The Beginning
At the beginning, the notion of theplutoblog.com emerged as a secondary
source to my photography account on Instagram. However, as I developed the
vision board for the site, I refuted the idea and so I began to conjure something
that would be separate from my professional life. By separating work, I could
create a blog that was not only for myself to enjoy, but for an audience to admire
and connect.
PLUTO as a Platform for Creatives
In addition, the blog offered an opportunity
for me to “frame, curate, share, and direct [my] own engagement” in a “learning
environment” (Campbell, 2009, para. 10). It would imply that creating PLUTO allowed me to educate myself on
how to establish a stronger online presence. By sharing this knowledge, the
public that I aimed to have with PLUTO
was creators who wanted to discover other creative people. On a worldwide web
scale, I would hope to become a one-stop-shop for inspiration. As well as a
destination to view beautiful photographs to invigorate one’s creativity. To do
this, the website’s design had to become image focused.
PLUTO to Address Audience
To start, PLUTO was then created to be a platform for myself to share and
talk about creators in the fashion photography industry who I have high
admiration for. As well as at times, showcasing editorials that enticed me. Partly,
the blog was named PLUTO is based on
the idea of being acknowledged, but at the same time, being not fully there. Like
John Suler’s (2015), “The Online Disinhibition” stated, the “disinhibition
effect” was to be “physically invisible” (para. 7). The quote would further play
a role in the creation of the ‘about’ page. In the ‘about’ page, I would
proclaim PLUTO to be the place “where
creators hide in plain sight.” Quite literally, creators of the images we see
in magazines cannot be seen in the image. However, their work is visible to the
public.
In PLUTO,
I wanted to change that concept a bit: putting the creators upfront and have
their work be the supplementary material that drew the audience in. To do so, I
utilized visuals as the basis of the site attractive. By replicating the format
of Instagram and their focus on imagery, I would hope to “achieve success”
(Gertz, 2015, para. 20). Further stated by Gertz (2015), whenever a “company
achieves success,” others would “investigate what they did right and apply that
to our own organizations” (para. 20). Taking on the format of Instagram, by highlighting
the imagery presented on the blog, it would attract an audience to look and
discover different creators that are behind the scenes. This would eventually
play into the value that I hope is rendered into something people would
continue to do: giving credit to people’s work.
PLUTO’s Value
Countless times I have witnessed people
online—Instagram—where there are these gorgeous images that are clearly not
their own are posted, but seemed to disregard the proper crediting of the
images. It is not entirely difficult in contemporary technology, like Google
Images, to ‘backwards search’ to find the origins of a photograph. Especially ones
of great reverence and recognisability. In the end, providing proper credentials
to others’ work shows deep appreciation to the creators and, it is a nice
gesture.
Analytics & Comments
Regarding the analytics, I have noticed
that the website attracts more users on desktops and laptops. I found this
rather strange, presuming people would visit using their mobile devices. Then, I
found a possible reason for this was that PLUTO
was not mobile device friendly. Considering the WordPress template chosen, it
would not give an overview of the site, but would fill the smartphone screen
with one image at a time if one were to continue scrolling. However, I did find
a spike on desktop viewership when there’s a spike on mobile devices—particularly
from social media. This told me that people were finding PLUTO through Instagram and then head over to their desktop and
laptops to see the overview of the blog.
As for comments, I have only received one
comment and that stemmed from a fellow classmate who commented on the peer review
page. The student simply asked for help on the website design and how to change
certain things. It did not influence me in anyway. However, knowing the website
is still in its infantry stage, I would not expect any comments on the blog.
Reflection
Reflecting on the idea I had on publication
at the beginning of the semester is not entirely different, but it has been
expanded. Initially, I had a basic dictionary understanding of publishing: “The
act of printing a book, a magazine, etc. and making it available to the public”
(Oxford Learner’s Dictionary, 2019). Throughout the weeks, I came to build a
thorough comprehension on the ‘public’ aspect of publishing. Particularly, one
aspect was the act of self-marketing. PLUTO
became an “important medium” to “learn about” the relationship I had with
others through an online platform (Chittenden, 2010, p. 517). Part of it was
understanding how to gain and maintain an engaged audience through the content I
publish and the overall aesthetic of my brand.
Looking forward, I would continue to blog. However,
between school work, freelance jobs, and maintaining a social life (ha-ha), it
is difficult to successfully maintain an frequently updated blog. Considering the
blog that PLUTO is inherently about,
a lot of research goes into it. Thus, becoming disabled in the efforts to continue
a regular basis. Except, I would be maintaining the Instagram account. While PLUTO rummages through its infant stage,
Instagram was a platform where I could engage more with the creators I shared
on the site. Continuing Instagram, it would help elaborate my online presence
as it would give me a chance to directly thank the creators for their work. “When
you find someone whose work you like, tell them” (Thorn, 2012, para. 71). This is
vital to my online presence, because I just want those who worked hard know
that people genuinely enjoy their work. By using Instagram, it has allowed me
to do so. Even if the comment gets lost within countless others.
Concluding Thought
The Internet—especially social media—can be
a nasty place. But, it is in these moments where I can find joy in social media
and think of the difference I can make when I comment, “Hey! Love this!” on
someone’s post. Like the Chittenden (2010) article state, “If you can’t say
anything nice, don’t say anything at all.”
Positive vibes everyone. Positive vibes.
References
Campbell, W. G. (2009, September 4). A personal
cyberinfrastructure. Retrieved from
https://er.educause.edu/articles/2009/9/a-personal-cyberinfrastructure
Chittenden, T. (2010). Digital dressing up: modelling female teen
identity in the discursive spaces of the fashion blogosphere. Journal
of Youth Studies, 13(4), 505-520. doi:10.1080/13676260903520902
Gertz, T. (2015, July 10). Design machines. Retrieved from
https://louderthanten.com/coax/design-machines
Publication [Def. 1]. (n.d.). In Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries, Retrieved November 25, 2019, from https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/publication
Suler, J. (2016). Psychology of cyberspace the online disinhibition
effect. Retrieved from http://truecenterpublishing.com/psycyber/disinhibit.html
Thorn, J. (2012, April 11). Jesse thorn. Retrieved from
https://transom.org/2012/jesse-thorn-make-your-thing/
Featured image is by Jackie Nickerson for AnOther Magazine (2018).
