Mini Assignment 5# – Infographic
Tag Archives: Posiel
SFU x UBC Collab Class Poster
Poster for my Hip-Hop class being held at UBC.
It’s Cherry Blossom Season in Vancouver
While I was out driving on this sunny day, I came across some beautiful cherry blossoms that are in full bloom now! From April 1st to April 23rd it’s the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival. Lots of events are happening in the city that is themed around the cherry blossoms. Be sure to get out and check out the fleeting blossoms while they are still around.
Process Post 11: Transmedia Storytelling
Does it make sense to integrate transmedia storytelling for Spinning with Stufful?
When reading “Pokemon as Transmedia Storytelling,” I found it interesting to observe how the world of Pokémon extended past an animated series and became a massive franchise, complete with card games, handheld games, and mobile games. With Pokémon Sleep set to launch this summer, and my current Pokémon GO antics, the show I used to watch as a child is truly beginning to merge effortlessly into my everyday life.
When I try to draw parallels to my blog, and how transmedia storytelling could be integrated to that sort of effect, I can only really think about repurposing content onto different social media platforms. Henry Jenkins explains in “Transmedia Storytelling 101” that in transmedia storytelling, “there is no one single source or ur-text where one can turn to gain all of the information needed to comprehend [the universe]” (Jenkins, 2007). That means that my audience might come to my blog for one type of content, and related additional content might be on my TikTok page, and so forth.
In that sense, I could see this happening in very subtle ways. While I haven’t taken care at all to post on my Twitter account, my audience could receive bits and pieces of my everyday gameplay as it happens through there, instead of waiting for me to write a lengthy blog post. That would be one realistic and easy way to stay connected with my audience while giving them a glimpse of the person behind the blog. Additionally, TikTok could be another reasonable place to incorporate transmedia, since games are a visual experience. Content from the blog can be previewed to reach a broader audience, and TikTok is an entirely different medium that opens up opportunities for short-form, bite-sized content that isn’t suitable for Twitter.
References
Jenkins, H. (2007, March 21). Transmedia Storytelling 101. Henry Jenkins. Retrieved April 3, 2023, from http://henryjenkins.org/blog/2007/03/transmedia_storytelling_101.html
Blog Design Part 4: Summing it Up
Spilling the Royaltea has gone through quite the journey throughout eleven weeks of consistent posting. As my process posts come to an end, it’s time for one last blog design update as the fourth and final installment of the blog design process post series.
Additions and Deletions
At Spilling the Royaltea’s inception, I created a category called “the chronicles of Harry and Meghan” with the hopes of writing documentary and book reviews. At this time, Prince Harry’s book, which took the media by storm had just been released, and Harry and Meghan’s Netflix documentary had come out just a few months prior. They were a huge topic of discussion all over the news, social media, and just about everywhere else, and this was basically my motivation for creating the blog.
However, as the semester went on, I found it extremely difficult to get documentary episodes in, or find the time to sit down with a book that wasn’t an academic journal or textbook. Therefore, as the other categories started filling up, “the chronicles of Harry and Meghan” stayed empty for over half the semester.
Because I didn’t see myself having the time to watch the documentary or read the book, I decided to switch this category to a “ranked” one. The ranked category is exactly how it sounds: it ranks all things related to the royal family. I created this section because sometimes, I need to be shallow and fluffy. My “hot takes” and “news” sections are usually more critical and thought-provoking in nature. They involve topics like racism, sexism, sexual assault, and much more. While these topics are what I want to shine a light on the most, many royal family followers (including myself) enjoy some lighthearted material from time to time.
Therefore, this “ranked” category discusses some other things that weigh a little lighter on readers’ chests, like fashion, or Prince Louis’s antics, or even just an informative post on the late Queen’s grandchildren, who always steal the spotlight at any event featuring the royals. It also includes a Fashion, FAST! segment, which featured quick hot takes on royal fashion decisions.
I felt a little disappointed that I was unable to watch the documentary or read the memoir, especially because these two pieces were the main motivators in the creation of my blog. But at the end of the day, Spilling the Royaltea as a digital garden is supposed to represent me and my interests. This means that I have the room to make changes when things don’t work and learn new things from these changes. So creating the “ranked” category to add a different perspective on the site wasn’t a bad thing at all. It just allowed me to share another side of myself with my audience and it worked out pretty well, in my opinion.
