Ring...Ring...Where Are You?

"Mobile Phone Tracking Scrutinized,"written by Nikki Swartz, and "Reach Out and Track Someone," written by Terry J. Allen, are two articles about cell phone tracking. Both articles give facts about tracking people via their cell phone. Swartz's article, as it says in the title, is more of an article geared toward someone who is looking for the facts and looking deeper into cell phone tracking. Swartz is scrutinizing cell phone tracking by the government and forms an opinion around what the government is doing. Allen's article was more opinionated and gave his opinion in the article in a more obvious manor. Also, Allen's writing was based around his opinion, giving facts that push for more cell phone tracking. Allen believes that cell phone tracking is a way that government and law enforcement can place suspects at a crime scene.

These two pieces of work both have some similarities. One of the main differences that can seen is that both of the articles talk about how cell phone tracking can be beneficial in a crime investigation. Both of the articles both start off with an introduction on cell phone tracking. The articles both tell about how cell phone companies use triangulating towers and the cell phone signal to pinpoint the location of the cell phone and the user.

Along with similarities, there are also differences between the two articles. One of the main differences is that Swartz's articles goes in depth about a political and judicial view of cell phone tracking. Swart's writes about how prosecutors and magistrate use political acts that have been passed to rule the use of cell phone tracking necessary or unnecessary. Both of the articles give the negatives about tracking cell phones to find some, but the difference is that in Allen's article he expounds on the positive aspects of cell phone tracking.

Cell phone tracking is a very controversial issue that brings many discussions about privacy to the table. Invasion of privacy is one of the major issues that rises from cell phone tracking. Many people believe that it is unreasonable to track someone because there is not a just cause to be able to find the location of everyone with a cell phone. Cell phones can be beneficial for solving crimes, but what happened in the past when there were no cell phones? It is not necessary for the phone company to have a log of where you have been, but only necessary for the companies to have the ability if they need to find you in an emergency situation. A friend of mine's father once tracked his cell phone to find out where he was and he was not in the place that his father believed he was in so he was punished. Tracking down the exact location of your child is an unneeded luxury . Our time should not be devoted to tracking anyone down, but to tracking specific people down.

Jordan Engel

Persuasion Without Speaking

"The Role of Images in Advertising" is an excerpt from Paul Messaris' book Visual Persuasion. This excerpt explains two different types of advertising, advertising that appeals to young, sexy, happy people and advertising that is abrasive, belligerent behavior and physical recklessness. When viewed some ads are viewed as more than a product. Advertising companies will appeal to the group of people they are trying to sell to, which in this case are young people. Ads will portray a lifestyle instead of a product. This is what causes the target group to be attracted to the product because they like more than just the product. Ads will make people think that with the product comes sexiness or prestige. The other type of advertising posed in the excerpt is appealing to children who resent parents and authority. Messaris believes that these types of advertising are not the best type and are in some cases counter-effective. Messaris believes that there should be an honest portrayal without the irresponsible tendencies of children. Messaris brings up that Benjamin Demotte argues that ads and movies portray a phony picture of harmony between races.

There are many advertisements out that cater to the physical recklessness and belligerent behavior party. A very good example of the sex appeal and the physical recklessness are the Axe body wash and spray commercials. These ads lead you to believe that if you use their product that you will be tackled by women relentlessly and they will want you sexually, no doubt about it. I believe that the truthfulness of this is not entirely there, but it is effective. Advertising is not about changing the world; it’s about selling a product. I agree that advertising should be more of an honest portrayal of something, but from a business perspective it is brilliant. Advertising of this type may not be the most beneficial to our children, but from the seller's standpoint it is a marketing goldmine.

Over the last couple decades, magazine ads featuring persons of color has increased substantially. Minority groups have been placed in advertising where they traditionally have not been. Also, stereotypes have been placed in advertising to appeal to certain groups. Particularly, in the Reebok ad with Jay-Z shows there is some beneficial stereotyping. In the ad, which is split in half, on one side of the ad Jay-Z sits at what looks like a desk with a very classy pin-striped suit with a large city in the background. On the other side of the advertisement there is an image of a black male hand at the male's hip and the man is looking toward a housing unit. There are two captions in the ad "i am what i am" and "I got my MBA from Marcy Projects". If you look at this ad as a whole you could analyze that Jay-Z, since he said he got his MBA at Marcy Projects, came from the projects, but made his way to the top and is living to his full potential. This ad gives hope and inspiration to those living in the projects, telling them that they can do it also and there is a future.

