In Du Bios’s “Strivings of the Negro People”, he talks about the struggle to 

live a life where African Americans feels as though they have 2 different soul’s in 

one body longing to emerge the two and find true happiness. He states how 

African Americans have been “gifted” with second-sight in the American world, in 

which his has no self- consciousness and can only see himself through how others 

depict him. The ideology of his two-ness makes him long to merge himself in 

order to achieve self-conscious man hood and find his true self. 

With this depiction of the black man, Du Bois can push the audience to see

the American side of the negro and maybe pull empathy out from the reader.  

Though he does not wish to lose one over the other or leave behind part of 

himself, he hopes he combine the two and give African American the opportunity 

to go work towards real self-development without being judged on who they are. 

Du Bois purpose of his essay was to explain the obstacles African Americans felt at 

this time. He wanted to put into words how this fight, for them, not only effected 

their physical world but also had a hold on their mental. When asked how it feels

 to be the problem, Du Bois explains how this idea has effected the minds of 

African Americans because the can only view themselves from what others, who 

don’t understand the struggles, eyes. With the African American man’s great 

confusion and self-doubt, he wishes the world could take him for who he really is 

rather than being seen as an issue.

Read over the Yale Film Studies website (http://filmanalysis.yctl.org/). Specifically, take notes on the section marked “Basic Terms,” “Mise-en-scene,” and “Editing.” Put these notes into your ePortfolio (your blog). Label the post HW 10/22.

Epistene- when society uses right/wrong, good/bad 

Saphir- Wolf hypothesis- the structure of language determines a native speaker’s perception and categorization of experience. “it paints the world”

Typage- selection of actors on basis that their facial and bodily features convey the truth of the character. Fits type that matches the ideas directors want for the character

iris- round, moving mask that can close down to end a scene (iris-out) or emphasize a detail or open to begin a scene (iris-in) common in early films

iris-in & blue screen, burning house, soldiers marching, family and children crying. In the shots of the sad/disheveled family of women, we see how upset and vulnerable they are portrayed. The actors are doing a good job conveying their sad emotions in the scene. The iris- open and re-opens a few times on the family and on the soldiers. I think this technique was used to really place emphasis on the sadness and destruction of the war and the affects it had on family life.

Mis-en-scene is the specific arrangement of the scenery in film and also the certain stage properties used to add meaning to the film.

Editing can be used to add hints and agendas to the films plot. Using this can help the viewer guess what’s going on and what might happen next.

The scene between 2h 13min to 2 hr 24 min in Birth of a nation, depicts the daughter scurrying to get out of the house, happily. Before she leaves the house, we see the older woman in the clip seem a bit uneasy after the daughter leaves out the door. Flash back to the daughter, leaving the premise, we watch as a man with black face follows her. He appears to be looking sneaky and maleficent as he slowly approach the happy young girl. She continues to go about herself, in an innocent manner as he continues to watch and follow her. We see her looking at the animals she crosses by and the scene cuts into the mother at home pacing back and forth in their home. When the older home confront the brother, he seems stressed and worried over the daughter’s absence and the people in the house look uneasy. After this scene we see the black man pop up to the daughter, unexpectedly, with a crazed look in his eyes as he tries to finesse the young woman. The young woman looks confused and a little scared as his efforts seem to frighten her. When she dismisses him he becomes more persistent and aggressive. He then starts the chase the young woman, as the scene becomes a cat and mouse situation. The music is rapid and scary in the background as he chases her down. She waves her arms around franticly to get away from him. As she panics, the brother then sets out to help her. When he finds the young woman she’s hurt and bleeding. Everyone in the house is seen grieving and upset over the occurrence. This is when the brother go against the fathers words. The black man is in hiding and still appears to be sneaky and deceitful. In a room filled with other black man, a fight break out and everyone is angry as the white man take son 5+ black men. After this the black man is found and dragged by several white men for the trial of his wrong doings. This is when the KKK take him and then we see the scene of the daughter sick in bed, with many family members surronding her. The KKK take the black man away and then go into town and kill other black inhabitants in a victorious fashion.

From scene 2hr 58 mins til the end of the film, the see a woman sad and crying. A war has broken out and the KKK marches. We see he daughter taken hostage. The KKK sympathasize with “victims”, while blacks get into it with soldiers. There is total chaos and commotion within the streets and the KKK rushes in to “save the day”.The daughter is happy to see the KKK, appearing to be her knight in shining armor. The KKK rallies together and appears to save and help the family. After this they circle the black soldiers as they drop their weapons and run off. As the KKK rushes to more black communities, they all run off. We see white people throughout the film happy and cheering. They seem relieved. This scene depicts the triumph of the KKK and them coming in to save the town from the blacks and restore order to the community.

