Hariman, Robert and Louis, John. “Visual Rhetoric, Photojournalism, and Democratic Public Culture” Rhetoric Review. Web. Indiana, 2001.

The article “Visual Rhetoric, Photojournalism, and Democratic Public Culture” by Robert Hariman and John Louis analyses how Rhetoricians have traditionally directed their attention on the power of  words in a ever-changing digital space. The assessment provides an insight to the role that iconic photographs are portrayed within American culture. Many photographs reflect a unique visual literacy, which shape our understanding towards specific events in each of our lives. By doing so, visual images tend to influence behavior, identity, but they are paramount  in photojournalism as we shift into the Age of New Media.

The article is useful for providing a unique perspective on photojournalism and suggest how iconic images can affect the viewer’s emotional reservations. Although, visual images intensifies the visual experience of a viewer, it can present an unwarranted challenge. Perhaps this could be useful to think about the visual structures and their positioning in American culture and how it shapes our perception of certain individuals and events.

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Abbott, Tristan. “The Importance of Storytelling, Big and Small.”  Econtentmag. Web. August 2014.

Econtentmag’s writer Tristan Abbott, provided an in-depth look at the importance of storytelling for the reader and the writer regardless of mediums. The ability to tell a good story is paramount for a writer to be heard while getting their opinion out. The article claims “large, macro-level facts supporting stories, such as nation-wide economic data, are effective in demonstrating large problems, but can often feel empty and leave readers or consumers of content feeling like the story lacks a personal touch.” http://www.econtentmag.com/Articles/Editorial/Commentary/The-Importance-of-Storytelling-Big-and-Small-98660.htm

This article is relevant because it mentions the importance of storytelling which is key to understanding in the creation of content. It is the writer’s discretion for the type of style they use to tell a story but effective storytelling is prefered. This is also useful for anyone who wants to learn the basics of telling a story whether for their personal use or for their professional careers— it’s an important skill for all.

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Riesland, Erin. “Visual Literacy and the Classroom.” John Hopkins School of Education. Web.  http://education.jhu.edu/PD/newhorizons/strategies/topics/literacy/articles/visual-literacy-and-the-classroom/

The article “Visual Literacy and the Classroom” is a thoughtful article that explores visual literacy within education while also shedding light on what it means to literate in the new of technology. The shift to mass technologization has led to unprecedented shift to new media and multimedia applications being used. Erin Riesland suggests we should redefine visual literacy while accounting for the new types of technology that have visual literacies embedded in them.

Understanding and exploring new technologies that can help redefine visual literacy in the classroom and beyond is key to progressing in the new age. This content of this article is useful for professors, teachers, educators who work with students in higher education and in traditional schools because they can reshape their curriculum to integrate more visual literacy modules and best practices for their students. While some techniques may not work depending on the course description or the professor’s discipline, it does provide students a chance to become familiar with the changing world of new media from earlier on so that they know what to expect.

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“What is Photojournalism?”wiseGEEK. Web

http://www.wisegeek.org/what-is-photojournalism.htm

wiseGEEK, is a team of researchers, writers, and editors who offer clear answers on a variety of questions.  The wiseGEEK researchers offer a snapshot explanation of photojournalism,  it’s the most direct and clear explanation on the web. They describe photojournalism as “a branch of journalism characterized by the use of images to tell a story. Photojournalists are scattered all around the world within various careers such as documentary photographers or wedding photographers all with the purpose of capturing that kodak moment to tell a story.

wiseGEEK is a site used to simplify complex questions by provide clear and concise answers. This website is useful because it is easily accessible and the information is straight to the point.  Not only does wiseGEEK provide you with answers, it also provides you with hyperlinks to get more information and other similar interests. This can be a fundamental resource center if someone needs a simplification on a topic.

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Jones, Corrine. “Brandon Stanton’s New York Stories.” The Guardian. Web. November 213.

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/nov/03/brandon-stanton-humans-of-new-york-pictures

The article “Brandon Stanton’s New York Stories” by Corrine Jones successfully paints a candid assessment of Human’s of New York’s Brandon Stanton. It highlight the popularity of Stanton’s blog which he refers to as “more of a storytelling blog than a photography blog.” The story of Stanton’s discovery to his passion is very organic and commendable. He took a chance and tried something that was never done which worked out in his favor. This approach to storytelling is different, perhaps we are all a combination of the stories we have read or seen.

