Reflection Essay

Reflection Essay on a course I had found mostly dry and redundant. It is evidently difficult for me to put forth a meaningful reflection that forced me to fill a minimum of 2000 words.

Grant Tabler

Stacey Johnson

MDST 1030

23 March 2010

A Reappraisal of My Way of Seeing

            Images are a way in which we define ourselves culturally. Our society is one that constantly endeavours to classify and catalogue the world around us through various media. With this in mind, a project to group together a series of images for scholarly commentary seemed appropriate for a journal in a Visual Culture class. An essay which reflects on the process of commenting on the images, a meta-reflection even, seemed somewhat less appropriate to myself and I’m sure others in this class, whether concerns of this type are raised or not. For, writing about writing always seems like a superficial endeavour. Despite any scepticism I may have towards this way of writing I shall, none the less, attempt to reflect on my visual journal with all the objectivity I can.

              This visual journal is the only assignment of this type I have ever encountered. As such I have no real basis to compare the criteria of this assignment with. Perhaps if I had encountered a journal in which I recorded media or advertisements that resonated with me, as the other mass communications class did last semester, I would be better versed in the intricacies of reflecting on media. Due to this lack of experimentation in this type of assignment I believe I chose the images that were most wholly obvious to me. The images I chose were by and large images that I saw a direct connection with. Images that resonated with me in such a way that I could, just by seeing them, have some understanding of a specific social, political, philosophical, importance held within that image. 

Based on this aforementioned criterion most of my images, at least most of my earlier images, were chosen based on the difficulties and hardships that those pictured supposedly faced. Be it Haiti and life after the earthquake, or the Jerusalem wall, the theme was mostly difficult living conditions and a distinct lack of rights or freedoms. Perhaps this is a perspective that is based around our societal norm. This would be the idea that I find these images provocative and highly resonant because we do not come in contact with any of these types of situations here. As such “the other” becomes something to see something to analyze. 

However, at the same time I cannot confine myself to so narrow and biased a reason for looking at and choosing images. The simple fact is, normal images are boring so of course I’m going to have to talk about images of hardship. I have to assume that whenever you ask someone to go choose and deconstruct images that resonate with them you will find people probably choose images that resonate on a visceral level. When choosing images for this type of journal, at least to begin with, one chooses images that they see as shocking or inspiring, but above all distinct. The images have to stand out from all other images as something to look at and say “wow, can you believe that’s what ____ would be like?” 

I think it takes a far longer time before the image analyzer starts to broaden their understanding and really starts to think about how an image relates to concepts they have learned and ideas they have encountered. It is not until later that the image viewer starts to deal less with reaction and more with realization. In some of the images I chose for the later submission Berger’s ideas of consumerization start to come into the analysis. When one has a bit more practice looking at an image one starts to think more about what people are not thinking about rather than what everyone else is thinking about.

Throughout this journal I found finding images to be a struggle. I wanted to find an image I actually had some prior knowledge or opinion on and something that had some shocking quality to it. Later on in the journal I began finding it difficult to pick images not because there were not enough images to talk about but instead too many. When one starts to factor in some of the theories and principles of art or images the images you can talk about expands dramatically. However, the problem remains the same.

The problem all throughout the journal, whether you have too many images or not enough, is not what images can I talk about, but rather, what images can I say something about. For obviously there are many aspects to any image and one could easily fill a journal with topics about the image without actually really analyzing anything. However the problem has always been deconstructing an image in such a way that not only your audience takes something more from the image but you can as well.

I suppose one interesting parallel in dealing with image choice is sources in relation to the idea of shock value versus larger worth. The earlier images were exclusively from Macleans and National Geographic. These were also the images that I chose based around shock value and instant resonation. When one sees the images in these magazines, alongside a report that parallels the style, one gets a certain feeling based on their context. These shocking photos appear in magazines that are seen as a, mostly, objective source for news and information.

 As such we tend to trust their accuracy and we see them as a kind of truth. This is what was in Macleans therefore this is what is important, real, what you need to know. However these images, like all others in a high-powered publication like Macleans, serve the purose of selling magazines. This is not to say that there are not hardships in their stories or that the people in their images deserve any less sympathy. What it does mean is these images are based around shock value, more people wanting to see the images and get the story from a trusted news leader equals the more people who will buy a copy of that magazine. This is kind of a grain of salt type argument about objectivity. For, as much as a magazine may be truthful and objective, a failing bottom line can tend to skew that. 

