Born into Coal

Born into Coal was a great documentary.  I watched it twice: once as a viewer listening to a story and the second time as an analyzer breaking down each part of the documentary.  Watching as a viewer, I was immediately drawn in by the strong pathos element of the film.  The personal stories and emotional interviews with the families made the audience able to connect with these complete strangers.  I was also intrigued by the odd take on relaying this message about coal mining.  I certainly did not expect the documentary to be about a pageant but I think this is what made it unique and interesting to watch.

When I analyzed the documentary, I realized just how much B-roll was used.  It was obvious that the producer had hours of film before editing.  She started with 5-6 interviews, footage of the pageant, and footage in both households and the doctor’s office. The interviews seemed to be the backbone of this documentary because the audio from the interviews were the narration for the entire film.  Rarely was footage from the actual interview used.  The producer only used this footage when strong emotions were being shown by the interviewee. I thought this backed up the story of each person and made the interview much more powerful.  Although the producer used the audio effectively, she also used silence effectively.  When the producer wanted us to focus on the film or the words on the screen, there was silence.  This allowed the film to tell part of the story as well.  An example of this is in the beginning when the husband goes off to work and the wife watches through the window and the camera focuses on her saying a prayer.  Instead of using audio to tell the audience about the uncertainty of him coming back home for dinner, the film shows it.

YouTube vs. Pandora

I spend a significant portion of my day on the internet whether it is for entertainment or school work.  When it comes to entertainment, YouTube and Pandora are my go-to sites. YouTube is a wonderful website where random people can share videos.  These videos range from stupid stunts to any song ever created.  Although YouTube has a splendid collection of funny videos, I tend to use it to search songs and listen to music.  However, I also use Pandora which is an online radio where you can search an artist name, genre, or song name then Pandora creates a station with similar music.  This website is a great place to discover new music and unlike YouTube, it does all the work for you. 

Both YouTube and Pandora seem to target the younger generation which becomes evident when analyzing the visual strategies of each.  When searching YouTube, a very busy screen appears. The very first thing your eye catches is a large advertisement plastered on the center of the page.   These ads are typically for a new movie or video game placed in a prime location for the advertisers’ target audience (teens-young adults) to find.  On the left side is a tool bar with specific video categories to help navigate the vast website.  And at the bottom of the page is a section of recommended videos based on your search history.  However, if none of these sections appeal to the viewer, there is search bar at the top of the screen for free roam of the website. The internet is obviously a very untrustworthy source so ethos is difficult to come by.  I would say YouTube shows its credibility by posting videos on the homepage with a large number of views to portray its vast audience.  Also, if you scroll all the way to the bottom of the page there are multiple links to show YouTube’s credibility and website policies.

When searching Pandora, a very simple screen appears. Similar to YouTube, there is a tool bar on the left side with a list of all the stations that you have created.  In the center of the screen is a picture of the album cover for the song playing and just below this is a description of the artist and/or the lyrics.  Centered at the top of the screen are a serious of buttons to navigate the station similar to a car radio with a pause/play button and skip button.  And of course, to the right of the screen is a large, flashy advertisement cunningly placed on a popular website.  Again, ethos on the internet is difficult to build.  But Pandora, like YouTube, has a series of links at the bottom of the page to show its credibility being a website with free music. 

Overall, Pandora works best for me because being a lazy college student I like that it creates a station for you and has an ongoing track of songs.  It is difficult to find quality videos on YouTube and you must constantly search for videos.  On the visual side, Pandora has a much simpler design.  I think this simple presentation works the best out of both websites.

Visual Rhetoric

Both No Seconds and The Last Meal Project addressed the same issue, but approached the issue in different ways visually. Although both websites included a picture of the last meal chosen by each inmate, there was one visual difference that stood out to me.  The Last Meal Project included a picture of the prisoner.  I think including the picture made the author’s argument much more personalized because the reader was able to get a glimpse of that particular person’s final moments.  This author seemed to be targeting the readers’ emotions by including pictures of the inmates.  However, the author of this website seemed to have gotten carried away with visual rhetoric.  All the colored text, special backgrounds, messy font, and overlapping pictures were visually overwhelming. I also did not like the random “fun facts” thrown throughout the slides. In my opinion, these aspects made the argument less compelling because it was distracting and the actual argument seemed to be hidden under all of this extra design.

I found the No Seconds website’s argument more compelling for multiple reasons.  This author chose to include one important piece of information…the crime committed.  If these people received a death sentence, then as the reader I would like to know why.  The crime committed is an essential piece of information when discussing the death penalty.  Also, the visual aspects of No Seconds were much more “to the point” and plain.  Although this doesn’t sound aesthetically pleasing, it fit the topic of discussion which is a very serious subject.  The author did choose to use a messy font but it was balanced out by the use of a black color.  Also, I thought the pictures this author included supported the argument better than The Last Meal Project because it was one single photograph with all the same information. But, this high quality photograph made the food seem as though it was placed right in front of you and that you were now the prisoner. This allowed the reader to relate with the prisoner on a personal level.  Overall, the simplicity of this website allowed the reader to focus on the argument not the pictures and fancy fonts.