Mini Assignment #6
-Go someplace you’ve never been before,adventure is worthwhile-
“We travel, some of us forever, to seek other places, other lives, other souls.” – Anais Nin
Peer Review #3
Half milk and sugar invites its readers to “come take a sip” at their “online virtual cafe” and provides a one stop access to readers giving them a insiders scoop on local Vancouver Cafes.
Design: The simplicity of half milk and sugar pairs well with the blogs content. Each post is held in a square on the home page making it easy to navigate and select the post that you are most interested in. The squares also keep all the blogs content neatly organized and presentable on the home page. The minimalist design on half milk and sugar makes it appealing to all audiences and is comparable to many other food blogs.
Content: half milk and sugar’s café reviews give the reader a front row seat to cafes in the Vancouver area. Not only is the bubble tea in review but the post also discusses the interior of the café, the way it is described the reader knows exactly what to expect the moment they walk in the door, the image of the interior helps with the visual as well.
Then for the item review there is a lot of detail and attention placed into the review. I am an occasional bubble tea consumer but from the reviews on half milk and sugar I can tell that the writer really knows what they are talking about, discussing texture, flavour and the look of the item they are reviewing. I also appreciate that the price is mentioned in each review. Eating out and trying new places can be expensive, by mentioning the price of the item the audience shifts from those who are able to spend a lot of money to include those who are maybe on a budget but still want to explore.
Overall half milk and sugar appeals to like minded individuals who are eager to try new cafes, desserts and experiences. The clean design makes it easy for anyone within that demographic to access and find content, making half milk and sugar a perfect site to visit when planning your next cafe adventure.
Mini Assignment #5
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/
You can find a link to the live infographic here.
“Publication is a creation of a public” (Stadler) By simply uploading an information on the created website, it creates the “circulation of text, discussion, and gathering which creates conversation.”(Stadler) I created www.byeongsunglee.com where people gather who are interested to hear stories from a contemporary artist, Byeongsung Lee. www.byeongsunglee.com is an online public where the artist, Lee, introduces his artworks with images and descriptions of the idea. The contemporary art is complex in the way which the idea is hidden from the cultural, political, and personal context of the artwork. Often times, the audience could not catch the idea or misunderstand the idea of the artwork. In order to deeply understand the idea of the artwork, the audience requires to understand the cultural background of the artist. Not only the cultural background of the artist, but the audience also has to consider the materiality of the artwork, the historical concerning, and the national notion. www.byeongsunglee.com opens a public for the audience who is willing to learn and discuss the idea of Lee’s artwork. The artist’s online publication gives me the “agency and control”(Watters) especially when I am communicating with people on personal artworks.
The online publication is not the “objects of education technology software”(Watters), but the “subjects of their(self) learning”.(Watters) I am not only posting my artwork in order to inform the audience my artistic idea, but I also re-discover the unperceived idea from my own work. The act of textualizing the idea aims me to re-organize the idea in which I unconsciously re-generate a creative idea in my mind. On “Why We Need Social Paper”, Erin Glass describes that people are “hunger to find a space and a culture which promotes the practice and exchange of reflective thought.” I, as an artist, was always willing to expose my artworks and the idea to the world. Creating an artwork is essential for the artist, however, a publication is as valuable as the artwork in order to deliver the idea to the audience. www.byeongsunglee.com becomes an artistic publication in which the artist and the audience gathered for transmitting information. The website is not only a place for the transmission of information. www.byeongsunglee.com provides me a “digital citizenship.”(Campbell) By simply uploading artworks on my website, I “present (the artistic idea) to the world.”(Watters) I leave a footage on the online world in which personal identity is established in the online society. Earning the citizen of the digital world, the personal publication connects the artist with the audience.
