Introduction to Web Authoring Ellen Cushman cushmane@msu.edu Introduction to Web Authoring Class mtg. #6 www.msu.edu/~cushmane/wra210.htm our syllabus www.msu.edu/~cushmane/wa.htm old class page www.msu.edu/~cushmane/wa2.htm new class page

Today in Class… Analyzing the Onion Basic Image Editing with Photoshop For Next Time: Continue working on your genre analysis. Show and Tell: the site you are analyzing and your parody image (so far) More fun with Photoshop

What Makes the Onion Funny? Today we will work to answer this question…by analyzing how The Onion plays with genre conventions. http://www.theonion.com You’ll divide into groups, each of which will focus on how the Onion adheres to and/or breaks conventions in order to create humor. Comparing the Onion to other news sites is a key step here. Be prepared to report out.

The Teams: By computer user Let’s break into teams that include, one Mac, one Dell, and one Laptop user. We’ll name teams using ROY G BIV to guide us. Thanks, Roy.

The Assignment Analyze the onion, asking questions about the following areas. Each team should explain how the Onion is funny by manipulating the conventional structure, procedure, or wisdom of a news site in their particular area: Red – Authors and Writers Orange – Readers and Users Yellow – Format & Structure Green – Visuals & Videos Blue, Indigo, & Violet – Style & Tone Prepare a short live demo for the class to prove your point…

Image Editing Basics Download/Save/Copy/Paste images Opening images in Photoshop Editing and Altering Images changing size, opacity, colors Adding text about layers Saving and optimizing for the web

A note about copyright For the parody site assignment, you can legally work with images that others own as long as you 1. incorporate them into a parody rather than using them for some other purpose It’s also a good idea to 2. alter the image 3. credit the source of the image

Coming Up Next Time Show your site and answer questions re: your initial genre analysis. More Photoshop fun! Recontextualizing people into different places: Layers, masking, magic wand, color selection tools, zooming into pixels and seeing/erasing unwanted data.