Wk 5 research project/ Manguel

Just the thought of writing a long research paper brings to mind visions of torture and hours by the laptop. Not to mention the task of finding a topic and making it sound like a college student wrote it and not your 13-year-old brother. But in light of all that I’m going to “attempt” to write my paper on political advertising and its psychological interpretation. I’m hoping to elaborate on how people think about negative campaign ads and compare that to positive ads that don’t bash their opponent. Which is truly more effective? Which do most people consider an ethical means of campaigning, and so forth? I still need to focus in on my exact topic and do a little searching through some literature, but that’s the overall idea for my paper. I figure with the current election heating this would be a perfect topic. Also, I’ll be able to compare and contrast who’s campaigns over the recent decades were most effective and how they parallel, or if they parallel this years coming election.
On a different note, this week’s reading from Manguel I found interesting yet again. For a book I was leery about having to read at first, I find myself flying through the pages. This simple task we truly take for granted. The section on picture reading I was particularly drawn to. As the old saying goes, “A picture is worth 1,000 words”. As we look at pictures we are either reminded of events that have passed or we are force to contrive our own ideas as to what is taking place. Manguel uses the “Biblia Pauperum” as an example of picture reading. This book can be seen in two different ways though. First, it could have been a book for the illiterate masses so they could interpret the sermons being spoken to them and second, it could have been a book used by priests and preachers as a helpful reminder to the biblical stories told. Either way, pictures were interpreted to tell a story. We mention in class the idea of book shape. This just led me to imagine a world in which, light handheld books were not the norm for reading. As awkward as it would be, this imagined world is real. It’s called college, where students don’t have 5-10 hand held books, but rather, depending on major, 5 or so gigantic books we lug around and study from. I don’t see the convenience in a 15-pound text, but such is life on campus as a genetics major. No matter what we do reading is an embedded part of learning, no matter what size the book comes in.