Media? Culture? Are the meanings changing?

ENG 2355 students, as we start reading Media & Culture, I think one important idea that we should have in our minds is the flux of meaning. Sounds impressive, yeah? Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert both get mentioned several times at the beginning of Chapter 1. Initially, the text refers to them as "fake-news anchors" (3). Are they? What's "fake" news? What about the presentation of "real" news might make it fake? Maybe check out some clips of one or both and see if you can discern fakery.

• The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
• The Colbert Report

Is there a possibility that, in a postmodern world, the lines between fake and real have been blurred? Or perhaps they've shifted so subtly yet significantly that the "real" has become the new fake and the "fakers" are at least admitting what they're doing (while perhaps ACTUALLY informing as well)?

Think, to about the six bullet-points (mmmmm, bullet-points) at the end of Chapter 1 (34). Find one of those questions you're interested in and write up a response - not necessarily a definitve answer - for Thursday's class.

A little off-topic, but necessary...

So, this post is for English 3327, Speculative Fiction. Typically, I wouldn't post stuff for that class here, but it's the handiest way to give out all these links. The news stories linked here are merely a small handful of examples of science that we thought, perhaps, couldn't happen, or that we never knew existed. Yet, there the science is. Imagine what fiction writers thought 50 years ago. 100 years ago. Imagine what we'll accept as commonplace 50 years from now. Food for thought...

• Can you patent the building blocks of life?
• The Top Scientific Breakthroughs of 2010
• This Is the Future of the Fight Against Cancer
• Degradable Nanoparticles Bludgeon Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria
• Professor Breeds Bomb-Detecting Plants
• New Nanosensor Sniffs Bombs, One Molecule at a Time
• Designer Life Forms, Coming Soon Whether You Like It Or Not

UPDATE:
Oh, man. I had to add this story just because - I  mean - flying unmanned drones! REALLY?!

• Swarms of Drones Will Kill Us All! (One Day)

Get some Photoshop (and GIMP) brilliance

A while back, a blog called lifehacker posted a really nice, pretty comprehensive Photoshop tutorial some of you might want to take a look at. It's got lots of good tips for designers at a variety of levels, and the vast majority of it transaltes perfectly to GIMP. You might go check it out, but keep in mind that there are bazillions of Photoshop how-tos out there on the interwebs.

While I'm on the subject of Photoshop tutorials, I don't know how I missed the Photoshop rap when it first came out, but it is - no exaggeration at all - the greatest thing ever created in the history on mankind. Yeah, I said it. Well, it's at least tied with a couple other human accomplishments.

Serendipity in visual rhetoric?

Notice that, while the due date for our data visualization project has shifted a little, the assignment has been on the syllabus since January. The reason I point it out is only so that you'll marvel - as I marveled - at the coincidence (is there such a thing?) of Chart Porn (a favorite blog), has a recent post featuring a data visualization about data visulization.

Check it out, and prepare to be dazzled!

ENG 3393 Homework due 2/11

Post your links and criteria for effective/ineffective persuasion as a comment to this post (below).