Free Write 6

I first started my inquiry with a question that grabbed my attention and eventually helped me develop my thesis statement.  My initial question was: who controls public space during times of protest, riots and street performances.  This question made me think about all the different protests and reasons for protest that I have witnessed in my life.  I decided to focus on the protests and advertisements of PETA because they are so controversial.  Plus, I am an advocate for animal rights and hope to one day help stop all animal cruelty.  Because of my thought process and thinking I developed and changed my initial question into a thesis statement.  My thesis statement is now: how does PETA use public space to control consumer’s views about animal rights?  Additionally, I would like to see who mandates PETA’s use of public space during times of protest and advertisement viewings.

After some research I found out the PETA members have actually been involved in the slaughter of many animals.  I have read numerous articles which question that validity of PETA members for killing innocent animals and trying to dispose of the bodies.  I was really shocked to find out that a PETA member, who works hard to stop animal abuse/cruelty, would kill an animal.  Reading articles online have enabled me to find and uncover this research data.  I have also found, through a survey, that many people are against PETA’s protest and ads.  I was surprised to find this out because I believed that many people agreed with PETA and their actions.  I plan to conduct more surveys with alternate questions to try and develop more information.  I conduct my surveys through Facebook; it is the quickest and easiest way to get results.  Plus people tend to check their Facebook’s at least once a day so I get plenty of results.  These new findings have really allowed me to look deeper into my topic and understand that it has many different levels that I need to develop.

I would like to hopefully find the HBO documentary of PETA that I watched a few years ago. This documentary really will help me understand the history of PETA and some of the extreme protests that they have done.  After watching this video I hope to add some of the information into my paper and use it to my advantage.  In addition, I would also like to try and interview a PETA member one on one in the Syracuse area.  I have tried to look for a member but it has been really hard to find one.  I hope to continue the search and eventually I might be able to get a member to send me an email or talk to me on the phone.  I feel that it is really important to get a members opinion because they hold insiders information.

I feel like there are a few gaps in my research that lack personal opinion and real life examples.  I think that I will have the ability to fill in these gaps with my own personal experience and give my paper some emotion.  This will definitely help the reader stay interested and maybe even relate to my topic a little more.  I am not sure what you mean with questions number 5??

Evolving Thesis, animals are supposed to be saved by PETA, but does this mean that PETA members have the right to slaughter and kill.  Who is really an advocate for animal rights?

Free Write # 4

The first article that I discovered was titled, “Better dead than fed, PETA says.”  The author of the article was Debra J. Saunders, she is a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle and writes three columns every week.  Before that she worked for the Los Angeles Daily News and worked for advocacy groups supporting a Republican leader of the California State Assembly.  In addition, she has also written for the Wall Street Journal and Reader’s Digest.  Through this I discovered that she is considered a conservative, opposed to the War on Drugs and supports same-sex marriage.  For this article her work was published on SFGate.com, which is the website for the San Francisco Chronicle.  The SFC is a daily newspaper that is published by Frank J. Vega and is considered the largest newspaper in Northern California.  The publisher and newspaper in general have a lot of power because they have been around since 1865.  Plus there sources are credible because of their high reputation and the overall ability for them to grow into the second largest newspaper on the west coast. In addition, they have also won numerous awards including the Pulitzer Prize.  The San Francisco Chronicle has no affiliation with any other businesses, they are an independently run newspaper founded by two brothers over a hundred years ago.  Because of this, I believe that biases are kept to a minimum.  The primary audiences are people living in the San Francisco Bay area.  The demographics of the audience are mixed because of San Francisco’s large diverse population.  I think that the paper makes assumptions that the audience actually cares what the writers are saying.  I believe that the websites and newspapers main goal is to spread news and share information throughout Northern California.

The second article was titled, “PETA accuses lab of animal cruelty.”  This article was written by Kathy Benz and Michael McManus.  I wasn’t able to find any personal information for Benz, but I did discover that she was in a lawsuit during her time working for CNN.  I was able to find more information on McManus; he is an author of a paper entitled “Ethics and Religion.”  Through this I was able to uncover that he was a conservative and he doesn’t believe in same sex marriages, divorce or gun control. Through researching his background I was able to understand why McManus would be writing an article about PETA, animal cruelty.  The article was posted and published on the CNN website, CNN.com.  It is produced by many different producers and has a lot of authority because of the overall size and excellent history.  CNN is owned by Turner Broadcasting which is a Time Warner Company.  I think that because CNN is such a large conglomerate it has the tendency to form many biases.  Because of the overall size once a bias is formed, I would think that it would be very hard for it to be dispelled.  Plus there is no way that CNN can control every bias that is formed through there broadcasting, it is impossible.  CNN serves a global audience of millions of people with various ethnicity, race and class backgrounds.  I think that CNN assumes that all people that listen to the news go to them first.  This is because there slogan is, “The Worldwide Leader in News.”  I believe the overall purpose of CNN is to spread and share news all over the world, thus connecting millions of different people.

