The Power of COM336

I’m a Media Production major and I cannot overemphasize the importance of the knowledge and application of new media in todays changing world. If you use a computer for anything at all, own a mobile electronic device, have a task to promote of market anything or simply just watch television with an interest in current affairs, then you must have heard or come across social media at some point. Social media is literally new media, which is founded on the web 2.0 concept – all hands on deck.

This Web Publishing and Social Media course – COM 336 is not mandatory for my graduation. Besides this, I require only 120 credits to graduate and I’ve already earned 139. I had the option of taking electives, which will also fulfill graduation requirements, but I sensed the need to take this course and update my skills towards what will surely be required in the near future. Clearly, I went out of my path in taking this course. Now to the question of whether I gained what I was looking for in the course – I did. I wish I could even learn more, but a semester has just but a limited time span.

During the semester, we learnt and applied web 2.0 concepts in a number of ways. We practically created accounts for publishing to social media sites like BlogSpot, wiki sites, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. We then created content and we published. We were enlightened to know that since all hands were on deck, we will surely find unprofessional posts on such media and we also learnt what good practice is. We were also made to pick publushed posts to analyze and that helped me to understand what to guide against. We eventually learnt some fundamental HTML codes along with the fundamentals of designing our own website.

Altogether, I clearly endorse this course as useful to most communication students. We had an intense hands-on approach from our professor – Maria Pabico. We were made to work so hard and fast that I personally felt the pressure and reacted to it at times, but at the end, I believe the work paid off. What I believe I got is a good foundation. It’s now up to me to further build on what I’ve gained.

Interview Responses

How do you plan on self-promoting yourself?

Wale would like to wait till both the time is right and his projects are fully formed before promoting, but when he does he wants to make a “big splash” and incorporate all avenues of media. He wants his work to be well promoted while he personally stays as far as possible from being public. He will utilize every possible form of media available to promote his work. This includes the Internet and new media, television, radio, print and outdoor. He believes total saturation is best. 

Name three goals you have between now and graduation.

Unlike many college students Wale has paying off his bills as his goal while in school. With no financial burdens hanging over his head he can develop a sharp focus on his direction in life before graduating, which is another one of his goals as a student. Finally, while in college Wale wants to develop the skills required to fulfill his life’s passion.

What employment goals do you have after graduation?  Name three of them.

During the coarse of this answer it became apparent that Wale is a very selfless person and genuinely wants good for others, not for any recognition or financial returns. Wale want to get himself employed into a lifelong career of positively and selflessly affecting and changing lives. He also believes he needs to keep developing himself for this purpose as he goes along. Another ambition he hopes and plans for is for his work to be very popular while he personally remains almost anonymous.

Name three best-case scenario jobs you would like to have and why.

Wale would like to be a CEO. He wants to be in the position to call the shots. He also wants to be actively involved in video production and wants to be part of a production team in order to work on the field. This is the medium through which he intends to affect lives.

Do you prefer to work professionally with a group or on your own and why?

Wale prefers to work professionally in a group as he feels it allows him and the group as a whole to get things done faster and more efficiently. He also believes that through teamwork, individual specialization is greatly enhanced.

What contributions can you make to a group dynamic?  Name three things.

Wale sees himself as a leader who can guide a team and establish their direction. He also believes he can support the cohesion of a group by unlocking horns during times of misunderstanding by bridging gaps between members. Every group has its weak link and “a chain is only as strong as it’s weakest link.” Wale has had a much experience in supporting other group mates and handling lagging teammates’ responsibilities to forge a team ahead. He believes he can contribute that experience to any group he's part of. In other words he doesn't buy into excuses for team failure.

What contributions can you make working independently?  Name three things.

Wale believes he can make quicker deliveries while working solo and under solitary conditions. He also believes his outputs are bound to be better for the same reason. The aspect of production – post production – that he chose to specialize in, is one that does not require group work at its incubation. He also handles his own responsibilities without a burden of supervision on anyone else, which helps him be efficient while working independently.

