Notes, summaries, assignments, exams, and problems for Arts and Humanities

Communication Perspectives

Communication as Representation

Communication is often viewed as abstract or separated from our daily lives and the world around us.

Communication as Constitutive

Communication is constitutive, meaning it shapes reality, often resulting in unequal power distribution.

Historical Context and Rhetoric

Ancient Greece

In Ancient Greece, communication was primarily oral, and nothing was written.

Rhetoric

Rhetoric is the ability to engage effectively with one another.

The Ramus Shift

In the 15th century, Ramus separated the creative process from the delivery process.

Critical Theory and Advocacy

The Critical/Cultural Turn

This movement focuses on power-based inequalities and emphasizes the importance of cultural context.

Public Advocacy

Public... Continue reading "Communication Theory: Power, Rhetoric, and Public Advocacy" »

Dialect and Characterization in Chesnutt's Prose

A prominent stylistic technique employed by Charles Chesnutt is the pronounced dialect speech of his African American characters. Critics of his era, particularly William Dean Howells, praised Chesnutt for his use of dialect, hailing it as an accurate reflection of Black speech. However, in his later works, Chesnutt utilized dialect more sparingly.

This shift occurred because the dialect often elicited condescending laughter, allowing readers to feel a sense of superiority over characters they perceived as ignorant. Uncle Julius, through his language, tales, and mannerisms, occupies the role of the clown—a trope Chesnutt and other Black writers eventually avoided to prevent the exploitation of... Continue reading "Charles Chesnutt: Racial Identity and Literary Realism" »

Voice Onset Time (VOT)

The moment in which voicing starts, relative to the release of a closure. We can find three types of VOT: voice lead, short lag VOT, and long lag VOT. Phonetically voiced and voiceless sounds are determined by VOT.

Prefortis Clipping

A fortis (voiceless) sound following in the same syllable causes the following vowel to be shorter than it would be in another environment.

Connected Speech Assimilation

A type of adjustment in connected speech during which a given sound (the assimilating sound) takes on the characteristics of a neighboring sound (the conditioning sound). Types: partial or complete, adjacent or non-adjacent, progressive or regressive.

• Regressive: The assimilated sound precedes and is affected by the conditioning

... Continue reading "English Phonetics: Connected Speech Processes and Phoneme Analysis" »

Chapter 6: New Media and Other IMC Options

Note: The formula for calculating CTR will be provided on the exam paper.

Targeting Strategies

• Contextual Targeting: Placing advertisements based on the content of the page.
• Behavioral Targeting: Based on user history (visited sites).
• Geographic Targeting: Based on zip codes, Designated Market Areas (DMAs), time zones, and GPS coordinates.
• Daypart Targeting: Based on the time of day.
• Affinity Targeting: Reaching users on their favorite websites.
• Purchase-based Targeting: Profiling the customer based on buying habits.

Rich Media Advertising

Online advertising that utilizes a range of interactive digital media, including streaming video and audio.

Tips for Display Advertising (Plummer et al., 2008)

• Color Psychology:

... Continue reading "Digital Marketing Strategies: IMC and Online Advertising" »

The Alliterative Revival

In Middle English poetry, alliterative verse experienced a resurgence known as the Alliterative Revival. While rhyme played a significant role in other forms, alliteration was the primary structural element in this movement.

William Langland and Piers Plowman

William Langland, believed to have been born in the West Midlands, was a prominent figure in the Alliterative Revival. His most famous work, Piers Plowman, offers potential autobiographical insights and suggests familiarity with London. Scholars speculate that he may have been a cleric of a lower class.

