Response to This American Life

For this assignment I chose to listen to This American Life episode number 428: Oh You Shouldn’t Have. Although informative, I do have to say that this episode was very dry and did not keep my attention for very long.

            This specific podcast was about the act of giving in America, and if sometimes giving is a bad thing. The first subject that was brought up was about a talk show that had been on television some time ago. In this show the host would give people things, or introduce them to people that they haven’t seen in awhile. The one example that the talk show host used was that of a woman who had been in a Nazi work camp in Germany. This woman had met a girl while she was in this camp and on the show was reintroduced to the girl she hadn’t seen since she was in the camp. The talk show host brings up the fact that this gift may have been a bit too much because it brought back the woman to a place where she most likely wouldn’t have wanted to be.

            In the next part of the segment the talk show host speaks of an incident that happened in Israel. A woman went into a medical marijuana center and begged repeatedly for the people who worked there to give her more because she was in so much pain. Finally one of the girls that worked at the center gave this woman some more, but it turns out that the woman was an undercover police officer. Here the talk show host asks the listeners if this makes any sense. The girl that worked at the center was just trying to help someone who was supposedly in pain, and she gets arrested for this.

            The whole idea behind this radio segment is to elicit a response from the listener. It is also to inform the listener of things that are going on in the area as well as in the world. I believe that this particular episode was very dry because the girl who was hosting the show was just a fill in for the normal talk show host. Because of this, I feel that this episode wasn’t as interesting as it could have been. 

Meme project difficulties

So all today I have been working on editing footage for our meme video project, and every time I solve one problem I realize that I have about ten more problems. I am currently trying to figure out how to fade one scene into another. I also have no idea how to add a page with text before the video starts, as well as credits at the end. Anyone know how to do these things???

<3 Katelyn

Meme assessment

For the meme assessment portion of our homework I chose to assess the video that know your meme created about "Antoine Dodson". I chose this video because it is one that I thoroughly enjoy, and I wanted to see how the people of know your meme would go about dissecting this meme.

Perspective: 

The perspective of the video shows that the way it was shot serves a purpose. The video is shot as if it were an instructional guide, when in fact it is giving information like an instructional guide. The point of view of this video is professional, thus making the video even more like an instructional guide to "know your meme". The overall perspective is fairly good, but the only thing it is missing from our rubric is the type and number of angle shifts. I was fairly unimpressed when I found the video to be mostly shots of the actress talking about the meme. 

Juxtaposition: 

This video does an excellent job of juxtaposition in that the video shows comparisons of new videos to the original Antoine Dodson video. The use of Basil Marceaux was a great example to show how truly funny the Antoine Dodson video was. Also the music remixes of Dodson's plea showed a great sense of juxtaposition.

Layering:
The use of many different renditions of the Antoine Dodson song shows how great of a job was done with layering. The many different versions were shown in part throughout the video, giving the audience the sense that the original video was very popular. Also this layering is humerus in that some of the renditions of the Antoine Dodson song were quite interesting.

Unity:
Although the Basil Marceaux video showed how funny Antoine Dodson was and how un-funny Marceaux was, this video was pretty much pointless. It was dropped into the middle of the video and seemed extremely out of place. While watching the video for the first time I was very confused as to why the people at know your meme were showing this seemingly random video. I would have to say for this specific meme, the people at know your meme did a terrible job of displaying video unity.

Overall Assessment:
I would give this video a C+. The know your meme people are great at what they do, and very funny, but I was just not impressed with their portrayal of this specific meme. I really wish they had taken a different route to dissect the meme because the original video was very humerus.

Multiple Choice Question on Lanham Reading

Which of the following is not part of the three types of style that lanham describes in his text?
a) low or plain style
b) high style
c) middle style
d) grand style

Answer: B, high style is not part of the three types of style

Autobiography

Hello, and welcome to my blogger page. This is my very first time using a blog so bear with me as I get used to how to work this thing. But as for me, I am a junior at West Chester University where I am studying English Education at the secondary level. I am also trying to work on getting certified as a math teacher for middle school.

I absolutely love West Chester, but I was not always a West Chester University student; I transferred from the University of Pittsburgh at the beginning of my junior year. I loved PITT but they did not have a secondary education program so I was forced to transfer to a school that had my major.

Both at PITT and West Chester I have been a member of Phi Sigma Pi honors fraternity. I have met some of my best friends through this fraternity, and I try to stay as active in it as possible. At PITT I was also an advisor for the Resident Student Association as well as an RA for Holland Hall. I was highly involved at PITT and am very proud of all of my accomplishments there.

Besides being in Phi Sigma Pi, I also have a job with Concord Wings inc. I am a waitress with the company and I absolutely love my job. In what spare time I have, I love to dance. I was a ballet dancer for 15 years and absolutely loved it. I had to give dancing up to make time for my studies, but I still try to get a few exercises in here and there.