Found in translationsCreated by Brett Oppegaard

for Washington State University's DTC 375 class, fall 2009

What does it all mean?Questions raised during the translation exercise:

In what ways do you think your expression gets limited by your language?How does relying on translations for much of our knowledge base

(anything by the ancient Greeks, for example) affect our true wisdom? In which ways are literal translations preferable to interpretive … and vice

versa? Can you think of examples from your work in this class?

Immediacy, hypermediacy and remediation

Questions raised by Bolter & Grusin:Our obsession with immediacy couldn’t be solved by

photography or cinema (pg 83). In what ways can the digital arts finally achieve that goal, or what

obstacles can never be overcome?What does Marshall McLuhan mean when he remarks

“the ‘content’ of any medium is always another medium”? (pg. 102) Why is that important to

consider?Why is remediation such a valuable option in

communication?

Textual Culture versus Visual CultureQuestions raised by Baetens:

Is it possible, once and for all, to completely replace text with images in our society (pg 111)? Why or why not?

How will people benefit/suffer from continued development toward a visual culture?

Are there negatives to a picture saying a thousand words?

Why use images instead of text? (Baetens, pg. 115)

Readability – Images make text blocks shorter, easier to grasp, while underlying the global structure of the material; a shortcut to the

development of the textThe basic rules of envisioning information aren’t known

or followed by many, including professional communicators, creating a muddy picture, or even

contradictory or confusing subtext

Why use images instead of text? (Baetens, pg. 115)

Economy of information – Images provide information more rapidly and more clearly than

the verbal equivalents.Images are nearly impossible to control. They have so

many meanings, shifting meanings. Different people see different things, and poor captioning only makes

the situation worse. Verbal information actually closes some of those doors, providing a limited but

straighter path.

Why use images instead of text? (Baetens, pg. 115)

Modernity – Images are in vogue right now, not long lists of dense text. Using images shows the

work of communication is contemporary.Besides iconoclastic reactions, using images also can

create other negative consequences in communication, including making a discourse more

complex and inaccessible or unapproachable to users, also causing detachment or rejection.

Why use images instead of text? (Baetens, pg. 115)

Networking – “Facts,” such as images, reinforce credibility of the message, and they are much

more difficult to argue against.Unless the viewer rejects the association, even if it is a

solid one, even on grounds unrelated to the argument (remember that images are messy and can

be interpreted in many different ways, sometimes creating suspicion).

Ways in which we use languageQuestions raised by Prompt 4:

How does a lack of emitting (silent treatment, aspects of a conversation left unspoken, secrets, etc.) affect communication? (Faun Scurlock)

How do labels (good vs. evil, terrorist vs. freedom fighter, conservative vs. liberal, legal vs. illegal) control, conform and manipulate us? (Jon

Tanner)

What was the last word you made up? Why did you do it? (Jerry Joiner)