Andruw Wittels - Extra Credit

          This week, we read a short amount of Praxis and watched two YouTube videos that examined how to respond to and look at multimedia advertisements rhetorically, as well as look at how different types of fonts and "typeface" affect our interpretation of media.

          In Praxis, the book talked about how to respond to multimedia. It discussed techniques of oral, written, and visual texts. For example, all written text is seen as visual text, because "the audience's mind must process the little squiggles of ink on paper into words" (Praxis p. 69). But also that visual text includes written texts, because we interpret the image into words that we create. Considering that all three types of communication can be used within each other, interchangeably, this provides a great way to get your point across in more than one way. Praxis also discussed how we interpret multimedia rhetorically. The book states that "Rhetoricians consider the argument that an image may present to a viewer" (Praxis p. 70) This is especially true, especially when Praxis offers the BMW example ad. To one person, it may seem like the ad is advertising that used women are like used cars. But another perspective could see that it's showing the sheer beauty of BMW through the model. Personally, I always analyze visual material in terms of what it argues. Most companies publish stuff as either a response or arguing something, but not always, so it's interesting to look at these advertisements and see what they're saying.

          The first YouTube video we watched was "A Defense of Comic Sans." This video discussed the type of typeface and why it works. In my opinion, I don't personally care for the font, because it looks childish and kind of ugly at the same time. The video talks about the origins of the font, and how it was supposed to be used for a "virtual dog that spoke through a text box." It offers the argument that this type of font is much easier to read, because it is "rounded" and "bigger" than other fonts used in writing. However, this argument is ridiculous, and Comic Sans is an extremely unused font to this day.

          The second YouTube video assigned was "How Stranger Things Got its Retro Title Sequence." This video talked about how certain types of fonts can draw different meanings through TV shows/visual media. The organization that created this title sequence was Imaginary Forces and the whole goal behind this Stranger Things sequence, is to provoke something in a viewer to not "skip over it." It discusses how Kodalith, an older movie format, makes this contrast through letters that makes the letters more attractive to the viewer. This video provides an example of how visual text can make or break a viewer. I've personally never seen the show, so it probably hasn't worked on me yet. But, I believe that using certain types of fonts can attract viewers.