brand store, and every time I visit the website, I am very satisfied and find it easy to use and do what I want when I am on the website. After discussing the many different type of web designs and layouts, I noticed that the Gap website falls into two of the categories. When I first arrived at the Gap homepage, I found it to be designed as the ideal and real model. In The Language of New Media Design book it says, "Advertising has exploited the Ideal-Real principle frequently and to a great effect. Its function of selling..." (pg. 20). This fits perfectly with what I believe Gap is trying to accomplish on their homepage; they are a large brand and their homepage advertises their products in a way that makes me want to shop and find out more. The book also says that the logo is usually found in the top-left corner of the web page which is true with the Gap homepage, and the other store brands that Gap owns follow after it in the top heading. Like the example website from the book, "Koala page from Encarta," the task buttons are at the top as the ideal, and then a photo displaying some of their popular products is shown below. Gap's homepage is a good example of how the Ideal and Real models works, but once the viewer navigates away from the homepage, the model changes.

Once the viewer clicks on one of the items on the task bar such as women, men, or Gap kids, they are taken to a different page which is set up like the given and new model. From the book again it says that "the given and new model divides information into two halves, or 'poles,' which contrast with each other in one way or another" (pg. 15). This relates to the different sections of the Gap website because on one half is the product descriptions such as shirts, pants, dresses, etc. while the other half displays pictures that correlate with the description that the viewer is looking for. On the left side in the given, or the past information and on the right side in the new, or the present of future information. The Given side on the Gap website has the descriptions of the items which never changes so I think that information is in the past. On the right side is the products which either are in the stores right now, or will be coming out in the future. The given and new model works very well and helps the viewers shop easily on the Gap website.

I never knew how important it was for a website to pick a model and layout for their website. I realize now that the model has a great impact on the viewer and how they navigate through every website.

Google

While doing some research for one of my communication classes, I noticed that I was using Google a lot. I decided to analyze Google to see what kinds of structures the website uses. Structures and designs are used to organize content, but content still needs to be the most important part of a website. In “The Language of New Media Design,” the authors cite an analogy that describes the importance of content. They used the idea that says when an audience sees a theatre performance the actors want them to remember the acting and content of the play as opposed to just the costumes and design aspects of the performance (pg. 19).
Like most websites, google.com uses the given and new structure. In some ways this website is described perfectly by the textbook. While a person conducts a search on Google, the main navigation structure remains on the left side just as the textbook suggest (pg. 16). Also, the things that the user searches for come appear on the left side of the screen because once the user searches for it is considered “given.” Anything else that appears on the screen, like advertisements, show up on the right because those are “new” to the user.
Another structure that Google uses is similar to the given and new, but it is called the ideal and real structure. Instead of separating information from left to right, ideal and real separates information from top to bottom (pg. 20). A common practice in the ideal and real structure is to have the company logo in the top left corner (pg. 22). When a user goes directly to google.com the logo is centered at the top of the page, but once something is entered in the search box, the logo moves up to the top left. Although Google is mostly made up of text, whenever images appear they appear at the top which the textbook claims is another characteristic of the ideal and real structure (pg. 22).
The Google website is not the only website that uses these structures. The structures are like templates that are used by many web designers. The templates are good because it makes it easier for a person to navigate through the page since it is a familiar layout, but in a way templates are similar to the grid. With that being said, web designers should find ways to break out of the templates like publishers broke out of the grid.

Ideal and Real

I decided to analyze the Holiday Inn website because the past few days I have been researching about the Holiday Inn due to a potential opportunity at a Holiday Inn so I have been spending a bit of time perusing their website. Also they are trying to improve their image and now have a new logo along with other makeovers, so I thought it would be interesting to see if they have improved their website since they seem to be improving everything else. From my observations, I would classify the Holiday Inn website’s home page and an Ideal and Real model for several reasons, which I will explain below.

First, a primary characteristic of the Ideal and Real model is polarization that divides information into two contrasting halves. This is clear in the Holiday Inn website because it has a large banner with pictures and then below it the more detailed information is shown like a description of the change that is happening.

The Ideal portion of the website would be the general words at the top announcing reservations, offers, Holiday Inn experience, and priority club members these are all very general headings that indicate there is more detailed information behind. In addition, the large banner displaying the new sign and right below that are pictures of people with descriptive words underneath the small pictures that say things like “wake up recharge, relax, stay connected etc. again these are all general but fulfill the purpose of setting a tone for the website.