What are your pet peeves?

Wale is not a fan of people unable to think deeper than their immediate experiences. He also hates to see people in the habit of thinking selfishly. To him, it literally means they are unable to see beyond their own horizon when they plan.

Name three things you feel passionate about professionally - this could be school related, current job related, group or organizationally related - and outline why you feel passionate towards them.

Clearly a fan of his chosen field media communication was his immediate response. He loves to see communication cause positive change. He also admitted the instant gratification of today’s connected world was a high point for him. He also is passionate about storytelling both in the traditional way as well as unorthodox methods new media allows. One other aspect Wale has passion for is the creativity applied to to anything whatsoever. He's not a big fan of conventions and stereotypes.

How do you handle stress and pressure?

Wale never falls victim of stress. His traits stem from keeping busy thereby not allowing himself time to feel stress. He however suspends whatever program is inducing pressure as a means of handling it. This he does after weighing the consequences.

Name the last three jobs you had, and the best success and the worst failure you experienced at each of these jobs.

True to form, Wale worked as a video editor with a media outlet during a youth camp he attended but it wasn’t until he started to work at TCA Media that he began to flourish in skills. Self employed as a freelance video/graphics producer, Wale also consulted for GoodFruit Videos in Lansing Michigan

Good moment – Thought GoodFruit Videos, Wale got to work with highly places clients in the society shortly after starting freelance work and they all expressed satisfaction and now reach out to him directly for projects as a freelance video/graphics artist.

Bad Moment – Personal and family pressures forced Wale out of freelance work and into other job that will pay the bills without the career satisfaction.

How do you handle criticism?

Wale likes being constructively criticized, because he takes correction from it. However, if he is criticized in any embarrassing manner, especially in public, he doesn’t take it lightly with the critic, but still manages to pay attention and to reevaluate it later on.

Name two things that you can criticize about the interviewer and constructively criticize.

Wale feels the interviewer asked one-too-many personal questions and sometimes deviated from the script, but that supported a conversational flow. Wale also thinks the interviewer was unpleasantly dominant, but believes it is a good quality of interviewers. It helps them to take charge of their interviews.

Outline three strengths you have in school.

Wale said he has practical design sense and work experience that helps him make complex things easily understood. His organization is a point of pride. His ability to manage resources is also something he thinks serves him well for now and into the future. As a third area of strength, he has also observed himself to have a very retentive memory.

Outline three strengths you have in your workplace.

Wale grasps processes quickly. He is also a team player and will carry teammates along with the qualities of a team leader.

Name three things - graphically -that you want to have on your website.

Wale plans to use soft colors that blend in an aesthetically pleasing way. He will also make use of some videos and other past works. There will be good alignment and spacing on his web pages. He intends to place all links and buttons where necessary.

Twitter and Micro-blogging

Blogging is broadcasting though a type of website or part of a website which is created to be updated with new content from time to time. Posts made when blogging, are usually referred to as articles. On the other hand, micro-blogging posts are not full-fledged articles, but are typically short pithy messages, made to groups of self-designated followers and these posts are referred to as tweets. According to the English dictionary, a tweet originally refers to the short, sharp, high-pitched sound made by birds. In direct speech, a tweet refers to what someone says in a cheerful or lively way. In both instances, the word tweet seems to be synonymous with a feature like, the headline, highlight, summary or subject of some writing, but not the body.

Micro-blogs can be sent from and received by a wide range of electronic devices. It has become the one-to-many version of instant messaging or text messaging, and therefore creates some unique advantages. Arizona State University journalism professor Dan Gillmor says journalists should view Twitter as a "collective intelligence system" that provides early warnings about trends, people and news. Now, news organizations and reporters adopt micro-blogging because it is fast and brief. This makes it ideal for pushing out exclusives or inside stories and breaking news.