Assignment #3

         Aside from the discourse communities we’ve discussed in class, most of which being centered around education or law, there are many other discourse communities that we participate in on a regular basis. With social media being one of the biggest forms of communication in our world today, there is constant discourse on these platforms that pertain to a very wide range of topics and ideas. Social media gives us access to get our thoughts and ideas out there very quickly and to a very large group of people online. More specifically, Twitter is a very good example of a social media discourse community that allows individuals to give out opinions, ideas and comments to anyone. T5witter is one discourse community that I can say I’m actively apart of and engaged in. Since your Twitter feed is based on accounts that you voluntarily follow, what you see on the social app usually consists of things you are interested in and want to keep updated on. Topics such as politics, celebrities, television and media are commonly discussed. Along with these discussions, people take to Twitter to post their thoughts, feelings and any relevant comments regarding these topics. For example, if you are interested in politics, you may follow accounts that represent and discuss your political beliefs. Meaning, you have similar beliefs to these types of account you follow. Since these accounts are kin to your interests and beliefs, you may find that this content and documents may contain bias’, stereotypes and arguments. In instances such as these, where people can effortlessly express their ideas and opinions to the public, issues can arise and others could be offended and reject this imput.

1. With the cause-effect narrative, there were a few things I didn’t quite understand when we first went over this assignment. One being, how I was going to relate a totally separate discourse community to the discourse we’ve discussed in this class. I was a little hesitate to see how the two could relate to one another but now looking back, I can see there are some things (rules of discourse0 that can be be related to one another.
2. I think Mirabelli’s concept of multiliterteraices can be applied to the discourse community of Twitter because it address the fact that there are multiple channels of communication that take place in discourse communities. Meaning, there are many different posts, tweets, pictures that are present in twitter. One shouldn’t just focus on 140 count tweets as content but there are also pictures, rules/regulations and different cultural perspectives that should be taken into consideration. This expression of self through twitter can happen many different ways.
3. I know Twitter is classified as a discourse community because it is a channel where people discuss their thoughts, feelings and standpoint on different topics. There is communication between members and there are group on Twitter that take part in this discourse with others to get out different messages and ideas.
4. I went with Twitter to discus my discourse community, being apart of the app.
   1. I chose this because there is so much discourse, all day/everyday that constantly takes place in the Twitter world.

Bri Henderson

Dr.Bailie

Engl 2089

30 November 2019

The Discourse Community of Twitter

 Aside from the discourse communities we’ve discussed in class, most of which being centered around education or law, there are many other discourse communities that we participate in on a regular basis. With social media being one of the biggest forms of communication in our world today, there is constant discourse on these platforms that pertain to a very wide range of topics and ideas. Social media gives us access to get our thoughts and ideas out there very quickly and to a very large group of people online. More specifically, Twitter is a very good example of a social media discourse community that allows individuals to give out opinions, ideas and comments to anyone. 

Twitter is one discourse community that I can say I’m actively apart of and engaged in. Since your Twitter feed is based on accounts that you voluntarily follow, what you see on the social app usually consists of things you are interested in and want to keep updated on. Topics such as politics, celebrities, television and media are commonly discussed. Along with these discussions, people take to Twitter to post their thoughts, feelings and any relevant comments regarding these topics. For example, if you are interested in politics, you may follow accounts that represent and discuss your political beliefs. Meaning, you have similar beliefs to these types of account you follow. Since these accounts are kin to your interests and beliefs, you may find that this content and documents may contain bias’, stereotypes and arguments. In instances such as these, where people can effortlessly express their ideas and opinions to the public, issues can arise and others could be offended and reject this input. 

