This is a blog about my teaching, research and service with some occasional personal comments thrown in. These are my notes on a variety of topics. If you want to follow my blog posts on a specific topic, then see the Table of Contents in the right-hand column. While I try to work in the realm of facts, logic and moral absolutes, if there are any opinions expressed here, they are my own. -WilliamHartPhD
So, dehumanization of the enemy was done in the past all over the world. Does it still happen in the 21st century? That's the question that my co-author and I asked in our study of editorial cartoons of bin Laden and the Taliban after the events of 9/11.
In short, our study found that people (U.S. leaders and editorial cartoonist, in this case) continued to use the dehumanizing visual metaphors identified by Keen -- enemy-as-animal, enemy-as-barbarian, enemy-as-criminal, etc.
We closed our book chapter with the following important note.
Does this process of dehumanization continue today?
Why is it that during times of war people see the enemy of as animals, as monsters, as barbarians, as devil or death? Put differently, why do people dehumanize the enemy? What purpose does it serve?
Social psychologist Sam Keen offers some answers in his book and a doc based on the book. Here's the beginning of the doc. I'd encourage you to see the rest.
How do we dehumanize? Why do we dehumanize? Why do we make the enemy less than human?
According to Keen, there are a dozen or so common ways that the enemy is seen.
Enemy-as-Animal,
Enemy-as-Barbarian,
Enemy-as-Death,
Enemy-as-Enemy-of-God,
Enemy-as-Criminal,
Enemy-as-All-the-Same
etc.
Keen argues that the enemy is dehumanized because it justifies the killing of the enemy. If the enemy is not a civilized human like us, then, according to Keen, the guilt associated with killing then enemy is greatly lessened and killing is easier.
During World War II the Nazis dehumanized Jewish people. Notice the dehumanization of Jewish people in the Nazi propaganda film called the "Eternal Jews". Watch at least the first five minutes of the film. What was the purpose of this dehumanization of Jewish people?
Just in a 5 minute clip from about 13:45 to 18:37, what dehumanizing metaphors are used?
If you are interested, for more a detailed study of the dehumanizing metaphors used in The Eternal Jew, see:
Hassencahl F. & Hart, W. B. (March, 2013).A fantasy-theme analysis of Der Ewige Jude(The Eternal Jew): From WWII Nazi propaganda to YouTube today.A paper presented at the national Popular Culture Association convention, Washington, DC.
Note: See in relationship between dehumanizing an enemy in war time andracism?
Spot any dehumanization in the following U.S. training film from World War II?
The following is a 1945 World War II propaganda film released by the U.S. War Department entitled "Know Your Enemy: Japan" Who watched this film? What was the purpose of the film?
Quantitative research papers which use methods like experiments, surveys, and content analysis typically follow a certain format.
Quantitative research paper outline:
Introduction
Review of literature
Research question(s)/hypothesis
Methods
Results
Discussion
References
Rhetorical criticism papers usually take a different approach.
Writing the Rhetorical Criticism Essay (based on S.K. Foss)
Introduction
Identify artifact (or text to be studied), RQ, Contribution to Theory, Hint of Justification (why is it important to study?)
Description of the Artifact
Text, Context & Justification
Description of the Unit of Analysis
What specifically about the text is being studied?
Determined by method
Report of the Findings of the Analysis
Bulk of the essay
Organization determined by method
Contributing to Answering the Research Question
Answer RQ, implications of research results, significance of research results
References
In the introduction the author identifies the artifact or text being studied (e.g., a TV commercial) and indicates research questions (RQs) they want to answer (e.g., what words or phrases are used and what role do they play in persuading?). The author would also indicate how their study adds to previously developed theory and also give some indication of why their study is important.
In the description of the artifact (or text), the author would describe the details about the text (who, what, where, when, etc.). There is no analysis yet, just the facts about the text. The author would also provide some context for the text. For example, if an author were analyzing a protest song of the 1960s, the author would want to provide description of what was happening in U.S. society at the time (Vietnam War, assassinations, civil rights, etc.). The author would elaborate more on why their research, their paper is important. That is, give justification for why their work should be read.
