Category Archives: Projects

ePortfolio #FAIL

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The idea of having the opportunity to design my e-portfolio to my specifications was exciting. I knew what I was going for and I couldn’t wait to get started. I knew I wanted to start with a color scheme that was both simplistic and minimal but because of the themes,  I was limited to what I could do.

However, the work I had to put in, in order to make my vision come to life was beyond frustrating. Nothing was working for me at all and I felt myself going in circles with trying to put my page together. I thought my e-portfolio would be the best way to brand myself rather than having to resort to a social networking site but I struggled continuously. I definitely need help because I’ve realized I can’t do it alone. Hopefully,  with time and with much needed help, I can get my e-portfolio to where I want it to be and it can be something I am proud of.

Because I don’t participate in many social networking sites, I want to successfully display my e-portfolio that will be beneficial towards my future and maybe even my career goals. Moving forward,  I plan on doing this by:

  • Picking a theme that works for me; a theme that will allow me to structure my work in a way that is easy for viewers to navigate.
  • Using (good) images; I am not a photographer whatsoever but people associate a good photo which helps draw viewers attentiontherfore,  it would hurt to include some visuals in my e-portfolio.
  • Filling my e-portfolio with my best content/work
  • Keeping it up to date
  • Connecting via social media platforms

 

E-portfolio .. The Beginning

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Creating a perfecting my e-portfolio was a process, having OCD made me super detail oriented and I poured over making it just right. Though it will never be “done” I will say I am happy that it’s on an upward path. I have changed the theme half a dozen time moved and reorganized content and played with all the settings and widgets I could find. After toying around myself and getting rather frustrated because I kept wrecking the home page I went to seek some help, first in the Itech lab on the sixth floor and then with Professor Belli.

The tech lab had some helpful tips to making the pages easier to manage when you’re brand new to the site and he was also able to reset the menu bar which I managed to mangle. The lab is good for quick tips and fixes but as Professor Belli mentioned it’s probably better to seek out the open lab team for all the widgets and plug ins because for I for the life of me could not get the twitter plug in to work right.

Today I went and met with Professor Belli to discuss content revision and placement and she also tried to help with the elusive twitter widget, to no avail though so ill be visiting the open lab team. I also learned how to customize my menu bar and make functional categories so my content can be grouped similar to how our class page is. Learning a few tips and tricks were helpful but I want to learn more about open lab and the features of it so I am able to maximize its benefits.
(added 11/17)When creating my about me I aimed to highlight my background info, where I came from, the important things about myself and my academic and career goals and then finally my hobbies. I aimed to make my professional stance known but also give myself a human side. By adding hobbies it shows what I enjoy and what balances my work and school life out.

Overall I think it’s a good way to keep track of your work and what potential employers may want to see or be looking for. I will add that i got my content to be featured on my twitter so thats pretty cool and i’m hoping it will gain some exposure. I think it would be helpful though if categories came pre populated and we were able to rename and use them so we don’t have to muck through so many different settings to get them to work. Meaning similar to how the pages come set up the categories should too. AND like i’ve said since practically day one I would love it if this site had its open app or at least was able to be signed into via the word press app. Being able to move and view content mobile would be huge! I plan on adding content both for classes as well as my own preference to showcase the best abilities i have both academically and personally and i’m hopeful that in conjunction with my twitter project that I will be able to share my content more freely.

E-Portfolio Revamping

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While it is still a work in progress, my attempt to revamp my ePortfolio was successful. I like having the ability to control the aspects of the ePortfolio specifically what to share and how to organize it, and with help from the lab, I was able to change the theme and customize some of the headings. I wanted to have a welcome address as the first thing seen so I created a welcome message on the home page. I also created a mission statement, reflecting my ethics and personality, which I added as a tab. Other tabs I added are a blog tab and a course tab. Under the course tab heading, I added two my two writing courses.

The theme I chose is Twenty Eleven: 2.1. I like that it comes with a showcase page template that I intend to upload my own images to in the future. Under courses I have added ENG 2700 and ENG 2720, each having assignments tags. I intend to post selected assignments under the headings. Under the career heading I have added blogs resume and accomplishments. I intend to add my professional accomplishments in this section. I also changed the color of the welcome address text to blue and intend to experiment more with color. Unfortunately, I found out that I cannot change the font style or size.