In the Dockers ad there are many different races of people walking happily down a cobblestone street. This is what DeMott was talking about when he said the races are happily together or in “happy harmony.” The thought of this is how the world would like to be viewed, but this is not reality. An example of the surrealism of the ad is the line in the ad that reads “Wouldn’t it be nice if we were all equal?” This quote in the article is said because it would be nice, in a perfect world. In ads there are always going to be different portrayals of the same group. In the Met-Life ad there is a middle-aged black man holding his son high in the air and it gives you the thought he is a happy man living a good life. In the Reebok ad with Jay-Z it gives the thought that the blacks are in housing projects and Jay-Z is one of them who got away from that culture. In the MetLife ad it portrays average life, and in the Reebok ad it portrays the thug life.

Jordan Engel

Looking At The Big Picture

Advertising has been going on for hundreds of years. However, the ways of advertising has changed drastically throughout time. Now, advertising is pushed through the media and is more visual than audible. Advertising is more about subliminal messaging and placing a hidden meaning or lifestyle around the product that is being sold. Angle of vision is one way to portraying a certain message in an advertisement. There is a Coors Light ad and it is a picture a man and a woman, and the man is resting his arm on the woman's shoulder. In the captions of the ad its reveals that the two people in the ad have been best friends since first grade. The photo of the two is a picture taken at the same level the two in the picture, there is not an angle looking up at them or down at them. The male's eyes are not looking at the woman and they are very casually sitting there. The picture makes you feel that they are just friends, because they are not showing affection as a couple would. This is where the beer part of the ad comes in. The ad says "Coors Light. Just between friends." This caption plays hand in hand with the photo because they are clearly just friends. Angle of vision may be one aspect of advertising, but surely is not.

Compositional features of an image are also very important. Compositional aspects of an image are the the features such as: settings, furnishings, character roles, social meaning of objects, social roles, and rhetorical context. In the Jeep Cherokee advertisement there is an image of a Jeep Cherokee in the middle of a city. In this city there are many outdoor qualities that the city takes on. In the ad there are many trees and there is a very large waterfall coming off the top of a building. This placement of the waterfall and the trees gives the message that even though the Jeep is meant for the street, it is still very versatile and can go off road. Ads like this also raise question for those who are unfamiliar with the product. Question would be raised for the placement of the waterfall in the middle of a city if someone had no knowledge of a Jeep. Sport-utility vehicles are notorious for poor gas mileage and poor emission. This ad makes it seem like it is normal for a vehicle that goes on and off road to be alright to drive around town. Other than visual and compositional features of an ad there are also the rhetorical aspects of an ad.

In the Hummer ad, there is a picture of a yellow Hummer being viewed from the top. Also, the Hummer is being driven on a very rugged terrain. This ad would not suit some, but for others it may spark a lot of interest. For someone looking for an off-road vehicle, this ad would interest them because they see a rugged looking vehicle driving on a very rugged terrain. The ad of the Cherokee would appeal to a potential buyer because the slogan on the story is, " Always have adventure in you heart. Jeep Cherokee." So even if you cannot drive the vehicle off-road you can still always have the feeling that you could if you wanted to. Even though the odds of you taking a brand new Jeep off-road are very unlikely, the ad is selling the thought that if you wanted to take it off road, you know you could. So, advertising has advertising has more meaning than just the initial picture or caption that is first viewed. Advertising is a collection of many different aspects put together to appeal to the target audience.

Jordan Engel

More Than Meets the Eye

In 1938 Norman Rockwell, a famous American painter, painted a portrait of a doctor with a stethoscope checking the breathing of a child patient. The child was accompanied by his mother who was happily sitting in the background. The arguments that are made by Rockwell in his portrait portray that the doctor is a sympathetic, caring physician. Rockwell uses warm colors such as shades of dark red and deep yellows. Also, Rockwell paints a picture of the doctor, who is old and looks very gentle. There is no technology in Rockwell's portrait, but the doctor is getting done what need he should be and the mother is satisfied. In the text, there is also a picture of a doctor who is doing some work on a high-tech monitor that is displaying what looks like an x-ray or an MRI. The doctor in this picture is wearing glasses, holding a pen and it seems that he is studying the display intently. The doctor in the picture is portrayed in such a way that he is very intelligent and knows exactly what he is doing. If a person were to go the doctor in the in Rockwell's portrait they would be very comfortable with him and feel that he is genuinely helping them. If someone were to go to the doctor in the high-tech photo, they would probably know they are getting very good medical treatment, but their doctor may be a little less sociable.

