Tag Archives: essays

It’s A Not Goodbye, It’s A See You Later :)

The Power of Painting had a very funny start. I have told this story in previous posts but essentially, I only became interested in painting because of the COVID-19 quarantine. At around April, I would take my daily walks around my neighbourhood and sometimes I would end up at the dollar store. I grabbed a couple of paints and supplies, and the rest is history. With all of this in mind, when I began this class, I wasn’t too sure what I would make a blog on. At first, I considered a restaurant blog but that seemed generic and hard to do during COVID. But then I remembered my paintings and I thought a blog would be the perfect place to not only show my audience but also a place where I could document the work I have done and also share ideas and tips. This blog acts as a platform for me to be myself and write what I am thinking, which is apparently normal as “some people do report being more like their true self in cyberspace” (Suler, 2004). I like to think of it as my creative space and an online art gallery for myself.

During my editorial and writing process, the audience that I had in mind was just like me. This is because “the content should speak to the few people who can identify with this personality because this is the only audience that matters”which means that my content should reflect my own personality (Gertz, 2015). This includes regular people who aren’t expert artists, have little to no drawing/painting experience and are just looking to do something for fun when they have time. I think this is one of the reasons why I write the way I do. I specifically add steps and include points that may be simple to artists but are things that never would cross the mind of a beginner. I also took a very friendly and casual tone when writing my posts. I never wanted to be too serious with my audience and I wanted to make it seem like I was having a one-on-one conversation with the person reading. By doing this, it made the flow of the posts to be more natural and also easier to read.

In terms of the paintings I have made, they were all chosen by me and are designs that I really enjoyed. Therefore, the look and aesthetic of the paintings may be geared towards a younger audience but in all honesty, it can really be for anyone. The same can be said when I was choosing my theme and designing the blog. I already had a bit of an idea in my head and decided to do what I know I would love. Since I am a very minimalist person who enjoys very simple and easy to navigate things, that was what I wanted to see on this website. I chose a theme and template called “New blog WordPress theme” because it looked clean and had a nice menu bar at the top.

With this audience in my head, I am glad I used Google Analytics and WordPress analytics to actually figure out who the people visiting my blog were. Having these tools was “like having an all-seeing eye gazing directly into the hearts and minds of our audience” which is really helpful as a publisher who wants to increase engagement on their platforms (Gertz, 2015). As I figured, my demographics were what I anticipated. In terms of age, it ranged between individuals aged 18-34. This makes sense because that’s who my target was, and I know a lot of my friends who followed my blog journey fall between these ages. For gender, I predominantly attract females which also makes sense because of the girly aesthetic of my website and also the more feminine paintings that I choose to replicate.

Regarding value, I hope that I am giving helpful advice, tips and tricks to beginners just like myself. As mentioned before, I am no expert and what I am writing about comes from other artists that I have learned from. Also, I have no plans on monetizing this website because my intentions were never to make a profit or generate really anything from doing this blog. It’s just a creative and space for me to use to talk about my newfound hobby and also for other people to learn and get inspiration for their future endeavours.

In the beginning, “The Publication of Self in Everyday Life” didn’t exactly make sense to me. I was reluctant to take this class, but this experience has really changed my perspective of publication in general and I would highly recommend this class to anyone thinking of building an online presence. With all of this being said, the end of this semester is approaching, and all of my assignments are wrapping up. This was a difficult semester (and year) for all of us but I am very proud of what I accomplished this term. Under the circumstances, I managed to create a blog that I grew to love and become passionate about. Although sometimes tedious, documenting my progress through my process posts really showed how much my thinking and thought process grew over the past couple of months. This website was really my own personal digital garden because I “frequently adjust[ed] and change[d] [ my website] to show [my] growth and learning” (Basu, 2020).

In terms of the Power of Painting, I would love to continue it. A passion that I gained over quarantine at the beginning of the year now holds such a big influence in my life. It has made me so happy to paint or come up with ideas each week and be able to share them with my audience. Even if the people reading my content were just my friends and classmates, it was still so exciting to see my analytics go up and it proved to me that I could continue this in the future. Obviously, I do say this now as my optimistic self, but I know that life gets busy and a lot of what I love gets pushed to the side. That is why my goal will be to try to continue this blog to the best of my ability. I think it is important to prioritize things that make me happy and this definitely does!

References

Gertz, T. (2015, July 10). How to Survive the Digital Apocalypse. Louder Than Ten. https://louderthanten.com/coax/design-machines

Basu, T. (2020, September 3). Digital gardens let you cultivate your own little bit of the internet | MIT Technology Review. https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/09/03/1007716/digital-gardens-let-you-cultivate-your-own-little-bit-of-the-internet/

Suler, J. (2004, June 1). Psychology of Cyberspace—The Online Disinhibition Effect. http://truecenterpublishing.com/psycyber/disinhibit.html

The post It’s A Not Goodbye, It’s A See You Later :) appeared first on the Power of Painting.

Essay Two

I always wanted to have a blog or some form of documentation in my life but I never knew how. PUB 101 was also a class that I have been wanting to take for a few semesters but I was never able to get in due to the popularity and waitlist that this course withholds. When I finally got in this semester, I was so excited to start a journey of not only documenting a period of my life but as well as learning all the skills to build an online presence and make it into my own!

This blog was initially to document my family and I’s journey throughout the pandemic as business owners as the restaurant industry has been hit extremely hard since March of this year. I wanted to do this so that I would have something to look back on when hopefully, one day this pandemic is over. However, this blog has slowly turned into not only just current experiences but I have found enjoyment in writing about past experiences and I was surprised at how many of the course contents were applicable. I am not sure how much value or influence I have added to others but my hopes for this was to show awareness for small businesses and how anyone can support them during the pandemic. Every little bit counts!

Along with all the technical skills that I have learned from this course, I have also been hit with realization of the factors that make up what kind of space the internet is today. Some of the topics that stood out to me most during this semester were: fake news, copyright, monetization, and transmedia.

In week 7, we learned about fake news and the circulation behind it and I slowly realized that fake reviews could be written just like any fake news report. In my experience, it is common that one may exaggerate the issue when slightly discontent with an experience regarding a restaurant, especially when they are hungry and eager to eat their food. One small slip up could stir up a bunch of emotions and cause a blowout. Lewis & Marwick (2017) discuss how trustworthy media really is and how manipulation may be used to someones advantage. Being the daughter of a long time restaurant owner, I have heard countless stories of toxic restaurant relationships in which one party is discontent with what is going on, resulting in spread of inaccurate information online, ultimately leading to manipulation of others. Luckily, my family and I have never experienced that personally.

The next week, we went on to learn about copyright. It’s actually a coincidence because the day after that lecture, I was at work and noticed a bunch of the photos of our food on the delivery app Fantuan, was switched and not the original ones that we submitted. I called the customer service line and was told “it’s fine, as long as the food looks similar”. I responded with “no, we cannot use photos that were taken by someone else without crediting them, which is not possible on a delivery platform”, and they were very unhappy with me.

Monetization was also a topic that I found to be very eye opening. I was about 14 or 15 when “YouTubers” became a thing and influencers who were made money off social media starting becoming very big. Vara (2015) writes about how Steven T, Jones, an editor, started a kickstarter to continue his love for journalism “by letting people give online contributions to help fund…” (Vara, 2015) the window for reporting and writing. In terms of integrating ads into this blog itself, a peer suggested ideas such as pairing with local businesses to benefit both parties (Atwal, 2020). However, Atwal (2020) later recommended that monetization may not be fit for my blog as it is already one big advertisement for my family business alone and any other advertisements may harm the business which I strongly agree with.

Finally, the last topic that stood out strongly to me was transmedia and how we can incorporate multiple forms of media and how diverse it can be! Kevinbrittenylauren.wordpress.com (2013) discusses how Pokemon has developed into such a big corporation with many types of media, ranging from TV shows and video games, all the way to stuffed animals and even theme stores! By doing so, this company has been able to stay in the spotlight for many years and continue to be a relevant part of not only kids but adults’ lives as well! After learning about transmedia, it made me think about how I would want to incorporate different types of media to advertise my parents’ business.

This class has ultimately taught me so much in such a short amount of time and it has made me want to discover and learn more about the publishing industry. I didn’t think I would want to continue blogging after this semester due to my busy schedule but now, I wouldn’t mind putting aside some time for this blog. There is so much to discover in this industry and I am planning on taking PUB 201 to further my knowledge. I am so excited!

Sources

Atwal, J. “Peer Review Three”, Don’t Ruin My Mood. Retrieved from: http://dontruinmymood.com/pub101-assignments/peer-review-three/

Kevinbrittenylauren.wordpress.com. 2013. “Pokemon as transmedia storytelling. https://kevinbrittenylauren.wordpress.com/2013/11/21/pokemon-as-transmedia-storytelling/

Marwick, Alice and Lewis, Rebecca. 2017. “Media Manipulation and Disinformation Online“. Datasociety.net.

Vauhini Vara. 2015. “Survival Strategies for Local Journalism”, https://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/survival-strategies-for-local-journalism

How Far We’ve Come, and From Here On Out

I am, for the most part, a lurker on social media – sort of. You see, I have an Instagram account, which was originally meant to be my personal account, but it turned into my bunny’s account with a smidge of me. His content is way better than mine could ever be. I mean, just […]

Essay #2 — Semester Reflection

Throughout this course, we have explored the various digital, global and networked spaces we inhabit. As an “online publisher,” I would say that I have learned a multitude of things through simply creating an online presence and expanding it. For my website, I wanted to create a space that promotes and documents my progress as a musician. In Goffman’s reading, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1956), he explains his theory of there being a ‘backstage’ and ‘performance’ side to every individual (Goffmann, 1956). Using his dramaturgical model of social life, I would argue that this website serves to present a more personal side of who I am as an artist. Essentially, this platform is meant for my listeners/audience to get to know me for more than just my music. Media platforms like Instagram and Spotify make it easy for users to present and portray a fairly one-sided representation, but I want to inspire and encourage others to share their talents and passions through my story!