In the description of the unit of analysis, the author indicates what specific aspect of the text will be studied. For example, a researcher studying a presidential debate may just focus on the nonverbal aspects of the debate.
The author then spends most of the essay going through their analysis detail by detail from the beginning of the text to the end.
After a detailed analysis, the author closes by offering an answer to the initial research question(s), talks about what their findings mean for future research and stresses the importance of their research.
If you did some rhetorical criticism on a song or a set of songs that you especially like, what would they be and what do you think you'd find?
What would a rhetorical criticism paper look like for Rihanna's song/video American Oxygen?
Why is it that during times of war people see the enemy of as animals, as monsters, as barbarians, as devil or death? Put differently, why do people dehumanize the enemy? What purpose does it serve?
Social psychologist Sam Keen offers some answers in his book and a doc based on the book. Here's the beginning of the doc. I'd encourage you to see the rest.
How do we dehumanize? Why do we dehumanize? Why do we make the enemy less than human?
According to Keen, there are a dozen or so common ways that the enemy is seen.
Enemy-as-Animal,
Enemy-as-Barbarian,
Enemy-as-Death,
Enemy-as-Enemy-of-God,
Enemy-as-Criminal,
Enemy-as-All-the-Same
etc.
Keen argues that the enemy is dehumanized because it justifies the killing of the enemy. If the enemy is not a civilized human like us, then, according to Keen, the guilt associated with killing then enemy is greatly lessened and killing is easier.
During World War II the Nazis dehumanized Jewish people. Notice the dehumanization of Jewish people in the Nazi propaganda film called the "Eternal Jews". Watch at least the first five minutes of the film. What was the purpose of this dehumanization of Jewish people?
Just in a 5 minute clip from about 13:45 to 18:37, what dehumanizing metaphors are used?
If you are interested, for more a detailed study of the dehumanizing metaphors used in The Eternal Jew, see:
Hassencahl F. & Hart, W. B. (March, 2013).A fantasy-theme analysis of Der Ewige Jude(The Eternal Jew): From WWII Nazi propaganda to YouTube today.A paper presented at the national Popular Culture Association convention, Washington, DC.
Note: See in relationship between dehumanizing an enemy in war time andracism?
Spot any dehumanization in the following U.S. training film from World War II?
The following is a 1945 World War II propaganda film released by the U.S. War Department entitled "Know Your Enemy: Japan" Who watched this film? What was the purpose of the film?
So, dehumanization of the enemy was done in the past all over the world. Does it still happen in the 21st century? That's the question that my co-author and I asked in our study of editorial cartoons of bin Laden and the Taliban after the events of 9/11.
The study began with the observation of the way that President Bush talked about the enemy and how editorial cartoonists subsequently depicted the Taliban and bin Laden.
In short, our study found that people (U.S. leaders and editorial cartoonist, in this case) continued to use the dehumanizing visual metaphors identified by Keen -- enemy-as-animal, enemy-as-barbarian, enemy-as-criminal, etc.
We closed our book chapter with the following important note.
We've discussed previously experiments and surveys as research methods. Here's a third research method, a third way to answer some research questions. In experiments you study subjects. In surveys you study respondents. What do you study in textual analysis?
What is textual analysis?
“A research method that uses measurement techniques to classify and evaluate the characteristics of spoken, written, artistic, and electronic documents”(FBFK).
What are the various types of texts analyzed in textual analysis? What is a text?
Written --letters, diaries, transcriptions, books, tweets, newspaper articles, etc.
Audio -- conversations, lyrics, etc.
Visual -- paintings, photographs, architecture, etc.
Broadcasts -- film scripts, news casts, etc.
Texts are the communication media which carry meaning.
Question: What is not a text?
Two important types of textual analysis: rhetorical criticism and content analysis relevant to mass media.
classical rhetoric: focus on the oral persuasive acts in the context of government. Aristotelian in focus…ethos, pathos, logos, etc.