Consistencies
Aside from “the chronicles of Harry and Meghan” which turned into “ranked,” the other sections on Spilling the Royaltea stayed the same. “Hot takes” provided opinion pieces that aren’t really broadcast in the mainstream, like the fact that Princess Charlotte has all the characteristics to become the future Queen, or the fact that the royal family is a racist institution that needs to do better. Further, “news” followed the things that were in the mainstream, but provided critical takes on it, like the fact that royal titles recently changed for a bunch of royal family members, but not Lady Louise due to sexist, patriarchal protocols.
And of course, my predetermined PUB 101 content and categories remained pretty much the same throughout the semester, with the simple addition of the “essay” sub-category, for, well, my essay.
Revisiting my Audience
At the beginning of my blogging journey, I imagined my audience and wrote content directed to it, as suggested by Hollenbaugh. I envisioned my audience as royal family followers. These were not necessarily people who loved them, but also included the people who love to hate them.
This meant that I was going to try to write content that didn’t purposefully portray a pro- or anti-royal family stance. Instead, I was just going to try to write about my own opinions, and I don’t think this could be even more true after eleven weeks.
The most important thing for me when writing my blog was making sure I didn’t become the right-wing, conservative Daily Mail, who endlessly supports the royal family and endlessly hates Meghan. So I included some more Daily Mail-type content, like the fact that Archie and Lilibet shouldn’t use royal titles, but not because I just wanted to hate on Meghan. I actually thought they shouldn’t use their royal titles. But I also included some pro-Harry and Meghan content, like my second mini assignment, written from the perspective of Princess Diana, who defends Harry and Meghan’s decision to step back from the monarchy.
The Future of Spilling the Royaltea: Transmedia Integration?
This week, we learned about transmedia integration, or repurposing our blog content for multiple platforms. Renniger explains that certain social networking sites are especially suited toward addressing counterpublics. Aspects of certain platforms help communicate messages that deviate from the mainstream, or the dominant “public.”
Spilling the Royaltea could be considered a counterpublic of royal family followers who are more objective (i.e. both critical and supportive) in their stance, which is a pretty uncommon thing. Therefore, I could move more of my content on TikTok, where small creators with minimal reach can most easily become popular. I could make videos using small segments and keywords from my articles and create slideshow-type TikToks, which help tell a story. Or I could narrate stories while pictures and videos show up behind me using the green-screen effect.
I could also move to Twitter and post short previews of my posts, and then link my blog so that readers could learn more. Or I could create longer-form versions of my TikToks and post them on YouTube, or even post my TikToks on YouTube shorts. The possibilities are endless.
References:
Basu, T. (2020, September 5). 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/
Hollenbaugh, E. E. (2021). Self-presentation in social media: Review and research opportunities. Review of Communication Research, 9, 80–98. https://doi.org/10.12840/ISSN.2255-4165.027
Renninger, B. J. (2015). “Where I can be myself … where I can speak my mind” : Networked counterpublics in a polymedia environment. New Media & Society, 17(9), 1513–1529. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444814530095
Wong, O. (2023). Essay. Spilling the Royaltea. http://spilling-the-royaltea.com/category/essay/
Wong, O. (2023). Hot takes. Spilling the Royaltea. http://spilling-the-royaltea.com/category/hot-takes/
Wong, O. (2023). Love, Princess Diana – Messages from heaven. Spilling the Royaltea. http://spilling-the-royaltea.com/pub-101/mini-assignment-2-love-princess-diana-messages-from-heaven/
Wong, O. (2023). Piping hot take: Archie and Lilibet shouldn’t use royal titles. Spilling the Royaltea. http://spilling-the-royaltea.com/hot-takes/piping-hot-take-archie-and-lilibet-shouldnt-use-royal-titles/
Wong, O. (2023). Ranked. Spilling the Royaltea. http://spilling-the-royaltea.com/category/ranked/
Wong, O. (2023). News. Spilling the Royaltea. http://spilling-the-royaltea.com/category/news/
It’s time to take a walk
It’s time for me to take a walk, a long, long walk. I just need to get out of the house, enjoy the weather that spring has to offer, and relax for a moment.
Seriously though, when was the last time you left the house to just walk? Wait—when was the last time I left my house to just take a walk?!
Bring me back 10 years and I would have said that this is the most plain and boring thing I could do as a person to have fun… but what do you honestly expect a kid to say?
Whatever. The times have changed, and I know better now.
When I find myself sitting at my desk all day on my laptop, anything sounds better than working. Cleaning my room sounds like more fun than working. Putting together IKEA furniture is more enticing than working. Anything but.