Audience Demographics/Analytics

Throughout this course, we had the ability to keep track of our statistics through websites like Google Analytics. After reviewing the data, I was surprised to see who my audience was and the various places they were located. Considering the fact that I am a musician based in Vancouver, BC, it was crazy to see how far my content has reached throughout the globe! In the image below, I have put together the data of my audience members within the platforms of Google Analytics, Youtube, and Spotify.

From the data, I noticed that there were a few common trends in my analytics. For instance, it can be seen that my target demographic ranges between individuals who are within the ages of 18-24. Likewise, across all three platforms, the results show that the majority of my audience is female. I would assume that because I am someone who writes songs about personal experiences, females would be more likely to relate to them compared to males. Geographically, the top countries in my audience can be found in Canada, the United States, the Philippines and Indonesia! Knowing these trends will help me create content and cater it towards these specific areas in the future!

In addition, I would define my public as young adults who listen and enjoy the musical genre of Acoustic/R&B. In Week 6, we learned that the term public can be defined as the social space created by the reflective circulation of discourse (Warner, 2002). I have catered my content towards that audience through singing/covering songs within that genre and creating warm and welcoming visuals/designs. Although my music is not something that can be held physically, I would say that I am providing my audience with songs and covers that they can consume and listen to through streaming and downloading on distribution platforms.

Now vs. The Start of the Semester

Looking back, I would say that my perspective of publication was limited to books, novels, news articles and newspapers. Given the many advancements made in technology and the various ways we consume media, I have grown to see that the publication of the self happens in our everyday lives. Throughout the semester, I have developed my own digital garden where I have cultivated my own little piece of the Internet. In Tanya Basu’s article, she defines a digital garden as a space that “explore[s] a wide variety of topics and are frequently adjusted and changed to show growth and learning, particularly among people with niche interests” (Basu, 2020). As the weeks developed, I continued to download various plugins and learned the importance of refining my voice through the process/blog posts created. I made the decision to remove comments on my website for the sole purpose of limiting certain interactions and feedback. Although user-interaction is great in many scenarios, I chose to limit these interactions on my site to keep the space as something I can confidently call my own.

Plans for the future

When it comes to my future monetization plans, I hope to continue gaining revenue through various platforms like YouTube and Spotify. Since I am still in the early stages of developing my website, I don’t plan on taking any further actions to monetize through WordPress. Instead, I hope to transform my site to provide more of a promotional asset to my brand. I see myself changing the format into more of a social media reference landing page like Linktree. Hopefully, by doing so my audience can easily access other social media platforms that feature my music/content in the future!

It’s hard to predict what may happen within the next few years. After this semester I would have finally completed my undergraduate degree and hopefully, be in the process applying for a full-time job. However, my main goal since the beginning has always been to finish school for my parents and then attempt to pursue music full-time for at least a year. I hope that over the next few years I will be able to support myself financially with something related to music. Whether it be working in an administrative position at a music distribution company, or even as an intern at Spotify, I hope that this website continues to be a space that I can creatively express myself and encourage others to do the same. There are still many things I have to endure, but I am excited for the lessons and growth to come!

References

Basu, T. (2020, September 03). Digital gardens let you cultivate your own little bit of the internet. Retrieved from https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/09/03/1007716/digital-gardens-let-you-cultivate-your-own-little-bit-of-the-internet/

Goffman, E. (1959). The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New York: Anchor Books.

Warner, Michael. 2002. “Publics and Counterpublics.” in Quarterly Journal of Speech. 88.4. Available from http://knowledgepublic.pbworks.com/f/warnerPubCounterP.pdf

The post Essay #2 — Semester Reflection appeared first on Marylou Villegas.

PUB 101 Essay 2: My Publication Journey

A big question I asked going into this course was what is publication, and the best answer I got was from the little short videos in our reading where Matthew said “Publication is the creation and/or shaping of a public is such a central idea for artists and writers” where for me entering this class I’ve been able throughout the weeks of this course been able to put my vision of my own blog out in the world for others that have the same liking of films as much as i do and help then give feedback on films they are interested in. today I will be talking about my journey in making my own film blog and how it’s been for me through all these weeks.

With entering the first week I was nervous and didn’t exactly know what I was getting myself into as I have never made my own website before and didn’t know what to expect. But when we were aloud to make it on whatever we wanted I already had a great idea that I’m very passionate about which was movies, because even on my spare time I watch movie reviews all the time cause I love to see what different peoples opinions are on movies I’ve seen and have not seen and see if I even connect with their opinions. So when I was making my website I wanted to have that same feeling I get from watching YouTube videos of other review sites so I wanted to try and make my audience have that same feeling. A good quote I found from our readings was “I’m going for a feeling of wonderment, a connection across time” and from that quote that’s how I wanted to make my audience feel from just visiting my site and reading my reviews on the movies I’ve been watching.

When it came to my design of my website I made it very masculine and didn’t know how to make it stand out more with my website in general, where to me still my website doesn’t have the cool widgets that make it stand out more from the others but my website is just ordinary but for me that makes it stands out are what I do to my post and how I write them for my audience. Where from the readings to make a good design to my website it says “It is not sufficient for a good design to be rational and logical, great, intuitive design are those that allow us directly, and correctly, to see what we can do with a thing” where for me I wanted to make my post stand out and make it very easy to just navigate my website to see everything to get the most out of it, and with the final week upon me I think I have reached that point.

With each post I am adding to my website I’m hoping it is making my audience feel the same way that I feel about the movies I’ve seen and if it hasn’t made some comments on those posts to give me feedback on what they think as well. I wanted to make my site somewhat a reddit page where people can come and laugh about funny things or even give off some rants about some films and how they disliked them or loved them. Also with using google analytics it has showed me what my audience likes the most about my site in where there visit the most or what kind of post they are looking at the most, so with this knowledge it has helped me redesign most of all my post to fit that so i can get even more people to come in and explore my website

Looking back on my site from the beginning to how it is now it really blows my mind away, where from me posting some really boring posts and not having any pictures on my site to help make it stand out and catch the eyes of my audience. To now with my post for me sounding really good and having a lot more pictures with a lot of tune up to make my site even easier to navigate it makes me feel as if what I’m putting out to the world is getting known now by my intended audience that I am posting for.

With my goals of my online self with these final week ahead of me I’m going to do my best to try and still be active on this site for my little amount of audience I have cause down the road this audience might get even bigger and if that happens will just blow my mind away that people are actually enjoying my movie reviews. This class has taught me a lot of publication and how to get my voice heard and now has got me very intrigued into taking more publication classes to continue my journey on my website.

References:

Matthew Stadler. 2010. “What is Publication?” Talk from the Richard Hugo House’s writer’s conference, Seattle, WA. May 21, 2010. http://vimeo.com/14888791

Victor Kaptelinin. “Affordances.” The Encyclopedia of Human-Computer Interaction. https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/book/the-encyclopedia-of-human-computer-interaction-2nd-ed/affordances

Basu, Tanya. September, 5 2020. “Digital gardens let you cultivate your own little bit of the internet” MIT Technology Review.

End of Semester Final Reflection Essay

I was to stress that I am currently in my last semester as a fourth-year business student at SFU. Publishing is one of the two electives that I am taking…Continue reading

Essay 2: A Reflection on My Online Publication

Creating an online presence isn’t something that intrigues everyone, but it’s something that can be very helpful for those that want to express themselves in an open medium, or even just to have a personal journal. My experience through this term has given me a lot to think about. There were three key takeaways that […]

Finding Creative Courage Online

At the beginning of this semester I was pretty set in my mind of two things. That coming up with content to blog weekly and building an entire website in a matter of weeks would both be very difficult. I was wrong on both counts.

Building a website can be intimidating. WordPress itself is especially intimidating to me, personally, but blogging through these past few months has certainly changed that. Gaining experience in the WordPress back-end and website construction has ended up being a very beneficial skill that I’ll take forward with me into the future. In terms of weekly content, I surprised myself with how much I had to say. Sure some posts were harder than others to churn out, but overall my creative side was thoroughly, and joyfully, exercised.

My Online Voice

Although blogging is very intimidating, being able to test the waters and find your voice, per se, online has been an intriguing journey. As I take my newfound wordpress skills with me, I’ll also take this blog. Being able to exercise my creativity in a space where I have ultimate control and creative direction has been energizing.

Future Plans for My Publication

Let’s Talk What I Watch will continue to be an online space where I can take the time to write 3-5 minute reads about anything I watch, from binging TV shows to any genre of movie. Eventually I definitely want to incorporate more consistent themes into my posts, like highlighting certain aspects in all of my posts, rating the content, and giving recommendations in relation to other content. This could eventually evolve the blog into a place where new or less popular films/shows can be recommended for or against and be more informative. However, I’m also a big fan of re-watching or discovering older content, so I still want to maintain my natural voice that I’ve found throughout this semester which is that I enjoy ranting about whatever I find interesting in the content.

What My Publication Offers

Streaming content, whether it be documentaries, films or television shows, has taken over as one of the primary activities many people are turning to as the pandemic continues. While it has long been a popular activity, as even before streaming at the conception of the cinema and TV’s watching content has been a central activity in the lives of people around the world. Given this popularity and presence in our lives, hearing other film-lovers opinions, getting recommendations, and being able to relate to how other’s interpret content is a very valuable aspect to the online experience. As mentioned by Boyd (2014), engaging in online spaces, like social media, individuals are able to access greater publics and networks that otherwise wouldn’t be available to them. Although my blog is currently isolated and not on social media yet, it is still possible relate the words of Boyd as opinions and discussions that someone may relate to can one day be seen as the construction of a public While I’m a stubborn person in the way that I don’t often follow content recommendations from others (whether it be books, movies or even songs), I think being able to find an online space where you relate to others opinions, views, and feelings about a shared piece of content can be very soothing and a great use of the Internet. Likeable to various communities on TikTok, finding others who you can relate to can be very meaningful. This ability to find a community and relate to others relates to a conclusion from the Why We Post research project (2016) that reads “social media is not making us more individualistic.” While we can continue to support and strive for individualism and uniqueness, ultimately there is comfort in finding people like yourself online.