Creating the personal publication in online is a complicated gesture in terms of a value of the contents, and the connection to the visitors. The information that is provided on my website is easily accessible to anyone. The information has to be accurate and firm. The incorrect information and unrelated content would result in the loss of the number of visitors. The distinctive feature of www.byeongsunglee.com is that the website does not only contain the image of the artwork, but also the processing image and the description of the idea. Many artists do not want to show the processing image because it is not artistic. However, I decided to exhibit the processing images for building a strong association between the artist and the audience. Mattew Sadler speeches on the Talk from the Richard Hugo House’s writer’s conference that “the publication requires a good host (who is) willing to change depending on who is there and what their needs are.” Listening is an essential attitude for the host of the website, and the website should be encouraged by the visitor. “The publication requires consistency.” It is a role of the host to consistently share information with the public. A lack of communication would disconnect the audience from the artist. In the past time, I understood the publication as speaking. I considered the host as a speaker and the audience as a listener. After becoming a host of the publication, I realized that the host does not only speak but also listen to the public. The transmission of information is not one-way dialogue, but the conversation is circulating. Moreover, I learn that the publication is not only the exchange of reflective thought. The publication leads the culture in which people are socially influenced by the public conversation. The online publication is a contemporary platform in terms of socially, politically, and culturally. I am not creating the publication by myself, but I create the publication with the audience.
Encouraging is the goal of www.byeongsunglee.com. I would like to inspire the audience differently. I would like to communicate with people who are not interested in contemporary art. Many people are interested in visually aesthetic artworks that capture audience’s eyes. However, the idea is the most important element in art, not the visual pleasure. Many contemporary artworks are visually disagreeable which people are not interested. However, the beauty is inside of the artwork. I would like to introduce the beauty of idea by specifically narrating the idea of the artwork. From my online publication, my goal is to create a connection between contemporary art and people. I would like to create a culture on the online publication. I am willing to develop an artistic movement starting from www.byeongsunglee.com. The concept of de-materialization is been introduced by several artworks on the website. I would create a number of critical analysis of the de-material artworks that I made, and I hope it would lead to the new concept of the artistic movement.
References:
The first GIF file is “?” that I made 2016.
The second GIF is “Three self-portraits” that I made in 2017
My experience starting a blog this fall has been both harder than I expected and more interesting than I expected. Street Stories allowed me to meet and speak with staff at NightShift who inspired me with their stories and vision behind the organization. It also allowed me to share coffee with street friends and have a window into what their daily lives are like. Alternatively, Street Stories created space for me to get frustrated with my inability to figure out WordPress, and exposed my visually uncreative side. Yet, throughout all of the ups and downs, I am proud of Street Stories and I hope to continue it.
Street Stories houses stories from Whalley, the city centre of Surrey, and NightShift, an organization that serves vulnerable people residing in this area. Throughout the blog, I mainly talk about my experience of becoming a volunteer with NightShift, my experience interviewing a few of their staff members, and an experience I had one time walking around Whalley and talking to some people on the street. My imagined audience for this blog is young adults from 18-30 who are looking for a way to give back to the community. I also hope Street Stories would be shared with people who typically hold a negative view of the homeless population in Surrey. I realize the importance of understanding the values of my intended audience and their attitude towards the vulnerable population in Surrey (Hassan, 2011). Considering I am a young adult, and I am constantly around young adults, I know that we are a group of people who are in love with being “too busy.” In light of this, there are many people who feel passionately about helping others in their city, but feel “too busy” to make steps towards putting that passion in action. Street Stories aims to confront young adults in this reality, letting people know that there is a possibility for a change in priorities to impact the greater good of their city.
Through content, I address these audiences by sharing the stories of what NightShift is doing on my blog. Through design, I address this audience by creating Street Stories to be minimalistic and easy to navigate. I also try my best to use photos that connect with the stories that I’m telling, because I feel that young adults connect with visual pieces. Lastly, I have displayed my Instagram to show more of who I am, in hopes of connecting with young adults who come across my blog.
The value provided by Street Stories is not tangible. I relate to Debbie Chachra when she states “I am not a maker,” (2015). She emphasizes how history has set up people who physically make things to be seen as superior to those who are caregivers, or those who teach (Chachra, 2015). Like Chachra, I push against this notion. Although Street Stories does not add any physical value to those who engage with it, it offers people the wonder of a human story. Also, it offers a platform for vulnerable people’s stories to be told. Awareness of the daily lives of those living on the streets and the amazing work that NightShift does is what people will receive when visiting Street Stories.