Although I gained a lot of helpful tips to make my ePortfolio more interesting and look more professional, I am still far from satisfied with the content and appearance. Part of the problem is that I do not have a full concept at this time. It will take time to explore design, develop concepts, and that added that, the learning curve.

Nevertheless, I am looking forward to spending time working on my ePortfolio because I know the importance of having a quick representation ready to go if there is a job potential. Also, through commenting and blogging, it’s another way for to communicate with others through discourse and writing interaction.

 

 

Let’s Just Say My E-Portfolio is Still Under Construction.

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Working on customizing the e-portfolio has honestly been one big giant headache. Not being familiar with the platform has caused me to time and time again start over. The first problem I encountered, was not being able to match the way I imagined my academic platform to the limited themes that were to choose from. I found it frustrating to begin the process so late and only have such a limited amount of time to come up with a vision. I was hard to figure out what was best for a project when I did not have a great direction of how exactly I wanted the project to look.

This experience not only frustrated me but challenged me due to the fact that customizing the chosen theme did not come with exactly instructions on how exactly to change the header. The easiest part of the customization process was choosing plug-ins and enabling widgets. The rest of the process strongly needed a tech or someone who was knowledgeable of to maximize the allowances of the platform.

The over all design and concept has taken some shape of my E-portfolio is still under construction. I am still having a hard time editing and customizing the attributes of my chosen theme, however I do believe that my chosen theme fits the concept of my project. I hope to keep editing and building this to completely fit the project and all it encompasses.

Annotated Bibliographies

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Becker, Joshua. “7 Important Reasons to Unplug and Find Space”. becomingminimalist. Becomingminimalist, n.d. Web. 11 Nov 2015.

Becker established the notion that users of technology and its various networking media related sites cannot disconnect themselves or in a way becoming unavailable from them. In the article, Becker stipulates that together we have all forgotten that there is the option to power-off and remove ourselves from technology and these mediated spaces. Becker goes onto stating the various reason as to why we should remove ourselves from the presence of technology and also the way in which it benefits us, for example, “Powering-down combats the fear of missing out”.

This connects to my project because as mentioned the project will honing in on not only the physical changes becoming unavailable has on an individual but also the psychological effects as well. This article correlates with the proposed theory and goes onto supporting and giving detailed descriptions as to how unavailability effects our ability to participate and engage with others, things, and places outside social media.

Chiou, Wen-Bin, Lee, Chun-Chia, & Liao, Da-Chi. “Facebook Effects on Social Distress: Priming with Online Social Networking Thoughts Can Alter the Perceived Distress Due to Social Exclusion.” Science Direct (2015): 230-236. Web.

“Facebook Effects on Social Distress: Priming with Online Social Networking Thoughts Can Alter the Perceived Distress Due to Social Exclusion”, ventures on the premise to explore social networking sites (SNS) and how they either interfere with peoples interpretations of social exclusion experiences such as disconnecting from these sites. The experiment conducted in this article goes onto indicate that the disconnecting act or loss of online social networking caused the test subjects the feelings of distress. This experiment went onto prove that the connection with SNS’s also influence how people interpret information, connection amongst other, and the act of participating as well.

This article will allow my project to not only justify claims but use already gathered data to nullify presented claims on these very topics mentioned. This article will provide my research with strong examples of how SNS encourage changing behaviors of participation and attention but go as far as to change the psyche of a person to believe that if they were to disconnect of becoming unavailable from a SNS that they would be missing out on not just a potential source of social reconnect but viable information needed to be in connection with people, places, and things.

 

Cohen, James & Kenny, Thomas. “Creativity in the Online Environment.” Cohen, James & Kenny, Thomas. Producing New and Digital Media. Burlington: Focal Press, 2016. 10-44. Print.

“Creativity in the Online Environment” by Cohen and Kenny offers insight into various components of how to cultivate an online following and how to engage in certain SNS platforms. However, the part of the chapter that offers the most information pertinent to this research project is the section, “Participation in the Online Environment”. This section is a critical turning point in the chapter because it helps to understanding how much it takes in order to be considered a part of a discourse community.

This chapter and section will help to create more understanding of the project because it will help to show that by disconnecting from SNS not only effect participation, but understanding, creativity, and connection. This chapter will also be helpful in making the idea clear that participation is defined differently on social media than it is else where.