Credibility, emotional appeal, evidence/reasoning
Watch or listen to a famous speech. How would you judge the rhetoric? Was it persuasive? Why? How?
contemporary rhetorical criticism: broader perspective -- includes verbal and nonverbal, face-to-face and mediated, not just politics
What is content analysis and how is it conducted?
Content Analysis
“a research technique for making inferences by systematically identifying specified characteristics in a text”(FBFK).
Steps in using this method…
1. Select text(s)
2. Unit of Analysis (what specifically are you going to study? Example: specific words, parts of an image, etc.
3. Categories… put into nominal categories
4. Coding … analyze text
5. Summarize
What does Friedman mean when he says the world is flat?
What are the 3 eras of globalization according to Friedman?
How does this connect with our earlier coverage of globalization?
Is Friedman right? Pankaj Ghemawat: Actually, the world isn't flat.
Key terms: globalization, social media, anti-globalization movement, What is globaloney? How is Ghemawat using the term?
In the past this term referred to an unrealistic foreign policy or global outlook. That fits Ghemawat's usage, but Ghemawat is more specific. How? See 'globaloney' definitions below.
Other than helping individuals to communicate, what grander social role does the Internet play?
For example, the Internet can be used to speak to power and cause social change. In the quote below McPhail notes the role blogs played in challenging power in 2002.
Quote originally taken from 2nd edition of Global Communication.
So, in the United States the Internet can be used to speak to power, but what about in other countries. For the Internet to play a strong role, there would need to be a substantial amount of Internet users in a country. What sort of growth is there for Internet use around the world? According to McPhail (2nd edition),
Quote originally taken from 2nd edition of Global Communication.
The 3rd edition of McPhail has some interesting, updated numbers. What changes do you note?
So, Internet use is certainly on the rise around the world, more so in some countries than in others.
------
On the world stage, the Internet, specifically social media, has been credited with building revolutions in countries and bringing down dictators.
Take for example, protests in the former-Soviet republic of Moldova in 2009. It was called "Moldova’s Twitter Revolution."
More recently though, when one thinks of social media and revolution, one thinks of the Arab Spring. The Arab Spring is "a revolutionary wave of demonstrations and protests occurring in the Arab world that began on Saturday, 18 December 2010."
A Map of Arab Spring Countries
(Image used under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0, image created by Kwamikagami)
Countries highlighted in black are countries in which the government was overthrown. From left to right the countries are Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and Yemen. Countries highlighted in other colors are countries in which some protesting occurred.
For a sense of the role social media played in Tunisia, see the following news clip.
What exactly did social media do Tunisia? What was the role of social media?
Let's move from a specific example to a broader discussion about the role of social media has played in the Arab Spring. Some say that social media is insignificant and others say social media play a few important roles in revolution. What are both sides of the argument and what are the arguments on both sides. Why, for example, would some say "no, social media doesn't play a role"? To help answer these questions see the Zuckerman video below.
See specifically the presentation from 4:45 to 8:45 and the remainder if interested.
Note: Zuckerman is co-founded international blogging community Global Voices. Check it out of you are interested.
Think of the Internet as the hardware and the World Wide Web as the software that runs on the Internet. The Web is not the hardware. It is collection of interconnected web pages that exist on the Internet.
Now, how did the Internet evolve as a medium of communication from email in the late '60 and early '70s to the web-based communication tools that we have today?
Update to Zuckerman video:
If we can think of the 1990s as the decade of the World Wide Web (web pages, blogs, etc.), we can think of 2000-2010 as the decade of social media. The decade got off to a slow start, but by...
2004: Facebook founded.
2005: YouTube founded. Note the strong social/sharing aspect of YT.
2006: Twitter founded.
etc.
Now, with an explanation of how the Internet works and how it evolved as a communication tool (e.g. social media), let's look how the Internet plays an important role in global communication (see next post).
A survey usually begins with some demographic questions or "items". Since there are sometimes no questions marks, it would be best to refer to them as items.