The Real portion of the website is shown in the bottom half of the website because it describes in detail how they have given their iconic logo a makeover. In addition, to the description’s right you can reserve a room. This side to side approach in the second half of the website could possibly also be see as the Given and New Model because the reservation half is the given and the description is the new because it’s telling you about the new changes that are happening. At the same time though the bottom half applies to the Ideal and Real because it’s much more specific and below at the very bottom of the page are more specific details like a phone number, about HIQ, site map, international locations etc.

In Summary, the Ideal and Real model goes from the general to specific in a polarization manner of dividing information. This model is evident in the Holiday Inn website’s home page.

Text Messaging

I recall getting my first cell phone and the salesperson said, “This phone has text messaging capabilities.” My parents didn’t really know what that meant and neither did I, but I shortly learned all about text messaging. In Wendy Warren Austin’s essay “Text Messaging: Rhetoric of a New Keypad,” she discusses the limitations to text messaging and also what makes it so appealing. The main limitation she discusses is the fact that each message can only hold about 160 characters per message (104). There is no question that the character restriction limits the context of the message, but there are ways around the limitation as well. If I have a longer message to type I just continue to type and send the message in multiple pieces. This used to be somewhat of an issue because the order of the messages could get jumbled in the sending process, but over time I think most companies have fixed those problems and now multiple messages send with ease.
Austin also brings up the point that many buttons need to be pushed for each and every word (104). I don’t know if she considers that to be a limitation because she later argues that once someone is comfortable with the keypad, they can type text messages quickly and efficiently. I consider myself an avid text messager. It took some time to get to know the keypad, but once I was familiar with it I preferred typing text messages to talking on the phone. Now, most phones have the T9 option, which guesses the word that is being spelt out so the person doesn’t have to push as many buttons.
Personally, I find text messaging convenient and simple. I know there are others who will argue with me. In her last short paragraph, Austin finishes her essay by writing in “text message speak.” I think the message is an over exaggeration of how people really type messages, but she bring up a good point. “Will text message speak and academic language overlap?” I don’t think it does, but it is important for text messagers to understand when it is acceptable to use “txt msge spEk” and when it is necessary to use academic language.

Hyperreal

Jean Baudrillard in his article titled “Hyperreal” makes the argument that our images are abstractions of reality.

Baudrillard says that today due to such devices like Photoshop and other image altering devices our view or sense of reality has changed. This sense of reality has changed because we make sense of reality through the image instead of viewing reality and then creating the image. I believe this is true especially in regards to how people view themselves and their body image. How often do we look to the celebrities or brand name fashions to determine how to look or how to dress? We look to the image to find out reality.

Another point that Baudrillard makes is that when reality does not line up to the image then we get frustrated because the promised outcome was not given. This reminded me again of the body image example because when we are told we should look a certain way and we do not then we are disappointed because we can’t live up to the expectation of the image.

Baudrillard say, “Reality no longer has the time to take on the appearance of reality. It no longer even surpasses fiction: it captures every dream even before it takes on the appearance of a dream” (340). I found this statement interesting and made me think about how even our dreams of the future or success etc. are filtered first through the image, so reality has no space to live so to speak.

I struggled with the argument put forth by Baudrillard, but at the same time, I can see how the reality of our society is shaped by the image rather than the other way around.

The Natural Attitide and Shelby Lee Adams

While reading “The natural attitude” by Norman Bryson it was easy to see that the chapter is very relative to what we are trying to figure out. What we are trying to figure out is whether or not images can really be considered real. The role of art can be seen as giving reality itself, but what is really true? As a culture, it seems like western society embraces the fact that images are just a substitute for reality. We settle for an image if we cannot experience the real thing. Yet at the same time, we are very judgmental about what art is and what it means. Bryson forces us to ask ourselves whether or not images are simply just a reflection back of what reality is.

Images have been around throughout history and have been seen as reflections of the world, but images also shape the world. They shape the world because we rely on images to produce reality. The realities images produce though are not always true. As people, we forget to look at what is really in the image, and we construct false ideas in our minds about where the images came from. We look at images and judge what is in the pictures for example the clothes someone is wearing and it gives us a superficial surface change. Photographs are an expression of the world that shows what is out there, that something may have happened at one time and that’s the way it was. Images though are something that is ever-changing, just like reality.