 

 

Ferrara, Emilio, and Zeyao Yang. “Measuring Emotional Contagion In Social Media.” Plos ONE 10.10 (2015): 1-14. Academic ;Search Complete. Web. 16 Nov. 2015.

Ferrara and Yang’s article, on “Measuring Emotional Contagion in Social Media” is an experiment measuring how content created online circulates and the way it changed how it impacts others emotions which goes onto to change how they interpret their surrounding people and things. This experiment embarked on premise that emotions created online are in a way spreadable in such a way that it takes on both negative and positive attributions as it circulates online. As mentioned in the article, the experiment raises ethical concerns due to its nature being a manipulation of people’s emotions as to accurately test the hypothesis of how social media influences emotions.

This article will help to justify the claim in the undergoing research project of the impacts social media has on the interpretations of people, places, and things. The article is a good source in helping establish the foundation for the research in the way it highlights that interaction online alters behavior and emotions. This will in turn help to further the research in helping to highlight the fact that it is SNS that change the way people express themselves and ultimately change the way they interpret emotions.

 

Jones, H. Rodney & Hanfer A. Christopher. “Attention Structures.” Jones, H. Rodney & Hanfer A. Christopher. Understanding Digital Literacies. New York: Routledge, 2012. 83-97. Print.

Jones and Hanfer’s take on “Attention Structures” allows their audience to understand all the parts of an internet that effect a persons ability to multitask and such forth. The chapter goes into deep detail about specific concepts such as cast switching, dual activity, and continual partial attention. All of these contribute to how the attention of individuals share or divide their attention in their space online. The way by which we grow and engage depends on the amount of time we spend giving certain allocations online different amounts of time. Attention structures online create a profile of your engagement and in turn creates a schedule of how one divides their attention.

This article is useful in providing a background of how an audiences attention structures are initially divided. In conducting an experiment of disconnecting oneself from SNS then there could be a record of how attention structures change and therefore give concrete evidence that a disconnect can and therefore will alter these structures.

 

Lee, Singyin. “Hongkait Techbology Design Inspiration.” Get Off The Internet: A  Challenge to Reconnect With Yourself. N/A: Hongkait, 2012. Web . 6 Nov 2015

Lee’s article presents the idea of how disconnecting from online participation can open yourself to reconnecting with yourself. As introduced in the article the internet has taken over our lives. When not present in front of a computer we still find a way by either tablet or cell phone device to connect and participate online. This has become a problem and has gone on to create problems in our personal lives. We have been connected for so long through these mediated mediums that when we are to disconnect we feel anxious and perhaps even worry. In this article, Lee proposes ways to her audience in which they can disconnect from the web in order to find themselves once more.

This article connects to the research project that I will be conducting due to the fact that it gives support to claims made in the project such as attention structures, health (psychological), and participation with people, places, and things. The article also helps to raise more questions for the project daily vlogs such as: how does this disconnect challenge your originality? This article will help the project to emphasize key points and build upon ideas already presented.

 

Turner, Anthony. “Generation Z: Technology And Social Interest.” Journal Of Individual Psychology 71.2 (2015): 103-113. Academic Search Complete. Web. 16 Nov. 2015.

“Generation Z: Technology and Social Interest” by Anthony Turner highlights the special relationship that the Generation Z (children born from 1993-2005) has with technology– especially social media. The article thoroughly examines the livelihood of generation Z in conjunction with their attachment to their smartphones and social networking sites. The article also deeply investigates considerations such as demographics which play a big part in how much time generation Z spends engaging with social media. The article goes onto highlight that it is the development through these mediated mediums in which children of generation Z face the struggle of coping with detachment, and their ability to develop and practice social interests which means to actively participate without the need for mediation.

This article can help provide not only fundamental proof that social media has in fact changed the way by which we interact with others but also the way by which generation Z develops. The article is also very useful in the way that it gives causes and effects of the interaction with social media. The article helps this research to further elaborate that a disconnection from social media networks will ultimately cause changes in psychological behavior, attention, and participation because of how attached one becomes with social media networking sites.

