Bloody Media

Do you know that moment when something tragic happens and time seems to halt in an abrupt moment of disbelief? When I read the article "Latest Battlefield In Mexico's Drug War: Social Media" I felt the nauseating ache in my gut that wants to scream "This can not be real; You are dreaming!"

Everyday people post thousands, maybe billions of blogs, tweets, and facebook statuses. Although many are very controversial, we rarely ever hear about anyone getting killed for it! People are risking their lives to share the truth about the Mexican drug war! People have been beaten-dead, and put out for display for tweeting fact! Finishing the article, after reading about "The two brutally wounded victims hanging from a bridge," and the "woman hogtied, and disemboweled" I just sat in silence, sick to my stomach, imagining what these people had to go through, and how the living posters say that they will not stop!

How many times do you post a day? Is it to tell the world what you had for lunch, or for a real cause? What if someone said to you "Post something we don't like online, and you're next. I am about to get you"

Article Link:

Comic Divide

Scott McCloud has a video on Ted Talks where he shares a plethora of information about comics. Although he shares information concerning a variety of aspects of comics, I found his discussion concerning the attitudes of comics most intriguing.

McCloud divides the attitudes of comics into four separate groups: formalist, classicist, animist, and icionoclast. He said the formalist attitude is a way of understanding how things work. The classicist outlook embraces beauty and craft. The animist view believes in the pure transparency of content, and iconist emphasizes the authentisity of human experience and honesty. Then, McCloud relates these attitudes to the four subdivisions of human thought: thinking, sensation, intuition, and feeling.

I think writers often think more about the ideas of ethos, pathos, and logos when creating new works. Here McCloud revolutionizes comics by stepping beyond rhetoric, and into a more thorough division for our way of thinking. It makes sense to have a 4-way divide in any artistic piece since we are understood to think in those four ways. By grouping comics in a way that is a relatable to the subdivisions of human thought, one can imply that no matter what comic is read, it will provoke, or intrigue at least one way of thinking.

McCloud certainly made me think about the thought categories my works have been catering to. Although He presented such a great deal of information in a short time, this aspect of his speech was the most thought provoking for me.

Ted Talks Link:
http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=2906302250707027837
Image From:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comics