A real example of a debate over the reality is the work of Shelby Lee Adams. As a photographer, he has spent most of his life and career working on Appalachian family life photography. Debates have been made over whether or not he has depicted the Appalachia family life in the correct way. Some people believe that he has captured how the Appalachian people have lived their life and still live it, while other believes that he has made these photographs to look like something else that never happened. Imagery and photography is so hard to judge about whether or not it is true or real because only the people behind the lens or picture are the only ones who really felt and experienced it. Bryson asks a very challenging question of whether images capture reality, and it may never be able to be answered fairly.

The Natural Attitude

Norman Bryson’s essay, “The Natural Attitude”, made me think in a different way about how I view images. Before reading this essay, I believed that images were constructed to be a substitute for the real. After reading Bryson’s essay I second guessed my beliefs and wondered if images give us a sense of what reality should be as opposed to what it really is. I am trying to think back to a time when I saw an image and it reminded me of something I had previously seen. More often than not, images make me want something to happen. For example, when I see pictures of a landscape it is not like anything I have ever seen. I would love to see a beautiful city scene like starry night, but in my experience that scene isn’t reality; the image is constructing reality. The funny thing is, is that we as readers of images just instantly believe what the image is telling. We never question why something is the way it is. We just accept it.

I thought a lot about how style affects an image. He brings up the idea that style can be considered noise and distracts the reader from the purity of an image (28). That argument depends on what the reader believes the purpose of an image is. If the sole purpose of an image is to give a picture of reality then yes, style would be considered distracting. But, on the other hand, someone believes that an image constructs reality than style would an interesting take on what reality could be. The important thing that illustrators need to consider is, what does the audience want to see? Once that question is answered then the style can be added or taken away to form a perfect image. That is the role of art.

Ways of Seeing

John Berger in his chapter “Ways of Seeing” looks at different ways of seeing, and how what we see helps us to interpret different things. He shows how seeing comes before words. The images are the things that help us interpret culture. One aspect in the chapter that really stuck out to me was when he discussed how the camera changed people’s view of the centre of the world.

Instead of a painting being unique for where it resided and it could never been seen at more than one location, the camera changed this and made everything reproducible. Berger says in regards to this reproduction of the painting that, “as a result its meaning changes. Or, more exactly, its meaning multiplies and fragments into many meanings.” I found this statement interesting because copies of paintings do seem to downsize the original uniqueness of the painting and make it seem less important because we’ve seen it a billion times in copies. Berger goes on to say that another effect of the camera being able to reproduce is that “the meaning of the original work no longer lies in what it uniquely says but in what it uniquely is.” Today he says that the value is defined in the rarity and what profit it holds. The meaning is lost because the market value overrides everything else.

In conclusion, I think Berger makes a good point when he discusses the abilities for culture today to reproduce famous pieces of art and that they have lost a lot of their uniqueness and meaning. I found this chapter interesting and it made me think about a lot of things and just how I have become desensitized to the great meanings of famous artwork. I do tend to see them as a piece of property that is worth a lot of money rather than viewing them for their uniqueness and depth of meaning because I see replications of them everywhere.

Rhetoric of the Image

What makes an image? An image can be defined as an iconic mental representation, but the real question is, is any image a true representation of what it being pictured? Roland Barthes wrote an essay titled, “Rhetoric of the Image,” which challenges us to decide what imagism really is. Imagism has one primary goal of making the picture look real and show realism, but is the saying “what you see is what you get” always true? Barthes looks at what an image truly is, and whether or not text or images are more reliable to the audiences around the world.