Wagner, Lori Ann. “When Your Smartphone Is Too Smart For Your Own Good: How Social Media Alters Human   Relationships.” Journal Of Individual Psychology 71.2 (2015): 114-121. Academic Search Complete. Web. 16 Nov. 2015.

Wagner’s article, “When Your Smartphone if Too Smart for Your Own Good: How Social Media Alters Human Relationships”, addressed the fact that humans have moved into the age where they prefer to interact via mediated communications such as SNS. The article makes the claim that in a sense humans have evolved from being the social creatures they once were however now they prefer to have a relationship through their devices. These devices have allowed people to connect in such a way that does not mirror the five senses which in turn has altered how they interact with people.

The article stipulates that through a mediated media are humans more trusting, interactive, engaged, and willing to participate whereas off of online SNS’s there is a hesitation in actions of participation and attention. This article helps the proposed research project by giving concrete evidence to back up claims made about attention and participation structures. Also, the article helps to entertain and praise the idea that the way people interpret people, places, and things are altered by way of SNS’s and other mediated communications. This article will help to give more clarity to just how much interaction has changed due to SNS.

 

Reflection

I found this exercise to be both helpful and overwhelming. My past experience of doing an annotated bibliography was in terms of doing a analog research paper. In this case I found it to be outdated for the type of project expected at the end. Although, it did enable me to think critically of how I will be using these documents it also caused me to become side track from the actual composite of my project.

I think that even though it was helpful, it was not for this project. It should expected that we conduct this type of analysis. All in all the experience was okay due to the fact that it allowed me to structure my project more and define more key points.

Annotated Bibliography of SEO

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“About Search Engine Land.” Search Engine Land. Web. 12 Nov. 2015.<http://searchengineland.com/about>.

Search Engine Land, overseen by Matt McGee the Editor-in-Chief, provides an in-depth explanation of the ranking of search engines and how the operate. The article claims that search engines want people to perform search engine optimization (SEO) because it can help improve their search results. Furthermore, the article claims that content quality, keyword usage, and regular updating of the content, factor in the success of having a webpage and make the top results.

This article is relevant to understanding search engines and how they rank websites. It depicts the factors that will help websites gain more visitors from organic searches. The article wants the readers to associate the features of webpages with search rankings and make direct correlations to determine how to increase them. This is useful in formulating a comparison between content and webpage ranking and determining which features of websites and webpages are associated with higher search rankings. Although it may be hard to test the factors for the effectiveness of SEO, it can help in evaluating rankings.

“How Search Engine Optimization Works.” HowStuffWorks. 17 Jan. 2008. Web. 12 Nov. 2015.

<http://computer.howstuffworks.com/search-engine-optimization.htm>.

How Stuff Works provides a general overview of search engine optimization and how it is used in two philosophies: the white hat approach and the black hat approach. The white hat approach refers to the usage of optimization strategies, techniques and tactics that focus on a human audience opposed to search engines. By contrast, the black hat approach refers to the use of aggressive search engine optimization strategies, techniques and tactics that focus only on search engines and not a human audience, and usually does not obey search engines guidelines.

This article is useful for understanding why search engine optimization is vital for anyone looking to make money on the internet and explains how having more visitors translates into more money. While some of the techniques might be questionable, the article is further useful in explaining why some large companies are willing to spend a considerable amount of money on search engine optimization consultants to increase the ranking of their company. The article is also helpful at revealing some of the challenges in search engine optimization approaches to find the right balance that satisfies both the visitors to the webpage and search engine spiders.

“How to Measure Website Performance and SEO Rankings.” HermesThemescom How to Measure Website Performance and Track Search Engine Rankings Comments. 14 Dec. 2014. Web. 12 Nov. 2015.<http://www.hermesthemes.com/measure-website-performance-track-search-engine-rankings/>.

As founder and lead developer at HermesThemes, Dumitru Brinzan article, “How to Measure Website Performance and search engine optimization Rankings.” discloses some of the tools and services used to analyze websites and track loading speed, performance, online presence & search engine rankings. Brinzan advices his readers to daily analyze aspects of their website’s performance as there is always something that can be tweaked and improved. Brinzan also advices his readers to monitor the performance of their main competitors as checking what they did to accomplish high ratings can be used to improve their own search engine rankings.

