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sbooksbowm · 4 years

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Weekly Wrap-Up - 2 October

Look who is procrastinating editing the bookbinders chapter! This kid. The main body is written, but I’m trying to work in some theoretical background in the introduction to do the academicky-thing of nodding to the other writers who have laid the groundwork for this kind of research. I’m speed-reading Leah Price’s What We Talk About When We Talk About Books and trying to scrounge together some information on Jessica Pressman’s forthcoming Bookishness: Loving Books in a Digital Age, both of which foreground a lot of the points I make about the tensions between digital and print forms of texts.

New Approach to the Weekly Wrap-Ups!

I’m only 2.5 weeks out from turning in this dissertation, so as I move away from giving regular updates about my research, I’m going to change the form of the weekly format to compile all of the things I posted about, recommend, and am thinking about in one place. That way, if you’re ever wondering ‘what is sbooks up to?’, you can go to my research masterpost and click on my weekly wrap-ups to get quick access to fun links and lukewarm takes.

Things I posted about

Casey Fiesler’s (@cfiesler) awesome video about fan migration, the oral explanation of her most recent article with Brianna Dym. This is totally worth the 30-minute watch, and Fiesler does an amazing job of tracking the history of fannish media alongside the impetuses of fan migration

a reflection on why fans are the most likely to think critically and expansively about the media they consume, in response to the criticism that fans are content with just consuming the same story over and over again (which is true, but not without reason)

Things I recommend

Riley J. Dennis’s Case for the Legend of Korra, which is an excellent elaboration on some popular pro-Korra arguments against the naysayers of the sequel series. I love that Riley talks about Korra’s journey towards humanization via healing from trauma, which is something I think many viewers feel affirmed by.

Penguin Cafe Orchestra’s 'The Sound of Someone You Love Who’s Going Away and It Doesn’t Matter’. What a title! And it really does sound like it.

Things I’ve been thinking about

Takeaways on writing: This has been a week of revisions, with some serious cutting and clarifying. My advisor pointed out that as I am a newbie academic writer, I still rely a lot on quotations instead of paraphrasing my sources for support, rather than evidence. Rephrasing a lot of quotations opened up a lot of room for my own argument. This process made me think a lot about writing guidance in middle school and high school, wherein I was trained to use quotations as evidence rather than as support. Anyone else learn this? That the more people who agree with you, the more right your argument is, instead of drawing from original or revisiting primary evidence and using previous writing as a framework for analysis? It’s a pretty bad habit! And it makes us reliant on regurgitating other work rather than working through our own arguments and examining how they align or disalign with others. Graduate school has been one long re-learning process on writing...and I studied writing in uni.

Different kinds of fan spaces: I hang out, actively participate, and lurk in a variety of fan spaces, mostly in the form of Discord servers (my love) and Facebook groups (bane of my existence). And I’m in a lot of fan spaces for different media: TV shows, books, comics, podcasts, even fan platforms. Though this has been said elsewhere, the difference in attitude and behavior of fans depending on the type of space (and whether fans are masked by a pseudonym or not) is fascinating to me! I’m in one enormous Facebook group dedicated to television show, and without fail, every single post ends up with the comments off because the discourse gets too heated. This behavior is almost definitely a function of:

the impersonal size of the group. In my favorite Discord servers, the smaller size makes the conversation more personable and friendlier (I know these people! I’m not going to harangue them!), and,

affirmational versus transformational fandom: affirmational fans tend to work within the confines of canon, and so when they disagree over the interpretation of canonical elements, the conversation turns to facts (’no, this is how it happened in season 12, episode 472’) over feelings (’this happened once in the spin-off comic and I’m cool w extrapolating this bc I wanna feel warm and fuzzy inside’). Transformational fans are less canon-restricted and perhaps more lenient, and are probably more likely to silo themselves in fan spaces with agreed-upon interpretations (e.g. I’m in a few dedicated shipping servers, and I know other shipping servers exist, but I won’t bother myself with them, because that’s not my cup of tea, so I’ll just save myself the trouble).

This isn’t to say that affirmational fans won’t break off from the main group and form their own interpretive communities, but I think affirmational fans are more likely to want to be a part of the “official” fan spaces, because they are interested in the “official” story.

