The dominating color of the page is white. There is a thin grey square frame which has some margin to the top, sites and bottom and includes all the elements of the page. On the upper left hand corner are two soap bottles which have the shape of a drop. On the left is a red bottle and next to it is a white bottle up site down. They attract attention by fading in and out. Next to them on the right site are three light grey links which become light red by hovering: “shop”, “other people’s confessions” and “send to mom”. The main focus lies on the white circular sink in the middle of the frame which is seen from a bird’s perspective. To hands are reaching towards the sink from the bottom of the grey frame. On the right site of the sink is a red soap bottle like the ones on top of the page – underneath in light grey letters the words “enter your confession” and three lines of dots where you can enter your confession. Beneath them stand the words: “come clean” with a little icon of a drop next to it.

Furthermore the page uses the mode sound. We can hear the water coming out of the tap. Furthermore there is light music, maybe from a sitar in the background. In addition to these sounds a woman with an Indian accent is speaking to us . In addition to all these modes the website goes even further by being interactive. Once you have entered your confession and pressed enter the words appear in black letters on the left hand. Above the sink appear words like “Thinking of something clever to say…” Or just “thinking…” in light grey. A moment later the woman gives you some advice or a penance which are usually funny . Afterwards the words:

“Your hands are now clean.

Visit www.methodproducts.

method – people against dirty”

appear at the same place where you entered your confession before.

Chandler states: “We learn to read the world in terms of the codes and conventions which are dominant within the specific socio-cultural contexts and roles within which we are socialized.” (“Semiotics. The Basics”, p.155) The following will explain how the various modes like written text, text the user can enters, moving pictures, graphics and different sounds work together to generate meaning and discourse.

The slogan “method – people against dirty” is ambiguous. As Chandler points out: “Just like signifiers, signifieds are part of the sign-system; signifieds are socially constructed.” (“Semiotics. The Basics”, p.63) Dirty can signify a lot: not clean – needs to be washed; or toxic substances; or sinful behaviour. All these signifieds make sense in the context of the page and the product it advertises. The “method” soap can clean, is non-toxic and environmentally-friendly and users can confess their sins and come clean. The color white is dominant and connotates pureness and cleanliness. In this case the connotation is not only cleanliness of dirt, but purity of soul. Because the text written on the left hand are signifiying the sin and dirt, which both can be washed away with that particular soap. The light grey color of the different textual elements supports that meaning. It also matches the silver of the tap and the white soap in the upper left corner. The red color of the soap also reappears and matches the color of the text when it is hovered. Thus color-harmony and the recognition value play an important role. Furthermore red is the color of purity and integrity in India. As mentioned before the woman speaks with an Indian accent – a good example how two modes can work together to generate meaning.

The round shape of the sink matches the round shape of the bottles and the bottles match the drop icon. The bottles have the shape of a drop of soap or water – the shape of the object stands for its content: soap; or the substance you would mix it with: water. Again these two substances are associated with cleanliness. In addition the round shape connotates good or friendly like the non-toxic, environmentally-friendly cleaning products from method. The round sink gives the page a special look, because most of the conventional sinks are square and thus underlines the image of “method” as being special and different from the other soap products.

The sink with the floating water and the hands are seen from a bird’s perspective – exactly as one would see their own hands when standing in front of a sink. In addition the hands are moving while washing of the confession. This way the user feels integrated in the situation, it seems more real and supports the interactive part of the page.

The music is only low in the background and sounds a little exotic and not easy recognizable, maybe like a sitar or temple music. Another sound is a rush, which signifies the floating water and thus makes the situation more “real”. The woman speaks with an Indian accent and addresses the user the whole time, for example with the word “you”. She gives him a tip or penance related to his confession, so the user has kind of a meaningful interaction with her. She can be seen as a narrator that guides and entertains the user. Furthermore the combination of her accent and the music create sound wise the spiritual atmosphere of a temple, and can thus be associated with catharsis.

The “pure” and “clean” design of the “come clean” page reflects the principle of the company. The page presents different values in various modes which each have a meaning themselves but generate an even broader meaning by working perfectly well and logically together. The come clean web side makes memorable and fun use of the different modes. They make the visit exciting and people feel the need to use the “send to mom” button on top of the page to share their confessing experience. An email form with the subject: “I saw what you did” and the content: “Here’s your chance to come clean. http://www.comeclean.com” comes up. Thus the designers of the page chose a pleasant way for making successful promotion. First “method” helps people to come clean and then it prevents its customers from committing ecologically sins by using toxic free “method” soap.

Usually sins are confessed to a priest in a church. Here you have the opportunity to confess in the Internet meaning at every possible place that has an Internet connection, maybe whilst checking facebook. Confessing of the 21st century? Coming clean by using fictional online soap? How convenient!