Basically, both social networking and micro-blogging are aspects of social media. Micro-blogging creates the message while the social network connects the message to proponents. Micro-blogging requires the premise of a social network in order to effectively function. The idea is to have groups of designated followers. Just as it is important to create a network before communication starts, the network also requires effective forms of communication to help keep members engaged. This is where micor-blogging comes in. When users want to communicate to everyone on the network, they post such message at a general forum (or wall). To register on most micro-blogging sites, one only requires a few personal details in order to establish a personality behind their posts and users do not require any personal relationship in order to read the blog. Social networks like Facebook, on the other hand, require more personal information to make users findable by those seeking to make a connection and also thrives on updating these details.

One other difference between micro-blogging sites and purely social networking sites like Facebook is the demographics of users. Social networks in a bid to cause users to socialize with one another, is poised to optimize user online entertainment and so integrates many additional features and in the process, attracts a lower age demographic. Micro-blogging on the other hand attracts older, more serious demographics towards acquiring or posting pertinent information. According to Nielsen Online research, people age 35-49 make up about 42 percent of the total users and are the largest age-group on twitter – a micro-blogging site. This is an older demographic than the 25-34 age group that dominates the Facebook world.

I created my first Twitter account in August 2009. At the time, I had no use for the account. I created it because I realized that some of my mature friends in business had accounts and it might create one more avenue to connect with them. As a result, I was able to navigate through some of the features on Twitter, but I never really put it to good use.

Through this study, I now understand the power of micro-blogging. I plan to use twitter or any other relevant micro-blogging avenue to gather information and views on any media project that I work on in future. With it, I can also create common ground and use the same medium to gather and invite targeted individuals to participate. I specifically learnt one useful tip in utilizing this type of medium. Making contributions to on going – subject pertinent – conversations will effectively develop follower-ship better than starting up fresh conversations.

So far, Twitter poses a very useful tool in the area of journalism and politics. Journalists have used Twitter to acquire information on trending subject matters. For instance, the Oregonian in Portland posted links and aggregating citizen tweets about flooding and road closures during heavy storms in central Oregon in late 2007. Also, a federal judge endorsed Ron Sylvester of the Wichita Eagle’s use of Twitter to report on a trial of six suspected gang members, thereby posting instant tweets from inside a federal courtroom. (Farhi P., 2009).

From a political and organizational standpoint, subjective claims also indicate that Twitter and other social networks have been used to steer up revolutions. A classic example will be in the article titled – Iran: Downside to the “Twitter Revolution.” (Morozov, E., 2009). Other recent local and regional revolutions have also been partly attributed to the influence of the micro-blogging and social media in general.

This article has so far shown that the use of Twitter by far out-spans socializing. As a matter of fact, Twitter or micro-blogging is not really the best tool or avenue for socializing. Much of the feat that traditional media (i.e. radio, television, print) and even other electronic media has achieved, can equally be achieved on Twitter – with the added advantage of targeted communication, feedback and even trend observation. Sites like Tweetmeme.com, Tweetcloud.com and Twitscoop.com show the most popular links that people on Twitter have posted, track the hottest topics, and offer a real-time glimpse into what people are buzzing about. These are some clear advantages over a search site like Google from a journalistic standpoint.

On the new Twitter account I recently created, I addressed a broad range of current topics and suggested wise choices or great ideas regarding each topic. From my perspective, a focus on wisdom may not be the most engaging for the general public, but the aim was to target specific and influential individuals who matter. The included hash tags and links would help connect each tweet to these specific individuals in search of answers. The objective is to change perspectives and support positive thinking and not solely to generate responses and develop massive follower-ship. I nevertheless now understand how to use twitter to create the results I want.