But it has been a hot minute since I’ve taken some time for myself to enjoy the simplicity of the outdoors and the scenery of my neighbourhood. It sure sounds cheesy, but like I said: anything sounds better than working.
I can just imagine how peaceful it would be. The sun would be rising over the houses across the street first thing in the morning. The air is cool but not cold—a comfortable cool. Once I get my earbuds in and a good playlist going, I’m all set.
Depending on where I walk, I can see the mountains in the distance or smell the scent of fresh laundry fill the air. In the evenings, I can even catch a peek of the sun setting on the opposite side of my street or see the city lights glow in the distance.
Not going to lie, this sounds like something I would have written in language arts class back in elementary school. The imagery is really coming together in my head but putting it all into words is a different subject.
Anyway, the point is that I could really use a walk. Now you might be wondering, why don’t I just stop writing and get walking already?! Well, I should remind you that I’m writing this very early in the morning and the light of day is nowhere to be seen.
On top of that, it’s late-March/early-April when I’m writing this, so the weather is the worst it could possibly be right now. No, it’s not snowing so I can’t complain, but rain and clouds are not any better.
Give it another month and it’ll be nice and sunny out. For now, a good imagination will suffice.
Also, let this be a good reminder for everyone to take a break from everything and relax. You deserve it.
Process Post #11: Two A.M. Thoughts takes on social media?
Transmedia storytelling is a “process” as Henry Jenkins (as cited in Kevinbrittenylauren.wordpress.com, 2013) would call it. It’s a process in which elements of content—in his example, a fiction—are spread across a variety of channels and platforms. The goal? To create a “coordinated” experience for the audience.
This process works beyond storytelling as well. For instance, it could be integrated into our online publications and more. You may have seen examples of this integration online before and may not know it.
Transmedia integration IRL
Say you come across a YouTube video. You might then find a clip of it on TikTok as a way to promote the full-length video. It may be a montage of certain snippets of the full video or a short clip. You might also see that same TikTok on Instagram in the form of a Reel. That TikTok content could also be posted on Facebook as a video post. Same content, different platform, and they all bring you to the main video on YouTube.
Now, that may not have been the best illustration of transmedia integration, but that is the essence of it. It’s one piece of content that is deconstructed and reconstructed as needed to suit the preferences of other platforms so that it can be shared across a variety of channels. Together, they function to create that ‘coordinated’ viewing experience that I mentioned earlier.
Imagining integration across channels
If I were to integrate Two A.M. Thoughts across multiple media, where would I begin?
Something to keep in mind before I dig into that is that Two A.M. Thoughts is a blog with a lot of text-heavy content. This isn’t a YouTube channel with video content, so integrating my content onto a platform like TikTok might not be ideal. It’s definitely doable, but there are other ways we can approach this too.
I could, for instance, use platforms like Instagram and Facebook to showcase quotes or snippets of my posts. These would act as a teaser or preview for the full-length post which would be linked in the Instagram bio or Facebook profile.
Between Instagram and Facebook, I prefer using Instagram, and I think that my audience would too. I could probably also use a platform like Twitter to promote by posts with quotes and snippets, but Twitter is not much my forte or niche.
With more time, trends, and research, I can find alternative ways of integrating my content across different media, but these ideas are a good start.
References
Kevinbrittenylauren.wordpress.com. (2013, November 21). Pokemon as Transmedia storytelling. https://kevinbrittenylauren.wordpress.com/2013/11/21/pokemon-as-transmedia-storytelling/
The George C. Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary is for the birds!
Westham Island, Delta
Make an online reservation before heading out to this beautiful bird sanctuary. It’s a wonderful place to visit if you need to get away from it all and immerse yourself in nature. The trails are easy to walk and you’ll always have the company of a duck or two.
The Sanctuary consists of a mix of 300 hectares of ponds, treed pathways, marshes, and channels. There have been over 300 species of birds recorded there. You are allowed to feed the ducks and chickadees. They also sell the seeds for two dollars a bag at the front counter.
a drugged candy web
The start of my story with digital literacy is past my frame of remembrance, but I do have distinct memories of what my school called, “digital boot camp” a chapter in adolescent Ammarah’s majestic entry into dreaded high school.