Barthes discusses and shows how every image has three levels: the linguistic message, the coded iconic message, and the non-coded iconic message. All three of these levels combined will help the reader understand each image they view. The linguistic message of each image is basically what the audience sees. The colors, the items, the people; whatever is literally in the picture is the linguistic message. The coded and non-coded iconic messages are basically the opposite. The coded iconic is the connoted meaning, as well as the cultural associations that audiences may link to the image. All images are coded. The non-coded iconic is the denoted, literal, or dictionary meaning. Barthes wonders why even though images are supposed to be so good at giving reality, there is normally text captions or descriptions placed alongside an image. Whether it is coded or non-coded though, we all attach certain meanings to every image that we see. Images can be considered difficult because they have a lot of things going on. They are not always so easy to decode all the time and multiple meanings can be attached to any image. Text captions have developed so the audience doesn’t misjudge the image. The linguistic message also has more functions to an image than just the literal picture. The linguistic message acts as an anchor, by allowing the text to make sure the meaning is correct, and then the message is relayed to the audience in the appropriate way. Imagery is something that can be tricky because it is difficult to see whether an image is real or not.

This essay was really interesting to me. I often read magazines, and I saw how Barthes essay related. I looked at some magazines after reading this essay, and I applied the knowledge I learned and realized how true this information is. I thought the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words” also can be related to his essay. I liked this essay a lot and realized how much images can be taken into the wrong context because every audience is different and thinks different. Roland Barthes provided me with new ideas and insights about what makes an image true.

What is "digital" culture?

A new and intriguing idea known as “digital” culture is something that can be difficult to define. This new mode of reading and writing, publishing and distributing, and production and consumption though cannot be defined without the arguments of certain essay writers such as John Locke, Karl Marx, David Hume, Mark Poster, Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno, and Mark Amerika. Out of all of these writers, the oldest essay, “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding,” written in 1690 by John Locke is one of the most important because it lays out the beginning beliefs for specifically Enlightenment thinkers, but all other thinkers as well. Locke challenges previous beliefs and ideas by producing revolutionary ideas, and proves himself and his ideas worthy at the time.

During Locke’s time, there was an assumed belief that everyone is born into the world already having a full knowledge. Locke worried about the thought that we never asked the question, “why?” Locke was an intelligent man who presented the idea that our ideas actually come from experience. This idea was quite revolutionary at the time, be he provided evidence to show the fact that human beings do acquire ideas, and Locke shows us how in his essay.

According to Locke, experience can be broken down into two parts; sensation and reflection. In Locke’s essay, he believes the first part of experience is sensation. Sensation can be defined as the qualities that the five senses take in. Sensations are interactions with the world, and they are based on a relationship with an objective world. The sensation creates an immediate reaction for the human beings, and it affects the second part of experience which is reflection.

As the second part of experience, reflection is when a human being steps back to make sense of our sensations. A reflection would follow after a sensation and act as a learning encounter and an event which one might write about. As a sensation acts as a result of our senses, the reflection acts as a result of our minds. After a human being goes through a sensation and reflection, they then have had an experience. The outcome of an experience leads us to believe that what we know, we know is because of what we learned and experience.

John Locke was one of the first to challenge the belief that “men have native ideas and original characters stamped upon their minds in their very first being,” which he quoted in his essay. Locke, now, has proved that experience is the way that we acquire out ideas. Locke’s idea created and laid a foundation for other essay writers such as Marx and Poster to help the world define and understand the “digital” culture.

The Culture Industry as Mass Deception

Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno in their chapter on “The Culture Industry as Mass Deception” seek to show how digital culture today isn’t something new and unique but rather has become uniform in its character.

They argue that digital culture is a system of power that “impresses the same stamp on everything” (p. 1037). From films to the internet, the style may be different, but the substance is all the same. In essence, everyone is creating the same thing, but just going about it in a different way. There is a sense of unity that no one wants to break the knot that binds in fear of looking weird so to speak.

Digital culture the authors suggest is all about power over society and the effects of that power which in turn makes everything the same. The authors argue that no matter “how formalized the procedure is can be seen when the mechanically differentiated products prove to be all alike in the end” (p. 1038). This unity, this lack of spontaneity, this idea of wanting to fit into a box stifles production and publication because it completely erases and leaves no room for a person’s imagination. Horkheimer and Adorno state, “that which is expressed is subsumed through style into the dominant forms of generality, into the language of music, painting, or words, in the hope that it will be reconciled this with the ideas of true generality” (p. 1040). Nothing new and creative (i.e. painting like Picasso or Mozart’s music) is going to come from this form of digital technology that the authors discuss because everyone creates the same thing.

In the end, Horkheimer and Adorno, somewhat harshly send the message that digital culture is nothing but style while substance goes by the way side to conform to the social hierarchy established.