Expanding My Online Presence

While I will hopefully continue to post on Let’s Talk What I Watch frequently, I have recently discovered other avenues of online life I want to pursue. Throughout these “unprecedented” past nine or so months, I have been in search of a new challenge to undertake and I’ve settled on an Etsy shop. Ever since I bought my iPad and began drawing digitally I’ve found an interest in designing little stickers about various things I enjoy, whether it be Harry Styles or an inside joke from a TV show.

One of the main issues with this idea was that there are already so many sticker shops on Etsy. However, I did notice several holes in the market. As Thorn stated, “there are a thousand podcasts for 25-year-old white geeks, but very few for 18-year-old hip-hop fans” (2012, para. 15). I’m not about to invent something new to sell, so I figured if I want to design stickers I just have to be as original as I can.

While I was still teetering on the edge of undertaking this new past-time in the new year, several sentiments from guest speaker Trevor Battye and the following Thorn quote pushed me over the edge. “Plans are great, but making stuff is how you build an audience, get better, and most importantly, get closer to making a living” (2012, para. 18). Just like throughout this semester where we were encouraged to write at least two posts every week, ultimately just getting something creative out online, just sitting down and actually starting to do something is the best way to move yourself closer to your goals.

Conclusion

Ultimately, my personal online presence, such as my personal Instagram and Twitter, seem to come naturally. As if they are second nature. Developing other presences like my Etsy shop are much bolder steps that I look forward to taking. Furthermore, I surprised myself substantially with my adaptability to the backend of WordPress and my ability to create weekly content. I also look forward to continuing this blog and seeing where it can lead me.

References

Boyd, D. (2014). “Searching for a public of their own.” It’s Complicated (pp. 213-227). Wattpad. https://www.wattpad.com/203798155-it%27s-complicated-8-searching-for-a-public-of-their

Thorn, J. (2012). Make Your Thing. Transom. https://transom.org/2012/jesse-thorn-make-your-thing/

University College London. (2016). Why We Post: Social media through the eyes of the world. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/why-we-post/

Essay #2

My Experience with Online Publishing

I created this blog three months ago, and it has been a great journey since I began. Before beginning this blog, I worked with blogging through Instagram, and found that I liked blogging my thoughts on what I read. My experience has been very positive on this platform, and I was able to build my blog from not having anything into being my own space to share what I think. When I began my blog, I had difficulty with learning how to add different features and drop-down menus. I had to watch tutorials and ask people how they learned to do certain things on WordPress, too. Creating my publication took a couple weeks, but I was able to build content that I really loved, and also that I thought others would be able to relate to. I did this by writing updates for my progress and writing reviews on books from different genres. I began this blog to share my love of books with others and have found that it is a wonderful outlet to have.

I have learned a lot through creating my own blog, and I have also grown in how I review books. As the article, “Publics and Counterpublics” by Michael Warner, mentions, every publication has an aimed public (Warner 1). My imagined public for this blog is anyone who loves to read or is looking for book recommendations. My goal for this blog is to reach more bookworms, and provide them with quality content on books, which may result in them gaining a recommendation. I always appreciate having book review blogs and websites to visit, and one of my favourite bookish websites is Epic Reads. Personally, I always feel welcome and happy when I visit their website because of everything they feature and the fun colours they use. This became my goal when I began this blog, to make my audience feel welcome when they visit. I attempted to do this by using light colours, a simple background, and also inserting Autumn themed photos I took of books. In addressing my audience, I made the blog easy to navigate with a search bar, drop-down menus, and also a sidebar with recent posts linked. Many bookworms also have a Goodreads account or access Goodreads regularly for synopsis’, so this is one additional thing I added to my book reviews. By inserting hyperlinks for my audience to visit the book on Goodreads, it allows people to easily check it on Goodreads, if they would like, and then return to the review. I attempted to make my website easy for people to find things on, and access different sections.

Google Analytics was a feature that I used in order to help me understand how many people were visiting my blog and how it grew throughout the past three months. Using Google Analytics, I discovered that my audience members were staying on my blog, on average, for about two minutes, but recently that increased to around 9 minutes. I also learned that a lot of my audience visited my blog in the afternoon or during mid-day. Using this information, I have a better insight for what times would be best to post, and how I have improved with creating my content. I have not been receiving comments, yet, but I am hoping to gain them in the future, as I continue to grow my blog. I have received inspiration, throughout these past months, from a few blogs, including Bag Full of Books (Arpita 2015). From these blogs, I was able to take away what I enjoyed from them and apply some of those aspects into my own blog. I have found that I have grown a lot since I began blogging, but I also know that there is more growth to achieve for my blog.

My thinking has changed regarding my blog since I began it. When I first started writing on my blog, there were times when I wasn’t sure how to blog or what to write about. I had to brainstorm ideas and thought it might not be successful. As I continued working on my blog, I began to forget about the success it had, and instead focused on the content I enjoyed creating. As I began to enjoy creating content more, my content became better, and I was able to work towards my goal of creating a welcoming space. Looking forward, I would love to continue this blog. I really enjoy having this blog as a place to talk about books and create content that I love. I will be taking a break from it for a little while, during the holidays, but hopefully I will be continuing my blog in the new year. In doing so, I will most likely connect more social media aspects to it, and also feature more colourful photos. Overall, this has been a very useful learning experience, and I look forward to continuing my work with blogging.

Works Cited

“Young Adult (YA) Books & Books for Teens.” Epic Reads, Harper Collins, www.epicreads.com/.

Warner, Michael. “Publics and Counterpublics.” Quarterly Journal of Speech, vol. 88, no. 4, Nov. 2002.

Arpita. Bag Full Of Books, 15 Mar. 2020, bagfullofbooks.com/.

Semester Reflections

Habits for Contentment Is a website that started as a hope I had for the semester. During the pandemic, I had been feeling everything but content, and I wanted to use this blog as an opportunity to build healthy habits into my life. This essay will cover why I created this blog, and what I have learned over the course of the semester.

What is it about and who is it for?

Habits for Contentment is all about building healthy habits into your everyday life. This is demonstrated through blog posts about thankfulness, generosity, staying active or building a morning routine. While this blog can be for anyone that is looking for ways to find peace during the pandemic, it is mainly for students who are also struggling through the hardships of completing a semester online.

One blog I have taken inspiration from is Andi Anne. She writes about nutrition, health, and messy stories from motherhood. I love this website because of its neutral tonal pallet and clean organization. She creates a sense of order in an occasionally chaotic cyberspace. In my website, I hope to use a similar sense of design and layout to engage with my audience. Check out her blog here.

Who is your public image?

The public image I am hoping to create is one that values vulnerability and honesty. One resource I used when I was first building my public image was Creating your Online Persona by Jack Canfield (n.d.). Canfield talks about how first you must decide who you are, then you can begin building your website and advancing your brand with content (n.d.). This article helped me to focus on understanding who I am as a writer and then decide what to post and how to present myself.

I want to use my blog posts to explore new ways of finding contentment in my life, but I do not want to paint an unrealistic picture of myself having a perfectly content life. I will share the success I have in running and painting, but I will also share my frustrations when I sleep through my alarm or cheat on my morning routine. I want to create a public image that is relatable, accessible, and joyful.

Something I want to try and counter in my writing is the Online Disinhibition Effect which describes how when there is anonymity, people are more likely to shed their usual restraints or integrity (Konnikova, 2013). This can promote engagement and risk taking, but in my website, I want to promote honesty and vulnerability, so I hope to create a different style of engagement with my audience.

This infographic I created talks more deeply about the values of Habits for Contentment. The core values I want to represent through this blog are people centered, vulnerable, honest, and fun loving. Read more about my values here.

How are you addressing your audience through editorial, design, content?

Once I had decided on the purpose of my blog and the online image I wanted to portray, I put together a vision board to help guide my posts, design choice and voice. Take a look at my vision board here.

I want to capture a feeling in my vision board. I want readers to look at my website and feel a sigh of relief like when you take a refreshing walk outside or see a beautiful sunset. My goal is to create a blissful feeling throughout my entire blog. On my homepage I do this by using a clean font and leaving lots of white space. Additionally, I have a picture of wildflowers as a banner on every page of my website to begin curating a feeling of refreshment and peace. My colour pallet has deep greens to symbolize trees with deep root and consistent growth and includes some light pinks to symbolize fun and curiosity.

This article published by Blogging Explorer discussed the importance of understanding your target audience and how to cater your content online (Mikke, 2020). Two points he made were about how your target audience will help you create better content, and have great post ideas (Mikke, 2020). Understanding your audience will help you to know their needs and desires, and understand what they might be looking for in their digital content. This will help to increase reader engagement and build my audience.

One blog post that highlights the purpose and design of my website is Being Thankful for Rain. In this blog post I wrote about how being thankful for the small things in your life can help you to get through hard days. Making thankfulness lists is one way I try to find contentment in my life and is reiterated throughout almost all my blog posts. The design of this post incorporates lots of white space separated by curated pictures that I took of a recent thankfulness list I had made. Being Thankful for Rain is a post that highlights the values of my blog and captures the design aesthetic I hope to maintain throughout my website.

What value are you providing and to whom?

My hope is that through these blog posts I can provide value by offering practical tips and advice on how to live with contentment and joy amidst a pandemic. Some blog posts that do this are 5 Reasons to Try Running and Morning Mishaps & Daily Routines. Both blog posts offer a glimpse into one habit I have tried to implement in my life, and some practical ways they could be applied to my readers lives. Both posts contain external research into how these habits have been proven to improve your health or decrease stress levels.

In the future, I may build monetizing features into my posts such as product promotions or specific collaborations with other bloggers, but these must be directly relevant to my core values and not be misleading to my readers.

What have you learned through Google Analytics?

Google Analytics has been a very fun tool to learn how people are interacting with my website. The most helpful thing I learned was that I had a very high bounce rate, meaning that people would quickly leave my website after visiting the first page. As I was investigating this, I noticed that my home page did not give the reader somewhere to go after reading the introduction. To address this, I linked some of my favourite blog posts to my home page, and my bounce rate has decreased by 15%. There is still lots to learn from Google Analytics, and I have so much to benefit from understanding my audience more and learning how people are interacting with my blog.

