For this week’s post we will be looking at a plan to incorporate more transmedia into my online publication. Transmedia is basically other forms of media that can integrate into your current online publications. For example, the “Pokemon as transmedia storytelling” says it the best, where you can “watch… it on TV, playing the games on your Gameboy Color, collecting hundreds of trading cards, and decorating your room with Pokemon toys and bedspreads” (Kevinbrittenylauren, 2013). Basically, transmedia refers to multiple different types of mediums, such as being able to exist on both the radio and television.
For me personally, if I were to ever do blogging as something I would take seriously, I would explore integrating transmedia in the form of a podcast. The reason why I would choose a podcast is because I think my content best translates to this form of media. It also does not compromise the integrity or ideas of my posts in any way.
One more thing of note is that I personally enjoy talking, so I think I am able to tell captivating stories that are better than reading text on a screen.
Podcasts can be then uploaded to various digital platforms, such as Spotify or the Podcasts app on all Apple devices. This increases the reach of my content as I can spread it to platforms other than my website. Furthermore, podcasts are very low intensity, and allow me to create engaging content without too much additional work.
It also has other benefits, such as engaging all audiences, whether they can read my content or not. For example, if you can read and see, you would be able to listen to my podcast and get my perspective with all my expressions, something that cannot be easily expressed through text. However, if you cannot see, then you can hear what the writer intended, as it is coming straight from them. Basically, while it provides an accessibility component, it can also be used for adding another layer even for audiences that can read and comprehend the blogs.
All in all, podcasts are a very convenient way to increase my reach, while adding another dimension to all readers while keeping the integrity of the content that I originally posted.
For process post #12 we will be looking at developing community guidelines that are suitable for my site. Community guidelines are very important to protecting all users of the internet no matter who you are. This is especially important on the internet as there is no way to verify if a person is who they really say they are on the internet. For example, I could make a Twitter profile saying that I am Mr. Beast, a famous Youtuber and some might believe it. As a site owner I have the responsibility to protect all users that may comment or interact with my website, or else I could be held accountable legally. This ranges from “Internet trolls … [which] … are doing it for the “lulz,” or laughs” to “harassment … [and] violent threats” (Stein, 2016).
As this is process post #12, I will hash out 12 rules that all users will have to follow in which I believe protect them the best.
All users must register with an account before posting
Prevents random spammers and bots, especially with reCAPTCHA
No files may be uploaded
Prevents viruses from being spread
All posts must be verified by a moderator before posting
Ensures that nothing slips through the cracks
Word limit will be imposed
Ensures that trolls cannot spam
Suspicious activity will be flagged with a plugin, then reviewed.
Ensures that there is always a watchful eye
Users must be respectful
Ensures that everyone is respectful
Users must not use inappropriate or offensive language
Makes it appropriate for all audiences.
Out of control discussions will result in a mute/ban
Ensures that no conversations cause too much controversy
No copyrighted content may be posted
Protects me legally and ensures that I cannot be legally responsible.
All conversations must be lawful
Same as point #9
False or misleading information will result in a fact check and/or removal from the comments if it is fake.
Ensures that my website is not a source of misinformation
Have fun, this is a place for constructive criticism and discussion, please do not take everything seriously.
Keeps everything casual and fun
All these rules are designed to ensure that everyone can participate without being bombarded with misinformation or trolls. The Guardian’s article also influenced some of these rules, as they found that “The vast majority of blocked comments, therefore, were blocked because they were considered abusive to some degree, or were otherwise disruptive to the conversation (they were off-topic, for example)” (Gardiner et al., 2016). This is why I included things like the out-of-control discussion clause, because if someone is actively trying to pull people away from the conversation, how can people properly create constructive criticism? Coming up with these community guidelines has taught me that running a platform which involves social discussion is a lot more complicated than originally thought. People are just complicated creatures, and especially when social manners are involved, as you cannot guess most people’s next actions.
Good : Truly breathtaking views on one of the tallest buildings in the world
Bad : Very expensive
Price : $$$$
For my final adventure I would like to talk about one of the most recognizable buildings in the Toronto skyline. It is 356M tall and frequently pierces through the clouds above the city.
It is called CN Tower and is home to many different tourist attractions with breathtaking and stunning views.
