Apples to health or apples to iPods mars 30, 2009

This papers purpose is to analyse the website www.vermontapples.org. The website is dedicated to the appreciation and understanding of Vermont’s apples. The website promotes the apple as Vermont’s most delicious products.

The site’s main purpose is to advertise for Vermont’s apples and their orchards and farms. To get people to visit the orchards and get the taste of fresh apples – not anything like the apples you get in the stores. Some of the orchards also produce cider with a taste nothing like the taste of they you find in the stores.

M(a)cIntosh
Vermont is very proud of their apples – so proud that their legislature named the apple as their state fruit and the apple pie as their state pie. They are especially proud of the McIntosh apples. Over 65 % of all apples growth in Vermont is McIntosh. The McIntosh apple has given Apple Inc’s Macintosh its name (Wikipedia).

The apple
The apple has been with us from the beginning. Whether you think of Adam and Eve or the Stone Age the apple was there. It is also found in mythology, in Greek and Roman mythology apples are symbols of love and beauty. In many religious traditions the apples has been seen as a mystical or forbidden fruit (Wikipedia).
The apple got spread around the world by seed carried by people. One man that is famous for just this is John Chapman. He got the name Johnny Appleseed because he planted apple trees and introduced them to large parts of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. Johnny Appleseed became a legend when he was still alive and he is of symbolic importance to apples (Wikipedia).

About the site
The website has many navigation links, both on the top, the bottom and on the left. Many of these links navigates you to the same site. But when they are placed like this you can always reach them from your location on the site. The links on the top has analogue signs which are signs in a form in which they are perceived as involving graded relationships on a continuum rather than as discrete units (Chandler, 2007).

The site has a picture of a hot apple pie that gives me an association to a housewife who takes the pie out of the oven and places it in the window sill for cooling. I think apple pie is typical American and it gives me an association to the United States. Maybe not that strange since “as an American apple pie” is a common saying in the United States, and it means “typically American”.

Green is the websites background colour. My opinion about why they choose green is that it represents life, and an apple is alive. It also signifies growth and health two other attributes of an apple. The green colour denotes balance, harmony and stability, and it’s fresh and gives you a springtime feeling. Green also denotes go, do it, come on.

The site has a picture of a boy carrying a basket of apples. This pictures denotation is a boy, two baskets, apples, and so on; it’s what you see in the picture. And its connotation might be a boy that is happy because his mother has taken him to a farm, he gets to run around and eat all the apples he can eat. The boy is proud to show off all the apples he has picked. This is the feeling you get by visiting an orchard in Vermont.

Apples and health
The website is engaged in informing it’s readers about the apples health aspect. It has a white and red box with the text “Breaking news about apple health benefits!” This box is easy to get an eye one because it separates itself from the green calm background. My opinion is that they have used the red colour to grab peoples attention and get them to take action (here push the box). Red is a good colour to use when you will avoid sinking into the background. Small dozes of red can often be more effective than large amounts, because the colour is so strong; this is why I think they only made the text red, not the whole box – less is more. Red letters can also mean that it hides an important or significant occasion. But want I find most funny about this box is that it doesn’t work. I suppose it is supposed to navigate you to another site about apples health benefit, but it doesn’t, it doesn’t take you anywhere, because the link is broken. The link on the map where you can locate an orchard near you is also broken.
Health seems like one big part of the advertising. They points out the apples health aspects through news and facts. In the news “an apple a day” has got a new meaning if you want to go through life with your memory in shape or reduce the risk for stroke. You also get nutrition facts and which assets an apple gives you.

Apples to iPods
At the websites homepage you find a link called “Apples to iPods”. This navigates you to a site about an event where people have to search the different orchards for a specially-marked wooden apple. They are inviting people to come and search for the wooden apples and to pick real apples along the way too. If you find a wooden apple hanging in a tree you win an Apple iPod Nano, Shuffle or Touch. With an iPod as a prize I think they try to reach out to young people that maybe aren’t especially interested in apple picking. I think Apple Inc wants the provenance they get from the apple name; it’s advantageous to be associated with an apples values. Provenance refers to the idea that signs may be “imported” from one context into another, in order to signify the ideas and values associated with that other context by those do the importing (Kress & Leeuwen, 2001). Furthermore is my opinion around this event is that they do a sort of hidden propaganda for Apple Inc. If you for example look at this sentence: “Because once you’ve had a taste of an iPod from a Vermont apple orchard, you may never look at an apple tree the same way again!” This feels like a slogan for Apples iPod that suits for this specific state. Over this sentence they talk about a fresh perspective and even fresher apples that you can pick in Vermont, so why does the iPod appear in this sentence? It has to be a way to advertise.

Conclusion
The sites main purpose is to get people to visit Vermont’s orchards and pick their apples. But they also give people information about the different aspects of an apple. They like to inform people about the health aspect of an apple and encouraging them to eat “an apple a day”. But do they also have a more hidden encouragement?!