Blogging has been an incredible experience in learning about writing, creativity and finding contentment during a pandemic. I look forward to continuing this blog in the future and building my brand image.

Works Cited

Anne, A. (2020, December 02). Andi Anne: About. Retrieved December 04, 2020, from https://andianne.com/about/

Campbell, G. (2009). A Personal Cyberinfrastructure. Retrieved December 04, 2020, from https://er.educause.edu/articles/2009/9/a-personal-cyberinfrastructure

Canfield, J. (2019, November 26). Online Branding: 5 Steps to Create Your Online Persona. Retrieved December 04, 2020, from https://www.jackcanfield.com/blog/online-branding/

Konnikova, M. (2013). The Psychology of Online Comments. Retrieved December 04, 2020, from https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/the-psychology-of-online-comments

Mikke. (2020, July 24). How to Find Your Blog Target Audience in 2020: The Ultimate Guide. Retrieved December 04, 2020, from https://bloggingexplorer.com/blog-target-audience/

Reflecting on my Experience as an Online Publisher

This website has gone through a lot of changes since September. I knew from the beginning that I wanted to share my work on a blog since I feel that I best express myself through writing. However, I had never created a website before, so I had to learn quickly. It has taken me a lot of research to figure out everything from changing fonts to using plugins, but I am finally satisfied with what I have.

Masked Retail has been my way of sharing my personal experiences working in a retail environment during the time of Covid-19. Since I started working in retail 2 ½ years ago, I noticed that I would leave every shift with a new story to tell. Through blogging, I have been able to unload some of my frustrations by sharing stories that combine the difficult parts of retail and the pandemic. There is a lot of misinformation that is spread by people who don’t believe in the pandemic or think that wearing a mask represents relinquishing freedom. Masked Retail is my way of countering that illogical narrative by supporting scientific evidence with real experiences in the hopes that people become more conscientious about the way they behave during this time.

Initially, I used this website to rant about how inconsiderate some customers are. After a few weeks, I started to recognize that my peers would be reading my posts and wanted to ensure that the content I provided would be useful to them. I started adding posts that offered advice, such as my post, “When Should I Shop?- Covid Holiday Edition” to help my readers stay safe (Masked Retail, 2020). Other than my peers, my imagined audience comes from a younger demographic looking to learn more about consumerism during the pandemic. Using Google Analytics, I came to the conclusion that the members of my audience are young (under 30 for the most part), which supports the idea that my audience is made up of people who may be experiencing similar things in their work environments. Through Google Analytics, I learned that while there are a lot of bots out there (I assume that I don’t have legitimate readers in China), there are people outside of this class who have viewed my work, including some legitimate viewers from the USA. I’ve learned that most of my audience comes to my page between 10am and 4pm between Tuesday and Friday, which gave me the idea of posting primarily during those days and times. I have also learned that linking back to my other posts when blogging keeps people on my site for longer, as they are inclined to click a link and see where it takes them.

In terms of editorial, I address my audience by being clear about the purposes of this site and by considering their thoughts and feelings when writing my posts. I am constantly aware of the fact that people will view this site, so I ensure that I make things as easy as possible for them. For example, I write all my posts in Microsoft Word so that I can spell-check my work prior to posting. The design of my site is centred around usability. To make my site easy for everybody to use, I use a grid layout for my posts, which includes a picture and an excerpt of the post. As the article “Should the Block Editor Have a Grid System?” points out, grid layouts are great for creating a clean, visually appealing page (Tadlock, 2020). I wanted something that was simple but structured, so this was a good choice for me. The menu and my posts are easy to access, and I have created ways for the audience to interact with me and the site. For instance, I have a contact page, I allow comments on posts, and I use a plugin to allow users to share my posts on social media. By doing so, I encourage my audience to get involved with Masked Retail. As described in the article, “Why We Need Social Paper”, a good public will create space for discourse that can continue even as the audience changes (Glass, 2015). Hopefully, I will have time to keep blogging even when the semester ends, and in doing so I will encourage new types of discourse with my ever-evolving audience. Overall, my content addresses the audience by answering questions that I would ask someone in my position.

I feel like the value Masked Retail provides is insight. Not many people get the opportunity to share their work experiences with the internet, and I am glad that I get to show what working in retail is like from all angles. I try to make relatable content and empathize with how people may be reacting to what is happening in the world. There are things included in my blog that I would never have thought about before I started working in retail. For example, I used to be shy and would never ask for or accept help from a retail employee. Looking back, I know that I had nothing to be afraid of, and I am more conscientious now with how I approach and treat retail workers when I am the customer. I hope that this blog does a similar thing for my readers by providing industry knowledge and tips for success during the time of Covid-19.

So far, I have not received any comments on my posts, so I cannot say that comments have really influenced me. Based on the article, “The Psychology of Online Comments”, I think that if I were to receive hate via an anonymous comment, I wouldn’t be too hurt (Konnikova, 2013) and I would simply delete the comment. Even if an anonymous comment were positive, I doubt I would be very affected because the sentiment of the comment seems less real without a name or face attached to it. Comments that are attached to a name would have a bigger impact on me, whether that be good or bad.

Prior to this class, I had a very outdated perception of what publication was. All that I really considered was book publication and notable companies. I never would have imagined that I could run my own publication from my computer! Now, I see that there are so many ways to be a publisher, and that there is no correct way that it must be done. Though the semester is ending soon, I am optimistic that I will continue to blog. This pandemic and my job are not going away anytime soon, so I am sure that I will have plenty of material to draw upon. Years from now, I would love to be able to look back at my posts and remember who I was and what I experienced in 2020. Ultimately, my hope is that even once the topic of Covid-19 is no longer relevant, I will be able to use the knowledge and skills learned in this course to establish some other online presence.

References

Masked Glass, E. (2015, December 11). Why We Need Social Paper. CUNY Academic Commons. Retrieved from https://commons.gc.cuny.edu/papers/45249/

Konnikova, M. (2013, October 23). The Psychology of Online Comments. The New Yorker. Retrieved from https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/the-psychology-of-online-comments

Masked Retail. (2020, November 10). When Should I Shop? – Covid Holiday Edition [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://maskedretail.com/blog/when-should-i-shop-covid-holiday-edition/

Tadlock, J. (2020, April 27). Should the Block Editor Have a Grid System? WordPress Tavern. Retrieved from https://wptavern.com/should-the-block-editor-have-a-grid-system

(Featured Image by Pepe Reyes on Unsplash)

Reflections on dimsumdyke: Curating a portfolio blog rooted in intersectional feminist praxis

Over the course of this semester, I have curated dimsumdyke to be a queer counterpublic that showcases my best writing and art pieces. The blog is intended to act as a platform that showcases a marginalized experience from an intersectional lens. Readers of the blog, aside from those in or instructing PUB 101, are imagined to be fellow queer folx, artists and academics. As a portfolio, this blog serves the purpose of preserving my works digitally, some of which are available for download, for fellow writers and artists to view and reference. While the blog acts as a tool for this purpose, I have constructed this virtual garden not only for this reason, but as a sanctuary for those who are marginalized themselves, especially those of a similar background to me, to find solidarity in my work. Representation of marginalized communities that is accurate and informed by lived experience is crucial to the well-being of marginalized folx and the vitality of communities. From personal intersectionally marginalized experience, I can vouch for the fact that representation matters.

All of my work on this blog, and in the rest of my life, is informed by an intersectionally feminist praxis – a theory put into practice in an ongoing effort to address the interconnected nature of oppressions. The embodiment of this praxis is inspired by Intersectional Apocalypse, “a student-run, peer-edited, open access journal focused on collecting and sharing knowledge that is intersectionally feminist, LGBTQ2IA+ positive, anti-colonial, anti-racist, and anti-oppressive“. I had the pleasure of being a member of the editorial team for the publication’s first issue and learnt a lot about the embodiment of theory in practice, thus fostering my desire to employ intersectional praxis into all of my works.

The values that the editorial team of Intersectional Apocalypse brought forth to the publication inspired the goals that I began my publication with. Dissecting the meaning of intersectional feminist praxis, the central values instilled in my own publication are anti-oppression, accessibility, and, of course, queer-positivity. In order to embody these values digitally, I began by utilizing one of WordPress’ accessible themes and ensured that I used acceptable contrast between text and background on my site. Building off of this design choice, I developed an About Page that encompasses my values of intersectionality, queer-positivity, and anti-oppression. Following, all of my portfolio posts are rooted in intersectional feminist praxis and center my marginalized experience, with emphasis on my queerness, through the media of art and writing.

After satisfactorily developing a space that encompasses my values, my goals shifted from engendering anti-oppression, accessibility, and queer-positivity to developing a design and content that both showcased my own aesthetics and spoke to the requirements of the class. Inspired by my other online publications, such as my Tumblr and my Instagram, I wanted to ensure that my blog followed suit with my other digital media. The high contrast used on my Tumblr and the visual aesthetics of my Instagram played an inspirational role in curating my portfolio. Also inspiring my blog, both through aesthetics and content, is the queer-centered news platform them.

As the semester comes to an end, this will be my last process post. However, I will likely continue to add to the portfolio section of my blog. This website has served me well, acting as a resource to link out in applications for jobs related to my degree in Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies. As such, I believe it would be beneficial to myself to continue to showcase my best work on this blog. Further, I would like to grow my audience by linking out to this site on my other social media, as to invite others to learn from my work and find solidarity in it. Prior to this class, I had established a fairly strong social media presence on various platforms. I had not, however, developed an academically sound presence. My presence on social media was simply surrounding my personal life, highlighting my queerness, mixed-ethnicity, and personal interests, such as spirituality. My academic life was sanctioned to my notebooks, documents saved on my laptop, and the work conducted on the school’s Canvas website. This class allowed me to expand my horizons of academic work, affording me the opportunity to hone my skills of blog development through an academic lens and give me the space to fuse the virtual production of the self with academia, in both the nature of this blog being created for a class, and of it functioning as a portfolio including academic works. I look forward to using the tools I learnt in this class to further develop my portfolio.

