Research proposal

As creators of digital media for global audiences, what cultural attitudes should we consider?

I want to compile a "handbook" in HTML, which will be an overview of considerations for a global business audience, with links to more detailed reference sources on the Web, to include:

Language (style, appropriate word choices, spelling, problematic idioms)
Color (an overview of the meaning of colors in primary cultures outside the U.S.)
Pictures (Are there photo and illustration styles that are unacceptable in certain cultures? What about pictures of people? What's okay, and what's not?)
Metaphors (Are there metaphors that are globally understood?)
Animals (Are references to certain animals particularly offensive in some cultures?)

I work for a company that has an increasing number of offices around the globe, and I send regular communications from my department to my colleagues worldwide. We do have a copyediting staff who claims that their style guide is "global" -- but I find it to be minimally helpful and lacking in detail.

The importance of behaving like a global company is emphasized daily in my workplace. I'm interested in establishing credibility with my colleagues around the world, and I feel that showing respect for other cultures is a place to start.

I work in the graphic arts department where much of the corporate advertising, marketing collateral, and campaign materials are produced. We share our work as templates with company offices in other parts of the world, in Europe, Asia, and even Africa. I realize that one piece of marketing will rarely work in all parts of the world, but I would like to develop a broader sense of cultural trends and moral attitudes around the globe.

Understanding that this is a huge topic, my vision is a high-level reference guide that would include lists to more detailed sources of information.

Week 3 Assignment: AWeb site critique

I get my daily news primarily from three sources: the radio, e-mail subscriptions to a few select news sites and trade organizations, and http://www.salon.com. In fact, I've become addicted to clicking on www.salon.com. When I'm procrastinating at work, I go there. When I'm killing time while my husband watches a ballgame on t.v., I go there. I feel like I'm doing something productive, keeping up with current events and reading some good writers' work. I could read a novel or a print magazine, but sometimes out of laziness I pick up my laptop and navigate to good ole Salon.

So what's the appeal?

It's familiar, and it's almost always interesting. Some really good writers, in my opinion, work for Salon. It's rather left-leaning in its political perspective, as am I, so I feel like I'm among friends, not foes. And I know my way around, just like in a familiar grocery store. I know where they keep the stuff I'm interested in. The list of main stories is right down the middle, department links on the left, mostly fluffier stuff on the right (like personal ads and adverstising graphics). This design is consistent from page to page, regardless of department, and there's always a clear way home, so I rarely feel like I'm lost.

Underneath the links to the main stories are one-sentence teasers that help me decide whether I want to read the articles. The importance of teasers can't be overemphasized -- they must be good, well-written and enticing, or I won't be inclined to click to the full story.

I should note that Salon offers two versions: one for its subscribers (which costs $50 or so per year), and one for the rest of us. The rest of us are forced to view ads, but they're not too intrusive (usually no pop-up windows, thank goodness!). Also, the rest of us get only a truncated version of the articles unless we click through a daily sponsor's advertisement. Again, thankfully, we can choose between an HTML version and a Flash version of the ad, so the pain can be over with pretty quickly, even with a slow connection.

Salon doesn't use a lot of graphics, usually just one photograph or illustration per story, if that. The lead story at the top of the list gets the biggest piece of art. I like that, because though I often find Flash movies and the like clever, when I go to Salon, I go there to read, not to be entertained by video. There are some video and audio links under department headings, but they are not the main focus of the online magazine. The content and the quality of the writing gets the most attention.

True to Jacob Nielsen's recommendations, the article titles are definitely scannable. The text design is simple, but uses sub-heads, sub-sub-heads, and color effectively, making them easily scannable as well. Most of the articles are concisely written and are relatively brief, usually no more than one or two pages, short pages because of the limited space down the center of the Web view. Some articles are much longer, with more in-depth coverage of a particular subject, and often I find myself reading the whole thing, even though it's online. Articles that sustain discourse for more than one page are layered in linked form; there is a teaser at the bottom of each page, which gives the reader some idea of what follows on the next, giving you a choice as to whether you want to go on.

While the Salon site works well for me, if I were the editor-in-power, I might highlight the department pages more by advertising them in exchange for a free day pass to the full magazine or something. For me, they tend to get lost, I forget about them. I gravitate right down the middle of the home page every time, visit after visit, even if I've gone to the Salon site multiple times in a day (procrastinating again). There's some good stuff in the left-hand navigational links that I would enjoy if I'd just get out of my rut and go there. Like starting my grocery store trip in the milk-and-cheese section instead of in vegetables, it's amazing what you see when you look at the same choices from a different point of view.

Salon.com is a favorite hang-out spot for me. The writing is good, the organization and design of the site is easily navigable, and its quality is consistent. The magazine covers stories from the perspective I want to read about, and when I'm in a hurry, it's easy to find the high spots I'm looking for. It gives me just what I want in online news.