Conducting Primary Research – Interviewing

Interviewing

1.What do I want to discover?

Since my project is focused on PETA, an ethical group that wishes to banish animal cruelty.  I want to learn more about how they work and the actions they take to protect animals.  Most importantly I want to learn how they use public space and who allows them to conduct protests and advertisements.  Additionally, I want to develop an understanding of a bystander witnessing the protests of PETA.

2. How do I plan to discover it?

The interviewing and question process as a method of primary research.  I plan to set up interview questions that eliminate one word answers and that allow for an explanation.  I also plan to structure interview questions that are relevant and that will allow me get the best possible results.

3. Who am I going to talk to/observe/survey?

I am going to talk to PETA members, bystanders at a protest/ad viewing and random people on the quad.

4. How am I going to be able to gain access to these groups or individuals?

Through research and a forming connection with PETA members I will be able to gain access to the PETA events.  I plan on asking friends of friends who are members of PETA for some assistance in getting into events.  Also through phone conversations and emails I will gain valuable information.

5. What are my biases about this topic?

One bias that I have is that I believe PETA does a great job in stopping animal cruelty. To avoid my bias appearing in my final paper, I have to take another look at the people PETA is accusing of animal cruelty, and see if they are really being cruel to animals.

6.How can I make sure my biases are not reflected in my research methods?

By going into my primary research with an open mind, and allowing the research to do the talking not my own personal opinion.

7. What do I expect to discover?

I plan on discovering information that is valuable and that not a lot of people know about.  With my discoveries I plan on forming an interesting a noteworthy paper.

Free Write #2

Throughout this first half of the semester I really have enjoyed the study of signs in our surroundings.  I never took time to look around and observe my surroundings and study the signs that influence my daily life.  But after coming to WRT 205 class, I really came to appreciate my surroundings as a whole.  I now look at the world differently, occasionally I stop and think about signs I would have never thought about if I weren’t enrolled in WRT 205.  What I liked most was classifying different signs as indexes, icons and symbols.  Before this first half of WRT 205, I would just consider a sign to be a sign and nothing else.  But now I enjoy trying to classify signs and determining what type of sign they are. 

I really enjoyed working on the rhetorical analysis of the advertisements.  This really interested me because of all the information I was able to discover through the analysis.  I would have never known that you could gain so much information just by studying the visual semiotics of an advertisement. What I think also helped is the type of advertisement I chose, PETA.  PETA has always interested me, in their bold sayings and bold opinions they present to the public.  I feel that they are a very effective campaign that has a lot of notable support.  Also it helps that I am an animal lover, and enjoy spending time with my Labrador retriever.  I think that PETA advertisements would be a great project basis for my formal research paper.  They have many ads online that give tons of opportunities for rhetorical analysis.  I will have endless options when it comes to finding a wide variety of ads online.  But I also want to focus of documentaries made about PETA and the loyal supporters.  What many people don’t know is that PETA has loyal supporters who get arrested to promote the animal rights cause.  I want to try to include this into my research, I am sure the documentaries and protests will be a big help.  One of my potential research questions is, how does PETA shape public space by using rhetorical tactics to influence the public’s view of animal rights in our society?

I have particularly been attracted to the concept of exclusion in public space.  The article that helped spark my attention is the article by Flusty.  His article about public and private surveillance has really given me the desire to learn more about his views. I am a strong supporter for the arguments Flusty talks about in his article.  He is arguing the fact that L.A.’s influx of security cameras in certain areas is making a place he once enjoyed to live into redundant zones of oversight and property control. He believes that this threatens the free exchange of ideas happening within a progressive society. Flusty also goes on to state that people are building material barriers between individuals on the basis of wealth.

I am really interested how people use and take advantage of public space.  I really want to focus on the protests of PETA and see how they disrupt public space.  Some questions I have include, why does PETA have the right to protest and use advertisements that hurt other organizations?  Are their efforts successful? What is the general reaction of the people?  Should public space have boundaries and limitations to avoid protests and offensive ads?  I hope to answer these questions and many more while I am conducting my research.  Hopefully, these questions will lead to more questions and further my findings. 

I have narrowed my ideas down to one, which is the study of PETA.  I was initially thinking about studying the homeless people of Syracuse or studying the controversial video surveillance systems around the world.  But after close examination and a little research I have narrowed it down to PEAT. I look forward to developing my research and findings into a well organized formal paper.