Sources:

• ezine articles

• sage journals

• Daniel Chandler: “Semiotics. The Basics”

• Anne Cranny-Francis: “Multimedia”

• Gunther Kress and Theo Van Leeuwen: “Multimodal Discourse. The modes and media of contemporary communication”

“The Dumbest Generation” page can be devided in three parts. The header on top of everything with the red words saying: “The Dumbest Generation” infront of the white background of the page. On the left side of the screen there is a vertical navigation bar showing different categories of the website in grey letters like “reviews”, “articles” or “buy the book”. On top of the main part are the grey words “50 Million Minds Diverted, Distracted, Devoured”. Underneath there are floating letters which come from the left and change colors from red to black and tell some facts about the so called dumbest generation. Another eyecatcher is the bookcover which captures almost the whole page: the three words “THE DUMBEST GENERATION” written underneath each other in capital fat black and red words. In their center is a graphic of three robots holding a flag in their hands. Beneath the big letters it says in red: “How The Digital Age Stupefies Yound Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future*” and thereunder “hangs” cross a kind of black and white tag saying: “*OR DON’T TRUST ANYONE UNDER 30 MARK BAUERLEIN”. Thus the color scheme within these words and phrases is black – red – black – red in each line or phrase from top to bottom.

The dominant colors of the page are white for background, red, black and also a little bit of grey for the font. The combination of the colors red and black connotates power – it is a powerful statement that Bauerlein is making and the wants to draw attention, make people think and be alarmed. Red in itself is an emotionally intense color and a connotation of war and danger – the danger of the stupefied young American who came jeopardize the future. “The National Assessment of Educational Progress has pegged 46% of 12th-graders below the “basic” level of proficiency in science, while only 2% are qualified as “advanced.””* Red is also used in many flags like the flag of the USA which is also shown on the page. The white background color basically stands for purity and cleanliness – it is a reliable study which is based on facts. Additionally it brings out the effects of the other red and black element very well.

The website uses an alliteration “50 Million Minds Diverted, Distracted, Devoured” – all negative words to describe young Americans who do not know how to write interestingly for school: “No sharp metaphors, mots justes, nifty rhythms and parallels, or punctuating sounds.”* Bauerlein describes the youth with a figure of speech and by doing that he even emphasizes their inability of using them.

The moving text is another sign vehicle and presents some facts about the young generation – what it does and what it does not do. The letters are moving quickly and after looking at the page for while they are getting quite annoying, but they attract attention. It alludes to the youth not beeing able to focus a long time – “…the digital revolution, which he says has empowered students in certain ways while also eroding their attention spans and analytical abilities.”*

The grey and white navigation bar is well visible, but without any visual effects to distract the eye from the main “book cover” elements. The hierarchy of the links of the navigation bar suggest you move from the top to the bottom. You can read all about the book in the news, reviews, articles by Bauerlein and afterwards when you are convinced the book might be worth it you can buy it. Thus the navigation bar and the whole website stands for seriousness and not cheap advertisement that just wants to make you buy something by clicking on a big red “buy now” button. The site wants to give you facts, interestingly written and argumenting articles – it wants to make you read and think – something that Bauerlein says the “digital age” does not do. Thus this page shows how it can be done differently compared to pages like wikipedia which “…is criticized for its superficiality, erroneousness, and amateurism, but, in fact, Wikipedia provides ready access to a fact, definition, or overview.”*

The robot image is a sign vehicle and alludes to Joe Rosenthals photograph “Raising the flag on Iwo Jima”, because the composition is similar. It was shot during Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II and shows five United States Marines and a U.S. corpsman raising the flag of the United States on top of Mount Suribachi. It is a symbol for the democratic spirit and hope. The robots signify the young Americans – “the dumbest generation”. They are not humans like in the photograph and they look aggressive and pushing – they do not stand for hope, but for destruction. The big words together with the iconic image look like they are promoting a new kind of action figures. These robots are stupefied and controlled by the digital age proudly presenting the American flag – not in the process of raising like in the photograph. We can say that the flag represents a synechdoche in which the flag is the part and the whole are the young Americans. The three robots represent a synechdoche too. They are the part that stands for the whole generation. In addition the robots stand for the “…blind celebration of youth, and an ill-informed optimism about technology…” .*