Using Google Analytics has not informed me of my audience and their behaviour because I do not have enough traffic coming through my site. However, I am thankful to have learned the basics of how to analyze the behaviour of my audience and create goals for my site. I hope to use this knowledge in the continuation of my blog.
Looking back to the first weeks of sunny September, the design of my blog has changed drastically but my core content has stayed the same. I changed my theme about half way through the semester because it was not allowing me to express my content effectively. My new theme shows more pictures, which allows me to communicate my content in an impactful way. As W. Gardner Campbell said, when one is intentional with building their personal cyberinfrastructure, they has the potential to create space for one to express their passions and aspirations (2009). Although my personal cyberinfrastructure still has a long way to go, I believe that it has come very far in the past four months.
All in all, I am grateful for all of the blogging experience I have gained this fall. Starting with a passion for the vulnerable people living within Surrey, navigating my way through design and themes, and learning to find my voice through it all has been a journey that I hope to continue. As I have just finished the volunteer training for NightShift, Street Stories will continue with stories from the people I meet through my weekly volunteer experience. Through this, I plan to connect my imagined audience with impactful stories that too often go untold.
Campbell, W. G. (September 4, 2009). A personal cyberinfrastructure. Educause Review. Retrieved from
https://er.educause.edu/articles/2009/9/a-personal-cyberinfrastructure
Chachra, D. (January 23, 2015). Why I am not a maker. The Atlantic. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/01/why-i-am-not-a-maker/384767/
Hassan, M. (March 1, 2011). Developing an audience profile. Communications Today. Retrieved from http://communicationandtechnology2011.blogspot.com/2011/03/developing-audience-profile.html
I have always had an online presence, whether it was through a Facebook or Instagram account, there is no denying that I have been publishing my life online for quite some time. Upon reading about this class, Publications 101, it occurred to me that I have never written a blog or created my own public website. As much online activity and experience that I perceived to have had, it was apparent that understanding how to create, design, and write for a website was lacking. So, my interest was peaked and my creativity was sparked to expand my experience of being an online publisher.
As Erin Glass notes, “Let students, not the Edtech industry, debate and determine the emerging design of the space which will carry their voice…let them reimagine for the full possibility of speech.” (2015). Glass’ comment rings true to my approach and understanding of the class as it provided me with an opportunity to carry my own voice and reimagine the possibilities of public discourse. Instead of being in a strictly academic writing environment, the process of building and designing our personal blogs pushed our creative abilities and offered us a means to stray from common educational pedagogy. Furthermore, as discussed by Audrey Watters, the ability to have our own domain gave us the agency in what we want to publish for our site and online self and how we want to do so. We can demonstrate our learning “beyond the classroom walls.” (Watters 2015) and be able to have a better position in controlling our work, data, and self (Watters 2015).
I wanted to showcase these aspects of online publishing, as described by Glass and Watters, and highlight my creation of publication based on a distinct subject and design that I care about. I wanted to use this opportunity to carry a voice and reimagine the full possibilities of online discourse. This was done through my intentions of creating my blog as a public platform that brings attention to important issues of race, gender, and sexuality – all of which can be hard to publicly address offline. As described by Lori Hubbard from Chron, and Monique Sherrett from Boxcar Media, having a target audience is key in developing effective communication strategies as well as providing content that users can appreciate. The public that I envisioned for my blog were young individuals and groups of people who appreciate the arts. More importantly, I created this blog for the marginalized; I created it for those within the LGBTQ+ community, people of colour, and for those who want to learn, understand, and challenge the rigid social constructs set in place within society.
As noted by Michael Warner (2002) and Nancy Fraser (1990), the concept of the “public sphere” and what we consider to be public is often skewed – representing the “bourgeois society” and European “public concerns” and “common interests” (Fraser 1990 p. 58). This is where the concept of “counterpublics” arises in that I have created an online space that aligns with the notion where “members of subordinated social groups invent and circulate counter-discourses” (Fraser 1990 p. 67). I argue that this is a key feature for my blog and something that is possible due to the rise of public engagement through the Internet. This concept has become of value for me and hopefully for others, as it does not entail a focus on monetary value and simply falls down to challenging hegemony and the problematic and systemic social norms. Here, There hopes to bring people together and to highlight marginalized voices.