This is anecdotal conjecture, but I wonder, have you seen differences in fan behavior depending on the fannish space you’re in? I’d love to hear about other fan-space-specific experiences!

#weekly wrap-up #research #discussion #this is really a blog now #sbooks blog #housekeeping #things I posted #things I recommend #things I think about #Casey Fiesler #Brianna Dym #Riley J Dennis #Legend of Korra #Penguin Cafe Orchestra #writing reflections #fandom spaces #transformational vs affirmational

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mirroredfaces · 5 years

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To Toptal Reader(s) and other visionaries...

Part I: Drives and Dreams

On 22 May 2019, I will graduate from Barnard College of Columbia University with a Bachelor’s of Arts in Anthropology and concentration in Archaeology. Through diverse coursework at “Barnumbia,” I have developed an immense appreciation for the entanglements of working with the dead... not to mention their many material remnants.

While the archaeological questions we can explore are limitless, I am most captivated by the mysteries of the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition in Western Eurasia. Within this diverse field, I am most drawn to the amorphic figures we call “Neandertals” and to questions of their coexistence with modern human populations. Alongside the timeless and noble savage, the figure of the caveman is crystallized in our consciousness in childhood; nevertheless, I am shocked by narratives of our maligned “cousins” as brute quasi-humans, predestined for a swift demise at the onslaught of “modernity”.

Neandertals have gone by many names. Our image of them continues to mutate in academia as well as popular culture, but what does current archaeological evidence indicate of their livelihood? of their treatment in death? How can archaeological findings speak to their figurings of the cosmos? to their ontologies? What of their contemporaneity with modern human populations? What of art? At a more metaphysical level, how do our epistemologies influence our interpretations? How do media interact to craft particular (pre)historic narratives? How should we convey archaeological findings to a wider public, with a semblance of disciplinary accord, nuance and authenticity?

These questions are far from simple. This fall, I will develop the intellectual frameworks and practical skills through which I explore such questions through a Masters of Science in Archaeological Science at the University of Oxford. After receiving this degree, I hope to apply my newfound skills in chronometry, biomolecular studies, and materials analysis in doctoral work on the Middle and Upper Paleolithic of Eurasia. At a theoretical level, I will continue to grapple with concepts of personhood, gender, sexuality, marginality and symbolism.

Though the prospects of a tenured university professorship appear slim, I see my future in academic archaeology. Nevertheless, I will descend the ivory tower to spark and engage in wider public discourse on our shared human history. As I am enthralled by visual portrayals of Neandertals, I will also pursue work in paleoart (e.g. sculptural dermoplasty, experimental reconstruction). One day, I aspire to write a re-imagined Clan of the Cave Bear series (à la Jean Auel), grounded in current archaeological research. While these goals are admittedly idealistic, their realization starts with feet on the ground, an open mind, and a willing attitude. Financial security is also an important ingredient for success, and as a first generation American dependent on a single mother, a Toptal Scholarship would greatly aid this cause.

Beings of the deep past dwell in alterity, in the shadows of our evolutionary tree and the fringe of cultural consciousness. In an era of increasing nationalism, xenophobia, racism and sexism, inclusive archaeologies offer the potential to reflect our shared origins and inspire a more tolerant present. Neandertals are a maligned population construed as an evolutionary dead end or scapegoat for genetic inheritances; but rather than indulge satire of the caveman, or the far more malicious trope of indigenous savagery, why not explore their sophisticated survivorship and contributions to humanity and the earth? Why not try to learn from inter-(sub)species interactions?

I see a future where human superiority is destabilized; where people respect one another, no matter their nationality or religion or gender; where we care for our selves and our planet. While archaeology is an unconventional lens to enact this future, it is the discipline that inspires me each and every day. If I can share the inspiration I draw from the deep past with others, and mobilize a more tolerant and inclusive present, I will change the world one mind at a time. I would be inexpressibly grateful to Toptal for mentorship in accessing non-academic publics and increasing the visibility of my work-- be it literary, scientific, or artistic. Archaeology is a discipline reliant on networks, and unfortunately mine are slim.

