Blog 4

According to Bezmer and Kress there are frameworks that are used to design the process of writing for text, design and composition. Bezmer and Kress also write about the social aspect as well,” Explanations of forms and effects need attention to the social origins of the texts as much as to their semiotic effects: attention to the potentials and constraints of modes as well as their interactions resources-image, writing, moving image and speech.” (235).

Some of the concepts of sign makers and signs are meaning and interest that in a social context allow for editors, teacher and students to become the producer in a motivated way. Although, when it comes to school there are limited resources but the interest of learning is there. How is the interest created by the students? It is created by the social and cultural aspect of the environment.

Modes are “socially and culturally shaped resource for making meaning”(237). Some examples of mode are speech, image and writing just to name a few. The producer can find meaning in anyone of these modes for their work. Modes can be used to represent the communities and their social needs. For example, advertising, commercials and websites are just some of the modes that can be used in a cultural setting.

Socially there are various forms of media that are used, newspapers, radio and television are some of the examples of medium that allow people to come together on the same platform. An example that comes to mind is 9/11; on that day people came together under the same medium of television to understand what was happening around them.

Design is another process that is developed, it moves and allows for a social shift in understanding. “Design is a practice where modes, media, frames, ad sites display on one hand, rhetorical purposes, the designers interests, and the characteristics of the audience on the other are brought into coherence with each other.” (240). In other words, bringing all of the elements together in a way where the audience has a complete understanding of it. There are many levels of media that now allow the audience and the producer to create and interact with them. The point that design and media will continue to change as new technologies are developed and how we interact and learn them especially as students with limited school resources is going to be a challenge.

It appears that influence and resources especially for students and teachers are the main challengers here, because many of these new forms of media are not available in the schools because of limited resources and it poses a serious challenge. Many teachers as well as students are stuck with using the traditional forms such as video, radio and writing to compose the design for a particular assignment. I agree that the students have a bigger imagination when it comes to composing an assignment, but it is also essential that the platforms of various forms of media and style are available to do so. In the end it comes down to basics learning the knowledge and working toward supplying the media, medium and framework.

As I was reading Anne Wysocki’s article, “awaywithwords: On the Possibilities in Unavailable Designs”, she makes a good point about what is acceptable in terms of conditions. She writes, ‘You have assigned a research paper in a graduate class you teach. Under what conditions would you accept a paper handwritten in crayon on colored construction paper?”(302). My thought was this is about discipline and what is considered acceptable and space. I also thought and agree with the idea that not everything has to have a text attached to it and it can be just a visual piece. As I was reading her article, I thought about silent films that were just a visual image and no text and audience was able to understand with minimal direction. Consider the times, this was a new form of media and medium, the dawn of film was probably considered to be a crazy idea for it’s time but society adapted and over time it changed, sound was added, text and speech. It is changing and society is adapting to it. “ I too want to understand what is gained and what is lost through any communication practice, especially as computer technologies heighten our awareness of the visuality of texts”. (306) That is something that I struggle with as a student, I do not want to give up or compromise the way that I learned in school but I also realize that it is a changing world and I will be left out if I do not learn the new forms of media that are being used on a global scale.