References

dimsumdyke. WordPress. 2020. https://dimsumdyke.com/

Intersectional Apocalypse. Simon Fraser University. https://journals.lib.sfu.ca/index.php/ifj/

Sailor Sar. Tumblr. https://dimsumdyke.tumblr.com/

sarxh444. Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/sarxh444/

them. 2020. https://www.them.us/

Concluding remarks and reflections from PUB 101

Essay #2

This was my seventh and final semester at Simon Fraser University, marking the end of a grueling five-year undergraduate degree. It certainly isn’t how I envisioned it ending when I first arrived at university in Ottawa more than five years ago. Aside from the fact that I had never intended on attending SFU or studying Communication, I definitely never expected a worldwide pandemic to define my final two and a half semesters of university. Still, things have somehow managed to come full circle to a certain extent, thanks in large part to this class.

I first made the trip across the country in 2015 to work toward a Bachelor of Journalism from Carleton University, with the end goal being to land a job as a sports journalist. My dream had actually been to attend Ryerson University in Toronto, but my application was sorely lacking when it came to a portfolio, so I ended up settling for Carleton. Now, with my undergraduate degree within reach, I finally have the portfolio I wished I had back then. Better late than never, I suppose.

When the time came to decide on a blog category for this website in September, I didn’t need a second thought before deciding on a sports blog. It was what I had always wanted to do, but had no idea how to, or was too intimidated to try. With an idea to narrow down my topic by focusing on Canadian sports news specifically, Great White Sport was born. The tagline says it all: “All Things Sport in the Great White North.” I am only one person, however, and a busy university student at that. It would be difficult to cover all things sport in Canada. So, instead I have tried to focus on the most newsworthy stories each week, and so far I think I’ve managed to achieve that.

With that in mind, Great White Sport isn’t necessarily only for the diehard sports junkies out there. Ideally, anyone with any sort of interest in Canadian sports will find some enjoyable content on the website in a format and style that they can understand. I try not to get too technical or overload my posts with complicated information because my imagined audience so far has really been based on my own preferences as a reader. At the risk of sounding unintelligent or lazy, I tend to prefer sports stories that are comprehensive but easy to follow. By that, I mean no fancy statistics or analytical jargon that I have to spend ten minutes Googling to try and understand. However, that type of sports journalism seems to be fading away in favour of the heavily analytical. Therefore, I believe my website’s value lies not only in its wide range of coverage but also in its readability and accessibility to all types of sports fans.

I have also conceived of my website as more of a ‘personal cyberinfrastructure’ throughout this semester (Campbell, 2009). While Campbell’s argument on this topic is based around the traditionally rigid nature of academic institutions and their limiting of students’ creativity, the idea can be applied to journalism as well. As Campbell writes, “the freedom to explore and create is the last thing on [students’] minds, so deeply has it been discouraged” (2009, p. 58). In other words, there’s a formula that students learn, memorize, and regurgitate. Whatever work is celebrated by professors is what will be replicated (Campbell, 2009). The same can be said for journalism. What works is whatever sells, and what sells is what becomes the standard formula to follow. According to Campbell (2009), however, a personal cyberinfrastructure provides the opportunity to discover and craft one’s own desires, and to go beyond the expected standard.

Although it would be exciting and rewarding to have an audience to write to, what I value most right now is having a space on the Web where I can write about my own passions while continuing to learn and grow as a writer and publisher. Google Analytics has shown that since September 21st, I have had 69 users visit my site for a total of 116 sessions. Consequently, my greatest concern has been playing around with and developing a website that will be suitable to a larger audience in the future, should it get to that point. In that sense, I have treated my website as a ‘digital garden,’ inspired by Tanya Basu’s article on the subject. As Basu explains, “digital gardens … are frequently adjusted and changed to show growth and learning” (2020, para. 4). What makes a digital garden different from a typical blog is that it is not necessarily addressing a large audience (Basu, 2020). Instead, the focus is on cultivating your own content of interest over time, with the ability to add to it later on as you learn more (Basu, 2020). Although I might write with an imagined audience in mind, I frequently return to my website or specific articles to make changes based on what I have learned and what I believe will yield a better product, as inconsequential as that might seem.

This is probably where I have experienced the most growth as a publisher this semester. In September and the first part of October, I was sometimes spending hours on individual blog posts because I wanted them to be perfect. I treated them as if once I hit that ‘publish’ button, they were set in stone. According to HubSpot author Lindsay Kolowich Cox (2020), that is exactly the kind of mistake bloggers should avoid. She asserts that one of the biggest mistakes bloggers make is that they try to make every post perfect when the truth is it never will be (Cox, 2020). I have come to accept this while writing my more recent posts and it has been incredibly liberating. God forbid I make a glaring mistake that needs fixing, I know that I can come back to the article later on and make the necessary changes. Truthfully, this is a lesson I should apply to my life in general, but that’s a discussion for another time.

Looking beyond this semester, I’m unsure of the extent to which I will continue to blog and develop my online presence in the form of Great White Sport. I can say with certainty that this experience has helped me rediscover my passion for sports writing, and for that reason, continuing the blog is something I will consider. If I do keep it going, however, I think I will try to market it through social media in an effort to establish a real-life audience. Writing for myself has been a great way to get started these past two months, but as I mentioned earlier, my initial career goal was to be a sports journalist writing for other people. It seems a little daunting to put my work out there and open it up to all types of reception and criticism, but similar to Cox’s (2020) argument that good writers know when to stop obsessing and hit ‘publish,’ there comes a time when you have to take the leap and open yourself up to the greater public.

I’ve never been the kind of person who welcomes criticism with open arms. Not to paint myself as an egomaniac, but I have always wanted to get things right the first time and be recognized accordingly. As I prepare to wrap up my university degree and (hopefully) enter the workforce in a pandemic-stricken world, this class helped me realize just in time that there might be a better way to go about things. I have learned that perfect is not the only option. Sure, this was just a website I made for a class. But like everything else in life, there’s always room for learning and improvement.

References

Basu, T. (2020, September 3). Digital gardens let you cultivate your own little bit of the internet. MIT Technology Review. Retrieved from https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/09/03/1007716/digital-gardens-let-you-cultivate-your-own-little-bit-of-the-internet/

Campbell, G. (2009). A personal cyberinfrastructure. Educause Review, 44(5), 58-59. Retrieved from https://er.educause.edu/-/media/files/article-downloads/erm0957.pdf

Cox, L.K. (2020). 17 blogging mistakes to avoid in 2020, according to HubSpot bloggers. HubSpot. Retrieved from https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/beginner-blogger-mistakes

The Democracy of Social Media

In today’s time, the impact of social media is such that if you were to not speak anything for the rest of your life verbally but were voicing your opinion digitally on a platform, you’d still be highly impactful. Social media, at its core is one of the biggest tenets of democracy but democracy is interpreted in different ways and is fluctuating constantly. The level of freedom an individual has on social media, is now dependent on their status and the audience they are connected to.

Social media, although claiming to be a space that is equal for all to voice their opinions, is heading towards becoming a completely authoritarian medium. The average person is told their actions on social media are in their control and uninfluenced. In reality, the authoritarians of social media, which can be further categorized as government representatives, officials, parties, etc., have become more and more strategic in their manipulation of the information that is distributed on digital media. Politics looks very different over the years as social media has become even more of an outlet to promote political campaigns, advertise groups of people believing in the same idea, and constantly influence the decisions the citizens of a country make. For example, Donald J. Trump, president of the United States of America, is one of the most talked about and well known people on social media, although not in the best way. His actions are the epitome of unacceptable and irrational, yet somehow he gets away with everything he says. This is because he has a following of people that support him blindly so he can say whatever he wants and to whomever he wants to. However, had it been any other person in place of him, they would have received more backlash and faced consequences for their words. Being an authority figure and a person in power gives him the buffer to be unfiltered. In the article “From Liberation To Turmoil: Social Media and Democracy”, authors Joshua A. Tucker, Yannis Theocharis, Margaret E. Roberts, and Pablo Barberá talk about how “Social-media technology is young, but has already played a part in numerous turbulent protests and a highly polarized U.S. election. Social media have often been described as the site for conflict between “good” democratic forces who use social media to make their voices heard and “bad’’ autocratic and repressive forces who aim to censor this channel to silence these liberal elements” (page 47). This explains how the shift in the idea of democracy in social media has taken place over the years. Another example is Greta Thunberg and her receiving mixed responses on her responsible attitude towards the environment. Her freedom to express her opinions shows the democracy of social media but the attempts to make her points seem invalid by numerous people, demonstrated that the freedom to express comes with the idea that what a person says are not as important if you are not a person in power. This goes to show that the democracy claimed to be existent on social media in today’s time is a myth and used to make the general public believe that they have an equal opportunity to express their voice without any restrictions.

Secondly, the type of audience and the age demographic impacts the response received on a statement and in turn impacts the freedom to express. In general, whether it be praise and approval or backlash and criticism, it is different when it comes to the platform and the audience it is used and viewed by. For example, Tik Tok is a platform that has individuals sharing and creating content over varying age groups. One minute you could be watching a Tik Tok with a university student giving tips on how to schedule your life, and the next minute a person could be seen supporting Donald Trump. Each type of content affects a different type of audience and the thoughts expressed in each one are drastically different as well. This goes to show that democracy does exist on social media but the backlash will be received on certain content that is found offensive or unappealing to the audience watching it. There will be people supporting the content receiving backlash and there will be people disagreeing with content being supported. If the response received on a statement or thought someone has to say, makes them change their mind about it, then the freedom of expression is not really there. In situations where the statement is negative and deserves backlash, for example with Donald Trump, freedom of expression or democracy of social media is an important thing so that the wrong can be criticized. This means that social media, however democratic we may consider it, isn’t actually so democratic because your thoughts can be influenced because of the audience it’s distributed amongst and that is not a negative thing all the time.