  

Reference

Farhi, P. (2009, May 1). The Twitter Explosion  | American Journalism Review. American Journalism Review. Retrieved November 22, 2011, from http://www.ajr.org/article.asp?id=4756

Morozov, E. (n.d.). Dissent Magazine - Fall 2009 Issue - Iran: Downside to the .... Dissent Magazine. Retrieved November 22, 2011, from http://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/?article=1962

Web Design Evaluation

After reading through the article which highlights the essential principles of good web design, I began to see websites in a different light and critically evaluate their design to know if the purpose of the site is achieved by the design or not. After looking through 312 websites, I discovered atrocious designs that weren’t even worth evaluating because they even seem to lack purpose. I however found 10 notably outstanding ones, which seemed to have clear intentions and also defined themselves by their designs to fall within one of two categories – successful designs and poor designs. Let’s proceed to analyze each site in order to justify their classifications.

Successful Designs

• The International Picture House

At first glance at the home page of this website, you find harmony and so you want to stay and explore. Under careful scrutiny, the site probably followed every principle of achieving a functional and polished website. There is adherence to standards in that at the top left corner of all pages, an element of identity, which has a link back to the homepage, was placed to enhance orientation. If you also know the name of what you’re looking for on the site, the search tool on the top right comes in handy. The page is aligned and balanced while the spacing of elements and white spacing makes everything on the page very visible. Almost everything on the page is interactive (or usable) and gives feedback at rollover, which contributes to navigation.

• Planet with a purpose

Their logo alone on the top left corner tells me loads about the group and about their website. Displayed over the top of the homepage are alternative ways to reach them and stay connected. Nearly every element on the homepage is functional for navigation. There’s also good spacing between the elements and a consistent color scheme through the entire website – even surprisingly in the photographs. Their aim is to get visitors to be clear about their vision and to donate, and so the “donate” button wasn’t left out on the home page. If I was seeking for a good cause to support, this website just won my attention.

• Maryland Security Professionals

This website is clearly defined from the homepage and through all other pages with the logo on top to enhance orientation. It has a color scheme, which seems to reverberate even in the pictures. Elements are well spaced out with sufficient white space and also text spacing. There is a good degree of contrast between the background and the text in the foreground and the site follows standards. All menus can be located on the tabs in the menu bar. There is sufficient interactivity for good navigation.

• Vamizi Island – Mozambique

The pictures being rotated in the homepage represents a lot of words and says so much. For those who need a break fro the cold or winter, that homepage wins them over already. The items on the menu bar, contact information and all other information on the home page are usable and match what getaway-seeking visitors may be looking for on the site. The elements are also aligned for a somewhat polished look.

• Custom Toronto

This website represents a company that customizes promotional products and indicated on the home page. The design adheres to standards, as different elements can be located in expected parts of the page. The page has good usability and interactivity. Products with their specific prices are organized in a grid-type arrangement. The elements on the page are well spaced out.

Poor Designs

• George Hutchins for U.S. Congress

Where do we start? I really don’t know if I can continue to stare at this page long enough to get its distinct information, but in all honesty the site is a total disaster and visitors will leave feeling worse about the author and more confused than before coming.

• VideoSonic

The tab over this page indicated home. I doubt that was the intended page name. I also doubt there was any prototyping done after this site design. I clicked on some of the links and an unexpected document instantly started to download on my computer. I had to leave the site before a get my computer infected.

• Hosanna1.com

Honestly speaking, I can not look at this page long enough to get an understanding.  There were too many things flying around and text of all fonts colors and sizes splashed all over the screen. If the author paid anything at all to put up this site, then everything he paid can simply be considered a waste of money.

• Burlington National UFO Center

First error I noticed, the page title had all sorts of useful tags to it. That’s a wrong place to use tags. Now there are so many things going on in that page, but nothing seemed to have any harmony with the next. There are a number of grammar errors and many of the links on the page were not usable.

• Yvette's Wedding Dresses

The page title was actually “Yvette's Wedding Dresses Panama City Florida Yvette's Yvette's.” I won’t use this store, not will I advise anyone I know to do so. The site seems like an indication of what you might find when you get there. The page pixel measurement also won’t fit into any browser and require vertical and horizontal sidebars.

