6. Video Clip re Key Concept

One might ask, what is comedy?  This simple word is and can be very complex.  There are different kinds of comedy and this little clip is a great example of what comedy is, but still leaving a question mark at the end.  The creator puts a 1950's spin on the topic (like you would see, back in the day, during school) to possibly explain what this word truly means.  Each example, I promise, will put a little smile to your face....well at least one of the examples will.  If not, then you have no sense of humor and don't deserve to be alive....just kidding (ha, like my blog). 


The creator of this piece is Francesco Marciuliano, and he is the author of the syndicated comic strip Sally Forth, which appears in newspapers across the country (as well as the webcomic Medium Large, which does not). He was also a head writer for the PBS series SeeMore’s Playhouse, for which one of his episodes won two 2007 Daytime Emmys. Francesco has written for the Onion News Network, Smosh, McSweeney’s, and had a play produced at the New York International Fringe Festival. His very first book I Could Pee on This and Other Poems by Cats will hit bookstore shelves both virtual and real in August 2012.

The Source

5. Defining and Visualizing Concepts

Assignment 5: Defining and Visualizing Concepts

1. List two concepts highly relevant to your sociological focus. Briefly state why you would like to learn more about them and especially why you would like to build multimedia around them.

Two concepts that are highly relevant to my sociological focus are humor and comedy in media.  I would like to learn more about these concepts and build multimedia around them because both humor and comedy are part of society and shape our lives.  It triggers people’s emotions and affects their mental ability.  We use it everyday in social life and as the digital world advances further, comedy and humor are even more distributed.  Television, radio, film, images, the internet, all has comedy and humor in them.  These concepts keep society sane and allows for people to not take this life so seriously.  It’s uplifting and beings people together.

2. Provide a brief description relative to how each concept has been defined and measured (i.e., operationalized) in the academic literature (books and/or journal articles). In so doing, consult at least two references per concept (be sure to provide citations for references (follow citation style of American Sociological Review).

For comedy, the book “Laughing Matters: The Paradox of Comedy” by Scott Cutler Shershow, it’s elusive, slippery, and subject to uncertainty principle because measurement transforms or destroys it; it’s always something larger, deeper, and more complicated than it seems (1984:4). In “Comedy, Tragedy, and Religion” by John Morreall, it’s not a time out from the world but it provides another perspective on the world; a perspective no less true than the tragic perspective (1999:3).

For humor, the article “Sociology of Humor and a Critical Dramaturgy” by Paul Paolucci and Margaret Richardson, it is defined as playing with institutionalized meanings; by playing with the meanings that structure our daily lives; humor disturbs our definition of reality causing the emergence of doubt as to the value of daily routines and giving rise to some confusion as to the very foundations of reality (2006:333).  And in the article “Sociology and Humor” by Murray S. Davis, humor is what saves the integration of a subject from the potential disintegration of the object by distancing the former from the latter (1979:4).  Some of the ways that humor has been measured was through observation, surveys, and interviews.

3. For each concept, briefly describe how you might approach it via multimedia representation.

Comedy – multimedia clips from standup shows, television and film. 

Humor – comic strips, images

4. Relative to A Periodic Table of Visualization Methods, determine the following for each of your concepts:

a. Would “structure” or “process” visualization work best?

Answer: I believe structure visualization would work best for comedy and humor in media because it’ll take the general concept and break it down to more specific meanings and relatable information on the concepts.

b. Which of the six broad types might be most applicable?

Answer: either concept, metaphor, or compound visualization because I can see these concepts relying on a more qualitative approach with how people react to content that is presented.

c. Within that broad type, which particular visualization device might be most appropriate?

Answer: right away I focused on cartoon in the compound visualization because cartoon is related to comedy and humor. 

d. Run each concept through Wordnik, Visuwords, Lexipedia, and Ngram Viewer. Did you discover anything noteworthy?

*Wordnik:  Many definitions, meanings, examples and related words

            Comedy – “a dramatic work that is light and often humorous or satirical in tone and that usually contains a happy resolution of the thematic conflict.”

            Humor – “the quality that makes something laughable or amusing; funniness.”

*Visuwords: a visual dictionary diagram that connects the word to their meanings and associations with other words and concepts

            Comedy – “light and humorous drama with a happy ending.”

            Humor – used as a verb, noun or adjective; related to mood, wit, chemical reaction, a sense, and in the middle ages was one of the four fluids that determined your emotional and physical state.

*Lexipedia: online visual semantic network with dictionary and thesaurus references.  

            Comedy – “light and humorous drama with a happy ending.” Related to funniness, clowning, prank, show, sarcasm, drama.

            Humor – “the characteristic of being funny and amusing.”