Apart from the overall concept of the blog, how I addressed my audience through the editorial design, and content, also aligns with my initial intentions for the creation of the site. What I kept in mind for the name, Here, There, was a mixture of simplicity and minimalism intertwined with a contemporary feel. However, l still wanted to be able to evoke emotions and meaning. I wanted to encompass the idea that voices will be heard from here and there and that there is no boundary as to who gets to be a part of this blog or who gets to be a part of society. Moving onto the design of the blog, again I wanted to create a space that was simplistic and contemporary with artistic elements to capture an audience of young, artistically driven individuals. I wanted to use soft colours and shapes that were inspired by contemporary designs, brands, and websites, such as Bouquet from Montreal, Poketo from the United States, and the website Them. I also wanted to capture the attention of a younger demographic recognizing that moving into the future, these are the people who will be leading society. The design of the hands for the header image supported my intentions of a contemporary and artistic theme. In addition, providing a visual element that connects to my message of coming together and connecting. With the implementation of music playlists, I also enhanced the ways in which I wanted to speak to an artistic audience. Pairing this with my blog objective, the playlists also speak to marginalized groups and for those who have a desire to challenge their understanding of certain norms set in place within society. Lastly, the content itself is directly related to what I aimed for in terms of my online self and publication and for whom this space would be for. By focusing my content on issues directly relating to race, gender, and sexuality, I hope that I can both connect individuals from afar whilst highlighting the importance of diversity.
Moving onto the data of our publication, the info gathered from Google Analytics was quite interesting. The presentation from Monique Sherrett from Boxcar Media was an eye-opening lesson on how to analyze our analytics and what to look out for. Keeping in mind the four aspects of analytics: awareness, engagement, conversion, and retention, it was possible to see how my audience and the public were interacting with my blog. However, since I did not share my blog widely, the awareness and engagement for my site were marginal. The views of my site did come in waves with periods of no activity at all and some moments with a spike in activity. This was most likely due to certain moments during the course when it was asked of us to look through our sites. The majority of users to my site were returning visitors, with the average duration and retention on my blog just a few minutes, around one to three minutes. In some ways, I wish I continued to update my blog more frequently in order to feel comfortable promoting it through other platforms, which in return would allow me to see more activity and data from users.
Throughout my time in Publications 101, my experience of creating online content has expanded. Although I always maintained a certain identity online by carefully managing my aesthetics and posts of my public profiles, such as Instagram, doing so on a blog proved to be quite different. I have not had experience with WordPress prior to this class, so, understanding the technical aspects were both challenging and rewarding, but also highly educational. Integrating my own voice and personality and publishing this through my site changed my perspective in that it is not an easy feat – it takes time, effort, and a clear understanding of the self and your goals to have it work well.
Beyond this course, I imagine my goals as an online publisher will continue to be the same. As an individual who has created an online self for a few years, the blog has helped to enrich my practice and experience of developing content online. This blog has sparked inspiration to continue to create an online presence and self that can challenge the norms of society, but it has also reminded me to be proactive in listening to diverse narratives online and offline. Currently, I am undecided if I will continue the blog as my schedule has been fairly tight. Continuing Here, There may be of a challenge, but because of its significant and meaningful topic (not just to myself, but hopefully for others as well), I believe that it will have importance towards the overall public discourse. Possibly, when I do have more time, pursuing the blog can be beneficial not just as a space to share knowledge and thoughts, but also as a rewarding opportunity to engage and have a public voice has been made possible through the Internet.
References
Fraser, N. (1990). Rethinking the Public Sphere: A Contribution to the Critique of Actually Existing Democracy. Social Text, (25/26), 56-80. doi:10.2307/466240
Hubbard, L. (2018). Why is Identifying the Target Market so Important to a Company? Chron. Retrieved from https://smallbusiness.chron.com/identifying-target-market-important-company-76792.html
Glass, E. (2015). Why We Need Social Paper. CUNY Academic Commons. Retrieved from https://commons.gc.cuny.edu/papers/45249/
Sherrett, M. (2018). Publications 101: Marketing, Media, and Analytics. Simon Fraser University, Harbour Centre. Lecture.