Demographics questions/items:
“survey questions that inquire about respondents’ personal characteristics, such as name, age, gender, education”(FBFK).
What demographic questions do you ask?
Only ask demographics that will help you interpret results. Careful with long surveys. Why?
Once you are finished with your demographic questions, next you need to ask questions that help you answer your specific research question(s). You need to ask questions that measure your independent and dependent variables.
What are the general types of questions (or “items”) that can appear on a survey?
With a survey you are usually measuring what a respondent knows, their likes or dislikes or some aspect of their past behaviors.
If you were writing a survey on social media use, what would be some examples questions/items you may put on your survey? Knowledge? Attitude? Behavior?
Do you just have your respondents choose among some predetermined choices or do you leave them some space to respond in whatever why they choose? Put another way, what are close-ended and open-ended survey questions?
Closed-ended items
Scales-- e.g., Likert scale
Use stats to analyze responses to each item and stats to summarize findings
Open-ended items
Words-- Transcribe responses and use textual analysis to summarize findings
Once you have finished a draft of your survey questions, you'll need to go back and proof-read. As you are checking spelling and grammar, also keep the following in mind.
What are some tips on wording survey items?
Keep items short.
Avoid loading or leading questions.
“Don’t you think rich professors should be denied a pay raise?”
A research method in which respondents representing a specific population are asked questions concerning their knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors (based on FBFK).
What are the general steps in constructing and giving a survey?
Identify the purpose of the survey
What is the ultimate purpose of a survey in a research study?
Determine who to ask and what to ask.
Write survey
Give survey
Let participants know if there are any risks.
Let participants know their rights.
Right to not participate, to stop participating, etc.
Thank the participants.
Tally results
Report results
What information should be included on a survey (excluding survey questions)?
Title: A Study of Social Media Use by College Students
Who: Dr. Hart, Department of Mass Communications & Journalism
Where: Norfolk State University, Norfolk, VA
Any Questions: Send to Dr. Hart
Statement of Purpose:
This study seeks your opinion about methods courses for a research study. Your responses are anonymous. Thank You.
Rights: In addition, if for whatever reason you do not feel comfortable responding to any or all items, please leave it(them) blank.
Somebody who edits photos is a photo doctor. A photo doctor diagnoses a photo and then prescribes a treatment for a photo disease.
For example, diagnose the photo to the right. What's the problem with it? What photo disease does it have?
It is underexposed. Is that your diagnosis? In your favorite photo editing software, how would you treat that disease?
A medical doctor uses a variety of tools to treat medical problems (e.g., a scalpel). As a photo doctor, what tools would you use?
As you begin your internship as a new photo doctor, I'd suggest you start with a small set of "diseases" that you can diagnose (recognize) and treat (fix) and a small set of tools to learn how to use. As you progress as a photo doctor, become an expert in treating more diseases and learn how to use additional tools.
I'd suggest you start with a set of photo diseases like below and learn the 2-5 general steps that are usually needed to treat the disease.
For steps on how to treat the photo disease listed above and many more, see Digital Photo Doctor. The book takes a similar metaphorical approach. Check out the book. You should be able to get it for $5 or less.
Of course, you could also do a YouTube search for helpful photo editing tutorials that deal with the disease you want to treat.
As a beginning photo doctor, you should also start learning how to use a small set of of photo editing tools and techniques. Here are some basic photo doctor tools and techniques that you'd need to treat the previously listed photo diseases.
When learning how to treat the diseases and how to use the tools, I'd recommend that you learn how to use the tools at a general level so that you can move from one photo editing software to another. Don't get to caught up in the key-strokes used in specific software (e.g., press Shft+Ctrl+U to desaturate in Photoshop).
Speaking of photo editing software, I would, of course, recommend the premiere photo editing software, Photoshop, especially the cloud based version. Of course, this'll cost some cash.
In terms of saving some money, I'd recommend GIMP, a free photo editing software package that you download to your computer (see info video). I'd also recommend Pixlr.com, a free, powerful, photo-editing site that allows you to edit photos right within your browser. Go to Pixlr.com right now and try some the things discussed above.