*Snappy Words: an online interactive English dictionary and thesaurus that helps find the meanings of words and draw connections to other words it is associated with.

            Comedy – “light and humorous drama with a happy ending.” Related to melodrama, low comedy, slapstick, sitcom, dark drama, comic, tragedy, amusing.

            Humor – wit, sulk, liquid or bodily fluid, mood, temperament.

*Ngram Viewer: a phrase usage graphing tool that charts yearly counts of publications on the word that is entered.

            Comedy – starting from 1800 to the present, this word had many more publications at the beginning and then leveled out.

            Humor – starting from 1800 to the present, this word had very little publications at the beginning but then leveled out with comedy almost being equal.

What I found is that Visuwords, Lexipedia, and Snappy Word were all very similar in the definitions and also image/web diagram.  Wordnik was much more thorough providing a more wordy depiction of comedy and humor.  Ngram Viewer was a line graph that provided information on the amount of publications that contained the word/topic beginning in the 1800’s until the present.  This site was very different compared to the others in regards to meaning and definitnions, however it did provide information on where to find resources to study those words/topics and was a visual graph like Visuword, Lexipedia and Snappy Word.  Overall, all the sites except for Wordnik provided a visual depiction whereas Wordnik provided a listing of means and definitions.  All provided practically the same information but presented it a little differently.

4, Illustrating Concepts

Assignment 4: Illustrating Concepts

After watching Philip Zimbardo’s “The Secret Powers of Time” video and then comparing it to an animated recreation of Zimbardo’s presentation “RSA Animate – The Secret Powers of Time,” it was quite clear the difference between the two videos (even though it was the same briefing).  I personally found the animated presentation superior to Zimbardo’s talking head video when comparing the ideas and presentation.  Below I explain both videos and then provide my reasoning for preferring the animated versus the lecture video of the material.

            Philip Zimbardo is a Stanford Psychology professor who wrote a book called “The Time Paradox” in 2008.  This original video is a recording of Zimbardo’s lecture providing a presentation on his book and the concepts he had discovered in regards to time and the perspective of this in children.  The video takes place in an auditorium full of people.  He stands at a podium with a screen behind him that presents some of his data slides.  The video/briefing Zimbardo gives runs approximately forty minutes.  Zimbardo’s argument is in regards to attitudes toward time in our lives, where it is mostly an unconscious act, where these attitudes can shape our personalities and the lives we end up leading.   This video is informative, on the long side, filled with lots of information/data/videos of proving the concepts, and set in an academia environment.

            In the second video featured, it takes Zimbardo’s lecture video and transforms it into a somewhat animated presentation.  The animated presentation takes the audio of the lecture but edits it to where it only provides the main points of the briefing.  This video lasts approximately ten minutes and provides only a white board and someone drawing pictures (in fast motion to speed up the process) of what Zimbardo is presenting.   The video is short, to the point, and entertaining.

            The whole point of Zimbardo’s lecture is the importance of time and how it affects our lives.  He explains that there are 6 main time zones that people live in; 2 past, 2 present, and 2 future.

People focus on the past focus on the memories/good old times (past positive), and the others focus on regret/failure (past negative).  Two present oriented; hedonistic (live for pleasure/knowledge/sensation and avoid pain), or the others that believe life is fated by religion/class/status/socio-economic standing, and that it doesn’t pay to plan.  Finally the future oriented; learned to work rather than play/resist temptation, the other is based off that true life doesn’t begin until after death of the mortal body (depending on your religion).  The future oriented trust that when you make a decision for the future, it’ll carry out.  Zimbardo states that we are all born present hedonists because we want things right away, pleasure, and avoid pain.  However, family and schooling help teach us how to go from present hedonists to future oriented citizens.  He also states that those of Catholic religion seem to be more present or past oriented, whereas those of the Protestant religion are future oriented.  Time duration and pace of life compared to different cultures and cities. High pace of life are more prone to heart disease.  Zimbardo describes that when kids drop out of school, it affects their growth from present to future oriented and could possibly push them into the past negative category.  Unfortunately boys are more likely to drop out of school than girls, and that boys are more inclined to expose themselves to video gaming which affects their brain functioning.  Zimbardo emphasizes that this outcome is a recipe of disaster for developing boys in America.  He believes that specific forms of technology is are causing boys the problem to grow into future oriented citizens because video gaming and other forms of technology are more attractive/fun/exciting for boys and it allows them to live in a world they create.  He believes their brains are being digitally rewired which he says they will never fit in a traditional analogue classroom because this would be boring to them and it lacks their control.  If schools go back to focusing on reading/writing/arithmetic school are doomed to fail because kids are being reprogrammed in learning.  They don’t want a passive environment.  This results to a present hedonistic mindset.  When kids are present oriented, they know the future consequences however that knowledge doesn’t change their behavior, whereas future oriented kids know the consequences and manage their behavior to stay on the straight and narrow.  He believes we are underestimating the power of technology in rewiring people’s brains.  We are an impatient society and there is a fundamental change in our culture.

