LARRYTRAINOR - Comm 211

As someone who is Deaf with cochlear implants, I rarely rely on auditory information, but rather visual information. I tend to take in more visual information more than others. I can remember my way back to the apartments I used to live in or the old house I used to live in from a little over a decade ago. This was because of visual information. Visual information is an extremely important part in helping me gain knowledge and is usually what I prefer to take in.  Social Semiotics is one example of analyzing visual information. Social semiotics was developed by a linguist, Michael Halliday, and contributed further by Gunther Kress. Social Semiotics goes into depth of analyzing social communication methods such as images, texts, and gestures. We will be focusing on images today. It helps us understand what the images are telling us. It takes into account the composition, the colors used, and more.  Vertical positioning in social semiotics play a huge role in creating a meaning...

How has the online landscape transformed the dynamics of public opinion formation and communication strategies? The online landscape has actually transformed the dynamics of the public opinion formation and communication drastically over the years. For example, we have changed a lot of how we express our opinions from many decades ago to now. We have social media apps such as Twitter, TikTok, or YouTube. These social media apps allow the public to formulate their opinions with each other. There have also been sites that news channels such as CNN utilize to spread awareness about an issue that happened recently. It allows others to be informed and have a large audience.  Despite the benefits of the online landscape and its affects on public opinion formation, it does have its cons. When you allow users online to engage with each other, it can lead to the spread of misinformation and negativity. We explored a bit about this in my previous blog post about communication fallacies ....

It can be difficult to determine a communication fallacy and easy to fall for it when you are not paying attention. It can also be possible when you may not know what kind of fallacies are there and what you should look for. This can be seen in many articles and social media posts.  For example, @RealAlexJones on Twitter wrote a post stating that "If the statistical trend continues with this tragic event, there is a 98% chance the shooting is trans or gang related . If it is another trans wack job or a gang shooting , it will be out of the news in less than 24 hours.." There was not a single source listed about the statistics of trans or gang-related shooting. He also used the term "trans wack job" which seems like the post is transphobic. The video has not stated anything about the school shooter's identity (or mention of LGBTQ+ identity) due to the fact that they had no information. This would be an example of an appeal to ignorance fallacy.