The day consisted of logging onto your device, downloading Office Suite, installing WordPress, and writing up your very first blog post for your “Edublog” (Educational Blog- genius isn’t it?). Now while I may not have imagined that one blog being the start of a long journey with publishing myself online, my experience with content creation and the psychology of internet interaction has taught me a few things about online dangers and how trusting anyone- or any site blindly, is akin to devouring a tainted lollipop offered by a sweet stranger.
So in honor of five years of blogs and personal sites, here is a list of my top three curated internet dangers.
One: Anonymity
There is a sense of power that runs through a user when no one knows who they are outside of what they describe themselves as, making many believe in perfect anonymity in the cyberverse. And while it is true that, “most people you encounter can’t easily tell who you are” you still leave breadcrumbs of IP addresses and emails, and most importantly, the messages you convey (Suler 2001). John Suler explores this phenomenon in reference to disinhibition, as people when anonymous feel they “don’t have to own their behavior” and can disassociate from the ramifications (2001). This can create a dangerous incubator for “the spread of misinformation or fake news, as well as cyberbullying, trolling and hate crime” all under created names or no name at all (CBBC 2021).
Two: Misinformation
Building off on anonymity, misinformation is also an instigator of tensions online, with tabloids turning into creative writing pieces and Wikipedia offering the reigns to history to anyone who creates an account. Wu Peiyue writes about one particular case of historic internet hoaxes as she describes fantasy writer, Yifan’s discovery of “millions of words” detailing “imagined history” on Chinese Wikipedia, that no one had contested for years (2022). This doesn’t include all the potential, untracked articles, papers, and projects that anyone with internet access could have created with the misinformation they unwittingly propagated. This is combined with the growing trust in platforms like social media for reliable news, with “adults under 30 ..(being) almost as likely to trust information from social media sites as they are to trust information from national news outlets (Liedke 2022).” This growing trend combined with our knowledge of anonymity and misinformation makes for an uncertain road for the average data consumer and a dire need for studies related to misinformation transmission.
Three: Digital Illiteracy
The final internet danger that has me especially fearful is the average individual’s digital ill literacy. Digital literacy as a whole can be broken into three tenets, “finding and consuming skills,” “creating digital content,” and “communicating and sharing digital media” (UOTP Marketing 2022). Digital illiteracy in my definition relates primarily to the consumption of media and how with the propagation of false information, individuals often lack the necessary toolkit to determine what constitutes a reliable site or source. WikiHow runs a three-step test to determine the credibility of the site itself including looking into the site certification and quality of the content (Lloyd 2023). Such tests combined with useful tools like Snopes allow individuals to better understand where their information is coming from and if the fact they are using is really a known truth. Digital literacy also involves critical analysis of bias within media, especially with large, trusted sites like CBC being “in favor of the left,” a bias many may not even recognize (Carafa 2002). So while large, reputable news sources may only have slight biases that may not influence content excessively, there are other sites with heavy biases that can also go unnoticed.
So while digital boot camp was a bit of a headache at the time, it has offered insight into the importance of digital literacy and the dangers of internet quirks like anonymity and misinformation. I wouldn’t take candy from a stranger and taking information blindly from someone on the internet is no different.
Works Cited
Carafa, Tiziana. “Is CBC Really Biased?” Policy Options Politiques, Policy Options Politiques, 9 Dec. 2021, https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/kyoto/is-cbc-really-biased/.
CBBC. “Social Media: Should People Be Allowed to Be Anonymous Online?” BBC Newsround, BBC, 26 Feb. 2021, https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/56114122.
Liedke, Jacob. “Trust in Social Media Is Changing. Here’s How It Breaks down by Age.” World Economic Forum, World Economic Forum, 4 Nov. 2022, https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/11/social-media-adults-information-news-platforms/.
Lloyd, Jack. “3 Easy Ways to Find If a Website Is Legitimate.” WikiHow, WikiHow, 10 Feb. 2023, https://www.wikihow.com/Find-if-a-Website-Is-Legitimate#:~:text=How%20to%20Check%20the%20Security%20of%20a%20Website,itself%20%28e.g.%2C%20%22wikihow%22%29%2C%20and%20the%20…%20See%20More.
Suler, John. “The Online Disinhibition Effect.” Psychology of Cyberspace – the Online Disinhibition Effect, The Psychology of Cyberspace, 2001, https://truecenterpublishing.com/psycyber/disinhibit.html.
Tone, Sixth. “She Spent a Decade Writing Fake Russian History. Wikipedia Just Noticed.” SixthTone, SixthTone, 11 July 2022, https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1010653.