CN Tower
Personally, I visited the tower to try out their EdgeWalk, which is an experience where you walk around the outside of CN on a harness. For the $200 it includes your EdgeWalk, some photos, and tickets to go back up CN Tower on the inside.
The process to do your EdgeWalk is signing a waiver, going to get dressed, get metal detected to make sure you have nothing that might fall out, and then double check again before getting attached to the system.
After being attached they check you again before you head out, and because of all these checks I never felt unsafe that anything could break.
When you head out onto the platform for the first time, you are truly in awe, simply because of how high up you are, and how breathtaking the view is. The guide then guides you around the platform doing simple maneuvers like leaning over Toronto or leaning backwards over Toronto.
Leaning Back
When you come back in and successfully complete the challenge, you get a certificate, some photos, and a pass to come back another time.
I personally purchased all the photos as I am not sure if I would be able to do this more than once in my lifetime. Although I am pretty sure that the answer is yes, it is still a good memory for not too much extra money. Furthermore, I think just like the ZipLine in one of my past adventures, going back to it too often would make it boring and monotonous.
All in all, this breathtaking adventure is definitely a site to see at any cost and especially if you are not afraid of heights. It is a one-of-a-kind experience that you will never forget and not available anywhere else in the world.
This is the last process posts for this class and I think it is a good idea to a quick reflection and the things I have learned along the way.
This site has been on so many ups and downs as a reflection of my semester. With no time, I struggled to find ways in displaying my contents online. I found it hilarious that the site is about me being a design student, and it took me almost until the end of the semester to work on the visual design of the site. My defense is how busy I had been. Currently, I would say that the blog is fairly close to the vision I had at the beginning. With the images and content, they portray who I am as an individual online fairly well. I wish I could have more time to work on the public posts, showing my creativity in podcast and videos. I can work on it after this class.
From this class, I am more thoughtful about the content I posted online and the relationship I have with my audience. Also, I make me think about the potential my posts could make to my audience. I hope I could use this knowledge more on my YouTube channel, since I’m going to start working on it again next year.
While many people are great fans of the many versions of Hamilton, London is known to be the home of many excellent, theatres, actors, and overall a very large world of musical theatre.
Well, this will be my final post of the semester. So I wanted to take this time and reflect on how much I’ve grown as a person over the last couple of months.
I originally set out when making this blog site to become more confident when sharing my art pieces out to the public, outside of my immediate circle of friends or family. Looking back now, I never really understood why I was so scared to share my art pieces in the first place. Maybe the process was something unfamiliar to me. Maybe I was afraid that people would judge too harshly. Or maybe it was simply that I didn’t want to. Whatever the case may be, making this blog site and posting my art pieces was definitely something out of my comfort zone and has helped me grown as a person and as an artist. And, miracoulsly, made me realize that sharing my art wasn’t as scary as I intially thought it would be.
So I wanted to give a huge shout out to Suzanne Norman and Lauren Jeanneau, the teaching team behind this course. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to step outside of my comfort zone and explore something entirely new to me. I’ve always been meaning to share my art pieces out into the world but I’ve been hesitant for unknown reasons. Thinking back at the start of the semester, it’s kinda silly to me that I was so hesitant and unwilling to share my art. But it’s also quite incredible how much I’ve grown in confidence within the span of a couple of months. The people that conducted a peer review on my blog site commented on how all of the art pieces were all really well done. Those small comments gave me a huge confidence boost in my abilities as an artist.
To everyone reading this post, thank you. Even if you stopped by just to view one post, that small act means a lot to me. If I ever make it as a successful illustrator (let’s be honest, probably not. But maybe? Unless?), I will remember this as being a huge stepping stone for me. Perhaps I will continue to post here throughout the coming months. Or perhaps I will just look at this site to remind myself how much I’ve grown during these couple of months, or how much I’ve grown by the time I’m revisitng this site.
And so, a new chapter begins for everyone. And I wish you all good luck on your next ventures, whatever they may be.
I took inspiration from this site as it had a similar type of content and the main source of interaction between the creator and the viewer was through the commenting system. I took a look through the different sets of community guidelines that YouTube has currently in place. There are three umbrella terms that I would consider adding to my own set of community guidelines; posts that include violent or dangerous content, sensitive topics, and spam.
