These are the 5 basic modes of communication. I would say that linguistic, visual, and aural are all pretty common, but I have never thought about spatial and gestural as being that common. I think it's pretty interesting that the New London Group decided to put those on the list.

Modes can be used in a persuasive manner. The way that the announcer says things or the music can all affect us in different ways, even if we do not think that they will. When you choose what to use for each mode it is important to choose things that will affect people in a way that you want them too be affected. For example lets look at 2 different pieces of audio.

Audio 1

When you listen to this piece of audio, most people will generally feel afraid or scared since the audio gives off a spooky vibe. Someone might use this audio in a scary movie or an ad designed to frighten people.

Audio 2

When you listen to this audio, you become happier since the music has a bright and cheerful mood. This affects us in a different way than Audio 1 does.

I think that if you are trying to persuade someone via a commercial or video advertisement, than it is important to make sure your audio matches with what you are trying to advertise. If you are advertising a stuffed dog toy for kids, then it is not appropriate to use scary music or else you might deter people from buying your product. And the aural mode is just one mode out of 5, so it is key to make sure that the other modes are also in tune with what you are trying to communicate.

Source 1:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrPEoqp4sjg

Source2:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pRRFJyqpQ8

When I think about the gestural mode, my first thoughts are about job interviews. When you are at an interview, body language and eye contact can play a huge part in the interview. I think that this comic perfectly supports what I am saying. The way the man is sitting makes people think that he does not care about whatever he is doing. His body language is communicating his laziness and how he is not taking the situation seriously.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/lowres.cartoonstock.com/youth-bad_attitude-body_language-attitude_problems-lawyers-legal_advice-kmhn749_low.jpg

Gestural mode is all about the way you hold your body in real life. This mode is seen in real life, and a lot can be seen from body language. Some examples of this mode are news anchors, speeches, and talk show hosts. All 3 of these things include people that need to have good use of the gestural mode. For example, when a news anchor has to speak on live television, they have to carry themselves in a way that makes watchers believe that the news anchors are taking what they are talking about seriously. If the news anchor is sitting lazily, the watchers may not respect them as much.

Although most of the other modes are seen throughout the supplemental reading, the gestural mode is not included since there are no live interactions between people in the reading. However, I think that ballet puts emphasis on the gestural mode. Ballet dancers carry themselves in an elegant manner and show delicate body language.

When I first read this, I immediately thought of our wordpress site and what we talked about in class during the first week of school. We talked about how our site will be seen in the public, and instead of our site being a big mess, we should organize it so that our readers can effectively look at what they want and not have to search for it. To prove my point, look at this site. When you look at this site, you automatically get a headache due to how messy it is. I imagine that it would be really hard to find what you are looking for. Hopefully my site will look completely different than this.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-l5M1_46EE60/VO91Qv-Y4TI/AAAAAAAAAD0/bAi072ZajXw/s1600/havenworks.jpg

Spatial mode relates to how things are organized and arranged. This mode can refer to the organization of an essay or project and can range all the way to the organization of stores or classrooms. This mode is heavily used throughout both the supplemental reading and this reading. Both readings organize their writings in paragraphs with headings in order to display what they are going to be talking about.

When I saw this mode, I immediately thought of when I was writing my primary source description for the AIDS quilt. In class, we discussed the importance of headings in our essays so that our readers can get a sense of progress when they are reading, since the wordpress site that we use is just one long page.

The aural mode is all about sound whether that be music or sound effects or even the absence of sound. While this mode is not used too heavily in the supplemental reading, it can still be seen in the video at the beginning. The creators of the video use the aural mode to convey the emotions of what the ballet dancers are feeling. All throughout the video, ballet music can be heard. The creators specifically chose this type music, since it very much relates to the subject of the video, which is the Terminus group. And I think that the aural mode actually, plays a big role in ballet dancing, or any dancing as a matter of fact. A big part of dancing has to do with the music/audio. Dancers dance to the beat of the music or the mood of the music.

I think that the aural mode is one of the most important modes because of how easily I get affected by it. Whenever I watch movies and an especially powerful piece of music starts to play, paired with an emotional scene in the movie, it is easy for me to get moved by that. Whether I want to or not, I get affected by the aural mode as it so effectively communicates emotions and feelings more so than visual or lingual.

I think that the visual mode is a very powerful mode and can affect us heavily.

When I see this picture it is easy for me to feel sad for this person. The aspects of the image all allude to a sad mood and tone. The empty room suggests her loneliness, her position shows how sad he is, the colors give the picture a dreary tone. I think that a major reason why visuals are so powerful is because there is a lot of depth behind every aspect of the visual. Every color, every setting, every object is chosen for a specific and unique reason and gives off a unique emotion. I think that this picture perfectly exemplifies this idea and the visual mode.

https://images.pexels.com/photos/236147/pexels-photo-236147.jpeg?h=350&auto=compress&cs=tinysrgb

The visual mode is found in the form of pictures, videos, flyers, etc. The supplemental reading implements a lot of visuals in it in places where words cannot effectively describe the subject at hand. Throughout the reading, there are many pictures of the members of the dance crew. Rather than Freeman having to meticulously describe every feature of every member, he saves a lot of time and effort by just putting in pictures of each member. I think that an advantage of the visual mode is that when you are trying to describe an object or image, a visual can accurately portray that object/image where as it is much harder to portray that in words.

This statement is saying that the our words and the way we write have a lot of power, and we should be diligent in our writing so as to communicate our ideas in a way that will help others understand our ideas better. This makes me think of our quilt project and how the words we use to describe our panel have such a big impact on how readers will picture the panel. We use certain words to portray specific meanings. If we do not use our words in a way that exemplifies our ideas and thoughts, than what we write or talk about will differ from what we are trying to communicate.

Linguistic mode, as it sounds, is related to the use of language typically in the form of writing or speaking. Much of the supplemental reading: "The inside story of Terminus, the new dance company by five ex-Atlanta Ballet dancers" uses this mode. In the very beginning of the reading when Freeman is describing the setting and their group, Freeman specifically chooses to use the linguistic mode since this is the most effective way to portray the scene. If it were to be in picture form, or video form, I think that many of the emotions Freeman was trying to portray would be lost.

The supplemental reading I chose is "The inside story of Terminus, the new dance company by five ex-Atlanta Ballet dancers" by Scott Freeman. The article basically follows the creation of the Atlanta ballet company: Terminus. Essentially, Terminus, was already a 5 person dance group, however they were in the process of becoming an actual dance company for a couple years. The reading follows the beginning of Terminus, finding a place for Terminus to call home, getting enough funds to start it, and eventually the creation of Terminus dance company.

When I first read this supplemental reading, I was confused as to how ballet dancing relates to multi modality. However I begun to see multimodality in the article itself. So for most of my annotations I decided to focus in on how each mode is used throughout the supplemental reading. I think that the reading utilizes the 5 modes of communication quite well despite not including the gestural mode. The article is well formatted and includes a video and also many images where it is appropriate. And the writing of the article is also well done too, as many parts communicate Freeman's ideas clearly. I think it's pretty interesting to see all the different modes being used and how they are all working together to create a well done piece.

http://artsatl.com/story-terminus-dance-company-founded-ex-atlanta-ballet-dancers/