Rudra Venkatakrishnan ENGL 1101

Reflection             Our research question was “how did television broadcasts during the Cold War shape the American public’s perspective and spread anti-communist ideals?”. We chose this question because we wanted to understand the behavior of the television network space when it was young. Today, the television network industry is one that continues to grow and it differed greatly from what it used to be in the 1950s. As researchers, we wanted to understand the reason for these differences. After doing some initial research on propaganda, we felt that looking at propaganda of posters or early radio would not be interesting to research. We felt that researching a more multimodal form of technology that exploded in the market would be more insightful. Considering how television is still a major part of the lives of Americans today more than most other writing technologies, studying the history of television would help us under...

Some questions that came to mind while reading are: What is the evidence that suggests that typing on a computer is worse than hand writing something in terms of retention? And did the production and sales of pencils=s decline significantly in the computer digital age? The readings were objective in that they did not criticize the constant use of computers in today's age, but rather discussed the positive and negative aspects of the technology, more focused on the invention of the pencil and its impact. For example, I learned how complex the pencil itself has changed in design over the centuries and the impact it had on keeping records and teaching future generations in the classroom. Thoreau was not just a proponent of the pencil; it was literally his job to manufacture and produce pencils.   People including him and Bill Henderson defend the pencil and quill pen. The old writing technologies like wooden pencils were more natural, and, to some, they connected to the mind in wa...

For the podcast assignment, I am interested in doing either an interview or an advertisement. I am leaning more towards an interview because I have never conducted one before so it would be exciting to be on the other side of the chair giving the questions rather than answering them. When I think about interviews I think about evaluation ones conducting by companies when they screen job applicants or college interviews. Those google coding interviews come to mind where they evaluate the applicant's knowledge of computer science and using problem solving skills to find the most efficient solution to a problem. Or my own college interview where I was asked about my activities and academics. But in the political world, interviews are a way for journalists to gain information from the perspective of the person he is interviewing. I think of people like Fareed Zakaria interviewing important political figures to facilitate discussion on issues that are controversial. In my project, I hop...

0 Comments   1 Which came first- the demand for more paper, fueling production, or that more paper was made so people found ways to use it? The demand for more paper came first. As a result, the paper machine was invented by Nicolas Louis Robert in 1798. This machine made the process of making paper automated; people no longer needed to pull, couch, and press the sheet by hand. The machine would make damp sheets of paper in which papermakers would only have to hang them to dry. However, the beginning of papermaking is often associated with China where Chinese Emperor Ts’ai Lun ruled. 2 Who was the museum’s founder and what are some interest facts about his life? William Joseph was born in 1883 into an Ohio family with a history of printing and publishing. He uses the nickname Dard Hunter, but the origin of “Dard” is not known. When he spent time in London he fell in love with European papermaking and printing and expressed his desire to have his own pr...

The Writing on Clay Baron discussed the importance of clay as a writing technology whereas the Pettegree reading focused more on the impact of the printing press. With regards to the printing press, I agree with the idea that it caused a crisis even though this may seem overdramatic. This was one of few inventions which was controversial and people were not sure what to think of it. I understand that there were people who traditionally used manuscripts to hand craft all their writing and books and that the invention of the printing press could be seen as "unpure" writing. What they could mean by unpure is that since many copies could easily be produced with the printing press, this took away from the experience of hand crafting every single detail yourself in a manuscript. This idea is also address in the Baron reading when it compares writing on clay to computer and pencil and paper writing technologies. I believe that even now typing on a computer is not as experiential as ...

VisualEssay Visual Essay Rationale Finding a topic and a specific thread to focus on was the first difficult challenge in this assignment as it would dictate which images and types that I would be using to convey my visual argument. In my case, I considered representing how comics have become the way they have today by visually showing the various forms they have taken from medieval manuscripts to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the 21 st Century. When I tried researching the various ways fictional characters have been conveyed visually, I soon found myself overwhelmed with the number of images that I would have to include had I pursued this thread completely. I was more passionate about the modern action comics since I was naturally more knowledgeable about the current superhero comics, so I changed my thread to show the evolution of the previously comedic centralized comics to the domination of the current superhero action ones. Having decided now to focus on the evolution ...

I find comic books to be most interesting. There are many subtopics to explore within the realm of comic books, from how they started in medieval times as manuscripts to current 21st small paper like book ones. Today, superhero characters dominate the comic book industry and have seen some sort of representation of the character on the movie screen. I am interested in examining this evolutionary change of comic book characters and their impact on the action movie industry from when Superman was introduced in Action Comics #1 in 1938 to his most recent movie in 2017 in Justice League. How the written technology of comic strips changed to comic books to action shows, and to present action movies interests me the most and I wish to learn more about this change.