This article offers some useful tools that help in identifying and discussing strengths and weaknesses of websites performance and internet visibility. When investigating factors that increase a website’s ranking, it is useful to include a cross analysis of other websites with similar style and content that stand out from the competition. Evaluating the success rate of websites with high search engine rankings help to exam the concepts of search engine optimization and the contributing factors attributed to them.

Mason Gray, Chloe. “5 Things You Need to Know About Social Media & SEO.” 5 Things You Need to Know About Social Media & SEO. Web. 12 Nov. 2015.<https://blog.kissmetrics.com/social-media-and-seo/>

Chloe Mason Gray article, “5 Things You Need to Know About Social Media & SEO.” professes the importance that companies and agencies place on social media in regards to their search engine optimization strategy. Despite Google’s Matt Cutts having released a video which says that social signals do not affect search rankings, Mason Gray is confident that social profiles matter to Google and especially to people searching online. She wants marketers to see the value of having a profile with up-to-date info and engaging content and broaden their concept of search and search engine optimization to take into account the many ways people find content on the web.

This article is useful for evaluating whether social media influences searches and thus, play a role in search engine optimization. Although any research on the topic of search engine optimization should be critically analyzed, it is clear to Mason Gray that social media plays an important role in a person’s online presence. Therefore, the claims in the article support the viewpoint that an online presence through social media is important to consider implementing because of its added value to branding. The claims can also be used to argue the point that increasing social media presence can increase one’s search engine ranking.

 ” Web Directories and Specialized Search Engines.” Web Directories and Specialized Search Engines. Web. 15 Nov. 2015.

<http://www.webconfs.com/web-directories-and-specialized-search-engines-article-18.php>.

Although Google is widely recognized and used, specialized search engines are also an important aspect of search engines. Webconfs defines specialized search engines as a tool to include in a search engine optimization arsenal (an array of resources available for a certain purpose). As an alternative search to generic search engines, specialized search engines are selective about what part of the web is crawled and indexed. Even though not all the databases meet the standards of what users expect in a return search, a search engine which is specialized in a particular topic usually generates a better quality of results than a generic one.

Including specialized search engines in a research project is useful in defining the difference between the generic searches and specialized searches. Webconfs identifies the benefits of applying a more comprehensive search to find almost anything and advises on choosing the right search engines. Specialized search engines can save time as many gather useful sites from user submissions rather than through the normal spider/robot process.

“What Is Search Engine?” What Is Search Engine? Web. 15 Nov. 2015.<http://www.computerhope.com/jargon/s/searengi.htm>.

Founded in November 1998 in Salt Lake City, Utah, by Nathan Emberton, Computer Hope explains that a search engine is a software program or script available through the Internet that searches documents and files for keywords and returns the results of any files containing those keywords. The article also illustrates the correlation of search engines to a spider/crawler which automatically visits pages and indexes their contents. As data is collected, it is used to rank the page and is the primary method a search engine uses to determine if a page should be shown and in what order.

Any comprehensive research of the optimization of search engines should include an synopsis of what search engines consist of. In addition, to understand how search engines can be influenced to rank webpages higher, it is important to also know how it functions. Computer hope provides information on both what a search engine is and how if functions and includes its various algorithms (a list of instructions, procedures, or formulas used to solve a problem).

Annotated Bibliography Reflection

Thinking about my sources in respect to their usefulness is not a new concept to me but actually laying them out in an annotated format is. In all my history of writing, I was never asked to annotate a bibliography and never knew exactly what it meant. That being said, I am a believer in annotating and found this to be an important and necessary part of my bibliography. I also welcome the opportunity to participate in this exercise as it contributes in the value and credibility of my project.

I had never thought about a bibliography being anything other than a list or that it could stand on its own but this exercise has opened my eyes to that fact. Annotating my sources provide more meaning to them in a way that helps define the scope of my project. Deciding how the sources contribute to my thesis was my initial step in determining which ones to choose. My chosen sources are primarily based upon my intended arguments or points of view. Each source addresses a different point and therefore is streamlined according to value and usefulness. After choosing a source. I focus on specific research questions that help frame my thesis.

Some of my research questions are:

  • What did the author want to accomplish and was the goal achieved?
  • What method(s) did the author use?
  • How credible is the author and what sources did he/she use?
  • What is the point of view of the author and does the source support my argument?

