The "Cowspiracy" video provided a lot of information regarding the growing problem of raising cattle to slaughter and how this impacts our environment. The video provided a lot of spoken facts from the people featured in the film and a lot of persuasive visuals. Although the facts they presented were interesting and came from reliable sources, they did not catch my attention as mush as some of the visuals they were presenting.
One visual that stood out to me the most was the pyramid showing that raising cattle produced more green house gasses than; cars, trucks, ships and planes combined. The fact they showed this in a pyramid style is what really opened my eyes. Most people believe, judging by the size of transportation vehicles, that these vehicles would produce a lot of greenhouse gasses. However, cattle produce 5% more greenhouse gasses than transportation vehicles. I used my past knowledge of vehicles and their impact on environment to analyze this picture. Any type of transportation that involves gas heavily impacts our environment in a bad way. The fact that this image showed that raising cattle in the United States is much worse than that really shows just how hurtful cattle raising is.
Another visual that also caught my attention was the kiddie pool being overfilled and eventually flooded the entire neighborhood. The father was mindlessly filling up his sons' kiddie pool which ended up overflowing and flooded the entire neighborhood. This was equal to about 660 gallons of water which is the equivalent to one hamburger. Not only did this affect me, but I believe this visual appeals to everyone of all ages. It's fairly simple to understand and involves both children and adults. It also puts into perspective how much water is being wasted when making or consuming one hamburger. I think if the editors of the film were to just put the amount of water in a container and label it, it would not have the same effect on the viewers.
Mariel, this is a perfect practice analysis in the level of detail you used to describe the visuals you were analyzing, and what they meant for the overall argument of the film and how it convinced/impacted you, framed as 'what stood out to you' or caught your attention as a viewer. You also connect the filmmakers' intentions with a broader audience, which is great analysis.
ReplyDeleteSomeone who did not see the film would have a pretty good idea of how the filmmakers used images to make their argument, and how the statistics were 'intertextual' through their pairing with the animations, images, colors, etc. (remember also the effects of the narrator's voice, music, etc.). This is one of the points of this Essay 2, to describe a visual while analyzing it and its 'intertextuality,' so you are in good shape to understanding that for your own topic and the visual you find.
For the idea draft you post for your group Wednesday, focus on finding your visual and outlining your analysis based on p. 241 and the assignment sheet-what will you describe in your Essay 2 to show the intentions, bias, audience of the creators of your visual? In the Thursday workshop, you will 'talk through' the specific descriptions of how the visual was presented, and for what rhetorical purposes, with your group, and then expand for the second draft.
Good job and we'll continue on Tuesday!
Dan