To me, spam is more likely to occur than comments that contain sensitive topics or violent content as my blog site has not amassed a big enough audience that would lead to someone posting comments. Therefore targeting spam with my own set of community guidelines would make the most sense. I would tackle this by installing plugins that stop bots from commenting on spam in my posts. I would consider using the ‘Block Spam WordPress’ plugin
In terms of tackling comments that include sensitive or violent topics, I would consider the following. If there were to be one or two comments that have been made that include violent and/or sensitive topics, I would manually remove these comments. In the case of there being multiple comments being made throughout multiple posts, I would just disable my comment system.
Transmedia: where elements of fiction are told through different forms of media (i.e., T.V. shows, movies, books, microsites).
Transmedia can be seen in multiple types of established IPs. Take “The Dark Knight” for example. The Dark Knight utilized transmedia during its marketing schemes leading up to the release of the film. Microsites, which are smaller websites dedicated to advertising a specific product, were created to clue in on key story elements of the film. One of the microsites created was for an electoral campaign for one of the characters within the film named “Harvey Dent” who was running for the position of DA. The microsite showcased a poster with the text “HARVEY DENT FOR DISTRICT ATTORNEY – I BELIEVE IN HARVEY DENT”. This campaign poster was showcased throughout the first act of the film.
I believe in Harvey Dent Campaign Poster
As the release date of the film was drawing closer, the microsite updated the poster to include a more vandalized version. The left half of Harvey Dent’s face was scribbled with a red marker. A black marker was used to form a crude ‘x’ over Harvey Dent’s left eye, symbolizing that he was half-dead.
This poster foreshadowed what would happen to Harvey Dent and who would cause the harm to turn him into the infamous villain. Two-Face.
Vandalized Version of I believe in Harvey Dent Campaign Poster
How I plan to incorporate transmedia into my blog site is simple. One of the main reasons I created this blog site (outside of the fact that it was required of me to make one for a PUB course) was that it was to be used in a way where I would be comfortable sharing my art pieces with people I don’t really know. Now, I have become a lot more comfortable showcasing my art to the public. Therefore, in the near future, I would create a dedicated account on social media platforms such as Instagram, ArtStation, and Twitter to place all of my art pieces. On these social media pages, I would post pieces that are either ‘work-in-progress’ or fully finished. Within these posts, I would place a link to my blog which would then detail more so of my process for each piece for those that are interested. On my about page on my blog site, I would place links to each of these accounts. I plan to also host exclusive content that would only be available on this blog site in order to incentivize visitors to come to visit.
The Deep Web vs the Dark Web. I never really knew that there was a difference between the two. All I knew about them was that they were a part of the internet that cannot be surfaced by regular search engines like Google or Bing. You would have to download a specialized browser that allows you to browse the dark or deep web anonymously.
In the article titled “Clearing Up Confusion – Deep Web vs. Dark Web“, the stated difference between the two different types of the web is that the dark web is a smaller portion of the deep web. The dark web is intentionally hidden due to it containing illicit content that ranges from strange to outright disturbing.
I think what really piqued my interest in the concept of the dark and deep web was from a video game titled “Welcome To The Game” parts one and two. I first heard of this game when one of my favorite YouTubers, Markiplier, did a playthrough of the game. The game revolves around you taking control of your character who is a detective tasked with discovering the location of a woman who has been kidnapped. The goal of the game is to collect these keys that are hidden throughout different websites within the dark web. Welcome to the Game has been described as a very challenging game due to how it mimics realistic scenarios. Your character must ensure that they hide their identity when using the dark web as others can track your location and kill you; game over.
Now, that’s not to say that I would go around snooping the dark web. While I understand that utilizing a specialized browser would help mask my identity and information thus making it relatively safe, if I am not careful, malicious people can track my location or find information about me easily which may lead to dangerous consequences.
Ever since installing Google Analytics for my blog site, it has been a handy tool to gauge and build my audience. The analytics tool has allowed me to know exactly how each visitor of my site behaves, what time is the most active, and what posts they view the most and I can use all of this information to cater to my content. All of this is possible because of the vast amount of data that users leave behind. Which has got me thinking about how much data I leave behind whenever I visit other websites because I know that it’s collecting a lot of data from me.
