Need a topic I could write a 20 page research paper on

[Q]

It can be stretched, but has to have something to do w/ visual communication. I am having trouble thinking of something, can you guys help?

 

[TallBill]

Why ATOT is the awesome?

 

[MikeMike]

do a 20 page research paper on street signs and why/how they work, and perhaps why they came up with the colors/shapes they did.

 

[InflatableBuddha]

Cross-cultural comparison of hand gestures...how certain ones developed different meanings, why some are offensive and others not.

Alternately, what makes an effective print ad or billboard? Case studies of successful marketing campaigns; different visual methods which are more effective in certain demographics than others.

 

[ggnl]

Advertising. It'd be easy as hell to research since there's already so much information available.

 

[Redfraggle]

Body language. There's tons of information already existing, so sources are easy. The only thing you need to do in order to have it not bore the reader to death is find a unique take on it. This means, leave out dating and romance, because it's so overdone, I don't know what you'd hope to shed light on that's not already beating a dead horse.

 

[darkxshade]

Originally posted by: InflatableBuddha
Cross-cultural comparison of hand gestures...how certain ones developed different meanings, why some are offensive and others not.

Alternately, what makes an effective print ad or billboard? Case studies of successful marketing campaigns; different visual methods which are more effective in certain demographics than others.

<^><^>

 

[ConstipatedVigilante]

Originally posted by: darkxshade

Originally posted by: InflatableBuddha
Cross-cultural comparison of hand gestures...how certain ones developed different meanings, why some are offensive and others not.

Alternately, what makes an effective print ad or billboard? Case studies of successful marketing campaigns; different visual methods which are more effective in certain demographics than others.

<^><^>

Why? It's a good post. IIRC in Italy, :thumbsup: means the same thing as a middle finger in the USA.

 

[zinfamous]

So you need a 20-page paper...

how would it be possible for you to write 20 pages on a subject for which you need a forum of strangers to suggest? One would think that either you are familiar with the material by now to write about it, or you're simply planning on having group A decide your subject, and group B to write it.

 

[GTaudiophile]

Is text messaging a form of visual communication? Is the Internet a form of visual communication? Facebook?

Perhaps how technology and the Internet has led to the fractioning of our relationships, the decrease in truly meaningful discourse, the breakdown in real relationships, and the resulting sense of lonliness that more and more people have despite having more forms of communication than ever before?

In a nutshell, how quantity has lead to the decrease in quality.

 

[Atomic Playboy]

I had to do this in college, and it was an incredibly easy assignment, mainly because visual communication is such an incredibly broad area of study that almost anything short of verbal speech falls into it. Television, film, video games, print media and advertising are great sources of visual communication, and it's not hard to write 20 pages on any one thing from those areas. If you wanted to make it harder on yourself you could examine non-verbal communication in famous speeches (for example, Dr. King's use of gesticulation in the "I Have a Dream" speech), but pulling twenty pages out of that will be a stretch. But what topics interest you? You should be able to find an aspect of visual communication in something you enjoy, which makes researching it a lot easier (for this topic, I explored portrayals of violence within video games as compared to film, complete with studies on both and how the strictly visceral response of watching violence on film may not be directly comparable to acting out the actions in a virtual realm).

 

[IronWing]

Relative success of craigslist listing with and without photos.

 

[Farang]

Evolution of Presidential portraits, in the context of formal portraits in general

 

[Wreckage]

It seems like 3D is big now. Commercials, Video Games, TV, Movies. That could be an easy 100 pages right there.

 

[IronWing]

Originally posted by: zinfamous
So you need a 20-page paper...

how would it be possible for you to write 20 pages on a subject for which you need a forum of strangers to suggest? One would think that either you are familiar with the material by now to write about it, or you're simply planning on having group A decide your subject, and group B to write it.

By the time one graduates high school one should be able to write a 20 page paper on any just about topic with a single trip to the library and three-four hours of book browsing/keyboard time. It isn't rocket science. Yes the paper will be bs, but in a world of bs, bs sells, and bs makes the grade.

 

[Q]

I'm trying to do something that is about the internet as a whole since I know a 'lot' about it and am interested, so that post GTaudiophile did is pretty good, thanks. Now I just have to think how to word it (for the 3 page proposal)

 

[AreaCode707]

Originally posted by: Quintox
I'm trying to do something that is about the internet as a whole since I know a 'lot' about it and am interested, so that post GTaudiophile did is pretty good, thanks. Now I just have to think how to word it (for the 3 page proposal)

Comm degree here, FWIW. The internet as a whole is too broad a topic. You'll be told to narrow it down. A few fun narrowings:
- Profile photos, what they communicate and how it changes users interactions with the person in the profile
- Usernames, same, particularly when they include a gender indication
- Webcomics
- Creative punctuation......... on the internet!11! and how it changes people's perception of the author
- Forum/BBS/Blog Comment layouts and how they affect the communication they contain
- Avatar/sig image choices on forums that allow a great deal of latitude

 

[Newbian]

Do it on the communication masturbation has in every part of the world.

 

[tfcmasta97]

Write 18 pages on the imbalance of news reports and what we hear and see going on in/with Isreal.