Piers Plowman: A Dream Vision

Piers Plowman is a verse allegory presented as a dream vision, a popular literary device in the Middle Ages used to convey truths or real... Continue reading "The Alliterative Revival and Estate Satire in Middle English Literature" »

Unit 0: Describing Places

• Ancient
• Comfortable
• Crowded
• Dangerous
• Dirty
• Exciting
• Expensive
• Lively
• Peaceful
• Polluted
• Pretty
• Romantic
• Safe
• Ugly

Unit 1: Skills and Abilities

• Bake cupcakes
• Design a website
• Do magic tricks
• Edit photos
• Learn a foreign language
• Learn first aid
• Learn to juggle
• Make a video blog
• Perform on stage
• Play in a band
• Ride a unicycle
• Speak in public
• Write a song
• Write computer code

Essential Life Skills

• Active listening
• Assertiveness
• Conflict resolution
• Cooperation
• Creative thinking
• Entrepreneurship
• Money management
• Negotiation
• Problem-solving
• Respect for others
• Self-awareness
• Time management

Unit 2: Rescue and Survival

• Capsize
• Casualties
• Catch fire
• Crash
• Firefighters
• Give first aid
• Paramedics
• Receive compensation
• Search and rescue workers
• Send international aid
• Survivors
• Victims

Extreme

... Continue reading "Master Essential English Vocabulary and Phrases" »

The Evolution of Fandom and Participatory Culture

The term ‘fan’ is an abbreviation of the word fanatic, which comes from the Latin word ‘fanaticus’. This term originally carried religious connotations, referring to devotees and having secular faith, but it quickly assumed negative connotations in society.

Henry Jenkins, an American media scholar and lecturer of the second half of the 20^th century, addresses different phenomena related to the fan in his book Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture. He rejects common fan stereotypes such as the comic, nerdy, psychotic, and eroticized fan. Moreover, he expresses the fan as a defensible position within mass culture, challenging the view of fans as a scandalous category... Continue reading "Fan Culture, Social Power, and Virginia Woolf's Feminist Vision" »

Key Literary Concepts and Definitions

Literary Forms and Genres

Literature

The art or way to express oneself through written words and to keep a record.

Lyrics/Poetry

Written expression of thoughts, feelings, and desires, conveyed through suggestive and indirect language.

Epic

A narrative poem written in heroic hexameter. It has four constituent parts: plot, character, thought, and diction.

Drama

Poetic compositions designed to be acted in front of audiences in a theatron.

Tragedy

Defined as "the imitation of an action that is serious and also as having magnitude, complete in itself." It is a form of drama exciting the emotions of pity and fear.

Narrative Structure Elements

Plot

The structure or organization of events that make up a fictional story.... Continue reading "Essential Literary Terms and Definitions" »

Digital Design and Image Editing

Graphic Software Assessment

• 23. The hue represents the color itself.
• 24. Using layers allows for progressive image modification without affecting the original file.
• 25. Color channels show the spatial distribution of the three primary colors in an image.
• 26. To open the Inkscape Layers panel, press: [Shift]+[Ctrl]+[L].
• 27. To open the Fuzzy Select tool in GIMP, press: [U].
• 28. To correct the contrast of a photograph, use: Brightness and Contrast and Curves.
• 29. For an animated web image, the most suitable format is: Animated GIF.
• 30. For printing a digital image, the most suitable format is: TIFF.

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Historical Movements

The Enlightenment

Definition: An 18th-century intellectual movement that believed in reason, science, and... Continue reading "Digital Design Principles and Enlightenment History" »

The Concept of Bricolage

The term bricolage was created in 1962 by Claude Lévi-Strauss to designate the style used in ancient tribal rituals where they made use of disparate elements that, joined together, have a meaning and evoke magical feelings. Nowadays, we name 'bricolage' a type of collage which reveals the attractiveness of pop culture. It consists of rearranging and juxtaposing previously unconnected objects to produce new meaning. This involves an inner process of re-signification, in which cultures change the original meanings of these objects in order to adapt them into new codes.

It is important to make clear that 'bricolage' is not 'collage,' as the latter consists of sticking together disconnected elements without any inherent... Continue reading "Bricolage and Allusion: Literary and Cultural Techniques" »