1. Found in translations Created by Brett Oppegaard for Washington State University's DTC 375 class, fall 2009

2. What does it all mean? Questions raised during the translation exercise: In what ways do you think your expression gets limited by your language? How does relying on translations for much of our knowledge base (anything by the ancient Greeks, for example) affect our true wisdom? In which ways are literal translations preferable to interpretive … and vice versa? Can you think of examples from your work in this class?

3. Immediacy, hypermediacy and remediation Questions raised by Bolter & Grusin: Our obsession with immediacy couldn’t be solved by photography or cinema (pg 83). In what ways can the digital arts finally achieve that goal, or what obstacles can never be overcome? What does Marshall McLuhan mean when he remarks “the ‘content’ of any medium is always another medium”? (pg. 102) Why is that important to consider? Why is remediation such a valuable option in communication?

4. Textual Culture versus Visual Culture Questions raised by Baetens: Is it possible, once and for all, to completely replace text with images in our society (pg 111)? Why or why not? How will people benefit/suffer from continued development toward a visual culture? Are there negatives to a picture saying a thousand words?

5. Why use images instead of text? (Baetens, pg. 115) Readability – Images make text blocks shorter, easier to grasp, while underlying the global structure of the material; a shortcut to the development of the text The basic rules of envisioning information aren’t known or followed by many, including professional communicators, creating a muddy picture, or even contradictory or confusing subtext

6. Why use images instead of text? (Baetens, pg. 115) Economy of information – Images provide information more rapidly and more clearly than the verbal equivalents. Images are nearly impossible to control. They have so many meanings, shifting meanings. Different people see different things, and poor captioning only makes the situation worse. Verbal information actually closes some of those doors, providing a limited but straighter path.

7. Why use images instead of text? (Baetens, pg. 115) Modernity – Images are in vogue right now, not long lists of dense text. Using images shows the work of communication is contemporary. Besides iconoclastic reactions, using images also can create other negative consequences in communication, including making a discourse more complex and inaccessible or unapproachable to users, also causing detachment or rejection.

8. Why use images instead of text? (Baetens, pg. 115) Networking – “Facts,” such as images, reinforce credibility of the message, and they are much more difficult to argue against. Unless the viewer rejects the association, even if it is a solid one, even on grounds unrelated to the argument (remember that images are messy and can be interpreted in many different ways, sometimes creating suspicion).

9. Ways in which we use language Questions raised by Prompt 4: How does a lack of emitting (silent treatment, aspects of a conversation left unspoken, secrets, etc.) affect communication? (Faun Scurlock) How do labels (good vs. evil, terrorist vs. freedom fighter, conservative vs. liberal, legal vs. illegal) control, conform and manipulate us? (Jon Tanner) What was the last word you made up? Why did you do it? (Jerry Joiner)