Then textually rickroll the person reading your essay with a 50 page flip-book of the video

 

[Q]

Originally posted by: AreaCode707

Originally posted by: Quintox
I'm trying to do something that is about the internet as a whole since I know a 'lot' about it and am interested, so that post GTaudiophile did is pretty good, thanks. Now I just have to think how to word it (for the 3 page proposal)

Comm degree here, FWIW. The internet as a whole is too broad a topic. You'll be told to narrow it down. A few fun narrowings:
- Profile photos, what they communicate and how it changes users interactions with the person in the profile
- Usernames, same, particularly when they include a gender indication
- Webcomics
- Creative punctuation......... on the internet!11! and how it changes people's perception of the author
- Forum/BBS/Blog Comment layouts and how they affect the communication they contain
- Avatar/sig image choices on forums that allow a great deal of latitude

Thanks for those tips, and I did word my statement wrong, I knew I had to narrow it down, I was / am just trying to think of what. Of course I'm trying to think of something narrow but that I can talk about using a lot of different sites.

Maybe something about how the internet has given everyone two personas: real life and online. (ie. forums, facebook, games vs real life) I wonder if that's still too broad

 

[OCGuy]

20 pages on "Why do men have nipples" would get you an A+.

 

[AreaCode707]

Originally posted by: Quintox

Originally posted by: AreaCode707

Originally posted by: Quintox
I'm trying to do something that is about the internet as a whole since I know a 'lot' about it and am interested, so that post GTaudiophile did is pretty good, thanks. Now I just have to think how to word it (for the 3 page proposal)

Comm degree here, FWIW. The internet as a whole is too broad a topic. You'll be told to narrow it down. A few fun narrowings:
- Profile photos, what they communicate and how it changes users interactions with the person in the profile
- Usernames, same, particularly when they include a gender indication
- Webcomics
- Creative punctuation......... on the internet!11! and how it changes people's perception of the author
- Forum/BBS/Blog Comment layouts and how they affect the communication they contain
- Avatar/sig image choices on forums that allow a great deal of latitude

Thanks for those tips, and I did word my statement wrong, I knew I had to narrow it down, I was / am just trying to think of what. Of course I'm trying to think of something narrow but that I can talk about using a lot of different sites.

Maybe something about how the internet has given everyone two personas: real life and online. (ie. forums, facebook, games vs real life) I wonder if that's still too broad

On that topic, how is it visual?

How about how the ability for individuals to manipulate, either digitally or through tricky photography, allows them to alter their presentation of personality by providing them more control over how others perceive them?

Gah, it's been 8 years since I started in college. I used to try to discuss internet relationships and communication with professors and half of them would shoot down the idea that real relationships took place online. What a different world.

 

[l0cke]

Talk about what the different avatars on at mean.

 

[Q]

Originally posted by: AreaCode707

Originally posted by: Quintox

Originally posted by: AreaCode707

Originally posted by: Quintox
I'm trying to do something that is about the internet as a whole since I know a 'lot' about it and am interested, so that post GTaudiophile did is pretty good, thanks. Now I just have to think how to word it (for the 3 page proposal)

Comm degree here, FWIW. The internet as a whole is too broad a topic. You'll be told to narrow it down. A few fun narrowings:
- Profile photos, what they communicate and how it changes users interactions with the person in the profile
- Usernames, same, particularly when they include a gender indication
- Webcomics
- Creative punctuation......... on the internet!11! and how it changes people's perception of the author
- Forum/BBS/Blog Comment layouts and how they affect the communication they contain
- Avatar/sig image choices on forums that allow a great deal of latitude

Thanks for those tips, and I did word my statement wrong, I knew I had to narrow it down, I was / am just trying to think of what. Of course I'm trying to think of something narrow but that I can talk about using a lot of different sites.

Maybe something about how the internet has given everyone two personas: real life and online. (ie. forums, facebook, games vs real life) I wonder if that's still too broad

On that topic, how is it visual?

If forums are taken away, then it'd be visual. (facebook w/ photos and videos and online games)

 

[InflatableBuddha]

Originally posted by: AreaCode707

Originally posted by: Quintox

Originally posted by: AreaCode707

Originally posted by: Quintox
I'm trying to do something that is about the internet as a whole since I know a 'lot' about it and am interested, so that post GTaudiophile did is pretty good, thanks. Now I just have to think how to word it (for the 3 page proposal)

Comm degree here, FWIW. The internet as a whole is too broad a topic. You'll be told to narrow it down. A few fun narrowings:
- Profile photos, what they communicate and how it changes users interactions with the person in the profile
- Usernames, same, particularly when they include a gender indication
- Webcomics
- Creative punctuation......... on the internet!11! and how it changes people's perception of the author
- Forum/BBS/Blog Comment layouts and how they affect the communication they contain
- Avatar/sig image choices on forums that allow a great deal of latitude

Thanks for those tips, and I did word my statement wrong, I knew I had to narrow it down, I was / am just trying to think of what. Of course I'm trying to think of something narrow but that I can talk about using a lot of different sites.

Maybe something about how the internet has given everyone two personas: real life and online. (ie. forums, facebook, games vs real life) I wonder if that's still too broad

On that topic, how is it visual?

How about how the ability for individuals to manipulate, either digitally or through tricky photography, allows them to alter their presentation of personality by providing them more control over how others perceive them?

Gah, it's been 8 years since I started in college. I used to try to discuss internet relationships and communication with professors and half of them would shoot down the idea that real relationships took place online. What a different world.

This is an interesting slant to the idea of "visual communication". I think the OP still needs to narrow his topic more.

You could write an entire paper on the "Myspace angle", or the types of photos people post in Craigslist personals...I'm sure it differs between "Casual Encounters" vs. M4W, W4M, Strictly Platonic, etc.

Photoshopping would be another umbrella concept entirely, and the OP would have to pick a sub-category, such as photo-editing supermodels for magazines.