This assignment was turned out differently from what I had expected. I had originally thought of this assignment as a catalogued analysis of specific types of images being analyzed with specific theories based on what we were studying that week. However, this assignment turned out to be more of a mix between two different assignments last semester. One was my academic blog from mass communications and the other was an essay I wrote analyzing an image in photography and digital imaging. I found this parallel because the somewhat more casual journal style of the assignment made it seem more like a weekly or by-weekly media analysis blog. Additionally there was obviously a highly image centred aspect to this analysis, which reminded me of the photo analysis essay. This combination of a more casual format with the critical thinking and analyzing aspects of the essay made for an interesting amalgamation that became this assignment for me.

I think the least appealing part of this assignment has had to be this essay reflection, as voiced earlier. The reason for this is not because this is a reflection, but rather because of the imposed guidelines upon it. Our media studies class is one that is attempting to get into several fields these require us to write in a very specific style. The style is based around brevity, we are taught to tell a story or relay information is a way that is as compact and as concise as possible while still attempting to give the audience all the facts. Until such time as we graduate however we will be writing mostly essays. An exemplary essay we are taught should be as long as necessary and as short as possible. Due to these paradigms of university writing, I find myself rather ambivalent when deciding what to make of this reflection. For, on the one hand I understand that a reflection requires a tremendous amount of time to really dig into the core issues involved with the subject matter. However, on the other hand I find myself questioning the 2000 to 2500 word length being imposed on a reflection about a series of journal entries that, if added together, probably total less than that in length. Far be it for me to question the reasoning behind this as obviously reflecting is a long and strenuous process, however, why is it that a reflection need have a higher word limit than any formal essay we have written in our first year of university?

I should be clear that I am not attempting to combat the imposed rules of this assignment based on laziness or malice. I only question the reasoning based on quality. For this part of the assignment is surely here to evoke some type of meaningful response from those taking the assignment. So that they can, upon completing the reflection, realize the changes to their perspective that have occurred. However, this is stifled by the impositions on this part of it. For when the student sees that they must write 2000 words, much of the essay becomes based around filler. 

The student then gains a tunnel-vision type of focus on the number of words in their essay. Thus, when the student sees that they will not have quite enough words, they will start to embellish things. They start to try to stretch out the wording in a way as I am sure will be instantly recognisable to the professor marking the paper.  This does not improve creativity, this causes the student to try to water down whatever ideas they have into a much weaker and much less interesting essay. The purpose of the reflection is lost as the student is not reflecting on the process of writing the journal in the way they should be. We are taught to write concisely and with brevity though with restrictions, like the ones on this paper, we have no choice but to write things we do not mean in ways we do not agree with.

I must apologize if this somewhat expansive outburst-like commentary on the reflection of this assignment seems out of place. I do however believe that mine will be the only reflection to look at the assignment in this way. Though this viewpoint is not mine alone, I have no doubt that there will be numerous essays handed in that shamelessly stretch their language out in an attempt to fill the word limit. These students will have wanted to reflect what I have, though they fear retribution. If writing this about what I have dwelt on most about this assignment results in a failing grade for me so be it, some things must be said. This reflection is a true account of the way I have interacted with this assignment. I have aired many thoughts that I believe are worthwhile and quite insightful reflections. I have also given a very blunt account of my reaction to this assignment in all its forms. I am quite confident that my 2000 words are that of an objective nature.

Perhaps it takes 2000 words to come up with a proper reflection, perhaps I have been overly dramatic in my portrayal of the drudgery involved in writing more than is necessary. However, I believe that there is a constant in a reflection such as with as with the journal it accompanies. I believe that after reflecting for so long a time, about such a wide variation of this topic’s spectrum, the truth is what surfaces. Although the truth is a very subjective thing, I believe that only through a reflection like this one finds a real objective and insightful truth about their subject matter. I have found that I did indeed enjoy much of this assignment as it allowed me to reflect; and that, despite my protests, this assignment would be truly incomplete without such a reappraisal of this process of writing, and my way of seeing.