At Barnard, I have learned to empower and be empowered by bold women. As I enter a discipline dominated by white men, I will emanate the strength I have built here wherever I go. With support from the Toptal Scholarship, I can travel to Oxford unburdened by fears of ever-increasing financial debt. I can ease the financial strain placed on my mother from my undergraduate education, and launch my own path of independence. It is time to begin my professional career as an empowered female archaeologist. In this constellation of drives and dreams, I am ready to take the next step - onto the stage at Columbia University’s commencement ceremony, into the School of Archaeology at Oxford, and then, well, I suppose time will tell?

Part II: Humble Roots

Education is expensive, especially abroad. I was raised terribly aware of this fact, thanks to my mother’s tales of her early life in the United States. At the ripe age of eighteen, she emigrated from Hungary to attend UC: Berkeley while learning English and painting houses to pay her way through school. She went on to obtain a PhD in Neuroscience and complete postdoctoral work at Stanford University; yet her success was painfully juxtaposed with the sorrow of her (now, late) sister. Jacinta eloped at eighteen, with a young lover turned abusive spouse. She was ultimately stuck in an abusive marriage and in their childhood home, never to travel beyond Hungary’s borders. My first view of Jacinta was her hunched back as she hobbled down the sole paved street in Alsónemesapáti, letters in hand. She worked for the town’s postal service, delivering mail on foot.

I am humbled by my family’s roots, not to mention the courage of my mother—who not only fled Soviet control, but also transitioned to single parenthood whilst battling cancer. As I meditate on Jacinta’s hardships and the alternate realities that could have played out in the Hungarian countryside, I am overwhelmed with gratitude for my mother and for the upbringing she sought to provide us. I can never hope to repay her for her sacrifices, or for the hard choices she made to give her children lives of opportunity. I recognize my privilege, and my responsibility to use it for good. I recognize the obstacles—seen and unseen—that lurk in my path. Lastly, I recognize the impact of a Toptal Scholarship on my quest for knowledge and independence.

With a Toptal award, I can cross the ocean to join the university with the strongest archaeology department in the world. Without the stress of loans and debt, I can apply myself whole-heartedly (or rather, whole-mindedly) to my studies. I can do so in an environment of academic rigor that fosters community and originality. Unfortunately, the financial strain of my time at Barnard College continues to burden my mother and I. In fact, the anticipated pressure inspired me to apply credits earned in high school and graduate a year early. A $10,000 Toptal award could be applied directly to my future tuition, or cover my housing and living expenses during my masters.

In sum, a Toptal Scholarship would position me that much closer to academic success and financial independence, whilst releasing my mother from the title’s economic grip. She has spent far too long focusing on others to the negligence of herself. Why prolong her duress, when I can progress? It is time I journey abroad in the pursuit of higher education and the responsibilities and freedoms of adulthood—in a beautiful and ironic iteration of my mother’s own tale. With your goodwill and my steadfast commitment, these reveries can become a reality. Thank you kindly for considering my application.

#dreamit #doit

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septembersunrise-blog · 5 years

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What does it take to become an effective communicator? A discourse on 21st century communication

by: Catherine V. Hernando

In the course of my first semester here in UP Cebu brings wide range of information that embodied me as a millennial. In this 21st century, we cannot deny that communication has been evolving all throughout different aspects of what it conveys to people. Thus, this course on Critical Perspectives in Communication helps me discover what communication entails in this present day. It is a course that explores how communication takes place in various levels of human interaction: interpersonal or group, mass or public, intercultural or workplace. As according to the our professor’s syllabus, the course objectives are the following: (1) Discuss the changing landscape of communication; (2) Explain the different theories and frameworks of communication; (3) Apply relevant communication theories and frameworks in the analysis of various issues; and (4) Formulate a critical perspective on a communication phenomenon or event. An outline of topics we had tackled can bring forth to what I’ll be sharing as who I am as a 21st century communicator. The following topics are as follows: the changing landscape of communication where Orality and Literacy has been focused integrating with media; Communication and rhetoric; Communication and identity construction; Communication and representation; Communication as culture and; Communication and discourse. All of which exhibits my in depth knowledge on exemplifying the character of a communicator in this present day century.