Some people say that you can get a glimpse of somebody's personality just by looking at their artwork. Rockwell painted the picture of the doctor and the child and it gives you the impression that Norman Rockwell is kind, caring person. If Rockwell were a grouchy, old man who hated children he would not paint a picture of a doctor giving care to a young child. So Rockwell's portrait that he painted gives the impression that he is an all around caring person. The photographer of the high-tech photograph seems to be a more practical person who wants to show what the doctor is really doing and the hard work that the doctors do and the complexity of their job. The impression of the ethos that the high-tech doctor gives is that he is very smart and knows exactly what he is doing, because he is using advanced technology to do his job and not everyone can use that type of equipment. The doctor in the portrait by Rockwell gives the impression of the ethos that the doctor knows what he is doing and that he is there to help you, the fact that he is a doctor makes him a credible person.

It is in HMO’s and insurance company’s best interest to portray high-tech images of doctors. When someone has a serious medical condition and they go to see a doctor they want to know that they have somebody who knows what they are talking about. So it is the HMOs and insurance companies to show clients and potential clients that their doctors have a lot of experience and that they can help their patients. As for the doctor portrayed in Norman Rockwell's painting, he may better serve interests in alternative health care. Alternative health care, such as naturopathology, would appeal to Rockwell's doctor because the doctor in the painting seems that he is more along the lines of a doctor who would tell you to eat some soup, don't go outside, and get enough rest. For someone who is not looking for a pill to fix their problem they would want to go to the doctor in Rockwell's portrait.

Whether or not you take the time to look at them, pictures, paintings, advertisements, movies, or basically any visual, there is normally more than just a picture there, and there is a deeper reasoning behind them. Subliminal messages are placed in these various visuals so that the viewer can connect with the visual and pick out the deeper meaning. It may just look like a painting, but it’s more than meets the eye.

Jordan Engel

Analyzing a Few Things About 30 Little Turtles

In "Questioning Thomas L. Friedman's Optimism in '30 Little Turtles'," Stephanie Malinowksi, a student writer, writes in response to Thomas L. Friedman, a New York Times author, about his experience with outsourcing in India. She writes that Friedman only expounds on the positive parts of the Stephanie makes another point that Friedman makes large overgeneralizations on his few experiences with Indian outsourcing that all of the Indians are hospitable. Also, Stephanie points out what she thinks is an even bigger problem in Friedman's article, and it is that he talks about the Indians in a very condescending tone. Finallly, she believes that Friedman ended his article too abruptly and thinks that it leaves the audience wanting more.

Stephanie chose to use the bulk of her essay to prove her rhetorical points such as: only going into depth on the positive aspects of Indian outsourcing, large overgeneralization about Indians, writing in a condescending tone about Indians, and that Friedman comes to an abrubt end of his article. When explaining her points she uses alot of examples and quotations from "30 Little Turtles" that support her points. One of the the best of examples and quotation that Malinowski uses are when she says that Friedman overgeneralized based on few experiences. Stephanie uses the quotations "Indians are so hospitable." and "All of them seem to have gained self-confidence and self-worth." Also, Stephanie counters what Friedman writes when she says that she read other articles that said that outsourcing is basically a deadend job and that $200 a month is not a large salary, Friedman said the opposite of Stephanie. However, she does have alot of support for some of her points, she doesn't have as much for some of her other points. She could have used a few more examples and quotations on her point of Friedman coming to an abrupt end of his article. Stephanie uses only one signifcant quote and that is "we make not only a more prosperous world, but a safer world for our 20-year-olds." She used this quote earlier in her writing and could have gone into a little more depth about her point.

Stephanie Malinowski uses many attributive tags to give full credit for what Friedman has written in his article. Some effective tags that she uses are "Friedman asks the reader" and "Friedman states,"clearly giving ownership to what he had said. If I were going to write a rhetorical critique of Friedman's article I would use mostly what Malinowski such as: overgeneralization, condescending tone, and the lack of negative aspects. The only point that I wouldn't make is that he tried to come to an abrupt end of the article and tried to end on a happy note. I believe that Friedman was trying to end on a positive note, because the story was written with a positive demeanor. Aside from agreeing with Stephanie, there are also some of Friedman's points that I agree with.

Friedman says that outsourcing has helped international relationshups between India and other countries like America and Canada. I would go into more detail about this if I were in Friedman's position writing the article. Also, I would go into more detail about the negative aspects of outsourcing and some of the problems it causes, instead of just using positive aspects. Aside from all the dispute between Friedman's article and Malinowski's response they both do a good job of giving their opinion on what they have to right about.

Jordan Engel