UOTP Marketing. “What Is Digital Literacy and Why Is It Important?” University of the Potomac, University of the Potomac, 9 Mar. 2023, https://potomac.edu/what-is-digital-literacy/#:~:text=Because%20of%20the%20overflowing%20abundance%20of%20media%20and,use%20digital%20platforms%2C%20and%20communicate%20with%20others%20eloquently.
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TrekofArts Vancouver – Class Footage
http://keptcollexion.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_8278.mov
First time visiting the Trek studio located in Downtown Vancouver.
Ryn, Online
Peer Review #3 – Spilling the Royaltea
This week I’ve been tasked with reviewing the website of a classmate, Olivia. Olivia’s blog is named Spilling the Royaltea and focuses on hot topics involving the British royal family, whether positive or negative, mundane or sensational.
Her blog posts are separated into three main categories: hot takes, ranked, and news. Hot takes refers to drama involving various members of the family, ranked pits endearing moments and fashion choices against one another, and news involves reporting the latest updates relating to the royal family.
From a marketability standpoint, Olivia’s blog seems to cater towards a unique audience. Since Olivia stays impartial in her overall opinion on the royal family, she can create content pertaining to both fans and critics alike. This offers her more flexibility when creating blog posts, which she takes advantage of.
This can also give rise to pushback from either community, as Bryce Renninger (2015) points out in his writing on counterpublics. Renninger states that “…counterpublic communication online is often tenuous, at risk of being disrupted, ridiculed, dismissed, or ignored…”; fortunately, Olivia doesn’t seem to have this problem.
Despite my negative stance towards the royal family, I still found myself fascinated by Olivia’s analysis of fashion, controversy, and press releases that I would not have otherwise seeked out. I’m glad to have been paired up with this website, as I don’t often think about the royal family and was surprised at what kind of news was prevalent in the community.
Each of Olivia’s mini assignments fit perfectly within her blog subject, and range from the playful teasing of Prince Harry’s memoir to a thoughtful critique of wealth disparity in the UK. I enjoy the headings found in each post, as they help break up longer pieces of writing with proper context and make it easier to skim posts if needed. Overall, Olivia’s content is deliberate and appropriately matched to the website’s design, which I will cover next.
Olivia immediately showcases the subject of her blog through a well-organized collage of photos placed front and centre on the website’s homepage. Together with the site’s name, Spilling the Royaltea’s subject matter is easily discernable to most people on a first visit.
If I was creating this blog from scratch, I would probably take inspiration from magazines articles, which Travis Gertz (2015) points to as a prime example of more visually interesting design. Gertz posits this in his article Design Machines, with the question “how do magazines achieve rich reactions and connections, and how do we translate those approaches to the screen?”
News about the royal family has usually been relegated to these methods of communication, and I admit that I have a certain nostalgia for these publications as well. However, despite Gertz’s caution towards pre-built and uniform blog themes, I believe that Theme Fourteen Blog is very fitting for Olivia’s content.
The minimalistic and clean layout pairs well with the aesthetics of the royal family, and the typography lends itself well to both serious and more playful topics. Olivia uses Josefin Sans for titles, Lora for accents, and the popular Open Sans for paragraphs.
Oliva’s blog is a delightful read, with blog posts that a wide variety of people can enjoy. I especially like her posts ranking different fashion styles, as that is another interest of mine. Spilling the Royaltea has certainly grown on me as I’ve explored the website, and I’ll definitely be returning to see what Olivia posts next!
References
Gertz, T. (2015, July 10). Design Machines: How to survive the digital apocalypse. Louder Than Ten. https://louderthanten.com/coax/design-machines
Renninger, B. J. (2015). “Where I can be myself…where I can speak my mind”: Networked counterpublics in a polymedia environment. New Media & Society, 17(9), 1513–1529. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444814530095
Mini Assignment #5: Create an infographic that summarizes your online self
For week 5’s mini assignment, we were asked to summarize our online selves by using an infographic. I searched how to make an infographic and canva came up. Canva is really proving to be one handy tool when creating imagery for my website. I had a lot of fun creating the infographic and chose a gardening tip theme and just remixed it with garden and publication jargon. I called it “7 easy ways to grow a digital identity.” I threw in what I wanted my online self to come across as in Little Feather Adventures. In the infographic, I included my love for the outdoors, adventuring, gardening, animals, and photography. I also wanted my true self to come out within some of my humour as part of my online self.
blink and you’ll miss it
Media and the internet have evolved faster than the rate of comprehension, creating new norms and nuances that we could not have seen coming. Some of these changes happen overnight while others slowly erode the very fabric of the internet, and our contemplation of it. When it comes to changes online, blink and you’ll miss it. These variations are often not good or bad but are just different and we can explore some recent ones by looking into memes and slang two online expressions that can influence the way we interact.