Leaving behind pieces of data about you on websites is known as a ‘Data Trail’ or ‘Digital Breadcrumbs’. As described by Dr. Elisa Oregilain in the article “Digital breadcrumbs: the data trail we leave behind us“, digital breadcrumbs are a trace you leave behind where information about you can be stored and dispersed through the internet.
It can be worrisome or stressful for some knowing that their data is being collected wherever they visit parts of the internet.
To be entirely honest, data trails were not something I usually think about on a daily basis as I know all types of data about me are being collected. It’s so ingrained with the process of using any service on the internet that I’d come to just accept it.
I know that whatever service I willingly opt into, there are always going to be some condition within the terms and conditions that states that it would be collecting data to sell it off to some third-party marketing company but since I never bother to read the document, I accept the fact that it’s taking data from me and move on.
So after learning more about data trails, would I be more careful with how I disseminate my data on websites? Probably not. I would probably be warier but I wouldn’t really change how I behave when willingly opt into service on the internet because there’s nothing I can really do to get around corporations stealing my data.
The semester is now over, and what a great experience it’s been—especially with this class!
This class, PUB 101, was interesting to me because I have never really been in a student-centered class, where we work on basically one project throughout the entire term—which, in this case, is our website.
I loved how the lectures were more conversational than a “traditionally” structured lecture. Suzanne really tried to get the class engaged in lecture content by having conversations with us and even by having us play games like Kahoot!
Lauren also gave really detailed feedback whenever I asked for it—and even sometimes she just tells me during tutorial or office hours when I visit her. She is such a nice and fun person to talk to and I loved having her as a TA.
I honestly cannot believe that the semester is over already. Time flew so fast! Over the last—and fast—13 weeks, I really learned how to portray my online self publicly through my site. The energy I felt in this class is great, and I hope to see more of this energy in my future classes!
Want to drink some refreshingly easy to make lemonade while reading this? Here’s the link! Something I’ve been missing recently is childhood. I remember being around five years old and setting up a lemonade stand in my living room, because I grew up in an apartment, and having the time of my life. I spent hours taking the time to draw a sign, scout the perfect table, and set up everything just right. Now I barely have the attention span to watch something for more than twenty minutes. Despite having less and less of an attention span, I still manage to waste a large portion of my little free time doing absolutely nothing. Whenever I get a break or am taking rest I immediately pick up my phone and scroll. It almost feels beyond my control. Completely mindless. Social media has engraved itself in my life in an almost self-hating manner. Every time I spend more than ten minutes on Instagram or TikTok, I leave the experience feeling almost numb. The accessibility and ease of social media is what makes it so alluring. There’s no time for setup or cleanup like most of my hobbies, like drawing or baking. And on top of that it is catered for my shortened attention span. When I look at my phone usage and see the hours dedicated to social media, I always wonder what could that have been used for instead? Is there a hobby I might have taken on and mastered by now instead of being updated on the newest trends? My plan going into my time off is setting aside some of my free time for specifically phone free usage. I want to see if this changes my productivity or boosts my creativity in someway. Basically, I want to get my time back.
When figuring out the layout of my pages, in regards to content I kept in mind the f reading pattern. In keeping with the pattern, I made sure to have a strong horizontal menu and limited the amount of body text on the home page. This allows to user to clearly understand the navigation of the website, as well as the aesthetic, without being bombarded with content. Another navigation decision I made was to unify content through landing pages for the broader page categories, for example the PUB 101 page has links through titles and images to the child pages (Process Posts, Mini Assignments, and Peer Reviews). This interlinked nature of content creates easier navigation for the user, while also drawing their attention to other published content. The concept of Kafe Corrective is the idea of stress baking and ranting. Although these categories are within their own respective pages, I included links to the recipes on each corresponding rant to create a connection between the two pages and allow for easier user exploration. To further reinforce user flow between content, each post also has a section at the bottom that recommends other content that have been marked with the same category.
