Blog 1

I do not think there is a difference between the terms “multimedia” and “multimodal”.  I believe that multimodal is a term that is a more modern form of the word multimedia.  They both use more than one form of communication to send a message to an audience.  I think that multimodal is a broad term used to describe more specific qualities that makes something a form of multimodal communication: linguistic, visual, aural, gestural, and spatial.

Linguistic Mode To Do

I think that the first sentence “our thoughts and prayers remain with the people of Japan” stands out to me because it shows that America was there to support Japan after this crisis.  “Offered” also stands out to me because it shows that the President volunteered to help Japan with whatever it is that they need in order to rebuild and take care of its citizens. 

Visual Mode To Do

When looking at the two profiles in Chapter 1 I noticed that the obvious difference is the choice of each profile.  The one on the left is navy blue, white, and green, which might be because those are his favorite colors or maybe the colors of a sports team that he likes.  The twitter profile on the right is light blue and white with a picture of a panda.  This makes the profile seem as if the person uses twitter to communicate to a lot of people or that they really like pandas. 

Aural Mode To Do

The music playing in the background of the attached video is upbeat.  I think the reason why they chose upbeat music because it lightens the mood of the clip and since they are trying to get people to work together could put the audience in a positive mood and associate the music with being positive and therefore be more willing to hear and like the message that the video is trying to get across.  I think that country or bluegrass music was not used because a lot of people do not lik that type of music so f that music was played then the certain members of the audience would not even listen to the message of the video because they associated not liking that type of music to not wanting to watch the video.

Spacial Mode To Do

When looking at the WSU my eye is instantly directed to the middle of the screen where there is a group of three images that are constantly changing every few seconds. The crimson stripe at the top of the screen with three links to the A-Z Index, zzusis, and Contact Us.  This is probably because those are important links for students that attend WSU or prospective students.  Then there is also a search box.  These links are also on the right of the screen where everything else on the homepage is located in the middle.  Directly underneath there are links to each campus of WSU which are noticeable, but do not take away from the visual appeal of the page.

Gestural Mode

I choose to watch the President Obama Speaks at the 2012 Kid’s State Dinner.  Obama’s gesturers were effective.  When he was addressing the audience as mothers, fathers, and grand parents he pointed to all of them while he was talking so it made it seem as if he was having a conversation with all of them.  Throughout the speech he makes subtle gestures that make him seem alive and not like a statue.  He also looks at his wife and it seems like he is doing this for confirmation of the points that he is making since she actually knows him personally.  I think that he used gestures effectively.  He gave the speech right before a dinner so it was light in mood and his facial and hand gestures went along with the tone of the speech since it was not formal.