In conclusion, the existence of democracy in relation to social media is based on individual experience mainly. The freedom to express one’s thoughts and concerns while worrying about the response it will receive is creating somewhat of an invisible filter between the person expressing and the targeted audience. Social media is a democratic platform to begin with, but as the complexity of what it means to have freedom on such a platform increases, the more difficult it is to determine the democracy of it.

Works Cited:

Social media is rotting democracy from within January 22, 2019 https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/1/22/18177076/social-media-facebook-far-right-authoritarian-populism

Psychology of Cyberspace – The Online Disinhibition Effect http://truecenterpublishing.com/psycyber/disinhibit.html

Social Networks And Democracy: A Difficult Fit, Or Just Plain Impossible? October 16, 2019 https://www.forbes.com/sites/enriquedans/2019/10/16/social-networks-and-democracy-a-difficult-fit-or-just-plain-impossible/

Essay 2

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).

Essay 2 – Creating My Blog

PUB101-Final-Essay Download

The following is my final essay for PUB101. The essay highlights my experience creating this blog and the decisions and changes I made throughout the process. You can read the essay below or download the PDF above for a more legible read.

The blog I created this semester is entitled “Melissa Hudson”. The website is a professional portfolio that showcases my work as a stylist and content creator. My website is divided into three sections “Editorial”, “Styling”, and “Posiel”. The Editorial section displays my work in graphic design and artistic directing. The Styling section shows my work in fashion styling and the inspiration behind my work. The Posiel section holds all of my work for PUB101 that is not directly related to the other themes of my blog. I created this blog to be used as a professional portfolio in my career outside of school. Thus, the posts I create are all portfolio pieces or pieces that allow viewers insight into who I am as an artist. The content is all directed to my desired field of interest and presents the blog as a representation of my brand (myself as an artist). Through the creation of this blog, I have been branding myself as a professional and therefore, my blog is intended for potential employers and admirers of my work.

My imagined audience is potential employers who are working in the fashion and art industries as well as young creatives who enjoy viewing the work of other young artists. This can be seen through my artist statement on the opening page which informs reader who I am an as artist and as a person and what my personal niche is in the industry. I have created my website so that my audience can easily navigate my work and sift through my content based on what appeals to them. This can also be seen in the design of my website as I have designed it to be very minimalistic so that the work stands out. In addition, the colour scheme (black, white, and a low opacity pink) is reflective of myself and my brand. The colour scheme is chic, fashionable, and simplistic yet bold.

My audience is also addressed through my content as the majority of my posts are accompanied by a work statement where I state the purpose of the piece, what it was created for, what my inspirations were, and why I took the direction that I did. This information is important for potential employers in understanding the work I have done and for what reasons. Other young artists are being addressed as the featured images I use as transmedia representations of my work are very artistic and true to my brand. Thus, I am catching their artistic eye through the use of this creative imagery.

I believe that I provide value to the fashion/art community as I am my own individual, with unique experiences, tastes, and interests. Therefore, nothing I do will be identical to the work of another artist. My websites value is not monetary, but it is valuable in networking. Not only can I use it to promote myself as an artist, but my audience can use my work as inspiration. They can use my Styling section as fashion inspiration/ advice, and they can contact me to collaborate or to hire me for a job. Thus, the value in my website derives from its ability to act as a driver for connections or inspiration.

My website is a portfolio intended to help with employment after I graduate in my field of interest. Since I am still a student, I have not yet been employed in my field, therefore, I do not have any professional work to showcase. In order to overcome this, I did quite a bit of research on things to include in portfolio’s when entering the workforce after graduation. An article on The Muse website argued that “Having something to show off—even if it wasn’t for an actual company or client—will still be powerful in representing your abilities” (Frost, N.d). Frost’s argument suggests that creating ‘mock’ pieces based on the type of work you want to do strengthens your portfolio. Thus, in my portfolio I have created and will continue to create ‘mock’ pieces of the type of work I hope to do. In addition, building up my online presence shows potential employers dedication to my intended line of work. This is suggested by John DiScala in the following quote about having a professional online presence; “By having one, you’re differentiating yourself and showing colleagues and potential employers that you’re dedicated to what you do. Don’t feel like you have to limit yourself either. […]Use the tools you have available to be the most engaging” (DiScala, 2019). DiScala’s quote highlights the importance in distringuishing yourself within your industry in order to stand out. He suggests that by creating a digital portfolio you are one step above the competition who do not have one.

When I first created a blog at the beginning of the semester, I had a completely different theme (Sustainable Design). However, after a few weeks I realized that this was not a good topic for me to choose for a blog. Even though I was very interested and passionate about the topic, I felt as though I had nothing to contribute to the current sphere of information regarding the topic. As I am a full-time student who is not currently working in a creative field, discovering anything new to contribute to the field was too time consuming and I did not feel motivated to do so. After much consideration I decided to change my website to a professional portfolio and fashion/design blog. As soon as I did so I found that I was much more motivated to create content and develop my website as it could potentially benefit me in my future career.

Due to this change, I found myself thinking more critically about my tone of voice and language in my content as I want to present myself as professional but still youthful and creative. I found myself critically thinking about who my intended audience was (primarily potential employers) and how I would want them to perceive me. This altered the kind of content I posted. Originally, I had intended to only post my work and nothing about myself besides a short artist description. However, after doing some research on e-portfolios I realized that allowing employers to get to know myself a little bit is extremely beneficial. This can be seen in Frost’s article as she states “While your past work is a critical aspect when someone’s thinking about working with you, it’s important to remember that said person isn’t looking to hire your work, but the person who made it” (Frost, N.d). Erin Greenawald also comments on a digital portfolios ability to help you brand and market yourself in the following quote; “As anyone who has contemplated shifting career gears knows, your resume is a great way to show off your past experiences, but it doesn’t always portray the future self you want hiring managers to see. On a personal website, however, the brand you put out to the world is totally up to you. You can use it to show who you are, not just what you’ve done” (Greenawald, N.d). Therefore, I will continue to create content that expresses who I am as an individual, outside of my work as an artist.

Going forward I would like to continue maintaining my site as a professional portfolio. However, I think I will remove the ‘weekly blog’ aspect and manage the site as solely a digital resume with posts only containing portfolio pieces. However, based on my research I can see that it is beneficial to create blog posts once in a while that are focused on who I am and my individual perspectives. This will help my ‘brand’ myself as an artist to employers and distinguish myself from other artists in the industry. I also plan to move my website to a different website builder (Wix) so that I can personalize and customize the site more thoroughly. Overall, I know that maintaining this website and continuing to develop my ‘brand’ and style through design, editorial, content, and tone will benefit me in my professional career.

Works Cited

DiScala, J. (2019, February 21). 5 Ways to Create a Professional Online Presence. Retrieved November 24, 2019, from https://www.inc.com/john-discala/5-ways-to-create-a-professional-online-presence.html.

Frost, A. (2015, July 6). How to Build a Portfolio That’ll Make Everyone Want to Hire You. Retrieved November 24, 2019, from https://www.themuse.com/advice/4-secrets-to-building-a-portfolio-thatll-make-everyone-want-to-hire-you.

Greenawald, E. (2014, July 23). How My Personal Website Helped Me Land My Dream Job. Retrieved November 24, 2019, from https://www.themuse.com/advice/how-my-personal-website-helped-me-land-my-dream-job.

Essay 2 – Semester in Review

As the semester comes to a close (as well as my degree) it’s time to do some reflecting on the work I’ve completed in PUB 101. While reflecting on my blog and the semester for this essay, I couldn’t help but feel proud of my classmates and myself for the work we’ve completed. My classmates and I not only created this semester-long project for school, but we were given the opportunity to showcase the potential and talent we have as university students to the Internet world. I am incredibly proud of the unique content my classmates have created. I look forward to keeping up with their blogs and seeing where they go with them!

I wanted to create a blog on the topic of kindness because I saw (and still see) a dire need for positivity in our current world. Reace Mok, one of my classmates who wrote a peer review on my blog said, “her topic is extremely timely, as in the age of cyberbullying and Trumped-up racism, stereotyping and hate, a little kindness is a fresh and needed concept” (Mok, 2019, para. 8). Reace’s comment was exactly my thinking at the beginning of the semester when brainstorming blog topics, and thus began The Kindness Lifestyle. The target audience for my blog is everyone, as I don’t believe kindness is limited to a certain type of person; it’s universal. However, due to kindness being associated as a female trait, I believe my blog attracts mainly females. Based on comments and feedback I’ve received, this rings true as they are almost all from females. I believe I’m addressing my target audience, which is everyone, through my content as it remains focused on the universal topic of kindness. However, I could improve on making the design universal, specifically more gender neutral, as currently my blog design could be considered more on the feminine side. It’s interesting though because my classmate, Tobi Cheung, who wrote a peer review for my blog said that, “[my] blog style matched the topic [I] [am] writing about, the colours were soft which [is] very welcoming and [has] a calmness to it” (Cheung, 2019, para. 2). Tobi said that my blog design matched my topic and since most people would consider my blog to look quite feminine, does this mean that kindness is in fact associated with femininity based on Tobi’s comment?

Designing my blog was one of the most exciting, yet difficult parts of the creation process. Just as I was content and proud of what I had created, with the help of a WordPress tutorial on YouTube, I read Travis Gertz (2015) article, Design Machines: How to survive the digital apocalypse. In his article, he discusses the pressing issue with the design of websites today; they all look the same.

After reading Gertz’s (2015) article and seeing the collage of images shown above, I realized that my website falls into this “digital design homogeneity,” as he describes it. I was discouraged seeing that my design was nothing new or original as I worked hard on it, as well as received many compliments. However, I did keep the design for the duration of the semester. As the semester closes and I have more time to become familiar with WordPress design, I will try and redesign The Kindness Lifestyle to be more unique and more of a monopoly, as one of our guest speakers, Trevor Battye, described what our websites should be.

Trevor Battye also showed us a video by Peter Thiel where he discusses the importance of being a monopoly in the business world (Independent Institute, 2015). Although he focuses on businesses, his ideas can also apply to our websites. Thiel believes that as a creator, your work should be so unique and one of a kind that it does not have any competition (Independent Institute, 2015). In this sense, I believe the content of my blog is on it’s way to being a monopoly, but definitely not with design yet. Sofia Sullivan mentioned in her peer review on my blog that, “nowadays you don’t typically see blogs [on] this subject [of kindness]” (Sullivan, 2019, para. 4). As I continue to build my blog, aiming to be a monopoly will be a priority when making decisions about content, but especially with design as that is what makes websites stand out to viewers.