Warner, M. (2002). Publics and Counterpublics (abbreviated version). Quarterly Journal of Speech, 88 (4), 413-425. http://knowledgepublic.pbworks.com/f/warnerPubCounterP.pdf
Watters, A. (2015). The Web We Need to Give to Students. Medium. Retrieved from https://medium.com/bright/the-web-we-need-to-give-students-311d97713713#.4d7j8rs6x
When reflecting on my own blog, I see a stark difference on what I expected and what the course has taught me. In the beginning, I had an innocent idea of blogs. It’s an online space to express yourself and connect with people who have the same ideas. I still keep that idea when I write on my blog. However, throughout the course, I have changed my perspectives because I am more conscious on how it affects cultures, individuals, and workers. As ‘neutral’ as my content is, I don’t feel ‘safe’ because I am vulnerable with my content. Anybody can find my information and turn it against me or misuse my words to feed their own narratives. I want to explore this ‘fear’ and how the course has made me more careful about what I post and what I share online. It doesn’t necessarily discourage me from using the internet and social media. But my awareness has allowed me to be more appreciative of the people who create ‘controversial’ content that can endanger them or the people around them just because one person on the internet does not agree with it. My goal is to express my self-awareness in an active role. It’s not enough that I consume media writing about someone’s demise to the pitchforks of the internet. I want to be aware of that in my daily conversation online and offline.
Alice Marwick and Rebecca Lewis writes about media manipulation and the dissemination of disinformation online (2017). They discuss the events revolving around Wikileaks’ distribution of the hacked emails of John Podesta, Hilary Clinton’s campaign chairman (Marwick & Lewis, 2017, p. 2). Users from the message board 4chan quickly spread misinformation about the emails and how subcultural groups such as the alt-right groups who have given this scandal greater media attention than Trump’s own allegations (Marwick & Lewis, 2017, p.2). These groups leverage their online presence and take advantage of the ‘vulnerabilities in the news’ and increase the coverage of their messages (Marwick & Lewis, 2017, p.3). This topical example has impacted U.S. politics today and in my opinion, gave voice to the hateful and divisive groups in America. I am reflective of how this affects my own online presence. It’s good to be knowledgeable and aware of the power of these groups, and I want to be more conscious about that in my own online interactions. In my blog, I speak about productivity and the impacts of smartphones on our day to day lives. I address the conflict between our attachment to our phones and this growing dependency to it. I think part of this conversation that I learned from the course is also the responsibility of the user. I cannot mindlessly use my devices and ignore what exists in the same spaces I connect in. I try to have ‘conscious’ content and express that throughout my blog.
Mike Caulfield writes a thought provoking piece on Digital Literacy and what we should follow (2016). What I found relevant to my reflection is his example of the Tree Octopus. These digital literacy acronyms and rules that are commonly shared to schools are useless in determining what is real or fake on the internet (Caulfield, 2016). The tree octopus is a fake cephalopod with a fake creature page that shows it has evolved into an amphibian and survives on land (Caulfield, 2016). What Caulfield found was they did not distinguish this by using acronyms to detect fake news, but just by knowing and learning that it’s impossible (2016). This leads to his proposal that to be digitally literate, you must know the web (Caulfield, 2016). What I think he means by this is that we must be aware and critical online as we are in our day to day lives. There are going to be groups and individuals who will misguide users because they don’t know anything better. Dissemination will be used for political gain or to harm minorities. I want to continue practicing these conscious ideas online. My blog is as vulnerable as anyone else’s. But I try my best to learn more and carry that knowledge with me.
I am reminded of UCL’s social media discoveries and why it’s important to be conscious of how it is affecting our day to day lives (2018). Discovery #12 writes that social media has a profound impact on gender relations (2018). This is a small example on this bigger picture of bettering myself in the online space. They find that users have benefits in using real or fake accounts to express sensitive topics and coming out against heteronormative relationships (UCL, 2018). Even though I am still cautious of my own personal information, I think there will be ways in which I can express myself. Knowledge and discussion will better me as a blog writer or an internet user. While I still carry this fear, I want to play an active role and this course helped me prepare for it.