My Animals

I'm passionate about my animals. Presently, I have four dogs, three cats, and two horses, but I've had many others in the past.

My dogs are among my best friends. Although we don't speak the same language, I understand a few of their words, and they understand a few of mine. And while verbal cues are helpful in getting each others' attention, they're not really necessary for communication. There are lots of other ways of talking to each other: our facial expressions, the way we hold our tails, our licks and kisses. Sometimes we just know what the other is thinking. For example, every time I think about giving one of my dogs a bath, he's gone -- nowhere to be found -- at least not where I can reach him, like under the truck. When I think of baths, Circus thinks of scurrying under the truck.

My cats and I communicate, too, but I'm not as close with them as I am with the dogs. We do share a few words from each others' languages. And we do have other ways of communicating, like bumping noses and twitching tails. And, we have telepathy almost to the point of scariness. The other day, I was convinced that one of my cats had disappeared, that something had happened to him, because I had not seen him in several days. I thought to myself, "Okay, he's really gone. Yep, he's gone." The cats live in the hay loft of my stable. As soon as I had that thought, I looked up to pull down a bale of hay from the stack, and -- poof! -- there he was where he hadn't been before. He just wanted me to know that he was all right.

My horses are highly sensitive to my verbal tones, my words, and my body language, and I to theirs. They don't outwardly express a deep love the way a dog does for his person. Their language is subtle, esoteric, and highly evolved. Different from dogs and cats, horses are flight animals, animals of prey, and they are ever on the alert for danger. To win their trust and confidence is a high honor, and one that must be treated with reverence.

For reasons unknown to me, many people inflate their egos by abusing horses. They pretend that they are powerful and brave of heart by frightening, harrassing, and beating them. Sinces horses are far stronger than their people, you might ask why they endure such disrespect. My theory is that most are exceedingly kind. They don't forget, though.

Horses, especially very sensitive ones like I have, seem to remember everything. It's like they have a photographic picture of all that's been before. If a new vehicle is parked in the driveway, they notice. And if it's parked in a different spot the next day, they notice. They check it out, make sure it's safe. They see even the smallest addition to the garden, maybe a new 4'x4' spinach bed.

You may be wondering if horses are telepathic communicators. Oh, yes, even more so that dogs. I can think a thing, and they know it, almost before I do. Sometimes when I'm trying to teach a particular command or I desire a specific movement from them, I simply envision it in my own mind, and if they're feeling cooperative and kindly toward me, they respond by doing the very thing I imagined.

I have relationships with my animals that are more like partnerships than owner-beast arrangements. Some people don't understand this. I have one human friend in particular who is incredulous at how I perceive my pets. I think some folks can't conceive of my animal relationships because they underestimate their intelligence. Some people see themselves as being so much smarter than animals that they can't condescend to being real partners with them.

I believe such people are wrong, about their presumed intelligence superiority. I don't believe people are necessarily more or less intelligent than animals; the intelligences are of different kinds -- in other words, different species of animals have different types of intelligence. But that discussion is for another blog, another day. I'll come back to it later.

Exercise 1.6

U.S. Airways promises on-time flights with convenient connections and well-balanced, in-flight meals.

Movie heroes always have money, always get the girls, and always wear high fashion. Usually they arrive about two seconds after the bad guy leaves the scene.

Movie characters often knock over telephones when they frantically answer by the third ring, tap on the cradle and shout, "Hello? Hello?"

Exercise 1.5

Sometimes when I find myself on a dead-end page on the Internet, I feel like I'm prey caught in the spider's sticky Web.

From my home dial-up connection, I plod down the information highway in the shoulder lane.

Exercise 1.4

The squeaky wheel gets the grease.

Blood is thicker than water.

Pretty is as pretty does.

Exercise 1.3

The latest offer frustrated the labor leaders, forcing them to go through with the strike.

She walked into the room and sat down and looked at me, without saying a word.

Exercise 1.2

ambiguous, ambivalent:
I gave an ambiguous answer to the question.
I felt ambivalent about going to the party.

apprise, appraise:
I apprised my boss of the situation.
The realtor appraised our property at $200,000.

healthy, healthful:
My horse is in healthy condition.
Spinach is a healthful food.

disinterested, uninterested:
I became disinterested in the book I was reading.
I'm uninterested in learning more about boats.

conscience, conscious:
Free yourself from a guilty conscience.
I am conscious of my husband's breathing.

affect, effect:
I don't know how the freeze will affect my plants.
The effect of the yellow paint is a brightening of the room.

Exercise 1.1

There's nothing to fear but fear itself.

Men are from Mars; women are from Venus.

In the beginning, God created heaven and earth.