The Shallot: Process

Process

Diesel: Global Warming Advertising Campaign,
retrieved from www.newconsumer.com/ images/views/diesel_main.jpg

Step 1:
Personal Journal: Background Information

Open a new Word Document and save it as "[Your Name] Journal: Background Information",under your instructor's name >>> course name >>> Journal folder, on the public drive. The first step of this WebQuest is to gather and respond to background information. In the exact order that they appear, click on the links below, explore, and respond to the questions asked by typing an entry in your journal. Keep the entries brief (just a few sentences). Title each entry with the title of the link. Feel free to use images or "screen captures" to enhance your entries. However, make sure that you appropriately cite the images. Be thorough and spell-check! The information you gather now, as well as your response, will contribute also towards your final conclusion

1. Is It Fake or Foto? The Challenge
Take a few moments to play this game. Record your score. What is a CG artist? Were you surprised or fooled by which images were CG and which were real?

2. Media Awareness Network: Photographic Truth in the Digital Era
Read the article. Read through the questions and contemplate. You do not have to answer the questions in your journal, but begin to think about them. For your journal entry, answer this basic question only:

When using digital manipulation to blend photos and images for the purposes of humour or parody, what has to be taken into consideration for the final image to be effective? (For example, for viewers to "get" the humour associated with "The Turbanator," the viewing audience must demonstrate a fair level of cultural understanding and be able to make the connections between the "tough action hero" movie persona of Arnold Schwartzenegger, George Bush and his response to terrorism in Afghanistan, and the underlying cultural messages about America and Americans.)

3. Society of Professional Journalists: Code of Ethics
How do you think this information relates to photographic truth?

4. The Publishing Law Center: Parody Fair Use or Copyright Infringement Summarize briefly, in your own words, the four "fair use factors" mentioned in the article.

The Onion ran the following caption with the above photo, Nov. 1, 2000:
"Howard Stern at the kick-off to the First Annual Howard Stern Women's Health Symposium."
Retrieved from http://www.theonion.com/content/node/28165

Step 2:
The Shallot: Parody Image & Article

The Scenerio:
The Onion, a United States-based parody newspaper, has decided to spin off an indie student newspaper, The Shallot. The editors would like to hire you, but need affirmation of the following:

Your professional understanding of parody and fair use

Your academic understanding of specifically what would appeal to student readers, while keeping the content classroom-appropriate

Demonstration of your superior digital image manipulation skills

Demonstration of your written ability to support your image manipulation concept

Documentation of news sources and images cited to create your parody.

You will contribute your image and article to a shared online forum.

The Shallot Challenge

1. Your instructor will assign students evenly to the following news parody categories:

Sports
Politics
Science & Technology
Entertainment
Education

2. Break off into your respective groups so that you are partnering with students working in the same category as you.

3. Go to The Onion online newspaper for inspiration. Specifically view the category you’ve been assigned. Note: Handle this research with maturity and humor. The Onion makes use of adult language and content.

4. Skim serious news sources to find a current story within the category you’ve been assigned. You will end up designing a manipulated image and writing a 2-3 paragraph news story accompany it. You must find two different viewpoints or resources of the same story. Here are some suggested resources to get you started, but you can certainly find additional sites. Double-check with your instructor if you are unsure of the legitimacy of the site. Keep good notes on your idea and links to the resources that you find!

5. Work within your category group to ensure there is diversity, with no cross-over. Bounce potential ideas off of your peers. Use your peers to help determine if your idea makes sense, is funny, and is reasonably tasteful. Your gorp must submit a list of student names and concepts to the instructor for approval. This can be written or typed informally on a piece of paper.

6. Once you have a confirmed concept, work individually to create a photo image that makes use of image manipulation tools in Adobe Photoshop or GIMP. You may combine exisiting images, composite, crop, stretch, paste, etc. Hint: Use automated actions. Keep vanishing points and perspective lines in mind to help with proportion. Here are links for software support.

Save the image as a .jpg file, no larger than 8 MB, on the public drive. Back it up onto your personal drive. Document any images used in the making of your final image!

7. In a word document, write a 2-3 paragraph parody news story to accompany your image. Include a title and your name at the beginning of the story. At the end of the story, list "Images Cited" and "News Stories Cited". Ensure you have appropriately documented all sources.

8. Re-group with your category peers. Review the image and proofread the story of each person in your group. Before it is published. Make corrections as needed.

9. Post your image and story to the following The Shallot blog [link to be inserted]. Where it states "Labels for this post", type the name of the category you created in (example: Sports)