To me, memes are the encapsulation of human existence in a visual, uncomplicated form. There’s an image, or two, a few lines of text, and suddenly you’re laughing at a picture that otherwise had little meaning. Memes can be reused, reduced, and recycled like any sustainable internet phenomenon and have brought about a new age of laughter and even political commentary. Alexis Madrigal says it best,
“in the end, the meme itself is powerful. It spreads to tens of millions of people. It makes one woman rich. It helps market soda (2018).” Because what are memes if not the culmination of creative and ideological expression? They may not be the most elegant way of communicating how much you hate Donald Trump, but these images are able to condense profound insights or passive opinions and spread them at a rate unimaginable. Many individuals who became internet sensations overnight dealt with ranging experiences from Ghyslain Raza facing immense “cyberbullying” and “death threats” to Laina Morris who “initiated her own Internet fame, and she has embraced every bit of it (Merrill 2015).” Instances like these show that there is a light and dark to the internet and that even seemingly harmless memes have great power.
I would argue slang is one of the most difficult languages to master, it’s not static and while there are some evolving guides, slang often varies depending on the demographic you are part of. It’s also a pretty universal experience to have a time when you just did not understand a reference, or think someone was speaking strangely but they were using slang you just didn’t know. The blame is not only on the uninformed though, apps like TikTok have an “interface (that) makes it difficult to link out to external information” a strategic tactic that has users, “digging through the comments for an explanation for something living rent-free in their heads (Weekman 2022).” For those wondering, I don’t know how to quite encapsulate what ‘rent-free’ means so I turn to Urban Dictionary to offer you assistance. Like memes these words also have powerful messages that often rely on a backstory that viewers must understand, often taking one word and inputting innuendos and layers to the point where the definition cannot quite set you on a straight path to understanding the slang. From fake accountants to relationship status nails, the internet can create neuro links that the average user can only take so much of. This said, having shared online experiences, words, and customs can create a culture that transcends traditional barriers of space and characteristics, a girl in Canada can suddenly relate on a deeper level to her counterpart across the world- a microcosmic feat of globalization. These transmissions of phrases do come with their problems, with “internet slang” … increas(ing) its influence over everyday language, …concerns about how those trends appropriate African American Vernacular English (AAVE)” are also prevalent in media (Thompson 2022). Policies on hate speech and appropriation can be used to mitigate such risks but in such an evolving landscape stopping such issues is easier said than done.
Memes and slang serve as examples for the case of internet evolution while also showcasing the dangers and benefits, in equal measure, of various platforms. It is up to us, the creators and curators of the internet, to use it responsibly.
Works Cited
Madrigal, Alexis C. “What Sorry to Bother You Gets Right about Memes.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 24 July 2018, https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/07/what-sorry-to-bother-you-gets-right-about-the-power-of-memes/565835/.
Merrill, Brad. “5 People Who Became Memes, and How They Reacted.” MUO, Make Use Of, 6 Apr. 2015, https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-people-became-memes-reacted/.
Thompson, Dillon. “Is the Internet Changing How We Talk about Slang Words?” In The Know, In The Know, 17 May 2022, https://www.intheknow.com/post/slang-words-tiktok-gen-z-linguist/?guccounter=2&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly9wb3NpZWwuY29tLw&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAACu2GNjkeKAqgad9gt8WcHdGUucEcsythL-jYIYKAbCOYs343vCDNLgsFAzP8axg4Aav6gBAyySmJmLM-3b2xhsJ0ngHiPKiYHIdltGdoe0mEHLW2HuARE-j3nO8xVS067t5n_WViVldWXWO3ZYJK6uH-0kjLIDIrYl7Epw0iMqR.
Weekman, Kelsey. “In the Know Glossary: Your Guide to Internet Slang, Trends and Celebrities.” In The Know, In The Know, 16 May 2022, https://www.intheknow.com/post/in-the-know-glossary/?utm_source=internallinks&utm_medium=internallinks&utm_campaign=internallinksglossary#letterv.
