I’m honestly not sure where I am on the working thesis statement. I don’t remember reading about how to actually create one. Hmmmm…it’s been a long time since I’ve had to write a thesis statement, and based on the request to “present your argument within its body,” something tells me that this statement is longer than one sentence. Guidance here is appreciated.
Regarding the bibliographic services, since SCAD has a subscription to Zotero, Zotero is what I will use. I had to watch the video in the quick start guide to figure out what exactly I was doing, but I got it. I did notice that it didn’t insert the URL in MLA style when citing a website, though it was there in Chicago. I guess it’s not a requirement.
On to topic…
As I begin to talk more and more about the direction of my thesis topic, the more and more I get feedback and ideas on how the thesis could evolve, or elements that could play a part.
For instance, yesterday, I shared my topic with my two designers. I was inspired by some of these amazing church logos on this website (http://churchrelevance.com/resources/top-church-logos/) and feeling extremely proud that the modern church has learned how important a solid identity mark can be, and how it can communicate the church’s brand, since each church is different. Or perhaps I am even more proud that there are great designers using their gifts to support the Church. Christy, one of my designers, thought it could be cool to do a thesis on contemporary design in spirituality, which I would probably drool over, but I’m not sure what I would add to the conversation, as it would be more research than anything else. But it still touched on this idea of contemporary design as it relates to visual storytelling in social media. How can we translate these strong graphic design principles into visual storytelling intended for social media.
That led us to one of our few church clients, who apparently posts pictures ALL the time on their Facebook page with spiritual messages. It clearly supported this idea that a lot of those visual messages only seem to encourage current Christians in their faith, instead of inspiring thought in a wider audience. Or, the graphics were so cliche, that non-Christian people might just ignore. Or, they were far too direct, such as “Have you read your Bible today.”
Below are a collection of images that I found, in no particular order.
Since I am taking only one class at a time, I have about 2 academic years to develop my thesis before I have to take the written and visual thesis class, so I have plenty of time to do research. Perhaps I can survey churches for the kinds of resources they need on social media, or examine their current practices. Or I can survey social media users from a wide background to get an idea of what they like to share and what they don’t, particularly paying attention to those who do not associate themselves with a particularly faith.