To be human, is to analyze. As human beings, we have a tendency to ponder new ideas and concepts on a regular basis. Such curiosity notes back to the days of primary orality. In Walter Ong’s article, “Orality, Literacy, and Modern Media,” I learn about the difference between the oral culture and the written culture. He also tackles the differences and similarities between primary and secondary orality. Hence, in order to solve effectively the problem of retaining and retrieving coherent thoughts, it was compulsory to think in mnemonic patterns. The primary people believed that thoughts must come in “heavily rhythmic, balanced patterns, in repetition or antitheses, in alliterations and assonances, in epithetic and other formulary expressions.” Prior to that in this present day, nothing gradually has changed. Words tend imbue still being powerful. However, media communication is brought in to picture where in communication is done with technology.

Communication is dramatically changed by new technologies. In the 20th century, we have seen the effects of the telephone, radio and television, film, high-speed printing, and electronic mail what more could we expect now as of 21st century. These communication technologies have changed our national political life, corporate management styles, family connections, individual work habits. Additional change in the next century is inevitable, as we adopt video conferencing, multimedia, and internet technologies. Many of the effects of new technologies are unpredictable: the predicted “paperless office” has failed to materialize, for example, and word-processing software has transformed the labor of writing in a way that was never anticipated by computer developers.

But some aspects of communication, both oral and written, have not changed. Communication is still the social glue that holds together nations, corporations, scientific disciplines, and families. Social psychologist Karl Weick once noted that the key tool for effective leadership is the “management of eloquence” because “fluent, forceful, moving expression” affects the ways followers think, speak, and act. Communication also remains the source of problems when people fail to understand each other, fail to agree, and fail to act. Failures of communication contributed in material ways thus new technology does not necessarily make communication more effective, more persuasive, or more ethical.

Moving on with the topic of Communication and Rhetoric, Lloyd Bitzer made the case that rhetorical situation had not been adequately attended to by theorists, including Aristotle. Bitzer asserted that prior theorists have focused on the method of the orator to address the rhetorical situation, or ignored it completely. He then unfolded his theory of situation. He provided the exigence for his own theorization and argument regarding rhetorical situation and argued for the importance and relevance of rhetoric as a discipline beyond the understanding that it is merely the art of persuasion. Prior to the creation and presentation of discourse, Bitzer said there are three constituents of rhetorical situation: exigence (an imperfection marked by urgency, an obstacle, something waiting to be done); audience (persons capable of being influenced – even one’s self); and constraints. I personally agree to this discourse by Bitzer generally because up to this generation rhetoric is clearly evident when we convey our ideas to other people. Using the available sources of information that we have to formulate at least tentative answers to questions regarding whom we want address to, our purpose, the intended audience, and lastly situational factors.

As we’ve tackled on Communication and identity construction, Goffman (1959), argues that the front stage character is representative of the conception of self. In other words, this mask represents the self that one would like to be. The end result of this process is that the role becomes second nature to the person, forming an integral part of personality. However, there are certain downsides with this identity construction when integrated as of this present time. There difficulties of adapting the new technologies remain challenging in many parts of the world. The opportunities as well as the challenges of communication in the coming years cannot be separated from the social, cultural and geographical reconfigurations of the technological revolution. As what I’ve observed our collective identity as global citizens is constantly questioned as these new technologies are adapted to individual nations. As systems of advanced communication infrastructures increasingly become metonyms for development, issues of social and cultural identity increasingly need to be addressed.

Cultural theorist Stuart Hall interrogates the role of representation in images, and discusses cultures central role in representation. He looks at the issue within the most commonly used definition of representation, meaning: represent something which already holds meaning. Although meaning can’t be finally fixed, creating meaning depends on a kind of temporary fixing that allows meaning to build upon itself to take new forms and create new possibilities for meaning. Hall states that it is essential that meaning can be changed. Meaning can only change because it cannot be finally fixed. Stereotyping fixes the meanings that are given to groups limiting the range of perceptions that people can have about a group, what they can do, what the nature of the constraints on them are etc. A common strategy in challenging negative stereotypes is to re-present negative stereotypes in a more positive way- reversing the stereotype. However, the problem with reversal or positive stereotypes is, just as we can’t finally fix negative representations, we can’t finally fix positive ones either.