I joined Twitter back in 2012 to stay connected to my peers and other aquantinces, and also to keep up to date with world news/stories. Since joining, I have been able to learn more about what’s going on in the world and get different view points regarding many topics. How Twitter is constructed and set up allows  people to add to conversations and provide their opinions or thoughts. Today, we see many scandals over social media, such as twitter that arise from controversial topics. Racism has been an ongoing argument in today’s times and continues to bring in many different perspectives from a wide range of people. I chose Twitter, and the discourse that takes place on the App, as my artifact because there is such a variety of opinions seen on the platform. A lot of times when there is such a plethora of opinions and statements regarding serious issues/topics, unwelcome and harmful things can be said and people are likely to be offended. I have noticed myself when I engage myself on Twitter, I’m very open and honest about my beliefs and the things I belief in. I would agree that most people who are apart of this social discourse community also go out of their way to state where the stand on current topics/issues.  Ecspecially with topics like racism and politics, I have found myself and others being quite aggressive when defending our beliefs towards the subject. No matter what side one chooses to support, topics like this can make for a lot of back and forth conversation and arguments. The discourse community of Twitter is very opinionated/up front by nature so I often find my behavior changing and taking a similar approach when conveying my thoughts regarding racism/political beliefs. When I contribute to the discourse I try to make it very honest, genuine and free-spoken. In these times I’ve represented myself in this community to outside audience, conflict has arose from me speaking out. Ousiders have seen be as crude and temperamental from things I’ve said. 

By going deeper into the discourse community of Twitter, I have realized how many different voices and minds contribute to all of the content on the site. This can have both good and bad consequences because it brings a variety of individuals together to participate in many different discourses regarding so many matters. This can be seen as beneficial because it gives the members a chance to widen their frame of reference and attitudes towards these subjects. But on the downside, just like any other discourse community, it can create opposition and criticism within its members. I wanted to use Twitter and it’s material for my cause-effect narrative to show others how purposeful and relevant the discourse can be on the app, especially concerning important subjects taking place in our world today. Though it can be seen as early a social media app, the can be meaning and learning found in the discourse and discussions that take place here.

Take a few minutes to think about the cultural artifact, that is, the writing from your personal discourse community, that you’re sharing in assignment three. Now using your experience interacting with that writing, answer these questions: Why do people form discourse communities, that is, what motivates people to join these communities? What do you think people gain from joining a discourse community, and how is writing used to police the community’s membership? Why do you think writing is key in delineating a discourse community from a speech community? Finally, knowing what you now know about discourse and discourse communities, how do you think the goals of a given discourse community are (or can be) changed?

People generally form discourse communities to share similar ideas, thoughts and likes. These similarities could be seen as motives for discourse communities and the reason people find themselves in such communities. People can gain further knowledge, like-mindedness and self expression from joining said discourse communities. Being able to articulate and discuss these topics and ideas can give someone a feeling of belongingness and mutual understanding from other members of these communities. Writing is used to police the communities memberships because it’s used as a form of engagement and pens the door to discussion. Writing in discourse communities provides people with a way to get their ideas out and share them with others in the group in a structured fashion. Goals of a discourse community can be changed because these discussions can vary and develop. When individuals get together to express their own thoughts and feelings in a group, the conversation can be led in different directions and can cause people to share various ideas. Conversation like this can flow and invoke different feedback from each person. This alone, changes the discourse community and shows how the content discussed in these communities can be ever changing and expanding.

Brianna Henderson

ENGL 2089

Assignment #3

            Aside from the discourse communities we’ve discussed in class, most of which being centered around education or law, there are many other discourse communities that we participate in on a regular basis. With social media being one of the biggest forms of communication in our world today, there is constant discourse on these platforms that pertain to a very wide range of topics and ideas. Social media gives us access to get our thoughts and ideas out there very quickly and to a very large group of people online. More specifically, Twitter is a very good example of a social media discourse community that allows individuals to give out opinions, ideas and comments to anyone. T5witter is one discourse community that I can say I’m actively apart of and engaged in. Since your Twitter feed is based on accounts that you voluntarily follow, what you see on the social app usually consists of things you are interested in and want to keep updated on. Topics such as politics, celebrities, television and media are commonly discussed. Along with these discussions, people take to Twitter to post their thoughts, feelings and any relevant comments regarding these topics. For example, if you are interested in politics, you may follow accounts that represent and discuss your political beliefs. Meaning, you have similar beliefs to these types of account you follow. Since these accounts are kin to your interests and beliefs, you may find that this content and documents may contain bias’, stereotypes and arguments. In instances such as these, where people can effortlessly express their ideas and opinions to the public, issues can arise and others could be offended and reject this imput.

The discourse community i chose to write my cause and effect piece over is the social platform twitter. The cause to join this was to stay up to date with my friends and celebrities twitter accounts. The effect i’ve had joining twitter is that I can stay connect with friends, have access to a wide range of new stories and also the cultural aspect of twitter.Some implications i’ve had since joining twitter is that I have access to a lot of celebrities and what they are sharing or their thought, along with friends and people i haven’t seen in a while. I also see a lot of news stories, along with new stories twitter also has a habit of implying different bias’. I going to use twitters bias’ as my artifact for assignment three