            I believe Zimbardo is somewhat right in what he is stating.  After watching his video and then the second one, I realized that I am becoming more and more impatient with long videos that don’t just get to the point.  The animated video did just that.  I don’t believe it is just children’s minds that are being rewired and reprogrammed, but adults as well.  We are becoming a society where we want things now and hate to wait.  Our culture is fundamentally changing, but not just for kids.  Education is still in the traditional analogue structure, in which will continue to fail in a society that is constantly changing.  Ironically, comparing the two videos, it emphasizes my person time perspective with what’s going on around me.  I preferred the shorter, animated video of Zimbardo’s lecture because it was short and to the point, which highlighted Zimbardo’s concepts of time and our attitudes.  

Exploring Online Sociology Site (Assignment 3)

The site I found interesting and somewhat relevant to my interests is the site “The Sociological Cinema.”  This site’s concentration is on the teaching and learning of sociology through video, particularly in pop culture.  It’s run by three sociologists who were graduates from the University of Maryland.  They launched the site in 2010 as a way to facilitate sociology through video.  However, it has branched out from not just video, but also graphs, pictures, resources, audio clips and blogs.  This site is a great way to see how sociology is interrelated to everything in our lives going on all around us.  It’s a great tool for teachers and students to see how what’s going on in the media is related to sociology.  This is why I enjoy this site.  I can find a lot of useful and appealing information on sociology and theories through the use of the videos.  

For example, one of the submissions named “Everything’s Amazing and Nobody’s Happy (Social Change Ice Breaker),” really caught my attention.  It is a submission on what social change is, and if a child was born right then, how would their experience differ from yours.  To explore this insight, the author provides a video clip from YouTube from Louis C.K., a comedian, who explores this topic of social change.  He explains that all the technology and advancements we have now are absolutely amazing, but people are still not happy.  He puts a great spin on it (I totally recommend checking it out).  Overall, it’s educational and entertaining at the same time.

 

To see the website, go to:  http://www.thesociologicalcinema.com/

My Online Life (Assignment 2)

In this assignment, we were to create a list that portrays the major ways technology and the Internet has affected our lives.

Major way technology and the Internet have affected your life:

1   1. Never buy DVDs or CDs anymore because I use iTunes

     2.  Try not to buy paperback books anymore because I download eBooks
     3. I pay all my bills online and not send them through the mail

     4. Keep track of people through Facebook

     5. While overseas, I talked to family and friends over Skype
     6. Purchase merchandise online most of the time

     7. Research products online before buying them
     8. Keep life organized through my calendar on my iPad
     9. Use apps to play games or be organized

    10. Use a GPS to get everywhere
    11. Buy movie tickets online before showing up to the movie
    12. Rarely go to the library at school because I can do most of my work at home through my own laptop

    13.  Powerpoint for work presentations

To what extent are your observations and experiences consistent with those made in the article and the two documentaries?

               I notice, sometimes, when I’m at a restaurant and there will be a couple sitting across the table from each other, both with their cell phones out, not talking.  Once the food comes they will eat while looking at their phones.  Advances in technology has its pros and cons, and one of the cons is the loss of actual face to face communication with others, like the example at the restaurant.  We become so involved in what we are doing that we don't care what is going on around us.  However, technology allows us to communicate in different ways to different people all over the world, instantly. 

Mosaic, Who Am I? (Assignment 1)

The purpose of this assignment was to have a set of pictures that explains certain aspects of ourselves.  It is a nice ice breaker when starting a new class to have these pictures to tell strangers quick little stories about your own life.  The website that was used was "Photo Mosaic".  The photos are arranged in labeled from left to right starting from the top.  Here is what each one portrays:

Top left: current photo of ourselves
Top middle: photo of us at a young age
Top right: photo where we grew up
Middle left: photo of most important influence in our lives
Middle middle: photo that symbolizes our personality
Middle right: a photo that would surprise people to know about us
Bottom left: photo of what we are most passionate about
Bottom middle: photo of what we want to be when we grow up
Bottom right: photo of an animal we'd like to be if not a human

Wordle, Who Am I? (Assignment 1)

In this assignment, we were to use the "Wordle" website to make a word cloud that describes who we are.  It was a good ice breaker for the beginning of class to introduce ourselves to everyone and have them get to know who we were.  After some technical difficulties, I finally got mine to work.