Unit 3 Project Proposal

1) Our Topic: Era of "the domestic housewife" is ending

2) What we want to say in this ongoing argument: We agree that this “era” is ending. We're trying to argue that It’s not a bad thing, it's become more of the norm especially during the recession. More men are staying at home because more women were able to keep their jobs. Ultimately, we are supporting this change in attitude.

3) Target audiences:
-Young men of marrying age (all races , middle/high class)
-Women of marrying age of (all races, middle/high class)
-Young/middle-aged married couples (all races, middle/high class)

4) Genres/mediums we plan on using for this argument:

- Facebook group- Targeting all three audiences

- Apron- Targeting men. We want to make it appealing to them so that they don’t feel emasculated by staying at home.

- Article- Targeting married couples in a men’s magazine…saying that it's okay to stay home and be, "Mr. Mom".

In Class: Reading

Last night, I read about visual arguments. The book discussed the importance of images, and how a picture really can say a thousand words. The book gave examples, one being of a picture taken of Kennedy and Nixon during the election/debate, showing how suave Kennedy looked, making Nixon appear uncomfortable. The book talked about how Kennedy won this election and how this photograph might have swayed some Americans. Another example was a picture taken of three firefighters on September 11, as they raised up the American flag in the midst of the debris. The book talked about appropriate use of color when it comes time to create a visual argument.Visual arguments appeal to all three rhetorical strategies. 
I can apply this to Unit 3 in different ways. If we write an article, we can strategically use appropriate colors to target our audience when it comes time to our picture. Images have a strong appeal to pathos.

Reading

From reading in the book about writing an argument, I learned that writing an argument is most definitely related to analyzing an argument. In order to write an effective argument, you must know who your target audience is, depending on what you are writing about. The audience is one of the most important factors when it comes to writing an argumet, as your writing style, genre, etc. will depend on the audience. I also read that arguments can be presented in many different ways, such as articles in magazines/newspapers, commercials, jingles/songs, visual ads, etc. All of these arguments should appeal to pathos, ethos and logos. All three rhetorical appeals are imperative to writing an effective argument, and it seems that pathos is the one that really stands out and immediately grabs people's attention, such as humor, sadness, etc.

Job Title & Description

My group job title in our group is, "Master of Communicating and Anything Artsy Related".  I plan on being the corresponder in our group, emailing our group a little summary of our meeting after each meeting, serving as the go between if needed, and sending out reminders, etc. This should help our group to be on track as far as where we are each meeting and what needs to be done, and also so that if for some reason somebody misses they aren’t out of the loop.  I also am a music major, so I consider myself to be pretty decent at anything music related so If we end up doing a song or commercial,  I plan on contributing that way. I also plan on contributing on creating and revising the written text for our textual argument.  Since our group is still deciding on a topic, my title (along with the others) might change, as our roles could alter depending on the topic.

Our group discussed how our ideal situation would be that even though we all have individual titles and duties, that everybody contributes and helps each other out.  For instance, just because Karen is going to be focusing on the preparation and presentation of the visual products doesn’t mean that Holly or I won’t help her if needed. Everyone is going to help each other out and the entire project will be a collaborative effort. 

The names of the other group members are Karen Morales and Holly Rust.

Ideal Group Work Situation

For me, the ideal situation for productivity and happiness when it comes to group work would be for all members to actually care about the assignment and willing to work. I know that sounds cliche, but that has been the root of all group work problems for me...people being physically there but not mentally there, or sometimes not physically there at all. It'd be nice for all members to be non-judgemental and open to new ideas, and be willing to share their thoughts. I've also experienced group projects where one member will present an idea, and the rest of the group will just remain silent as if they are a) afraid to say anything or b) don't care. That's no fun! Plus it's just not productive.

Challenges in Analyzing Primary Sources

One of things things I found particularly challenging during my search for primary sources was differentiating between primary and secondary. This is because two major factors contributed to the controversy, one of them happening in January of 2010 and the other happening in March of 2010. January was when Conan O'Brien resigned and the "switch" was announced, whereas March was when the switch actually took place. I decided to overcome this by picking to write about the actual announcement of the change (what happened in January), because January was when the American public seemed to be the most stirred up by this announcement, and in March people seemed to have somewhat gotten over it.

Another thing that I found challenging was not involving my personal opinion in the analysis. I do have strong feelings about this topic, so in order to write an unbiased analysis, I had to emotionally remove myself while reading the articles and interviews.

Unit 2 Proposal

For my Unit 2 Proposal, I am going to write about the Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien controversy that occurred this past January.  

The Tonight Show is an American Late-Night talk show that has aired on NBC since 1954 when Johnny Carson was the host. It is currently the longest running regularly scheduled entertainment in the United States. 

On May 29, 2010 Jay Leno, “retired”, left The Tonight Show and created his own show titled  “The Jay Leno Show” which aired at 9:00pm on NBC. Leno handed down the Tonight Show to Conan O’Brien, who had previously hosted “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” from 1993 to 2009. Jimmy Fallon then took O’Brien’s place with Late Night.  

After only seven months after being the host of The Tonight Show, NBC executives told O’Brien that they intended to move the "Tonight Show" to 11:05: to accommodate the Jay Leno Show at 10:35 because Leno’s ratings for his new shows were low and he wanted a better time slot. This would have pushed Conan’s show and Fallon’s show back half an hour, making all of these late night comedy shows very late. Conan O’Brien then resigned, not wanting to participate in this. In result, Jay Leno took back his position as host of The Tonight Show in March of 2010, Jimmy Fallon resumed his show, and Conan O’Brien quit and no longer has a show of any kind.

This switch around made many people across America upset, and a lot of people believed Leno acted unfairly Conan O’Brien was treated wrongly by NBC, whereas some people were glad to have Leno back as the host of The Tonight Show.

I intend to look at interviews that were held by news reporters on major news channels and plan on re-watching some episodes of TMZ and looking at those interviews. Additionally, I plan on using newspapers and magazines that were published very soon after the controversy all as primary sources.

I chose this topic because I have always loved watching all of the late night shows. I loved watching Conan’s show when he hosted Late Night and also when he took over the Tonight Show, and absolutely love Late Night with Jimmy Fallon that now airs. I occasionally watched the Tonight Show with Leno too, although I don’t anymore. I have been watching these shows since elementary school and was emotionally invested in this controversy when it occurred and still have some investment in it. It will be interesting to investigate these primary sources to see if the arguments made either way by people were effective or solely opinions that were not backed up by any solid evidence.