Transgressive Pic Assignment

I located this sign in a secluded storage closet at my place of work, Goldstein Student Center south campus at Syracuse University.  One day when I was instructed to take out the garbage I came across this sign.  As I walked into the closet I dumped the garbage out and turned around to exit the room.  This was my first week at work so I was still trying to become accustomed to my surroundings.  That is when I saw the sign on the back of the door.  The room was depressing and it looked as though not many people ever entered it.  It smelt like rotten garbage and it was full of old recycling bins that looked to have been sitting there for ages.  This is probably why management didn’t take action in trying to take down the sign and put up a new one.  As I read the sign I noticed that two words were crossed out, but these two words changed the entire meaning of the sign.  I instantly thought that the person who crossed out the words was very clever and intuitive.  I wouldn’t consider this sign to be transgressive in nature, but since words were crossed out (meaning of sign changed), I do consider this sign to be transgressive.  I find it interesting how just crossing out two words can make a sign go from being a (symbol, icon or index) to being transgressive.  A transgressive sign means a sign that is in the wrong place and contradicts its surroundings.  Another example of this can be seen in the works of Bansky, when he wrote on the wall next to a security camera, “Who are you looking at.”  I believe that the employees of Goldstein Student Center have made this sign for the purpose of designating the storage room as a place to smoke.  Probably, they have been able to get away with smoking while on the job and they want to tell others they can do the same.  I feel that the community of the Goldstein Student Center (managers, students, employees, janitors and other people who visit) decide if the sign is transgressive or not.  I don’t believe any public uproar has occurred over this sign.  If there was I am sure management would have taken it down by now.  For this week’s research I wanted to take my own pictures and find a sign that is transgressive in my own life.  Sure I could have looked up a sign on Google images, but finding a sign in real life was a lot more appealing and interesting to me personally.  I look forward to studying transgressive semiotics in the future; I am really interested in this concentration of study.

Ad Assignment February 9, 2010

McDonalds Ad

(Click on link above to get to advertisemnt picture)

I choose this PETA advertisement about animal cruelty in McDonald’s because everyone is familiar with the McDonald’s franchise.  Almost everyone knows what a Big Mac is or has had a happy meal once in their life.  When we were children we all wanted to go to McDonald’s and get a happy meal so we could get the free toy inside.  Or we enjoyed playing in the McDonald’s   play area which included a giant pit of multi colored balls.  What many people don’t realize is the animal cruelty that goes along with the food production of the corporation.  PETA, who is generally known as having controversial ads, does a great job of marketing in this particular advertisement against McDonald’s.  They put a play on McDonald’s famous line, “I’m lovin’ it,” by changing the words to, “I’m hatin’ it McCruelty.”  Not only does this help catch the reader’s attention but it also helps define the interactive and represented participants.  The represented participants are the McDonald’s corporation and PETA.  Both these parties have different views, McDonald’s believes that their food is superior and PETA believes that the food production is horrific and people should stop supporting the franchises’ cause by not purchasing the food. The interactive participants are the people who view the ad, people like you and me.  After viewing the ad, I believe that modality plays an important role in helping people understand and internalize the meaning behind PETA’s efforts here.  Modality can be defined as the truth in the picture/sign as it relates to color saturation or uses of images.  What first stood out in this image are the trademark colors of McDonald’s, red and yellow.  Also the trademark golden arches with an upside down chicken hanging from beneath it.  This use of modality truly helped me make sense of the ad and understand its cause.  Next, I would classify this ad as an icon, index and symbol.  I believe it to be an icon because it looks like a real McDonald’s ad by having the trademark arches and colors.  This helps make the images relate back to its internal meaning as being against McDonald’s.  Also I have classified the ad as an index because of the upside down chicken and the direction it is pointing.  Because it is upside down it helps show that there is some animal cruelty involved.  I have also classified this ad as a symbol because it closely resembles the meaning behind it, which is a mock ad against McDonald’s.  Furthermore, this ad brings up many controversial issues that we have in society today.  Some of these issues bring up controversial questions that include but not limited too.   Is there a problem with animal cruelty and production?  Does McDonald’s have a greater problem than just animal cruelty, which is providing our nation the means of becoming obese?  What steps can we take to stop animal cruelty all together? This ad tries to control social behavior by being bold and smart.  They try to catch people’s attention and get them to change their ways.  Finally, in choosing this week’s ad for this assignment I wanted to pick an ad that had meaning and a stance behind it.  I didn’t want to choose something that just had some boring meaning behind it.  I wanted to pick something that was controversial and offered many different viewpoints and interactions among people in our class.  That is why I choose PETA; they do a very good job at being controversial and right up in your face.  And finally I choose McDonald’s because everyone knows about it and it is a part of your life whether you like it or not.

