In “The Confident Gaze” by Shekhar Dashpande he is talking about how National Geographic has the third largest magazine subscription in the U.S. which is known for its breath taking photos . However he claims that the photos have little or nothing to do with the real point, and leave out many truths. He uses the cover of National Geographic “India Turning 50” which is a picture of a boy covered in Red paint with a sad look on his face. But the title and the picture really do not match up. Dashpande says,
“There photographs are rich in content, but entirely dishonest in their relationship to the environment or the context. It is as if that the world needs to be posed in the appropriate way to the western world observer, he could not see the bare essentialities.”
The images in National Geographic are isolated and selective. All show a certain type of image that is not displaying the information that has to do with the real point. Because most of the time the point is too sad and overwhelming for many that if it was put on the cover of National Geographic no one would want to buy it. As well he explains that the cover represent a lot of conflict, it helps make a situation appealing when in reality it would not be appealing at all.
Dashpande also claims that National Geographic has a clever way of constructing images of the “other”. To provide occasion for its readers, this is achieved by a combination of countries traditions mixed with the western world’s way of living. “The idea of progress is always in terms of whether the others have taken steps to be “western”. That includes the fashionable ideas like democracy and technological progress.” Westerners want to read that other places around the world are becoming more like them, because of westerns attitude that their way of living is the best way to live. As well it gives westerners the frame of mind that they are superior to the rest of the world, and more grateful that they are not the rest of the world.
Welcome!
Welcome to our Eng 100 Blog “Conversations Beyond the Classroom”! The title of this blog refers to the community of active readers & collaborative learners we are creating by sharing our academic writing for Eng 100 with each other + a larger group of students, instructors, academics, and just about anybody who chooses to follow our blog! When you write and post your reader responses here (and, later, as you write your essays for the course), I encourage you to use this audience to conceptualize who you are writing for and, most important, how to communicate your ideas so that this group of academic readers and writers can easily follow your line of thinking. Think about it this way: What do you need to explain and articulate in order for the other bloggers to understand your response to the essays we’ve read in class? What does your audience need to know about those essays and the authors who wrote them? And how can you show your readers, in writing, which ideas you add to these “conversations” that take place in the texts we study?
As students of Eng 100, you will use this blog to begin conversations with other academic writers on campus (students and instructors alike). We become active readers of each other’s writing when we comment on posts here. And, best of all, we are using this space to share ideas! We encourage you to use this blog to further think through the topics and writing strategies you will be introduced to this quarter. As always, be sure to give credit to those people whose ideas you borrow for your own thinking and writing (you should do this in the blog by commenting on their post, but you will also be required to cite what you borrow from your peers/instructors if and when it winds up in your essays. More details on that later…).
Finally, keep in mind that writing to and for this audience is a good way to prepare for the panel of readers (faculty at WCC) who will be reading and assessing your writing portfolio at the end of the quarter. We hope that as a large group of active readers, we can better prepare each other for this experience. But, in the meantime, let’s have fun with it! I am really excited see how far we can take this together!
--Mary Hammerbeck, Instructor of Eng 100
As students of Eng 100, you will use this blog to begin conversations with other academic writers on campus (students and instructors alike). We become active readers of each other’s writing when we comment on posts here. And, best of all, we are using this space to share ideas! We encourage you to use this blog to further think through the topics and writing strategies you will be introduced to this quarter. As always, be sure to give credit to those people whose ideas you borrow for your own thinking and writing (you should do this in the blog by commenting on their post, but you will also be required to cite what you borrow from your peers/instructors if and when it winds up in your essays. More details on that later…).
Finally, keep in mind that writing to and for this audience is a good way to prepare for the panel of readers (faculty at WCC) who will be reading and assessing your writing portfolio at the end of the quarter. We hope that as a large group of active readers, we can better prepare each other for this experience. But, in the meantime, let’s have fun with it! I am really excited see how far we can take this together!
--Mary Hammerbeck, Instructor of Eng 100
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