The design of the “*OR DON’T TRUST ANYONE UNDER 30” tag is a reference to the parental advisory logo that is put on CDs with content that is better not presented to kids. This is Bauerleins “parental advisory“ or at least for people over 30. It alludes to the famous slogan of Jack Weinberg, the leader of the Free Speech Movement at the University of California, Berkeley in the 1960s. Weinberg said “Don’t trust anyone over 30” – so Bauerlein reversed that popular phrase. The phrase and the tag could be seen as an analogue opposition (antonym) which is a pair of oppositional signifiers in a paradigm set representing categories with comparative grading on the same dimension. In a news release distributed by a Chicago public relations agency Weinberg said “I told him we had a saying in the movement that we don’t trust anybody over 30. It was a way of telling the guy to back off, that nobody was pulling our strings.”* His connotation is that the new generation does not pull its own strings and is the opposite of the “Weinberg generation”. The National Conference of State Legislatures recently announced: “Young people do not understand the ideals of citizenship … and their appreciation and support of American democracy is limited.”* This quotation is from Bauerleins article “Decline of the Literate Culture”, it goes on: “We must remember that the heritage of democracy is understandable mainly through reading, for we are a nation founded upon ideals expressed in documents.”*

As we can see the website includes a lot of different sign vehicles, which all symbolize and support the main facts of Bauerleins book: the digital age stupefies the new generation.

List of References:

• http://www.dumbestgeneration.com/
• http://www.hoover.org/publications/ednext/18845104.html
• http://chronicle.com/free/v55/i04/04b01001.htm
• http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/09/12/EDG8B8M7EI1.DTL
• http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/online/digitally-addicted-kids-threaten-to-return-civilisation-to-the-dark-ages-966660.html
• http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/01/14/news/letter.1-407193.php
• http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90755433
• http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/is-stupid-making-us-google
• http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/education/edlife/books.html?_r=1&ex=1209268800&en=129e4f750e5067d0&ei=5070&emc=eta1
• http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2000-04-06/article/759?headline=Don-t-trust-anyone-over-30-unless-it-s-Jack-Weinberg
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raising_the_Flag_on_Iwo_Jima
• Daniel Chandler: Semiotics: The Basics
• Anne Cranny-Francis: Multimedia
• Gunther Kress and Theo Va Leeuwen: Multimodal Discourse

We divided the page into the main categories: Student Center, SV-Building and HF-Building, because the majority wrote about them. Of course we also wanted to include links to the other pages. That is why we chose the fourth category: Other Places.

We used the basic design of Johans Guide to UiB 1 and redesigned it for our purpose. Our group chose to use a drop-down menu for each category to be able to link to everyone’s page and still have a clear overview. Inspiration to that kind of menu gave us the Blackburn Website.

I think we did a good job organizing the information and giving new students the opportunity to check out the different places and not get overwhelmed by too many impressions at the same time.

Here you can check out our Guide to UiB 2 yourself. Have fun!

Would you be offended if your brother or sister or lover had died in Iraq and their face was one of the tiles in the mosaic?

It is hard to say since non of us has been in the situation of loosing a family member or a friend in the Iraq war. One could see it as a tribute to all the people who have lost their lives in the war and see it as an act of respect. On the other hand people could get offended, because the picture might express something they do not support. I also understand people who are angree about the artist using the pictures of a lost one without asking.

Do you agree with the artist that this image “is not a textual statement or rhetorical argument”? Does the image express anything? If so, what?

We discussed a lot about the image’s meaning and if you come to think about it there is not only one. The most obvious is of course criticism on Bush and the war that cost so many peole their lives – only for Bush. Even though there can be other meanings to it – we agreed that this mosaic is a statement. But art can always be interpreted in different ways – depending on your opinion, your experience, your background and so on.

The image spread across the world, being republished in blogs and newspapers and shown on television. Why is the image so appealing?

I think one reason the mosaic is appealing is the fact that you know those people have died in the war. They are dead and you feel thouched, sad for them, their families and friends – maybe angry that they had to die. Like I said it is a statement and you want to discuss it with other people – I think that is one reason why people wanted to share and post it.

Dessuten liker jeg at kurset er teoretisk, praktisk og aktuell. Jeg synes blogging og netsamfunn som for eksempel facebook er fascinerende. Av og til de er også litt spesiell, fordi du deler mye av personlige ting. Derfor tror jeg det er viktig å vite noe om det.

Kurset er kult og jeg liker at Jill viser oss så mange forskjellige websider, youtube videos og andre ting. Det er morsomt. Jeg liker også den HUIN105 blog med alle denne lenker og viktige informasjoner.

Jeg har ikke blogget før. Jeg hørte om blogs, men jeg har aldri leste blogs og jeg ikke visste noe om de. Derfor synes jed det er interessant å lære mer om dette temaet.

Jeg tror blogging er bra hvis du liker å skrive og dele tankene dine med andre. Dessuten er det nyttig for mennesker som er interessert i de samme emnene. Blogs er også en god mulighet hvis du reiser eller bor utenlands en tid. Da kan du fortelle vennene dine og familien din om opplevelsene dine der.

Allikevel må du være deg bevisst på at alle og mange kan lese hva du skriver, så du bør tenke to ganger før du publiserer teksten din.

So enjoy blogging guys!