References
Caulfield, M. (December 19, 2016). Yes, digital literacy. But which one? Hapgood. Accessed on November 26, 2018. Retrieved from https://hapgood.us/2016/12/19/yes-digital-literacy-but-which-one/.
Marwick, A. & Lewis, R. (2017). Media manipulation and disinformation online. Data & Society. Accessed on November 26, 2018. Retrieved from http://posiel.com/outline/full-semester-outline/.
UCL (2018). Social media can have a profound impact through gender relations, sometimes through using fake accounts. University College London. Accessed on November 26, 2018. Retrieved from http://www.ucl.ac.uk/why-we-post/discoveries/12-social-media-can-have-a-profound-impact-on-gender-relations-sometimes-through-using-fake-accounts.
Ever since I could remember, I’ve loved gaming. Not just video gaming, but also board games and various other recreational games. On September 18th 2018, I made my first blog post. This was the Encounter With a Stranger post, it wasn’t particularly exciting nor accomplishing, but it was a step in the right direction. After 12 weeks of posting on my blog, I feel that I’d discovered an interest into content creation in the gaming genre.
The Online Self
Through all my process posts, there is a consistent theme of my bringing up of “The Online Self”. The online self is s persona that one creates or invents when they create content, such as Youtubers like Pewdiepie. The mannerisms and personality help the content creator engage with their audience, creating a coherent and loyal fanbase. I’ve had issues with developing an online persona around the first 3-4 weeks of the course, thinking that it’s awkward to be someone else. This led to the narrative of the blog being slightly dull, and my post introducing the game Overwatch perfectly illustrates a bland persona. There was no greeting to my audience at the introduction, I only focused on the technical analysis of the game, instead of cracking a few jokes, eliciting emotion or making connections to my real life. It was after I read John Suler’s The Online Disinhibition Effect, where I started to realize how I can develop my persona on my platform. Suler mentions seven different effects the online platform has on one’s personality, and the Dissociative Anonymity (Suler, 2004) effect resonated with me the most. Dissociative anonymity is the phenomena such that, a lot of times people interact with stranger on the internet, not knowing their true identity, and this anonymity empowers one to speak their true thoughts (Suler, 2004). This had taught me that I could display an even more “real” personality online, than I would with strangers in real life. From the post Infamous Second Son (PS4), I’ve started to incorporate greetings, and a few weeks later through Puzzles & Dragons (Mobile), I’ve integrated some of my real-life events like talking about my midterms. It is evident through my posts, that I was growing as a content creator, taking baby steps to engage with my audience.
The Design
At around week 10 of developing my blog, I started being more mindful on my Google Analytics, reflecting upon what the data tells me about my audience. According to my analytics by Monster Insights – a widget that I downloaded as an alternative to Google – there was a 62.96% bounce rate on my site. This means that around 63% of the sessions, the viewer leaves the site without going further than the homepage. My course of action against that was to drastically change the design of my webpage. The initial design of the banner, as I’ve been told by my peers, had too busy of a background which took the attention away from the navigation menu, which was integrated within the banner. This might have caused the user experience to lack in affordance. Affordance, according to Victor Kaptelinin in The Encyclopedia of Human Interaction, is design based on human intuitiveness (Kaptelinin, 2013). In order to create a more intuitive user experience, I changed the theme of my blog into having the banner on the left side of the page, taking up about 30% of the homepage. I feel that this puts more focus on the navigation menu, which helps the user explore my blog posts in a more robust manner. Furthermore, Mauve Page, a guest speaker from week 5 had given a presentation on web design and user experience. According to Page, contrast in the color and general content is critical in creating a point of focus for the audience (Page, 2018). This is also reflected on the change of banner on my blog, I chose a mostly white background for the banner, to create a contrast with the dark font of the navigation menu. This helps create a focal point for my audience, and ultimately develop an affordance in the navigation of my blog.
Final Thoughts
Over the course of the 12 weeks of this course, I feel that how my blog has evolved in terms of the Online Self and the Design and what I’ve learnt in this process is a skill that I will continue to explore. Blogging every week about gaming has been an eye-opening experience, as this is my first time creating content and a presence online. I’d like to continue this journey, expanding it to streaming games, creating Youtube commentaries or even podcasts. Developing an online persona has taught me how to engage with my audience, to create a coherent fan base.
