Learning Essay
It goes without saying that when I first entered this class, I had zero idea what melodrama was. I guess you could probably say it would have been a good idea for me to do some research on the topic before walking in to class, but I guess my first semester freshman self just wasn’t as smart back then. You could also probably say that I walked out pretty defeated after the first class. And while this all sounds pretty awful, I promise the story does get better. After leaving class the first day, yes pretty defeated, I decided that it was time to do some research on melodrama (it’s never too late right), only to realize that there was so much more to the topic then I had ever thought. To me melodrama was just the idea of being too dramatic, mainly because my mom calls me melodramatic all the time, and I assumed that was what she meant. Anyways, after having done my research, and realizing the many different aspects of melodrama, I began to apply what I had learned to the assignments we were given in class, but I also began to think about melodrama in regards to my own life. I began to realize just how impactful this rhetorical device really was, and really just how powerful it was.
Some of the first assignments we had to do required us to locate and identify melodrama in cartoons, Harry Potter, and the Communist Manifesto. While my blog on cartoons was probably my biggest failure in the class, I can say that after hearing what my classmates had said, I began to realize what melodrama was all about. That being said, I used this in my next post on Harry Potter. I chose however not to talk about Harry Potter, and to instead focus on Divergent, a book that now realize utilizes melodrama tremendously. Next we looked at the Communist Manifesto, and to me this was the first assignment where I really began to understand what it meant to be “melodramatic.” I recognized just how prevalent melodrama was in the Communist Manifesto, and just how Marx worked to make his text relatable to a reader. This enabled me to see just how powerful a tool melodrama was, and just how much we could accomplish by using melodrama as a rhetorical technique.
From movies, to speeches, to books, melodrama really can be found everywhere. Which brings me to another part of the class where we had to analyze melodrama in two different movies, Birth of a Nation, and Battleship Potemkin. Both movies were in black and white, and at the start of both movies I really didn’t think I was going to be able to locate any melodrama if there were no words. However, both of these movies to my surprise were full of Melodrama. By the end of Birth of a Nation, no matter how unrealistic of a move it was, I actually almost came to believe that African Americans were to blame. I obviously know much better than to believe this considering all the history classes I have taken, but the movie utilized melodrama so effectively that it really could convince just about anyone.
Another part of the class was to create a presentation with: a) Two examples of media stories that are completely unrelated to 9/11 or similar themes that seem to you to confirm Anker’s views; b) Two stories that Williams helps you to analyze; c) Two stories or issues where you think a melodramatic approach to journalism might be justified (again, avoiding 9/11 related themes). This presentation was done after reading another chapter of Williams and an article by Elisabeth Anker. In class after these readings we divided into two groups to create a presentation on what we had learned, I truly enjoyed this class and really did feel a connection to both of these works. I felt as though I really understood melodrama and the different aspects that went along with it.
Finally, we were introduced to our final project which was to create a website. First off, I really just didn’t know what topic to choose, for I didn’t really think that anything interested me enough, and then when I did have a topic I realized it was just not going to work. Finally when I did find a topic that I found interesting, and began to create my website I was genuinely confused as to how this had anything to do with what we had done at the beginning of the term. I felt as though melodrama, the main theme of the class, had just disappeared. However it wasn’t until the end of the project that I really saw the importance of the two. This website that we were supposed to create revolves around the concept of melodrama. Melodrama is all about convincing someone of something, isolating the evil from the good, and essentially using pathos to evoke some sort of emotion. I believe that the websites we have created essentially do exactly that. I never really understood why it was so important to pick a topic that mattered to us, until I realized that it was only with that kind of topic that we would essentially be forced to use melodrama, in order to convince viewers to see eye to eye with us. I also think that the idea of coming up with original research is something that is extremely important no matter what field you choose to go into, so there’s that.
In the end I chose to build me website around the topic of censorship in high schools, and while it was tough, I think that my final project turned out exactly how I wanted it to. Not only did I learn a lot about the subject itself, but I also learned how to create a website, provide original research, present my research in a way that is effective, and how to incorporate melodrama in to my website.
In the end, I think that I learned a lot from this class, and while it was definitely tough, I know that I will use the skills I learned not only throughout college, but life.
Some of the first assignments we had to do required us to locate and identify melodrama in cartoons, Harry Potter, and the Communist Manifesto. While my blog on cartoons was probably my biggest failure in the class, I can say that after hearing what my classmates had said, I began to realize what melodrama was all about. That being said, I used this in my next post on Harry Potter. I chose however not to talk about Harry Potter, and to instead focus on Divergent, a book that now realize utilizes melodrama tremendously. Next we looked at the Communist Manifesto, and to me this was the first assignment where I really began to understand what it meant to be “melodramatic.” I recognized just how prevalent melodrama was in the Communist Manifesto, and just how Marx worked to make his text relatable to a reader. This enabled me to see just how powerful a tool melodrama was, and just how much we could accomplish by using melodrama as a rhetorical technique.
From movies, to speeches, to books, melodrama really can be found everywhere. Which brings me to another part of the class where we had to analyze melodrama in two different movies, Birth of a Nation, and Battleship Potemkin. Both movies were in black and white, and at the start of both movies I really didn’t think I was going to be able to locate any melodrama if there were no words. However, both of these movies to my surprise were full of Melodrama. By the end of Birth of a Nation, no matter how unrealistic of a move it was, I actually almost came to believe that African Americans were to blame. I obviously know much better than to believe this considering all the history classes I have taken, but the movie utilized melodrama so effectively that it really could convince just about anyone.
Another part of the class was to create a presentation with: a) Two examples of media stories that are completely unrelated to 9/11 or similar themes that seem to you to confirm Anker’s views; b) Two stories that Williams helps you to analyze; c) Two stories or issues where you think a melodramatic approach to journalism might be justified (again, avoiding 9/11 related themes). This presentation was done after reading another chapter of Williams and an article by Elisabeth Anker. In class after these readings we divided into two groups to create a presentation on what we had learned, I truly enjoyed this class and really did feel a connection to both of these works. I felt as though I really understood melodrama and the different aspects that went along with it.
Finally, we were introduced to our final project which was to create a website. First off, I really just didn’t know what topic to choose, for I didn’t really think that anything interested me enough, and then when I did have a topic I realized it was just not going to work. Finally when I did find a topic that I found interesting, and began to create my website I was genuinely confused as to how this had anything to do with what we had done at the beginning of the term. I felt as though melodrama, the main theme of the class, had just disappeared. However it wasn’t until the end of the project that I really saw the importance of the two. This website that we were supposed to create revolves around the concept of melodrama. Melodrama is all about convincing someone of something, isolating the evil from the good, and essentially using pathos to evoke some sort of emotion. I believe that the websites we have created essentially do exactly that. I never really understood why it was so important to pick a topic that mattered to us, until I realized that it was only with that kind of topic that we would essentially be forced to use melodrama, in order to convince viewers to see eye to eye with us. I also think that the idea of coming up with original research is something that is extremely important no matter what field you choose to go into, so there’s that.
In the end I chose to build me website around the topic of censorship in high schools, and while it was tough, I think that my final project turned out exactly how I wanted it to. Not only did I learn a lot about the subject itself, but I also learned how to create a website, provide original research, present my research in a way that is effective, and how to incorporate melodrama in to my website.
In the end, I think that I learned a lot from this class, and while it was definitely tough, I know that I will use the skills I learned not only throughout college, but life.