Wordcount: 1165

Sources
- Gunther Kress & Theo Van Leeuwen, Oxford University Press Inc, 2001, Multimodal Discoure
- Daniel Chandler, 2007, Semiotics – The basics, 2nd edition
- Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple#Cultural_aspects
- Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_appleseed
- About.com: http://desktoppub.about.com/cs/colorselection/p/red.htm
- About.com: http://desktoppub.about.com/cs/colorselection/p/green.htm
- Wikipedia: http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh

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Short paper 1 – The Dumbest Generation mars 3, 2009

This paper is about conducting a semiotic analysis of the website The Dumbest Generation, which is a website about the book “The Dumbest Generation, How the digital age stupefies young Americans and jeopardizes our future (Or, Don’t trust anyone under 30)” by Mark Bauerlein.
Semiotics is the scientific study of signs and the way in which these signs construct and reconstruct meaning (Example essays.com). Put short it is the study of signs. A sign is a meaningful unit which is interpreted as “standing for” something other than itself (Chandler 2007, p 260). Signs can be words, sounds, images, flavours, odours etc. but they have no meaning before we give one to them. In Saussure’s model of signs he composes a sign into two elements, a signifier, which refers to the image, or sound that refers to the thing of concept, and the signified, which refers to the thing or concept itself (Chandler 2007, p 261).

This paper will look at the sites different discourses (which are socially constructed knowledge of reality (Kress and Leeuwen, 2001), the paper explains the discourses as modes because discourses can only be realised in semiotic modes which have developed the means for realising them (Kress and Leeuwen, 2001)). Furthermore it will see how the different modes operate as a semiotic resource. It will also look at the different elements to see how they work together to create meaning, and describe the site’s appearance.

The site’s main point is to promote the book “The Dumbest Generation, How the digital age stupefies young Americans and jeopardizes our future (Or, Don’t trust anyone under 30)” by Mark Bauerlein. The purpose is to make the book seem interesting so people will buy it.

In the book Bauerlein criticize the young Americans relationship to technology. He say they pay too much attention to technology instead of reading literature, learning American history and politics, go to museum etc. But who are Bauerlein really attacking? Is it teachers and parents or students? He argues that the digital technology has erased the boarder between space and time (Don’t trust anyone under 30?). Therefore a young Americans social life goes on constantly. Bauerlein asks the grown ups to take back control and make youth’s disconnect for an hour a day (Will generation Y be dumb or great?).
Bauerlein argues that the youth’s don’t write creative enough in their academic writing, they only get the facts and ideas straight. But in the digital world filled with social networks and blogs they are much more creative in their language. Bauerlein notes that the youth’s language comes in two flavours (REPN TRI to the FULLEST!!!). He uses this metaphor “two flavours” too underline his point about the different ways youth’s use to express themselves.

The first site to appear is the welcome site. It’s divided up in tree boxes. The header which shows the title, ”The Dumbest Generation”, the menu on the left side and the contents in the biggest box showing the book cover.
The menu helps you navigate the site. You can surf the sites to get information of the book, like reviews, articles and other news about it. In that way the menu gives you an overview of the sites contents. Since the site is made to get people to buy the book it obviously has a link for this in the menu.
There is a subtitle saying “50 Million Minds Diverted, Distracted, Devoured”, and under that you see a dynamic text going from red to black, which is the sites main colours. You may think this text just is annoying because it catches your attention, but it does not disappear on the screen for a long enough period of time so people are able to read it. Even a native English speaker is unable to read it. Why is it so? My opinion is that Bauerlein want to distract you with this text to emphasize his point above. The dynamic text reinforces the word distracted. And the words diverted, distracted and devoured reinforce each other because they all say the same. Seen it like this the two modes operate as a resource for each other.

The title “The Dumbest Generation” may be associated with another book called “The greatest generation” by Tom Brokaw, which is about men and women how fought under the World War II (Wikipedia).

The book cover displays the name of the book with an illustration. Bauerlein have used the word dumbest, not dumb or dumber, but the most extreme of these three. The est-ending helps to emphasize the word. And the words red colour helps intensifier its meaning. Because the red colour catches peoples attention, and it stands for hot, strong, violence and warfare (About.com). I like to think Bauerlein chose a red colour to create these feeling in people. To make them see and react to his book, to make them interested and provoked, so they starts to care about his concern.

The book covers illustration shows a group of robots holding an American flag. This picture looks a lot like the one from the World War II where six American men raise an American flag atop Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima (Wikipedia).

It seems that Bauerlein plays with this connection because he means the connotation of the picture isn’t available or obvious to everyone. One of his points is that the youth’s don’t see this connection even if they have collage education, they can’t see the historically aspect. They only see the denotation that in this case may be robots or transformers waving a flag. My thoughts to this is that Bauerlein tries to reach out to the youth’s with something that is familiar to them like this illustration who may look like it’s taking out of a videogame.