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Process Post #12 Writing After Dusk Community Guidelines
This week’s reading about comment moderation was interesting and made me think of how I wanted to regulate my website. As Konnikova (2013) claims” anonymity has also been shown to encourage participation; by promoting a greater sense of community identity, users don’t have to worry about standing out individually”. Therefore, I want to enable commenters to have the flexibility of posting anonymously or through their personal profiles. I want to ensure that Writing After Dusk is a safe space and community for people to connect, and I will do anything to support their needs and concerns. As a result, I will have open comments rather than banning comments since it can produce “less than desirable effects, including a diffusion of responsibility: you feel less accountable for your own actions, and become more likely to engage in amoral behavior” (Konnikova, 2013). I want my audience to communicate freely and passionately about what they think about what I’m writing, and I hope they engage with one another too. My writing will be read and reacted to and will help drive engagement.
Writing After Dusk Community Guidelines:
– Before posting, is it kind, thoughtful, and beneficial to hear?
– Hateful, racist, sexist, misogynist comments are prohibited
– Explicit, rude or aggressive comments are prohibited
– Respect and acknowledge other people’s opinions even if you do not agree
– Respect the privacy of other members
– Bullying, trolling, and harassment is not allowed
– Sharing/plagiarizing my work is not permitted without permission
– Spam and promotional content is not allowed
References:
Konnikova, M. (2013, October 23). The Psychology of Online Comments. The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/the-psychology-of-online-comments
Process Post: foodietj’s transformation 😁
I was at a social event for a club and we were put into teams of 4 for a game show. Out of the 3 people I was teamed with, I had only met 1 before during another event. As some of you know, I post on my Instagram stories whenever I have a new blog post up. I post a cute little picture and link my website, show the location of the restaurant, and add a little caption saying “check this out!” or something along those lines. It hadn’t been long since I posted, but the funniest thing was when the 1 girl I had met previously once before said “Oh Tara, I saw your blog on Icy Bar”. I’m not going to lie, it made me feel good. People actually saw what I posted and READ it. I wasn’t just posting and hoping people would view it, but I posted something and people READ it.
As I said, I post my newest blog posts on my Instagram stories (@tara.jacksonnn btw), and for the past month whenever I post, I get people liking my stories. Again, not lying, this makes me feel good. It makes me feel like people are supporting what I’m doing and actually like my work. THIS IS NOT BRAGGING AT ALL, BUT I have had so many people respond to my stories about how impressed they are with my website and how much work I put into it. They like my design, my comments, and even said they’ll check out the places I went to and that THEY would give me recommendations.
“Transmedia storytelling is a process. Elements of a fiction get dispersed across multiple media for the purpose of creating a coordinated entertainment experience” (Kevinbrittenylauren.wordpress.com, 2013). As I am able to post pictures and link my website to my stories, it allows me to disperse my blog across different medias (Instagram and Facebook). This allows for access to an audience I never had before. Without these medias, I would be a singular blog with maybe around a total of 50 people who viewed my website and 40 of them being me.
I am grateful for the experience I have had with this website. Being able to legitimately create my own platform that I haven’t been afraid of. I can post whatever I want, whenever I want, and most of all, I don’t have to care what people think. Although I may get some unwanted comments (not yours mom!), I am able to filter out what I want and don’t want to create my own food-loving platform.
References
Kevinbrittenylauren.wordpress.com. (2013, November 21). Pokemon as Transmedia Storytelling. Kevinbrittenylauren.wordpress.com. https://kevinbrittenylauren.wordpress.com/2013/11/21/pokemon-as-transmedia-storytelling/
Mini Assignment #5
A little infographic about KeptCollexion… aka my online self 
Mini Assignment #5 My Online Self
Process Post #11: Publics and Counter-publics
“networked publics are both the “space constructed through networked technologies” and the imagined collective that emerges as a result of the intersection of people, technology, and practice … [T]hey allow people to gather for social, cultural and civic purposes, and they help people connect with a world beyond their close friends and family” (Renninger, 2015).
Renninger (2015) highlights, “SNSs are not inherently good at fostering whatever kind of communication one wants to engage in at any given moment”. I can attest to this as I find reaching new audiences and readers incredibly hard. I have read thousands of ways to attract readers and have been doing the work by posting consistently (once a week on Medium/Thought Catalogue). I had a few loyal readers who would comment on my pieces, and I am ever so grateful for them, but my stats were falling short of where I wanted to be. Looking at stats can be toxic and depressing, so I wouldn’t say I like to do it often, but knowing which pieces people gravitate to the most is helpful. The four affordances of SNSs are “persistence (posts are recorded and archived), replicability (content is easily duplicated), scalability (visibility of posts is great), and searchability” (Renninger, 2015). Out of the four, I execute persistence and scalability fairly well by posting on a schedule and having aesthetic visuals to match the piece I wrote.
