Hi all, I’m going to write a sort of scheme for what I have thought to develop for my research… I read screen and rethoric text and also I have followed carefully the posts you wrote in here about those themes..
so..
First of all I need some helps to define better my research question, I thought “In these days which is the best way to communicate?”.. the aim beyond this question would be, in this time, where you can find thousands ways to show what you want to say, which is the best one? or better, which is the right way to do it without being polluted by dangerous effects on your mind and to look serious and professional?
( any suggestions about the right way to write the question are seriously accepted because I find difficult compress all those intentions in only one phrase)
I would like to start speaking about mainstream systems of communication and than give examples and comments regarding especially our fields ( communication wants to mean: advertising and every way to promote it).
so, writing a short scheme
– Net 2.0 ( its structure designed to facilitate consumption ( the logic of “clicks” on websites)–> the use of rethoric understood as use of emotional images to improve that phenomenon)
-Forms of communications, then printed (magazines, flyers, books, posters, etc) or digital ( socialnetworks, advertising on banners, youtube, pop-up, etc). About socialnetworks give some reflections on their negative effects on people, loneliness, neurosis, curiosity, the loss of old way to live into a group of friends and share with them particular moments, and even the loss of concentrations (mentioning Nick Bell).
-Positive aspects, my personal opinion about all this forms, especially about the effect of Web 2.0 on our life
– Start developing a strategy of communication using like solid basics what I have read into Bonsiepe and Ehses’ articles. So have a strong clear Idea, have a good use of rethoric understood as a powerful mix between what you want to say and what you are showing, know ever the needs of your public, show a strong figure of you and your work.
This is going to be strongly related to my 1.3 because in that I would explain my will to find a personal style of work, etc, etc.. so this research could help me to clarify ideas…
what do you think about it? I am really scared to do a wrong essay or going off the brief..
I will wait for your feedbacks, thank you very much, for me this 1.2 is being really difficult!!!! :p
Alberto
Hi Alberto! Just initially on your research question – it sounds to me that you are trying to ask about the best way to communicate, to a wider audience, that will perceive to have the most amount of credibility and therefore support from your audience. Is that right?
If not that, it seems like you might be wanting to talk about the effective communication between personal relationships? Like, how has the way you communicate with your friends/ colleagues/ associates changed and is it for the better or worse?
If you could clarify that intention, that would be good for us!
Your use of all the articles in the discourses and also our discussions in the blog is really good. It seems that you have a lot of content to use from that which will really help and also make writing most of the content of your essay easier!
One last thing I think you may need to clarify against is whether you are talking about a more personal approach in the topic (as a single person participating in the communicating), or whether you are talking about a designer’s perspective (whether a single designer or a design/ corporate company). If you get me???
sounds good so far though!
Hey Alberto!
If you are concerned with trying to fit all your ideas/intentions into one phrase, you can have more than one essay question. For my dissertation in BA, I had a main question and a sub question.
So for your case, I think Abi summarised it well, maybe have “Which method of communication shows the most sincerity in relating to current consumers?” as your main topic with the sub question “Are the audience becoming more aware to advertising’s persuasive techniques?” to help define the problem about rhetoric and what you read in the discourses.
Hopefully the suggested questions will allow you to frame your essay in discussing the history of rhetoric (Bonsiepe/Ehses/Bell) and it’s perception, the advancement of technology in communication (Web 2.0/Print/Digital), the problem with digital communications (loneliness in Social Networking), the positives and how advertisers/companies understand this “new” audience.
I might be totally wrong though in what you want to write about so yes please clarify =)
An interesting essay indeed though, definitely heading in the right direction!
Good luck!
Actually I think the right question could be ” Which method of communication shows the most effectivity in relating to current consumers?
😀
Well, this seems to be a very well-structured and neat essay to me.
The only thing that I’m not sure about is ” -Positive aspects, my personal opinion about all this forms, especially about the effect of Web 2.0 on our life” => Are you going analyze this on the audience or a graphic designer’s point of view?
So, yeah, kinda agree with Abi about whose perspective you are talking about.
Hope this helps.
ok,
sorry for my late answer,
mainly I’m writing about the first thing Abi said, then, most amount of credibility and
support from audience!
obviously, writing that like a designer, I cannot avoid to mention some cases related to our work, but I find it useful!
for the rest I’ll do an objective analysis!
Hey alberto!
I find your research topic very interesting, first of all. Is it going to focus particularly on Web 2.0, or are you going to make an analysis of all types of communications? My concern is, Web 2.0 and the rise of social media is a huge topic and you can discover various relationships and new paths through the process of your research, so I’m not sure but probably if I were you, I would narrow my research question and focus on the impact of Web 2.0 (graphic design, communication, marketing etc.). It’s just my humble opinion.
Good luck with your research!
Hi Alberto,
Sorry I’m a bit late with my comments on your essay plan. I must confess I’ve not read everyone else’s comments in putting these notes together, so forgive me if any of this has been covered already or you’ve moved on since your initial outline. Hopefully some of it’ll still be useful to you anyway!!
So to begin with you asked about refining or defining your research question more effectively.
Here’s a stab at it:
“In a world saturated with competing messages, and given the overlapping ways in which messages are made and interpreted, I would like to explore core principles and strategies for achieving successful promotional communication through graphic design” ???
Maybe once you have an inkling which principles and strategies you want to explore, you can be more specific.
Your first two points of your scheme:
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You probably need to find a unifying structure which underlies the areas which you will discuss here, so that it doesn’t become a list of related topics. If you can give it this backbone, then you will be able to discuss fewer of these issues, but in more depth, and with better purpose. i.e. – for each issue you want to discuss, ask yourself why you are including it – in what way is it relevant.
My own initial off the top of my head thoughts involve the following:
Managing interpretation of messages (image/text combinations) – using knowledge of how images are read, use of format, media placement, understanding of the social web, understanding of new forms of demographic (i.e. the slicing of audiences with web needs radical re-thinking).
Your personal opinion
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Yep, this is core 🙂 How you link it to the theoretical stuff you mention above is probably the key to the success of this section.
Strategy of communication
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It may be that actually trying to define a successful strategy may be asking too much of an essay of this length. Maybe an exploration of core mechanisms would be more achievable and also you would find it easier to be discursive (i.e. discuss) in a more graded or subtle way, the key theoretical arguments.
If you are critical (i.e. questioning) about the bits you quote from Ehses/Bonsiepe for example, this may help you make a more nuanced argument which leads you somewhere – rather than feeling you have to nail your colours to the mast and be too definite, too polemic, too single-minded about your key argument.
It’s also worth considering when these two articles, in particular, were written – and what that may tell you about the agendas which were current at the time, or at least to question how they hold up in 2012. Do we need to re-think how rhetoric may operate in the 21st century relative to how it has been espoused?
I hope that I’m not talking rubbish, and that in any case these are just my thoughts before heading off to get ready for bed. I’m happy to see what you agree with / disagree with / want to discuss more about – if you’re in the mood for discussing more. I know you’ve probably moved on a lot since you wrote your outline and maybe you’ve nearly finished, so ignore it all if it now seems irrelevant 🙂
Best,
Chris