The signs relayed through the media are a very important area of study as they can form the basis of public perceptions and understanding, Lacey (1998). Within a television program for example, the viewer is exposed to a number of signs which they are required to decipher and recognize. Semiotics provides the interpreter with a means of accessing how signs are deployed and understood within the media. It enables the interpretation of the underlying meanings within media output and how the audience accepts, rejects or redefines those meanings. These theories are important because they reveal the way in which signs communicate ideas, attitudes and beliefs to us. In the context of television, film, newspapers and other forms of media, semiotics explains the way in which images are used to represent and relay information to the audience. In the everyday use of languages and signs, we combine several kinds of physical media in communicating and making meaning from voice and printed texts to mass media images, music, movies, computer Web content, and digital multimedia. The various material means of conveying meaning often overlap and pass on or interpret meaning from other concurrent media in our culture. We are constantly sending, receiving, and making meaning in various kinds of media, often conveying and interpreting meaning from one medium to another.

Edward T. Hall was an anthropologist who made early discoveries of key cultural factors. In particular, he discovered and examined high and low context cultural factors. In a high-context culture, there are many contextual elements that help people to understand the rules. As a result, much is taken for granted. This can be very confusing for a person who does not understand the “unwritten rules” of the culture. At the same time, in a low-context culture, very little is taken for granted. This means that more explanation is needed, it also means there is less chance of misunderstanding particularly when visitors are present. In fact, speech-like forms of written English are proliferating on Facebook, Twitter and elsewhere. As a result, this means that non-standard dialects are being written more than they used to (R.L.G, 2012). Specifically, new words and phrases are being developed and used by young people from all over the world. For instance: IDK – I don’t know, LOL – laugh out loud, Spill the tea – gossip, SMH – so much hate, and many more that the present generation made popular through social media communication. Nevertheless, it basically supports the idea that Internet speak enriches its users. It expands the modern language. In sum, language changes because people change. In the era of modernity we live in, it is ridiculous to avoid progress.

Baker (2011) tackles on Discourse Analysis mainly been a qualitative form of analysis; traditionally, it has involved a “close reading” of a small amount of text, such as a detailed Transcription of a conversation or a magazine article. Discourse analysts need to use Reflexivity, with researchers reflecting on their own position and how that has impacted on the research process and findings. Each individual human is unique and at the same time each person “voices” a given Discourse whenever he or she acts, speaks, or writes. It is our individuality and our participation in multiple Discourses means we can “spin” the discourse in certain ways and in the process, change it and adapt it across time and contexts. Discourses cannot live without us and we cannot communicate and mean without them. Our job, as discourse analysts, is not to and not to reach definitive truths. The job is to deepen the conversations among frameworks. This is the importance of discourse analysis.

To conclude, with all the topics I’ve learned for the past four months on Critical Perspectives in Communication generally is relevant to what communication has become in today’s time. The 21st century is fast evolving hence we really can’t predict what the future can bring to us as communicators. With the lessons tackled, surely one thing I can be proud of for I’ll be bringing this knowledge to be an effective communicator in this fast pacing world. Lastly, I’ll end this essay with a quote from a famous author named Tony Robbins, “To effectively communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others.”

References:

Ong, Walter. Orality, Literacy, Modern Media. (pp 60-79). Reproduced in Communication in History, Technology,

Culture, Society. (1999) by David Crowley & Paul Heyer. US: Addison Wesley Longman Inc.

Bitzer, L. F. (1968). The rhetorical situation. Philosophy & rhetoric, 1-14.

Goffman, E. (2002). The presentation of self in everyday life. 1959. Garden City, NY.

Steeves, H. L., & Silva, K. Communication in the Twenty-First Century: Challenges And Opportunities.

Hall, S. (1985). Signification, representation, ideology: Althusser and the post‐structuralist debates. CriticalStudies in Media Communication, 2(2), 91-114.

Lacey, N. (1998). Semiotics. In Image and Representation (pp. 56-75). Palgrave, London.

Hall, E. T., & Hall, M. R. (1990). Understanding cultural differences:[Germans, French and Americans] (Vol. 9).Yarmouth, ME: Intercultural press.

Baker, P., & Ellece, S. (2011). Key terms in discourse analysis. A&C Black.

#catherine v. hernando

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