This article successfully showcases the ideal storytelling blog. It is a blog that with stories from people all around the world wanting to be heard. It gives these individuals a chance to have a voice, which is all most people want. Also, it is very useful because he asks his prospects very important interview questions. For beginners this may be a source to reference to for a few thought provoking questions.

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Choi, Amy. “The Art of Storytelling According to the Founders of Human’s of New York and StoryCorp.” Ideas.TED. Web. July 2015.

http://ideas.ted.com/the-art-of-storytelling-according-to-the-founders-of-storycorps-and-humans-of-new-york/

TED Talks and TED Ideas are a division of TED, a nonprofit devoted to spreading ideas around the world. The article examines the success of two powerful storytellers such as Human’s of New York’s Brandon Stanton and Storycorps’ Dave Isay. These two pioneers have successfully give a voice to many once voiceless individuals and a chance to share their stories. One of the claims in the article from Dave Isay is to “create an intimate culture where trust is paramount.” By doing so, interviewees are in a comforting ecosystem where they are truly able to be themselves.

This article is useful for formulating your own storytelling channel. It can provide a general guideline of how to engage in thoughtful discourse while you interview someone. From an ethical standpoint it reminds interviewers to remember that they are building report with their interviewees who require an organic, comforting and trusting environment to successfully share their stories.  ____________________________________________________________________________

Cohen, James and Kenny, Thomas “Producing New and Digital Media- Your Guide to Savvy Use of the Web.” Chapter 6: Multimedia Storytelling. Focal Press Taylor and Francis Group 2016

The authors Cohen and Kenny successfully introduces multimedia storytelling to novice individuals. The chapter goes into details about the ever-evolving storytelling ecosystem, the current age of multimedia storytelling medium. In the chapter, they introduce the idea of “the beta person,” which is “you,” someone you can relate to in the image. It give the beta persona a chance to connect through an image or traditional broadcasting. There are humanizing characteristic that makes the beta persona relatable. This provides an interesting look at a phenomena that no one discusses. It leads to “are we searching for ourselves in other individuals? The “ beta persona” is important to keep in mind because it can be used as a theory of how we relate to and interpret other individuals. Perhaps, examining this beta persona can shed some light on how it could possibly help reconstruct our biases.

This chapter is useful for various reasons such as the early stages of digital storytelling, the new age of digital storytelling, how to create a successful narrative within the new space, the personalities that are created within the new space, the virality of these online personalities, and businesses demand for successful multimedia storytelling just to name a few. In addition, it offers content composers a new perspective on the ever changing world of new media. This book will already be outdated because technology and information is instantly changing.

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Blais, Caroline, Caldara, Roberto, Fiset, Daniel, Jack E., Rachael,  and Scheepers Christoph. “Culture Shapes How We Look at Faces” Plos. Web. August 2008

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0003022

This article is incredibly insightful, it provides an exceptionally candid look at how culture has shaped how we look at faces. Over the span of our lives we have come into contacts with thousands of individuals of various background which has led to a categorization of those communities. A major factor that has led to this reinforcement of categorization is culture. Culture plays an unfortunate role and adds to our biases. Humanity has consciously and subconsciously conditioned ourselves to recognizing individuals based on their faces and in turn we have given them labels to make the categorization easier, which causes biases.

This article is useful for people who are interested in learning about the history of face recognition tools, the different face structures of certain cultures, why we are fascinated by certain traits of an individual.

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Annotated Bibliography Reflection

The exercise in creating our annotated bibliographies was surprisingly useful. At first glance, I thought it would be a daunting task however, it was more useful and provided me a new way of how to accurately source information and look at it the content and context from critical point of view. Now I am a strong believer in annotated bibliography, if I knew this earlier in my career it would have changed a lot of things. Through annotating sources, I started to hone in on the idea of my project, the work, the research all became more meaningful. It eliminated a lot of my junk sources and forced me to look for more thoughtful resources to incorporate in my project. Each of the new sources I found, it created a more thoughtful approach to find other sources to connect all the ideas. With each new source, I started digging deeper into my mind to get clarity on what I hope to achieve with this project and especially why I am doing this project. This is not only a project but perhaps it can lead to a fully funded project or a dissertation topic or a TED Talk but essentially it allows the chance to communicate and bring new light to a topic by demonstrating that through storytelling we can begin to reconstruct our psyche and change our biases on certain individuals, if done well.

This is quite a task! Moving forward I would suggest doing this much earlier on because it really helps to mold your ideas and you look for sources that will successfully contribute and support your idea.