Works Cited
Simon Fraser University’s course Publication of Self in Everyday Life provides an opportunity for students to explore what it means to be an online publisher and encourages students to create a place on the internet to write about their interests. I have been a movie fanatic for years, but I had never considered making a blog. I assumed no one was interested in hearing my thoughts, and also saw no benefit in making a website that may only have one viewer (presumably myself). As I began creating content, learning more about design, and thinking about online audiences, my fear of screaming into the void subsided. Even if I have a low number of readers, I discovered that my blog had other value. I discovered this blog could act as a portfolio (demonstrating my design and writing capabilities), and this blog could act as an inventory (a personal space for me to keep track of all the wonderful and horrible movies I watch). I see benefits beyond readership. The POSIEL course offered at SFU expanded my understanding of what it means to be an online publisher by forcing me to consider audience, design, and confidence in the online world.
In order to create a target audience, I considered my own experience with cinema and the quality of information I can relay to readers. My imagined audience is average movie-goers, ages eighteen to twenty-five, who are interested in film but are not professionals working in the field. I focused on the “average” movie-goer because I have no formal education or training in cinematography; I am an average movie-goer myself. I watch more movies than many people my age because I work at my local cinema, but I am a fanatic not a professional. I also targeted this audience because I find critic reviews on Rotten Tomatoes to be more critical than user reviews. The more positive user reviews suggest average movie-goers are more optimistic about the films they are seeing, and I wanted to contribute to this positive outlook on movies.
The professional yet personal design of my blog is an attempt to better attract my desired audience. Mauvé Page suggested that rhythm “helps create predictability and order in your design,” and rhythm can be achieved through repetition of elements (Page). All of my movie reviews have the movie poster, movie name, a brief comment on the film, and a score (displayed as a percentage). The articles also have a repetitious feel by having the written review followed by the movie trailer. Mauvé also suggested people respond well to faces (Page), so I included an image of myself on my “About” page that seems friendly and approachable (and also indirectly tells my viewers I am around the same age as them). I also used contrast to make my homepage exciting and unique to me. Contrast can be achieved through colour, texture, size, and shapes (Page). My header image is the largest item on the page, and I used vibrant colours to make this image stand out further. Based on my Google Analytics, I can tell my readership is quite small and mostly comes from people in our class. On a positive note, the people in our class are a part of my target audience, so my imagined audience is my current audience.
One of the greatest challenges I encountered throughout this entire process was gaining confidence in my work. In high school, I won several creative writing contests within the school but few people read my pieces. Putting both my movie reviews and academic posts online made me feel vulnerable. There are real studies that show the severity of online harassment: “A Pew Research Center survey published two years ago found that 70% of 18-to-24-year-olds who use the Internet had experienced harassment, and 26% of women that age said they’d been stalked online” (Stein). It was nerve-racking posting a picture of myself on my “About” page along with posts that express my thoughts and emotions (especially in my process posts). I did not want to reveal my age or gender. Fortunately, I have only received one comment on my website and it was positive. To my surprise, a user commented on the post I felt most self-conscious about making public: my essay. My first and only comment was as follows: “Only wanna tell that this is very useful, thanks for taking your time to write this.” The comment surprised me because I thought no one would be interested in reading my essay. This single comment managed to increase my confidence and make me reflect more seriously about why I am afraid of posting my academic writing online. Erin Glass’ article “Why We Need Social Paper” looks critically at academic writing and asks readers to consider “what we learn about the practical power of speech when we practice speaking to nobody” (Glass). Glass emphasizes that “a public must not die every semester” (Glass), but that is exactly what happens as students simply hand in papers and never look at them again. As an English major, I have written many thoughtful essays about literature that may be of interest to my peers or others studying the novel under analysis, but those essays cannot benefit anyone if they remain a buried file on my laptop.