Also, in terms of browser-based editing, I'd also recommend Fotoflexor.com. While Pixlr has the look and feel of Photoshop, Fotoflexor does not. It does, however, have some of the same features (e.g. layers and curves). It also has the added benefit of easily editing photos stored in Flickr.
As for free photo editing apps, I'd recommend Pixlr Express (Apple | Android), Photoshop Express (Apple | Android), Aviary (Apple | Android) and Snapseed (Apple | Android). If I had to choose just one app, it would be Pixlr Express. I like the number and type of editing tools. However, I'm starting to warm up to Snapseed. With Snapseed I especially like slide user interface and the "Selective Adjustment" tool which allows for some dodging and burning. What's dodging and burning, again? See above.
Do recognize the limitation of photo editing apps. The apps do not even come close to all that photo editing software can do on a desktop or laptop.
Cosmetic Photo Surgery
The above discussion may leave the impression that the only thing you can do with photo editing tools is fix or treat photo diseases or problems (e.g., underexposure). However, photo editing tools are not just used to treat a disease, but can also be used to “beautify” or modify the photo You could think of this a cosmetic photo surgery. You are not really fixing a problem with the photo, you are adding to it.
You could turn a color photo to black and white and then colorize only one item in the photo.
Besides composing a good photograph, photographers may also be involved in another type of composition. Photographers, especially photojournalist, may also compose captions for their photographs.
If that is true for news photographs, then the caption (the verbal description) for the photograph, is like the lead to the thousand word story.
In a news article, the first few sentences of the story is the lead. The lead tells the reader the who, what, when, where, why and how of the story. Packed into the lead is quick overview of the whole news story.*
So, as Kobre' points out in his book, Photojournalism: The Professionals' Approach, a caption should tell the reader/viewer the who, what, when, where, why and how of the photograph. The caption serves the same purpose as a lead in a written news story. [If your interest is specifically in photojournalism, I'd strongly recommend Kobre's book.]
The 5 W's and the H of a news story (or in this case, a news photograph):
Who - who is the news event about, who is in the photo?
What - what happened in the news event, what is happening in the photo?
When - when did the news event happen, when was the photo taken?
Where - where did the news event happen, where was the photo taken?
Why (1) - why did the news event happen, what happened that lead to the photograph, what happened before?
Why (2) - what is the significance of the news event, why is it important to us, what is going to happen after this event?
How - how did the event happen?
So, a lead in a written news story should answer the who, what, when, where and how of the new event and sometimes it'll address the why and how.
Now, if acaption of a news photograph is like the lead of a news story, then what does a caption include.
The Associated Press recommends a caption should contain two concise sentences. The first sentence of the caption should include the who, what, when and where. The second sentence should provide the background information on the how and the why, especially the significance of the news event.
Tip: Start the first sentence with the most important thing to your audience. If who is important, then start with who. For example, if a celebrity is the who, then you'll probably want to start your sentence with that person's name. If the where is important, then start your first sentence with where. For example, if a disease is breaking out is a certain area, then the location or where, is probably more important.
Check out AP's Top Photos of the Week page for current examples of news photographs and their captions. Hover the mouse over the photos to see the captions. Do the AP photographers and photo editors practice what the AP style guidelines recommend?
Can you write a caption for a new photo? Find some photos you know something about, perhaps from the AP link above or this link, and see if you can write a caption for the photo. Practice. practice, practice.
* We're especially talking about hard news stories here.
So, dehumanization of the enemy was done in the past all over the world. Does it still happen in the 21st century? That's the question that my co-author and I asked in our study of editorial cartoons of bin Laden and the Taliban after the events of 9/11.
(pp. 137-155). Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.
by Sam Keen
)
by Ghemawat
, a caption should tell the reader/viewer the who, what, when, where, why and how of the photograph. The caption serves the same purpose as a lead in a written news story. [If your interest is specifically in photojournalism, I'd strongly recommend Kobre's book.]