This exercise on annotating bibliographies has changed the way I view and participate in writing. It calls me to take a more critical analysis when choosing sources and to know that evaluating a source is on what is being said is an important skill to become familiar with and master. I can see how using this tool has already enhanced my intellectual capacity to read intelligently and communicate cogently. Being able to provide a concise exposition to readers is my goal and the technique of annotating contributes to that outcome. I also find that I can apply the same concept to anything I read, see, or listen to.

Annotating my bibliography has helped me to formulate my content. By summarizing the sources and describing why the source are useful for researching, I was able to

The main and topic of my project is search engine optimization. The idea is that websites can be influenced to improve search engine rankings. Other key terms are:

  • Spider (A program that visits websites and reads their pages and other information in order to create entries for a search engine).
  • Black Hat SEO (refers to controversial SEO methods used to acquire higher Web page search engine rankings).
  • White Hat SEO (refers to SEO strategies that aim to build a quality website over the long term by focusing on the website’s audience).

 

Are You Creating the Right Image for Yourself Online?

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We live in a society with very public platforms for the distribution and preservation of our personal image online. Social media affords us the opportunity to be front and center in our very own curated editorial spread. The way we interact with our families, our work persona and the various discourse communities we are associated with, all contribute different aspects of our personalities. However, we may question whether we should project our real personality online.

“Perhaps the most important digital literacy associated with social networking sites is being able to engage in effective practices of self presentation and impression management in different situations and with different people” (Jones & Hafner 152). Impression management refers to the act of facilitating the information one reveals about oneself in order to illustrate a particular social identity. Someone like me who sees a person with multiple social media accounts, would generally think that the content the user decides to share may be putting on a facade or trying to save face by acting differently on multiple social media platforms but that just may not be the case.Reading Cohen and Kenny, I’ve come to a realization that, many social media platforms on the web,  each has its own method for participation and communication with other users.

The purpose of my project is to show how effectively or ineffectively users of social media present themselves online and what exactly drives an individual to portray themselves the way they do. My project will address the following questions:

  • What roles do people adopt in different social media platforms?
  • Why people may or may not present themselves honestly on their social media accounts
  • What is the driving force behind having more than one social  media account? Why not stick to only one?
  • To what extent do individuals regard their self presentation using their social media account to be authentic and honest reflecting themselves in their daily lives?
  • To what extent do individuals participate in exaggerating, idealizing, or completely lying on their accounts?
  • How many social networks are people on?  How many are they active on?
  • How to properly present yourself online with detailed instructions and reasoning for the method of procedure
  • The demographics of social media users

In order to get the project off the ground, I intend to interview as many people as possible asking questions such as:

  1. How do you think you present yourself on your social media platform? (With the intent of viewing it for myself to compare/contrast to the answer they’ve given me)
  2. What made you present yourself this particular way on your social platform?
  3. If you could change the way you present yourself online, would you take that opportunity? Why or why not?

In interviewing multiple people,  I hope to deliver in my project an e-book/e-magazine that provides a “How to” guide of properly presenting oneself on social media with all the research and information I’ve gathered.

Sources so far include:

Is Your Social Media Presence an Accurate Portrayal of Who You Are?

The Social Media Effect: Are You Really Who You Portray Online

The Presentation of Self in the Age Social Media

Self-presentation and belonging on Facebook

Understanding Digital Literacies: A Practical Introduction- Jones & Hafner

Producing New and Digital Media: Your Guide to Savvy Use of the Web- Cohen & Kenny

 

[Previous version: recovered / copied & pasted by Professor Belli, from post Revision history: some formatting may be off]

“Perhaps the most important digital literacy associated with social networking sites is being able to engage in effective practices of self presentation and impression management in different situations and with different people” (Jones &amp; Hafner 152). Impression management refers to the act of facilitating the information one reveals about oneself in order to illustrate a particular social identity. Someone like me who sees a person with multiple social media accounts, would generally think that a user is putting on a facade or trying to save face by acting differently on multiple social media platforms but that just may not be the case.

Reading Cohen and Kenny, I’ve come to a realization that, many suicidal media platforms on the web,  each has its own method for participation and communication with other users. Therefore,  the practice of presenting yourself online within various platforms may be necessary and generates discourse communities within these social media sites.