The Necessity of Communicating Groups and Events on Facebook

There are more than 800 million active users on Facebook. That is about 11.5% of the global population who constantly respond to and update their information on Facebook. From a communication professional’s standpoint, it is efficient practice to exploit already created audience concentrations rather than attempt to create one or divert their attention over to your platform.

On Facebook, groups can create a private space from where things you only want to share with a small set of people can be coordinated. Facebook events are a way for members of a group to let friends know about upcoming events in their community and to organize social gatherings. It is simply smart for any anyone intending to communicate with a group or to get participants for an event to start out on Facebook. Another reason why Facebook is a good option for communicating with groups or organize events is that it is a free alternative. There’s a good old saying that “the best things in life are free.” With Facebook, this saying comes alive.

In comparison to other means, Facebook makes communication easy, quick and organized. The conventional means of formal communication – by sending snail mail – is obviously not an option. It is not economical, not efficient or even at the lease, not quick. Using emails and/or other electronic means like text messages require a lot of work and every update of such content requires a separate communication.

Facebook groups, events, and the entire Facebook platform itself have so many features to offer. With Facebook, there’s a common venue for everyone to check in and find updates by themselves. As a Web 2.0 platform, each and every member of the group can open to make contributions and it updates to every receiver instantly. Facebook groups and Facebook events are very useful tools for group communication and event preparations.

Facebook and it's use in social media

I am currently signed up with Facebook or as people will generally say, I’m on Facebook. I first heard the term “Facebook” from my younger brother in a conversation sometime in 2006, when he casually used the brand name as a verb. That evening I got on the Internet and I found the site. I wanted to experiment by creating an account, but I had to fill out a form to do that. When it came to the question on what high school I attended, I started typing my school name and to my amazement, the full name popped up – as unknown as the school was. It didn’t end there. By the time I was through with answering the questions, it immediately brought up suggestions of friends I may know. Well, I knew all of them and was eager to reconnect with every last one of them. I was so amazed by how smart this web application was and how much more it could do for me. To the question of why I joined Facebook, I guess it’s safe to say curiosity.

Initially, I saw Facebook as a multipurpose tool. It had the potential to replace a number of my daily Internet operations. For instance, yahoo messenger satisfied my need for instant messaging at the time. It still does as we speak though because Yahoo seems to perform better – especially in poor connections. It replaced my need to ask friends what is going on with them because I could check on their activities, their location, current pictures, current status and so on all by myself. Most importantly, I noticed that all I need to do to find long lost friends was to stay on the network and they will keep being suggested to me or friends may even find me by themselves. These days however, Facebook increasingly seems very scary to me and it’s only a matter of time before I close my account. Every now and then there are updates to be accepted with a lot of legal adherence after which your privacy settings are automatically updated and it keeps getting more complicated than when it first started. In the hands of a wrong party with an agenda, the potential use of the huge data of information already created by this mega site is both destructive at the individual level and catastrophic at the communal.


I seldom socialize in the real world. It’s not that I don’t want to, but the avenues and time for socializing always seem a long way from my reach. Having said that, I assume Facebook as a high percentage contributor to my social presence. Before I found Facebook, the time was never right to start meeting people and as time went by, it became increasingly difficult to make true friends. So far, Facebook is the only avenue where my chance of becoming friends with a person becomes high just by remembering the person’s name and having common friends. However, I tend to play a passive role on Facebook even though my presence is registered. Apart from this, I still haven’t coined out a way to engage Facebook in my education or business. Most of my Facebook friends are simply personal friendships or relationships, who are taking the opportunity of a new avenue for reconnection.


People also use Facebook for reasons other than reconnections. Some individuals check out friends of their friends for prospective dates. Many individuals, businesses, non-profit organizations and others now use Facebook in public relations efforts and in fact, to part substitute for their use of the traditional media in promoting products, services or causes. Studies have shown that this means of communication is somewhat embraced by key marketing decision makers and is effective in reaching specific audience. This is because the medium targets specific audience. Still, Facebook allows you to “like” celebrities television shows and other events which enables you to follow them to receive status updates, about what episodes are airing, general and inside information which is unavailable to the general public.


