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.