In the books subtitle “How the digital age stupefies young Americans and jeopardizes our future” Bauerlein uses the verbs stupefies and jeopardizes too point out the title. Verbs are important because they give a sentence meaning, and they help us understand the sentence. Bauerlein describes in a way what he means by “The Dumbest Generation” in the subtitle, why they are “the dumbest generation”. At the end of the subtitle Bauerlein has put a star which is explained in an asterix. The asterix say “Or, don’t trust anyone under 30” and may be seen in connection with the “don’t trust anyone over 30” slogan from the 1960s and Jack Weinberg, a leader of the Free Speech Movement at the University of California, Berkeley (Bartleby.com). Yet another time Bauerlein refers to history. Again to point out that youth’s may not see this connotation. They only sees what’s there, not what’s underneath.

On the website’s home page they give you an idea of the books content. And they display some pictures of social network sites and games with an ironic comment. It also displays a link to buy the book.

In summary Bauerlein books website display its arguments through articles from news and media and reviews, written by him or others. It has the thesis that the digital generation is filled with ignorance. Bauerlein plays with a lot of metaphors too view his arguments. And in many of his arguments you find a disguised meaning. I feel the designers manages to give an idea of the book through the welcome and home site by showing the book cover and explain a little about the book. The articles and reviews also help to give an impression of the books content.

Words including references: 1328

List of references:
• The Dumbest Generation
• Example essays.com
• Don’t trust anyone under 30?
• Will generation Y be dumb or great?
• REPN TRI to the FULLEST!!!
• Pencils, schmencils, I need a laptop
• OMG! Experts says today’s kids are stupid
• Wikipedia – The greatest generation
• About.com
• Wikipedia – Raising the flag on Iwo Jima
• Bartleby.com
• Daniel Chandler, 2007: Semiotics: The Basics, 2nd edition
• Anne Cranny-Francis, 2005: Multimedia
• Gunther Kress and Theo Van Leeuwen, 2001: Multimodal Discourse

Guide to UiB 2 februar 15, 2009

Jeg har jobbet på gruppe med Helene og Joakim på denne oppgaven. Vi har laget en guide til UiB som vi har kalt En rundtur på Høyden.

Vi har valgt et enkelt design med enkle bokser og en nøytral bakgrunn. For å få en lettere synlig meny valgte vi å lage denne i en annen farge, og gi linkene piler.

For å ta deg med rundt på høyden valgte vi å lage en liten historie. Da la vi inn linker til de plassene vi “besøkte”. I tillegg la vi til et kart over hele høyden for de som ikke vet hvor de forskjellige stedene ligger.

Siden vi ikke fikk med alle de forskjellige stedene i fortellingen vår, la vi de alle stedene i en kategorisert meny som linker. Fordi da blir de lett å se for de som ikke gidder å lese fortelligen vår og. Når det var mange forskjellige sider til et sted valgte vi ut en av sidene å linke til.

Gruppeoppgave om brukervennlighet januar 26, 2009

På seminaret i dag (fredag 23.01.09) diskuterte vi noe av det Jakob Nielsen har skrevet om det å lese websider. Her er  Jakob Nielsens side hvis du vil lese hva han har skrevet selv

Jakob Nielsen nevner at folk ikke leser web sider ord for ord, men at de skanner sidene. Det er var gruppen enig i. Jeg gjør det ihvertfall ofte selv, særlig hvis jeg søker etter en spesiell ting vil jeg bare lese overskrifter og deloverskrifter for å se om jeg finner noe som høres interessant ut i forhold til det jeg leter etter.
Det samme skjer når jeg leser aviser. Jeg leser overskriftene, og undertitlene og klikker meg inn på det som virker interessant.

Videre nevner han at linker kan bygge opp troverdigheten til en side. Hvis en side nevner noe fakta og har mange linker til forskjellige sider som mener det samme synes gruppen det hjelper på troverdigheten. Men hvis en side bare har masse linker til andre sider som relavante iforhold til den siden mener vi at det ikke utgjør noe forskjell for troverdigheten. Så det kommer ann på hva siden handler om og hva linkene handler om.

Kristian’s post om photo hike januar 16, 2009

Kristian sitt bilde var kjempe fint, han er en god fotograf!

Her er linken til Kristian sitt flotte bilde:
Krisitan’s blogg

Kortsenteret januar 16, 2009

På torsdagens forelesning (15.01.09) var vi ute å tok bilder. Jeg valgte å ta et bilde av kortsenteret. Kortsenteret ligger i andre etasje på studentsenteret. På kortsenteret får du utsendt ditt studentkort som fungerer som en slags id og et nøkkelkort. Du kan gå på kortsenteret for å skaffe deg tilganger til forskjellige rom og byggninger.

Her er et bilde av kortsenteret.

Hvorfor Huin105 januar 16, 2009

Hei igjen!

Jeg valgte å ta faget huin105 fordi jeg synes det virket gøy å lære litt om webdesign. Jeg trengte også å fylle opp med studiepoeng dette semesteret og da passet dette faget bra siden jeg også tar et annet fag på 15 studiepoeng.

Blogging januar 16, 2009

Hei!

Dette er min første egne blogg. Jeg har blogget litt før, og lest noen blogger. Jeg synes det er gøy å lese noen andres blogger, men liker ikke så godt å blogge selv.

Her er noen linker til sider jeg liker å bruke:

• Facebook
• Hotmail
• BT