"Mashup of Discourses: A Critical Analysis of the Videotext, 'Dream America Movie'"

About the Author

A teacher of writing and multimedia texts for nearly 30 years, Nancy Fox is working on her Ph.D. in English at the University of Washington in Seattle where she serves as Associate Director of the Expository Writing Program. She holds an M.A. in Rhetoric and Writing Studies from San Diego State University, where she initiated the use of visual text construction as a mode of teaching argumentation and rhetorical strategy to first-year composition students. Her abiding interest is in the development of a Critical Discourse Analysis that addresses the complexities of multimodal texts by student composers in particular.

Contents

Introduction

Part 1

Part 2

Conclusion

Appendix

Bibliography

APPENDIX

MAJOR PROJECT #2 (which includes SP 2.3): Documenting the Dream America & The Way We Live Now in 2 Acts, 2 Genres, Multiple Strategies

Fox English 131

YOUR MISSION

1. You will be creating a collage of music or silence or words and graphics for an original documentary presentation in the context of the Dream America and American realities. Personal topics may include stories of growing up in America: the dream and the reality. Opinions or current event topics include local or national news items or issues, such as those you witnessed in your field work in downtown Seattle, or learned about in our readings and films. Any medium is acceptable.

2. You will also write a 5-6 page argument which explains the process of making your film in rhetorical terms (purpose, audience, strategy, material choices). You may write an essay or follow a report genre with bulleted lists.

Throughout both the film and the argument, you will use the theories of Dream vs. real America that we have encountered -- and you, standing at the crossroads, deciding whether you see the Dream America as a “contact zone” or an “imagined community” (Pratt).

YOUR FILM OR VISUAL TEXT

Your project should educate us about one of the following genres:

• Documentary film
• PowerPoint presentation
• Silent Narrative film
• Other visual rhetoric

However, you can organize/set it up as you wish.  Be creative. Personalize your project.  The “text” you create can include film, original art, photographs, clip art, a collage, quotes from others, lines from songs, from movies, etc., or music—unless you select the Silent Narrative, in which case you must MAKE your case without any type of sound. Your project should be a sophisticated rendering of visual material, and it should use as a visual or written reference one of the texts in our sequence, or your field world. It should be NO LONGER THAN 4 MINUTES in length.

Once your material has been chosen and researched, you should select a title for your project.

IF DVD: Create original artwork for your DVD cover. This artwork may be created by collage, magazine cut-outs, painting, drawing, photographs, etc. The titles of your DVD’s should be clear, easy to read, and incorporated into the cover art. You should burn your material selections onto DVD’s.

You should present the material to the class. You have 10 minutes of class time. You may simply show the film, without narrative, if you wish: the film or visual should speak for itself.

YOUR PAPER (An Argument in Two Parts, 5-7 Total Pages)

Your paper should present the argument of your film and explain how you constructed your project. You should use our course sources, in MLA format, with internal citation and a works cited page. The essay should demonstrate intertextuality, as you usually do, by showing how several texts relate to the construction of your own idea.

YOU MAY USE “I”: You may begin by telling us how this argument is a reconsideration of your original Dream America text, as a way of beginning your argument: remember how Pratt begins her speech with a relevant personal factor. In your conclusions, as always, feel free to examine your own solution to the issues you enable us to see—again, as Pratt does, as well as Spurlock.

Questions to consider:

What does your DVD or other visual seek to persuade us to see in the complicated relationship between the Dream America and the real world we see and hear about every day?

How does it represent a rethinking of your original Dream America text?

Why did you choose this particular visual genre?     
o   How do the music—or silence—and visual images work together to create a mosaic of meaning in your film?     
o   Or: how do graphics function in your visual text?     
o   How do graphics and visuals reflect the ways we “live in our Dream America at the same as we live in our real one,” in your view?

What elements governed your selection of this material?
    o   Recall the strategies of rhetorical analysis: audience—purpose—use of appeals—claims & evidence

How, specifically, did you select material to persuade your chosen audience?

How does this film of visual demonstrate a rethinking of your original Dream America text?

Building on Spurlock’s direct appeal to us at the end of his film: what do YOU want your audience to think or to do, as a result of seeing your visual?