Copyright enables intellectual property to remain and retain publication rights to its originator. In our current digital media age, content is continuously shared and repurposed in new ways. Through platforms like TikTok, short audio clips are paired with either still images or videos to create a new meaning or interpretation of the original content. Because of this remixing of mediums and content, it is often hard to locate the originator of the actual content used within these trends. The remixing and sharing of content results in the question, who should get the credit? Although an individual might have a copyright to a specific piece of content, remixing content arguably creates new content that goes beyond the original. Digital media also allows for instantaneous publication. As seen on social media platforms, posting content is pretty much immediate, and is typically not regulated unless flagged by a different user. Due to the scope of content being posted, reposted, and remixed, it is easy for copyrighted content to be published and remain published for a few days without immediate repercussions. The user on these platforms is also the publisher, meaning there is less of a screening process for how and where content is published to. Digital media continues to blur the line of what should count as intellectual property and for who? The anonymity of social media paired with the ability to self-publish results in more and more publication of remixed media.
The game telephone is notorious for showing the contortion of information as it gets passed from one person to the next. I believe that social media is our current telephone. As younger demographics tend to watch TV or read the news less, our main outlet to current events is through their publication on social media platforms. Although this is an efficient way in the spread on information, the verification of the spread information is severely lacking. Just as certain news corporations have affiliations and align themselves with a political standing, social media users and profiles do the same, but I believe due to the anonymity of social media, the publishers political affiliations are often forgotten. As experienced immensely during peak pandemic era, the sharing of infographics that contained tips and statistics with how to avoid catching COVID was everywhere. The issue with these infographics that get reposted, is that the credibility of their information is not verified and therefore leads to the spread of misinformation. As misinformation riddled content gains traction, this content becomes more of a societal truth than an actual fact. It is accepted as true because of it’s scope and mass publication, rather than the credibility of the information within the content. As users we must become more vigilant in becoming our own fact-checkers, rather than be reliant on the fact-checking done my social media corporations.
As I now have an established intended audience, it has made it easier to try and find my tone of voice for writing my content. As my ideal intended audience are fellow university students who also stress bake, I am able to retain my natural way of speaking for the most part. Keeping an overlap in relatability and slight professionalism, is the type of tone that I am trying to keep my content to maintain. Luckily editing my writing to conform to this type of tone is easier as it is my natural way of speaking. The other element of Kafe Corrective, the recipes, is purely professionalism and coherent communication of the recipes. For this while writing out recipes, and editing the instructions I wrote for them, I used other recipe websites as a frame of reference to clearly convey the instructions as much as possible. Recipe writing is not completely devoid of tone, but it is reliant on using clear adjectives for the addition and incorporation of ingredients. Similarly, while editing and refining Kafe Corrective visually I found it useful to take an approach of asking other people for their critiques or perceptions of the website’s aesthetic. Since the first peer review I found it tremendously helpful to get a fresh pair of eyes examining website, as they have a more objective point of view and it also gives insight into how users feel upon first seeing the site. Overall, editing allowed for the fine tuning and modification of Kafe Corrective’s aesthetic and overall tone. Through the multiple iterations of editing, it was easier to account and try to appeal to my target audience through the refinement of published content.
Analytics do provide valuable insight into my target versus actual audience and lets me base my decisions based on previous performance of content and response from my audience. As a content creator analytics enables me to think about things such as when I should post, what form of content is more popular, and what audience it has popularity with. Comparatively, as a user it is worrisome to know that my data is being tracked by each website I go to, and that data is then able to be sold to other companies by my provider. Online user privacy is something that I miss being oblivious to. Prior to a few years ago, I never intensely noticed the correlation between my search history or text conversations to advertisements, but now it is almost to obvious to ignore. The issue is the power hierarchy surrounding data buying and user data usage. For smaller or individually created websites, like Kafe Corrective, the specificities of the data do not go much beyond time, location and entered information of the user. Larger technology companies, like Google, Facebook, or Twitter, are able to retain a much more detailed and personal account of user information due to the terms and conditions that typically go unread by users. The fact that anything published on the internet can never really be erased has always been slightly terrifying to me. This tracked data and immense accountability has ultimately resulted in a “cancel culture” type era, where there is the debate of if individuals should be held accountable for their past actions that have been chronicled online. Growing up in a time where elementary students use social media, it is terrifying to think that anything and everything posted exists in the online space permanently.