Now, I’ve been having growing concerns about the privacy of information I put on Facebook. Facebook administrators as well as other concerned bodies constantly recommend for users to be discreet about the information they choose to include on the site, but certain personal information remains mandatory even for signing up on the site. It is a little disturbing to picture the person on the other end looking at my information. To make matters worse, all such inputs are made public by default, until the subscriber decides to activate certain privacy settings. Furthermore, hackers of all sorts continue to work at getting peoples information. The question of whether anyone’s personal information on Facebook remains private depends on the subscribers’ actions – not a default status, but the question of how safe this information is, is the subject of higher significance.


There are some rules of etiquette made to guide Internet users. In order to avoid a loss of privacy or awkward situations and since there are hardly any guidelines specific to social networks, I personally adapted some of those rules in posting information on social networks. These rules include, but are not limited to;

·               Being truthful in the information I provide about myself.

·               Being selective about the information that I share.

·               Considering the possible future consequences of any post I make on the Internet. I don’t post anything that I don't want my boss, future boss, current client, or potential clients to read.

·               Never posting when I am exhausted, intoxicated, angry, or upset.

·               Refraining from mixing personal and professional information in one same profile or using the same network for business and personal purposes.

I would recommend these same guidelines for every social network user, but more importantly to “think before they click.” Throughout my period of subscription on social networks, I haven’t experienced an awkward situations arising from posts I made.

Critique

Communication Video

The idea in this project was to present a self-profile with a communication theme. The video started by having someone wake up to check on a communication device which in my opinion sticks to the theme. It also used a similar action when going to sleep at the end of the day which makes for uniformity. In the midst of all sorts of equipment, basic information concerning the program of the day was not communicated, which is a twist that grabs my attention. It was very smart of the team to present themselves individually in their everyday lives, full of communication alternatives and yet lack effective communication. Another neat thing about the video was how they tend to cross each other’s paths in the connecting videos. That seemed to give the entire project a seamless feel between individual parts and consequently, a teamwork quality. Nevertheless, there is a matter in question from my perspective. There seemed to be so much of unnecessary shots in the overall video. If one is allowed only 90 seconds to illustrate communication and there is a means to edit the important details off, then each person cold still make more effective use of their portion of the video. There was quite a substantial aspect of all the video, that was distinctively unrelated to communication. Driving around or walking around the city are examples of such. Overall, the concept used to convey communication or the lack thereof was very creative.

Abstract Video

This video applied a very intelligent concept. The colors in the traffic light are not really abstract to us in our everyday lives, and the purpose for their use – which results from their cognitive effectiveness – is neither a strange phenomenon. However, the application of the concept gave room for the use of a huge achieve of ideas, which could culminate to each of the colors. I specifically liked the filmstrip used in Alexis portion and the dancer’s foot used in Lynda’s. One issue I would like to contribute to however is the excessive use of filters as against actual colors. I would suggest getting footage of actual items or scenarios in everyday life which coincide with the color to present and thereby reduce the attempt to use filters to transform other colors.

Separation Video

As simple as this video was, it sort of provokes deep thinking for the audience. There were metaphoric aspects of the presentation, which seemed to have deeper meanings especially indicated by the length of such scene before any transition. The music chosen also enhanced that feel. There was a disparity in Andrea’s separated lifestyles, which was effectively communicated by a change in the song when she got on the road. As regards a separation from her hometown, I like the way the IRELAND flag was edited to come up when the song got to the point saying “in my hometown.” The concept of “soldiers from the war” used on Kevin’s portion was splendid. The one thing I may criticize on this piece is the extensive use of still photographs and clips. I believe there were still lots to shot on camera and included to make the work more ingenious. Altogether though, the transition – walking to the table – that also served as ends to the individual parts created a very unique feel. Coupled with this, the transition video was resolved to black and white which made it look old yet cherished.