Reflecting on my thoughts of publication at the beginning of the semester compared to now, I will say they have changed quite a bit. I still believe that what people post on the Internet should have purpose and be productive (at least most of the time), however over the semester I have gained more respect for certain platforms like Instagram. Although I still see the majority of people using Instagram in a pointless manner, I also see the potential it has for purposeful content after what we’ve learned in this course. The most significant thing I learned in this course is that although almost everyone in the world can be a publisher with the technology we have, it’s much more difficult than it appears to be for that exact reason. Creating an innovative idea that is a monopoly is difficult to do with so many people trying to do it every day. However, I hope with my blog I provided value in the sense of inspiring my readers to think differently when it comes to kindness as well as provide them with a glimmer of positivity.

References:

Cheung, T. (2019, February 27). Peer Review #2: The Kindness Lifestyle [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://tobisroutine.com/posiel/peer-review-2-the-kindness-lifestyle/#comment-19

Gertz, T. (2015, July). Design Machines: How to survive the digital apocalypse. Louder Than Ten. Retrieved from https://louderthanten.com/coax/design-machines

Independent Institute. (2015, March 6). Peter A. Thiel | Always Aim for a Monopoly [Video file]. Retrieved from http://libanswers.snhu.edu/faq/8628

Mok, R. (2019, March 18). Peer Review – 3 [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://rerouted.ca/academics/peer-reviews/peer-review-3/

Sullivan, S. (2019, January 30). Peer Review [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://thebeautyblondie.com/posiel/peer-review-2/

Essay No. 2- My Expirience as an Online Publisher.

All my life I wanted to share the wisdom I had, whether it was when I was 15 years old in high school when I shared with my friends that nothing good ever happens after midnight or to now. When this blog assignment first came to be at the beginning of the semester, I knew exactly what I wanted to write on, life rules. After reading an article by William Kraska, (“What Makes a Good Blog?”), I learned that to have a good and successful blog, “Blogs become successful because of specificity and passion, according to Kevin Donahue, co-creator of Fanblogs, a college football blog described by Forbes.com as the best blog dedicated to a single sport.” (What Makes a Good Blog? (n.d.). Retrieved from https://journalism.nyu.edu/publishing/archives/notablog/story/good_blog/). After reading this article I knew, I wanted to make my blog about rules that have helped me throughout my short 19 years on earth. It was a specific genre and it was something I knew very well and would write on easily. I have not had too much success so far in building an audience, most of my comments are Russian bots, but I hope someday with more time and effort I will have an audience that will take what I say and use it to benefit their day-to-day lives. If anything Google Analytics has shown me the potential I have, like I previously stated, I do not have much of an audience, but I can have it, with the help of ads and promotions it is entirely possible for my blog to take off.

Most of the enjoyment I had with this course, was the design aspect. After I got a hand on how to design and how to use WordPress, I enjoyed creating this online space that was the essence of me and what I was trying to convey. I first decided to make my blog more lively after reading the suggested reading ‘Design Machines- How to Survive the Digital Apocalypse’ by Travis Gertz (Author & Gertz, 2018). I was inspired to make my blog stand out, Gertz explains how as a whole in this digital age it is so easy to get swept away with security and what we know will work, that all of our pages end up looking the same; and how it is so important to have design. He also explains how important it is that our content does not exceed our design or that our design does not surpass our content. This article inspired me to continue to work on the creativity of my blog, yet also keep up the substance to an acceptable level.

I did a lot of research on different blogs to see how they used specific tools that benefited them with their audience. One night as I was going deep down the rabbit hole of blogs, I came across serval various blogs and websites that all featured a more personal side. I had the idea to post more photos of what made me, well… me, pictures and videos of my life coincided with the theme of my blog as well. I also came across a website titled ‘Vandelay design’ (“Vandelay Design”), a design blog; an article struck a chord with me about design written by Steven Snell. It is called ‘Blog Design: Does Design Impact Your Success?'(“How Important is Design to a Blog’s Success?”, 2016), the article states that “The blog design can also seriously help or hurt the level of success of the blog by how it emphasizes or de-emphasizes the content. Readability is key. For visitors to appreciate the content, the design should emphasize it and not distract visitors away from it.” (How Important is Design to a Blog’s Success? (2016, May 23). Retrieved from https://www.vandelaydesign.com/impact-of-design/ ). I found that this article similar to ‘Design Machines- How to Survive the Digital Apocalypse’ by Travis Gertz, in the sense that, yes the design is very, but it should never take away from the actual content.

Growing up I never had any interest in the traditional sense of publication. I believed my opinion was not worthy of being heard in such a public space (on the internet), as I have not had much life experience nor have I had much exposure to writing, I thought I would be heavily judged. During this past semester, I have uncovered many valuable lessons from Google Analytics and WordPress; the main takeaway I had was that even if nobody views your blog or website, we are all publishers. I realized more than anything that I grew as a personal author, my confidence grew, my writing skills improved, and my view on publication arose. Now that we end this course, I am left with the desire to continue to create and to find that sense of self within the publication.

Reflecting on this course, I have learned a lot, about myself, my personal views on life and my views on the publication of self. Moving forward I want to continue my online presence; I would love to make another blog or format my blog now into more advice while travelling solo. I have recently travelled solo, and I have so many tips and tricks that I would love to share, and I think people would like to listen. The main thing I have lesrned from this course and that I will take with me through my future endeavours in life is that everything good comes with time. Working with a blog your online presence could take months or even years to develop, to quote my favourite movie, ‘Field of Dreams’- “Build it, and they will come.”

Essay Two – Blog Reflection

At the beginning of the semester when I was deciding on the topic for my blog, I was torn between travelling and hockey. I asked myself a fundamental question – why? Although I grew up like every other kid playing street hockey and buying and trading hockey cards with my friends, I always wanted a place to express my ideas and opinions and receive feedback and suggestions from like-minded people. Since I constantly found myself being approached by others for an opinion on what’s going on with different teams, players and hockey, in general, I decided to choose hockey over travelling. I did not want to limit myself to a specific team as I planned to discuss a variety of aspects within the sport. Also, I tried to avoid the potential for any issues similar to that of Matt Shea’s where some of his subscribers felt neglected when he was posting content that was “different.” However, I narrowed the primary focus of my blog to three aspects in particular. They are outlined below in my infographic.

I created this blog hoping that it would act as a non-political platform for hockey fans to connect. I planned to accomplish this by writing weekly posts about a variety of relevant topics in the hockey world to encourage readership. I anticipated that it would encourage hockey fans to discuss and debate opposing views openly. I intended to accomplish this by encouraging fans to share their thoughts and opinions at the end of each post and hoped to spark a conversation between them.

I imagined my public to be a sports-centric audience with a particular interest in hockey; this further branched into general sports/hockey fans, fans of specific teams, analysts, hockey players, fans of the NHL video game series and my friends and family. I have confirmed that my imagined audience is also my real audience by analyzing my followers on social media and by using Google Analytics. A primary example is Zach Boychuk who is a retired NHLer that follows me on Twitter.

My audience has strongly influenced my editorial decisions as I have tailored my content for them, while attempting to obtain additional exposure by writing about different aspects of the game. For instance, I have written about the video game NHL 19 and its Hockey Ultimate Team mode. I have also written about the San Jose Sharks, but recently I analyzed the local Vancouver Canucks from multiple angles including management and specific players. I believe that writing from these different angles will assist in developing new audiences while continuing to engage current readers. After receiving comments from Suzanne and my peers regarding my posts I have been adding to a long list of content to write about. These comments get me thinking and usually inspires me with some topics to write about in the future. I have spent the past six weeks rebuilding the Montreal Canadiens, as Suzanne requested, and recently led them to their first Stanley Cup since 1993 in the simulation.

Furthermore, I have catered my design decisions for my audience. I created a cool vibe to represent the atmosphere at a hockey game by using a shade of blue throughout my blog. I used light grey as the background colour to represent a sheet of ice. The header features clipart representing hockey so that readers know what to anticipate on my blog. To create familiarity for my audience, I used colours that are featured in the NHL’s logo in designing my website name. To ensure that my content was easily accessible, I made sure that my theme would enable me to add a featured image with the title and a brief excerpt with a read more and leave a comment button. This reels readers in and encourages them to engage with the content and comments from others. The sidebar adds to the accessibility as it conveniently links to my social media while showing viewers the most recent posts and comments, so they can quickly get caught up on what has been posted since their last visit.

The central value proposition of my blog is that I provide a unique perspective on different aspects of hockey for my public; this is similar to Don Cherry’s Coach’s Corner. I have received comments that are what John Suler (n.d.) describes as “solipsistic introjection.” Many hockey fans follow Don Cherry, and some have suggested that they assign a similar voice and image to my content. Moreover, in the future when my readership increases, I may consider creating value for hockey equipment companies by reviewing their products. While this is something to consider companies may be anticipating a positive review whereas my opinion may be the complete opposite. However, if I were to go this route, I would also feature affiliate marketing by providing readers with links to purchase the equipment.

Google Analytics showed that most of my audience is situated in the lower mainland, however, one reader is from Poland. I am hoping to expand readership globally by growing my brand on social media. Surprisingly, I also have more new visitors compared to returning visitors. I believe that this will be beneficial as I continue to grow my blog, but, of course, I hope that these new visitors will return in the future. Again, analytics will assist in this regard. The ability to track which pages are viewed the most is very helpful as it shows me what viewers are reading and which content I should be publishing more or less of. Also, due to the ability to track browsers, operating systems, devices, and their screen resolutions I will now be able to optimize my blog for these specific viewers. The user flow report provided me with an overview of how users navigate my blog – where they go first, what they do next and where they drop off. Understanding these elements will be beneficial to potentially re-organize my content. If viewers are flocking to a particular order when they view content, I believe that this could be a sign to re-order my blog to their convenience. In doing so, I will have to avoid “chasing a robotic approach to a human connection” as per Travis Gertz (2015).

