Tag Archives: Progress Posts

Community Guidelines

The site’s community guidelines will be centered around my community standards which are heavily informed by The Guardian’s community standards. These include:

  1. I acknowledge criticism of the articles I publish, but will defend my stance as these are simply my subjective opinions regarding topics.
  2. While I understand that some people feel strongly about certain topics, I will remove any comments that may be disturbing or threatening to others.
  3. I will not tolerate racism, sexism, homophobia, or any other form of hate-speech.
  4. I will remove any comments that are evidently commercial or spam.
  5. I welcome debate and dissent, and even personal attacks.

While most of these guidelines are inspired by The Guardian’s standards, the fifth and final guideline is rather unconventional. I will be offering an anonymous option in my comments section so that users of all walks of life feel comfortable participating — especially people that may need to hide their identity. For instance, my essay surrounding Iran’s recent protests may prompt Iranian citizens to comment; however, they may want to conceal their real names due to the regime’s violent crackdowns.

The fifth community guideline makes me think of the TED Talk we watched in class, “How I turn negative Comments into positive interactions”. The speaker expressed that anonymous users feel more comfortable to say what they want and to critique; however, this often leads to hate comments. I feel that while some people will critique my posts, I am open to criticism. As the speaker explained, “empathy is not endorsement”, and therefore, this creates a more open platform for dialogue.

On the other hand, this is simply a local photography blog so I honestly can’t say I’ll stir up any controversy. With that said, “you can’t exist as a writer for very long without learning that something you write is going to upset someone, sometime, somewhere” (Atwood, 2022, para. 7).

I will implement these guidelines by outlining them in a separate page. This way, users understand that their comments will be public and they can follow the standards. Also, having open interaction will allow me to document how people engage with certain topics. Comments coupled with Google Analytics will allow me to determine what kind of content is best for my audience. These tools will address the question: What does my audience want to see? Finally, while there is a contact page where people can directly request certain topics, I believe people are more inclined to comment organically as they engage with content. 

It’s been a pleasure creating this site — thank you! 🙂

Transmedia Integration and Channels

This week’s topic is centered around incorporating more transmedia integration and leveraging various channels for our blog. In Kevin Britteny Lauren’s blog (2013), they reference Henry Jenkins’ definition of transmedia storytelling which describes it as a process by which elements of fiction are disseminated across different media channels to enhance users’ experience.

They go on to quote Jenkins, “a transmedia text does not simply disperse information: it provides a set of roles and goals which readers can assume as they enact aspects of the story through their everyday life” (2013, para. 7).

Regarding YVRchives, I could certainly leverage this to create more accessible content that is disseminated in a more versatile way. The photography medium offers an opportunity to be easily shared on multiple platforms. While social media is the most efficient channel I could tap into, I think a unique form of transmedia would also be beneficial.

For instance, a video game could be a great way to create a story around Vancouver photography that people could easily integrate into their everyday lives. A few ideas I could pursue:

  • Matching the photo to the local artist
  • Vancouver trivia with photography attached to each question
  •  Speed snapshot the local photo

Finally, I could feature a place on my site that centers a virtual photography feed. This would be a dedicated page where my blog audience interacts and engages with the site. People can create their own content, remix other local artists’ work, and even screenshot other virtual content and share it with other users. This would be a great channel for users to access content, and participate with the media.

Furthermore, I’d share all this transmedia on social media channels to garner exposure. I would use hashtags to further disperse this information and integrate it into multiple platforms. This way, I could increase more traffic as well as engagement to my online publication.

References:

Kevinbrittenylauren.wordpress.com. (2013). “Pokemon as transmedia storytelling“

Analytics, SEO, & Audience Growth

The data Google Analytics provides is important because it supports a user’s specific goals. Its benefits derive from how a website owner chooses to use the data that it provides. It is important to have specific goals in place to optimize Google Analytics use. This versatile tool ultimately helps create better-informed decisions surrounding website engagement and marketing. So, if used correctly, Google Analytics helps grow a website’s audience.

A notable aspect of Google Analytics is its ability to uncover patterns and trends from website users. These trends reveal a lot about a website’s audience and not only informs increased viewership, but also fuels better user experience (Hollingsworth, 2018). I could use Google Analytics to optimize SEOs and ultimately create a more accessible site. This would make my site more efficient and help me achieve my blog’s goals.

To the same degree, mobile phones have created key mediums for accessing apps, games, and websites. According to State of Mobile (2022), in 2021, around 233 apps and games generated over $100 million dollars. Mobile phones have catalyzed more screen time than ever, which means more time that could be spent on websites and blogs. This also means more money spent on digital media, creating an opportunity for monetizing websites.

Finally, on the topic of tactics to ensure growing viewership, SEO is critical. Organic search is a huge source of blog traffic (Hollingsworth, 2018), making SEOs a fantastic tool to grow a website audience. SEOs build blog credibility, as well as give deep insight into site users’ behaviour (Hollingsworth, 2018). SEOs are a cost-effective tool that allows website owners to understand what their users really want.

How does this all apply to YVRchives? Well, this knowledge will allow me to leverage the plugins Google Analytics and Google AdSense. I can understand how to serve the best content to my audience as well as monetize my site through ads that will actually be useful for viewers.

References:

data.ai. (2022). State of Mobile 2022.

Hollingsworth, S. (2018). “12 Reasons Why You Business Absolutely Needs SEO.” https://www.searchenginejournal.com/why-seo-is-important-for-business/248101/#close

Digital Breadcrumbs

There’s a saying that goes: if the product you’re using is free (in this case social media), then you are the product. This could not be more true with the rise of data trails and targeted analytics. Dr. Elisa Oreglia explains that a “digital trail” is essentially like breadcrumbs we leave behind when using our smartphones, our laptops, as well as social media (2016). Beyond just scrolling through apps and explicitly engaging with them, our phones have “a series of censors and [we] have this constant background communication between the phone and cell towers”, but also between the internet and our apps (Pod Academy, 2016, para. 13). So, we’re constantly giving away information about our environment, and ourselves.

While this is initially alarming, given that at first glance, it’s pretty exploitative. I’d argue there are more benefits than costs here. I’m personally not worried about my data trails and I don’t try to minimize my footprint. This is because I’m pretty neutral when it comes to targeted ads and companies using my data to better understand me. I think acknowledging that this is the case is helpful in spotting these attempts to exploit me. On the flip side, it’s sometimes helpful for me when what I’m looking for pops up on my feed!

I also think there are more benefits in this double-edged data sword. Analytics are an extremely valuable tool. It’s not just massive companies that leverage our data trails, smaller creators benefit too! Digital creators and artists can use these data tools to build and develop an audience. They can understand their readers better to serve them better. I’d argue, everyone wins here. As long as there is education around the fact that some will try and exploit this data, there isn’t anything necessarily worrisome about data trails.

Media literacy and data trail knowledge is important now more than ever. Understanding that people will try and mold behaviour or influence our decisions is critical in avoiding the pitfalls of these digital breadcrumbs. However, knowledge is key and will help us access the power of these tools. This will also hopefully lead to the leveling of the digital playing field.

References:

Pod Academy, (2016). “Digital breadcrumbs: The data trail we leave behind us.” http://podacademy.org/podcasts/digital-breadcrumbs-our-data-trail/