Kafe Corrective would have Community Guidelines that restrict the type of content being posted on behalf of the user’s comments. These Community Guidelines would include an intolerance to any form of racist, sexist or any other form discriminatory behavior. They also include an intolerance towards any excessive vulgar language, which will be reviewed and screened by the admin. Kafe Corrective does also not condone the use or spreading of spam or scam content, spreading of misinformation, or the commenting of external links due to the increased possibility of incurring viruses. Kafe Corrective strives to be an open and accepting community that encourages open communication, and encourages its members to treat themselves and others with kindness. Currently, these Community Guidelines are being enforced by each comment having to be publicly approved to be released onto the website. This means as admin I have full authority over the comments that are published on my pages or in response to the posts of Kafe Corrective. If I have more time for implementing the Community Guidelines, I would also add any derogatory or deemed unfit words to a flag list, that automatically flags the comment. For now the process of me having to manually release each comment allows me to have full screening control over what gets published on Kafe Corrective in order to make sure it fits within the Community Guidelines.
Want to try a new refreshing and simple drink? Here’s the recipe! Metal health is part of everyone’s lives. We all have mental health that we should regulate and take care of, but honestly who has the time? Up until recently, this was my kind of stance on the topic. Mental health always had clear stigmatism in my household growing up. It was often slightly poked fun at, or dismissed of altogether. Coming from a mixed ethnic background, growing up in Canada, and being half-white and half-Japanese, my outlook on debated topics, like mental health, usually vastly varied from my parents. This is something that is generally pretty common from generational gaps, especially when you have parents who grew up in a different country than you. Mental health is a tricky topic, because although it is part of everyone’s lives, the effects are sometimes indescribable or imperceivable to the general public. My slightly dismissive tone towards mental health was formed due to the lack of accessibility to resources and the stigma surrounding mental health. As any university students knows the lack of sleep, food, and constant work is not the most stellar combination. Something that I have noticed recently is my ability to everything else before myself. All assignments and work dominate the hierarchy within my life to the point of where I am unable to maintain a solid structure of physical health, let alone mental. Another thing that I have also found out during this past few months is the importance of talking to others and researching the available resources. Typically there are tons of resources online that are available and easily accessible. And if you are a student, I highly encourage looking into programs offered by your school! Since you are paying tuition you might as well make the most out of it. Helpful links: National Institute of Mental Health BetterHelp (licensed online therapy)
Want to try out a new recipe for some gooey brownies? Here’s the recipe! Almost everyone I know has at one point, or is currently, struggling with burnout. As a student it feels almost inevitable with the amount of pressure we put on ourselves while handling an ever growing workload. I have always struggled with finding balance in my life. Adulthood responsibilities also seem to keep popping up and adding themselves to my never ending list of tasks. Little things that I never had to think about as a child, things like scheduling doctors appointments, or comparing schedules to see friends, all used to be taken for granted. The second I try to relax or take a break, suddenly all signs point to the fact that I’m falling behind. This ultimately results in me never being satisfied. I’m either over or under worked. Part of the issue is being too long-term, big-picture, goal oriented. Although all these qualities are good, and it is beneficial to look to the future, the issue is you are never able to appreciate the present. This semester was an especially difficult one, for a myriad of reasons, due to workload and personal life. In order to try and combat the difficulties faced this semester, I took on the practice of being more grateful for myself and my accomplishments. Although it sounds kind of silly, taking a moment to congratulate myself or appreciate my ability to just complete one simple task helped me feel a lot better about my progress. Often times its truly done with one assignment, immediately onto the next and the cycle just continues to repeat. Implementing a moment of acknowledgment towards yourself helps to break that ongoing work cycle, and give yourself the care you deserve. Finishing an assignment is its own accomplishment and it is important to acknowledge that! Try to reward yourself in some way. Personally, I do cope by stress baking and brownies are always a comfort food go-to for me. Take a moment, maybe an hour or two, and find some way to reward yourself. Not just to help prevent burnout, but you also deserve it.
:
: 290 Bremner Blvd, Toronto, ON M5V 3L9
: Truly breathtaking views on one of the tallest buildings in the world
: Very expensive
: $$$$