Lastly, I will be continuing my blog past this semester and plan on elaborating my online presence by posting my written content on YouTube as a video. In doing so, I will link back to my blog so that viewers have multiple options to receive my content. I also plan on being more active on my social media channels during hockey games as I have found my audience to be active during these times. This will enable “new members to join as the old fade away” as mentioned by Erin Glass (2015).

References

Gertz, T. (2015, July 15). Design machines. Retrieved from https://louderthanten.com/coax/design-machines

Glass, E. (2015, December 11). Why we need Social Paper. Retrieved from https://commons.gc.cuny.edu/papers/45249/

Suler, J. (n.d.). The Online Disinhibition Effect. Retrieved from http://truecenterpublishing.com/psycyber/disinhibit.html

My Publishing Experience

I have loved writing ever since I was a child, and for most of my life, it has been a dream of mine to become some kind of writer, whether it be an author, screenwriter, or journalist. I have wanted to create a blog for several years now, as I thought it would be both fun and beneficial to create a space where my writing could live. I hoped to use it to express my thoughts, improve my writing, create an audience that could follow me on my future endeavours, and perhaps make some money doing what I love. I have not accomplished all of these goals yet, but my blog is still new, so I have plenty of time to work towards them.

I was both apprehensive and excited to create my own blog. I decided early on that I wanted it to be a personal blog, as that gives me more freedom to write about various subjects and allows me to write essays about my thoughts and experiences while showing off my writing skills. I aimed for an audience of people around my age, and while many of my blog posts are about the student experience, I want my blog to be accessible for those who are not in school as well, as I want to talk about the young adult experience. My idea of what I want my audience or public to be lines up with Michael Warner’s in “Publics and Counterpublics”, as he states, “A public is a relation among strangers”, and I want my blog to be a place where people can read about experiences similar to their own and feel a sense of connection with them. I also want my public to be a “social space” as described by Warner, as I want to foster a sense of community among my readers and give them a space where they can discuss their own experiences and struggles.

I changed the theme of my blog several times before deciding on my current theme, as I initially wanted something very simple so I could focus on my content, but I was unhappy with the first few themes I tried and wanted something more visually appealing. Travis Gertz discusses the importance of design in his article “Design Machines: How to Survive the Digital Apocalypse”, and his insights convinced me to place more emphasis on the design of my blog, as it is what attracts readers. Gertz believes that a website’s layout should “[connect] the content to the medium”, and that connection is what I want to achieve. I chose a simple, easy to navigate theme that emphasizes and works well with my content. I have a lot of white space on my blog, but my header picture, Instagram feed, and blog post images contrast it. The blog post images also draw attention to the posts themselves and connect to their topics. Gertz emphasizes the relationship between design and content, stating, “[D]esign augments the message of the content”, so I am trying to connect my content to my design to create a uniform feel to my blog. My header image is a picture of clouds, which connects nicely with my blog’s title. I want to make it clear as soon as people visit my homepage that I have put a lot of time and effort into the design of my blog, and that the design quality reflects the quality of the content.

I intend to continue blogging after this course, and I am planning to take information from lectures and readings into account as I maintain and develop my online presence. The course reading “Make Your Thing” by Jesse Thorn has many helpful insights for finding success in independent media, but the one that is most useful in my current situation is “Keep Your Legs Moving”, as with the course ending, I need to keep working hard to maintain my blog and its audience. I intend to continue posting on my blog at least once a week, perhaps even more during school breaks. I would also like to work on cultivating my social media presence and expanding the reach of my blog’s Instagram account. Most of my readers have come from my Instagram, so I plan to post on it more often to attract people to my blog. Ideally, I would like to post on it at least twice a week, although I realize that will be difficult while I am in school. Regardless, I want to post on my Instagram every time I post on my blog to alert viewers of new posts. I would also like to post pictures of myself, where I go, and what I do on my Instagram, so my audience can get a sense of who I am as a person and follow my adventures through multiple channels. Another goal of mine is to gain enough viewers to be able to make money from my blog, whether it be from Google ads, affiliate marketing, or sponsored posts on my blog or Instagram. I would love to be able to support myself doing something that I love, whether it be running my blog or becoming a journalist, author, or screenwriter because of my blog’s success. Regardless of what the future holds, I am excited to continue this journey and see what lies ahead.

Works Cited

Gertz, Travis. “Design Machines: How to Survive the Digital Apocalypse”. Louder Than Ten.

10 Jul. 2015, https://louderthanten.com/coax/design-machines. Accessed 23 Nov. 2018.

Thorn, Jesse. “Make Your Thing”. Transom. 11 Apr. 2012, https://transom.org/2012/jesse-thorn-

make-your-thing/. Accessed 23 Nov. 2018.

Warner, Michael. “Publics and Counterpublics”. Quarterly Journal of Speech, vol. 88, no. 4,

Nov. 2002, pp. 413-425, http://knowledgepublic.pbworks.com/f/warnerPubCounterP.pdf.

Accessed 23 Nov. 2018.

Essay #1; (Un) Democratic Discourse on Social Media: The Inherit Anti-Woman agenda on Instagram, and fellow social-media forums.

Since its launch is 2010, Instagram has grossed over 800 Million users, with over 60 million photos and videos shared daily. The only way a media platform of this density would ever thrive the way Instagram has is with the help of community guidelines and rules. With such regulations comes original agreement of following them, if you choose to participate in said platform. “Attempting to enforce community standards at such a scale will no doubt inevitably result in accidental takedowns and confusion. However, the frequency with which Instagram takes down photographs involving the female body and expressions of feminism has provoked controversy – and suggests a broader tension between the network and its users.” -Warren, Rossalyn, and Charlie Warzel. “Why Did Instagram Delete These Women’s Photos Of Their Bodies?” BuzzFeed, BuzzFeed, 2 Apr. 2015, www.buzzfeed.com/rossalynwarren/deleted-instagram-photos-that-are-causing-controversy. Until we address the inherent anti-women bias that is a part of our society, social media along with all other social forums cannot be entirely free and fair. This paper will examine how sexual mores assigned to women are not only present in the smilingly progressive world of social media, but in fact, enforce these restricting perspectives.

This issue first came to prevalence in 2014 with Courtney Adamo a London based “mommy blogger” with over 40,000 followers at that time. Adamo posted a photo of her 18-month-old daughter in a dress and yellow rain boots, lifting her dress showing her belly button. Later that day she received emails from Instagram saying that her photo has been removed due to a violation of the rules and guidelines. A few hours after discovering that her picture was removed, she then re-posted only to come to find that her account was deactivated, due to the same reasoning of violation. Courtney Adamo rebutted with the following.

“She is a baby! It is no different from a photo of a baby wearing a nappy, or a little boy in swim trunks, and to entertain the idea that it is even remotely inappropriate is a disgusting thing in itself. Instagram has deleted four years of my family photos and memories: all the photos of our travels, my children’s birthdays” – “Sadness and Outrage and Gratitude All in One.” Babyccino Kids: Daily Tips, Children’s Products, Craft Ideas, Recipes & More, 9 July 2014, babyccinokids.com/blog/2014/06/20/sadness-and-outrage-and-gratitude-all-in-one/.

Adamo was met with a wave of support from other Instagram users which ultimately led to was the site’s decision to reactivate her account. The gendered bias that there is something taboo about this child’s body reinforces the sexualization of the female form on social media. In a 2009 study “THE SEXUAL DOUBLE STANDARD AND ADOLESCENT PEER ACCEPTANCE” Derek A. Kreager and Jeremy Staff states “the belief that women and men are held to different standards of sexual conduct is pervasive in contemporary American society.” This “double standard affect women being shamed for promiscuity and can trickle down to cases such as the sexualization of a toddler.

While Instagram is often viewed as a progressive and forward thinking space, it is not free of unlaying double standards. Best selling author and poet Rupi Kaur posted a photo on Instagram in and unknowingly sparked a revolution. The image displayed, showed a spot of blood on her legs, as well as blood on her bedsheets. As most women and men will understand, this event often arises when a woman is on her period. She posted the photo along with the caption; “I bleed each month to help make humankind a possibility… Moreover, communities shun this natural process. Some are more comfortable with the pornification of women. The sexualization of women. The violence and degradation of women than this”-: ‘Thank You @Instagram for Providing Me with the Exact Response My Work Was Created to Critique. You Deleted a Photo of a Woman Who Is Fully…”.” Instagram, www.instagram.com/p/0ovWwJHA6f/. The blood used in this photo was not real and therefore did not violate any of Instagrams written rules. Instagram thereby took down the photo and declared that it did not go with the community guidelines, which led them to take down the photo- not one but twice.

So we ask why? Why is this epidemic of women shaming becoming so mainstream on social media? “A recent book by Nancy Jo Sales, American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers, provides a snapshot. Based on interviews with more than 200 adolescent girls, Sales concludes that social media often reinforces a culture of sexism and misogyny (1).” This argument proceeds to say that:

“Emerging empirical research also corroborates the notion that while sexualization of females is rewarded online (usually by males), females are also punished for these same displays and are quick to be labelled by other female peers as “sluts” or “skanks”(2). This perpetuates sexual double standards that reinforce gender stereotypes.” – Sales NJ: American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers. New York, Knopf, 2016.- Daniels EA, Zurbriggen EL:

This philosophy is the reason for the scandals that came from Instagram’s rules and regulations page; it is based on a constant digression stimulated by the age of social media which is allowed to perpetuate damaging patriarchal expectations. By media platforms taking away the voice of women no matter the age by telling them what they can and can not post it is only contributing to this mass epidemic. The only way we can work through this social-media virus is by teaching the young men of this upcoming generation what equality is and how it must manifest in public forums. Until this is done, we cannot claim that our social media as we know it is not indeed free and democratic.

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Essay #1; (Un) Democratic Discourse on Social Media: The Inherit Anti-Woman agenda on Instagram, and fellow social-media forums.