Community Surroundings Blog

1.     The first sign that I found was the private property sign.  I believe this sign to be a symbol because it represents  authority by being the color red and white.  Also it relates to the object thorough custom and law, which is a property of a symbol.  It makes you feel as though you need to stay away and not come any closer.  I found this sign outside of Shaw across the street, where usually people would walk through instead of going around to get to College Place.  Just recently the University put this sign up to help bring privacy to the nearby houses.  Also this sign brings with it authority because people are threatened with a punishment if they break the signs rule.

2.     The next sign I studied was the warning sign outside of the School of Information studies.  To me I believe that this sign is also a symbol because of the bold words “Warning Notice.”  It once again threatens the person reading the sign through custom and rule, which are properties of a symbol.  Also the sign gives warning to potential rule breakers who might think that loitering on campus is acceptable.  According to the sign these people will be prosecuted by SU police. 

3.     The third sign I studied was the caution sign outside of the men’s restroom in Schine Student Center.  To me this sign represents an icon and a symbol.  I believe it to be an icon because it depicts a person not being careful and slipping.  I consider it to be a symbol because of the bold yellow and red colors that help make it symbolic and show caution.  This sign helps bring the consequences to people who aren’t paying attention when the floor is wet.  It helps show that people need to slow down and be more aware of their surroundings.

Free Write #1

I grew up in small town located in northern New Jersey called Randolph.  Randolph is located approximately 45 minutes from New York City.  It is your typical suburb with town center, Main Street, shopping centers, restaurants and four different elementary schools.  The people in my town can be considered very active people.  Everyone plays an active role in the community, whether that is donating, coaching sports, organizing a charity event or helping clean up the town. In addition, the people in my town are very competitive in nature and spirit, especially when it comes to sports.  The most competitive sport is baseball, kids start at a young age in little league.  Heinsteins Park, located in the Ironia section of Randolph, is notoriously known as the little league headquarters.  The park is comprised of two little league fields, named “2a” and “2b”.  “2a” is known as the field where the really good players play, the kids who make the summer all-star team.  “2b” on the other hand, is known as the field that the scummy players get to play on.

You could easily tell by looking at the fields which one you would rather play on. “2a” has the nice infield grass, the groomed dirt, and the professional looking dugouts.  “2b” doesn’t even compare, it has an all dirt infield, no dugouts and players share equipment.  There is a lot of animosity between the players on which field they get to play on.  The player’s who get to play on field “2a”, showboat around and think they are the next MLB superstars.  The kids who play on “2b” wish they could one day play on the nice field.  They constantly strive to improve their skills so they could one day make it on the professional looking field.  Not only are the players competitive, the parents of the players are way worse.  They always put their children on a pedestal, believing that their child will be the next Babe Ruth.

Another aspect of my town that forms a type of segregation based on location is what elementary school you went too.  There are a total of four elementary schools; they are Ironia, Shongum, Fernbrook and Center Groove.  As an elementary school student there was a formed stereotype on what school you went too.  The Ironia kids were considered farm kids, the Fernbrook kids were considered poor/ghetto, the Fernbrook kids were considered rich and the Shongum kids were considered the jocks/athletes. Now as an elementary student I had no idea these stereotypes even existed, later that changed when I entered Randolph Middle School.  When I transitioned into middle school, I finally got to meet all the kids from the other schools and learn what each stereotype meant.

I was an Ironia kid and I couldn’t understand why I would be considered a farm kid.  It was definitely hard to adjust into a bigger middle school, when coming from such a small elementary school.  Your class goes from 150 to 400+ in one day, plus there was a lot of animosity between most students because of all the new faces. After a while everyone learned to adjust and make new friends and people were able to get along and coexist.  These are the people I eventually had seven years of school and eventually graduated High School with.  Now that I look back on it, the stereotypes really made no sense what so ever, they weren’t even true at all.

Roxbury the neighboring town of Randolph was our biggest rivalry in everything.  By using the word everything I mean, academics, sports (the biggest aspect), community service and overall town wellbeing/spirit.  The road leading into Roxbury was considered the most controversial part of town.  High School students from both towns would meet on this road.  Sometimes there would be fights and sometimes there would just be just trash talk.  This road was definitely patrolled by both town police because of such the heated rivalry.

High School sports were the biggest aspect of the rivalry, whether it is baseball, basketball, football, lacrosse, soccer or field hockey.  Each game grew huge crowds whenever it would be Randolph vs. Roxbury.  Each sporting venue whether it is at our home field or Roxbury’s home field was sacred grounds for both teams.  There were numerous fights between students over protecting their home school turf.  Looking back the rivalry was a good thing because it promoted competition and gave people the desire to do better.

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