To incorporate more transmedia within my blog and to engage my audience, I can create Tik Tok account dedicated to my weekly content pieces of poetry/prose where I do weekly readings. In addition, I can create exclusive content on Tik Tok before it launches on my blog to encourage my followers to follow my journey on Tik Tok since it is such a big app with a broader audience and the ability to get more views. Further, I can create another Tik Tok account dedicated to book reviews on the creative process to generate a conversation and exchange book recommendations that could be featured on my blog. I can also make an Instagram account and easily transfer the Toks to Instagram reels to gain more views and help solidify my audience.
References:
Renninger, B. J. (2014). “where I can be myself … where I can speak my mind” : Networked counterpublics in a polymedia environment. New Media & Society, 17(9), 1513–1529. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444814530095
Process Post #12: My “KeptRules”
Reflecting on my site, my purpose is to create a safe and welcoming community. Therefore, to keep that statement I have come up with reasonable guidelines for users on my site to follow.
The list is as follows:
– Refrain from hateful/negative comments
– Consider appropriateness (my site is for all ages)
– To respect and support others
– Plagiarize of any work is not accepted
– If you want to borrow any content from KeptCollexion, you must ask for permission and acknowledge the original author.
– Don’t forget to share this space with your friends and grow the KeptCollexion community.
I think that the guidelines mentioned above are necessary as it moves the direction in where I want my site to go and how I want users to interact with each other.
We all know that the internet can be a dark place. In “The Psychology of Online Comments,” it stated that many users on the internet post anonymously and freely (Konnikova, M. 2013). This gives freedom to anyone to say anything online which can cause harm in some cases like online bullying. But it also stated that removing comments doesn’t really create a solution towards anything as it affects the way how people can connect, and takes away the motivation to build a community (Konnikova, M. 2013). Like how the article mentioned removing comments, I still want my audience to speak freely and share their thoughts as it drives engagement. Although, with that privilege comes limitations. I want KeptCollexion to provide a safe and positive space for users to share things they love, and I plan to keep it that way.
I plan to implement such actions by adding a small section on my site displaying the guidelines or publishing the text beneath my “about me” paragraph.
– Eliza (aka Peanut)
Reference:
Konnikova, M. (2013, October 23). The psychology of online comments. The New Yorker. Retrieved March 31, 2023, from
http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/the-psychology-of-online-comments
Mini Assignment #5
This week I was asked to create an infographic that summarizes my online self…
Publics and counter-publics – process post #11
n the article called “Where I can be myself … where I can speak my mind”: Networked counter-publics in a polymedia environment” by Bryce J Renninger. It goes on about how the public can be formed by social media. Publics are a group of people who are interested in a specific topic or idea, and on social networking sites (SNSs) publics and counter-publics could be formed very easily. The article goes on about how the public has been forming on SNSs, and one example of a public is the Asexual community. The Asexual community has been online for a while, and “…it was not until then that an asexual identity, named as such, came to be defined and codified.” (Renninger, 2014). The internet is a great place to grow, expand, and jumpstart ideas and communities since it can be accessed from most devices in the modern world.
Since the internet, there have been many social sites and chatting sites, one site that has grown greatly is a site called “Discord”. “Discord is a voice, video, and text chat app that’s used by tens of millions of people ages 13+ to talk and hang out with their communities and friends.” (Citron, 2015). Discord is a chatting platform, much like WhatsApp and telegram. Though notice how it is marketed towards a younger audience, which means the trends and topics which will be more popular will be different from other popular platforms. In the “discover” tab where people can join public open server chatrooms, Gaming servers such as Minecraft, and Roblox is one of the most joined. Offline vs online communities have very different properties, online is more accessible and anonymous, while in-person can be more engaging. Though everyone has their own opinion of which is a more effective one for engagement or accessibility
References:
Renninger, B. J. (2014). “where I can be myself … where I can speak my mind” : Networked counterpublics in a polymedia environment. New Media & Society, 17(9), 1513–1529. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444814530095
Citron, J. (2015). What is discord: A guide for parents and educators. What is Discord | A Guide for Parents and Educators. Retrieved March 29, 2023, from https://discord.com/safety/360044149331-what-is-discord