After spending many hours working on the design and content on my blog, I have no desire to stop writing. I finally feel like the design is complete and I can focus on just writing posts. I hope to expand on my blog to include more television shows and special features posts (which will likely include a “Best Holiday Movies” post shortly). At the beginning of the semester, I felt overwhelmed, frustrated and confused, but now I finally see the value of having this space of my own. Audrey Watters discusses the importance for students to have a “domain of one’s own” in her article “The Web We Need to Give Students.” Watters explains how personalized domains provide students with an opportunity to “build their own digital portfolio” (Watters). My blog is a piece of academic work I can take with me and continue to explore. It is a piece of my academic work that demonstrates my passion, writing, and understanding of design more thoroughly than any other essay or project I have created in the past four years. Online publishing does not necessarily require writing for a large public; online publishing can simply be a way of discussing your passions, demonstrating your knowledge, or creating something that is of interest to you.
Works cited
Before I created my site for PUB 101, I knew I wanted to write. I considered writing about podcasts, records and live music. I then thought about a common class assignment: reading responses – using another text as a mirror to inform self study and thus, my own writing. A concept that kept surfacing for me elsewhere in my life was the importance academically and personally to turn inward and examine my own thought patterns, proneness and ultimately, social position. This emphasis for me was largely motivated by Professor Tasha Hubbard’s discussion during “The Secret Path” panel; “The Secret Path” is a short film created by Gord Downie that tells the story of Chanie Wenjack, a child who died while trying to escape residential school. In the case of First Nations studies, she says that Indigenous people are so often the object of a gaze, and students have the responsibility to turn that gaze back onto themselves. In essence, my personal project within my overarching academic one of creating this site, was to engage with this idea of practicing ethical reading. That is, “read things that do not give [me] the immediate thrill of recognition” as well as reading material that makes me feel seen and heard (McGregor). As far as I can tell, my audience is full of readers, and my editorial, design and content reflect that. My writing reads much like the genre that I am engaging with – I incorporate scholarly findings as well as personal reflection and connection with the text. My posts are text-based and include only pictures of the book cover and the author. I was quite cognizant of the need to make the material palatable while still maintaining integrity with the information I wanted to convey. In that sense, my content is not for everyone; it is for those who like to read and for those who like to engage reflectively with material that can be tough to do so with.
I can honestly say that I spent a proportionate amount of time on design and content, respectively, which I wasn’t expecting at the beginning of this project. I was expecting to choose a simple – possibly boring – theme that was capable of facilitating my writing and not spend too much time fussing over customization. I was really mistaken about that. A course reading by Travis Gertz made it functionally impossible for me to ignore design; he makes a robust case for design and content being representative of one another. In short, a successful and engaging website has content that doesn’t outshine the design and vice versa. I spent a lot of time fooling around on my CSS hoping to make things work and – for the most part – I did!
Debbie Chachra’s article Why I Am Not a Maker calls attention to forms of valuable work that are often gendered and rarely recognized, which helps me to explain the value I am adding to the online community. While ‘making’ things is often masculinized work, other work that involves creativity – creation of spaces for learning, nurturing, critique – is often feminized and is therefore seen as markedly less valuable. This work – sometimes referred to as invisible – is what excites me. Chachra writes: “as an educator… all of the actual change, the actual effects, are at the interface between me as an educator, my students, and the learning experiences I design for them”. I see my academic and personal writing providing similar value to the online community: creating a space between texts in which reflection and reconsideration is encouraged and held up as necessary work. This work is necessary for students engaging in scholarly practices as well as anyone who is involved in a society that requires the dismantling of oppressive structures.
Looking forward, I do want to continue blogging. I have really enjoyed having a writing schedule and having friends and peers comment. I often suffer from imposter syndrome – feeling like I’m actually just not that good at writing and I should just leave it to the real writers. However, this project has really boosted my confidence with respect to sharing my work. I’ve had a few people comment and say that they were unaware that writing was something that I even did and that they’re glad that I’ve made some work public. I have a goal to post at least once a month and to elaborate my online presence by sharing some of my own personal essays. Jesse Thorn gives an inspiring outline of principles to be considered for those interested in creating successful publications. The principle I want focus on specifically is “Keep [my] legs moving”. The most valuable part of this project for me has been writing almost constantly and finding a voice through that process.
I am grateful for this experience and hope to continue to provide a space where readers increasingly feel free to share, challenge and critique.