The purpose of my project is to show how effectively or ineffectively users of social media present themselves online and what exactly drives an individual to portray themselves the way they do. My project will address the following questions:

What roles do people adopt in different social media platforms?

Why people may or may not present themselves honestly on their social media accounts

What is the driving force behind having more than one social  media account? Why not stick to only one?

To what extent do individuals regard their self presentation using their social media account to be authentic and honest reflecting themselves in their daily lives?

To what extent do individuals participate in exaggerating, idealizing, or completely lying on their accounts?

How many social networks are people on?  How many are they active on?</li>

Because of the technological and digital world we live in, “maintaining a public presence on an online social network is some extent becoming part of being a ‘normal’ and legitimate person in some societies and social groups” (Jones &amp; Hafner 156). With that being said,  the goal of the project is to inform others on the greater advantages of using social media whether they chose to participate in the platform or not. This project is also for myself in understanding why people are always encouraging me to make an Instagram account even though they can’t explain to me why I should. Hopefully I will gain insight on the purposes of social media other than what I think its purpose is for.

Sources so far include:

Understanding Digital Literacies: A Practical Introduction- Jones & Hafner

Producing New and Digital Media: Your Guide to Savvy Use of the Web- Cohen & Kenny

Critical Evaluation of Visual Rhetoric

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Hariman, Robert and Louis, John
Visual Rhetoric, Photojournalism, and Democratic Public Culture
Rhetoric Review, Indiana, 2001
Web
Summary:
The article “Visual Rhetoric, Photojournalism, and Democratic Public Culture” by Robert Hariman and John Louis analyses how Rhetoricians have traditionally directed their attention on the power of  words in a ever-changing digital space. The assessment provides an insight to the role that iconic photographs are portrayed within American culture. Many photographs reflect a unique visual literacy, which shape our understanding towards specific events in each of our lives. By doing so, visual images tend to influence behavior, identity, but they are paramount  in photojournalism as we shift into the twentieth-century.
Critical analysis:
The article is useful for providing unique perspective photojournalism and suggest how iconic images can affect the viewers emotional reservations. Although, visual images intensifies the visual experience of a viewer, it can present a unwarranted challenge.
Perhaps this could be useful to think about the visual structures and their positioning in American culture.

Search Engine Land

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“About Search Engine Land.” Search Engine Land. Web. 12 Nov. 2015.
<http://searchengineland.com/about>.

Search Engine Land is a daily publication that covers all aspects of search marketing industry and is overseen by Matt McGee, the Editor-in-Chief. The site features an article about search engine optimization. The article provides an overview of search engines and how the operate. In doing so, discussed are the three major groups that make up a website: on-the-page SEO, off-the-page-SEO, and violations.

This article is relevant to the understanding of search engines and how they rank websites. It also provides an understanding of how to improve a website’s ranking.

Annotated Bibliography Reflection

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Rampton, John. “25 Ways to Grow Your Social Media Presence.” Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 29 Sept. 2014. Web. 12 Nov. 2015.

The overview of this article is apparent by the name, the intended purpose is to provide users with strategies and concepts to increasing their online presence. Rampton highlights the need to produce relevant content, post often and with engaging tags and to remind users you are human. By staying up to date on current events and what’s online you’re more likely to have your content noticed. In reading this article I thought it was utterly perfect for the proposed experiment I am doing for my final project. I think the strategies are useful but are geared more towards a business or corporation than for an individual. I choose the best or most universal ideas and reshaped them into what I felt would best benefit my goals for the project.

Works, Bernadeen. “HootSuite: Maximize Your Social Media Efforts.” Business Insider. Business Insider, Inc, 26 Dec. 2012. Web. 17 Nov. 2015. <http://www.businessinsider.com/hootsuite-maximize-your-social-media-efforts-2012-12>.

This article is built around the features and purpose of an app like hootsuite. It characterizes the ways in which a user can maximize their online presence using the service. However focusing mainly on the analytic section of this text it clearly highlights the ways in which a user can track their engagement, their exposure, ability to reach an audience and more. Being able to track your statistics is helpful in planning future content, understanding your market and gearing your content to those results. While reading this it is very easy to understand and comprehend as the text is tailored to a specific purpose and audience.

Cohen, James, and Thomas Kenny. “CHAPTERS 2 AND 7.” Producing New and Digital Media Your Guide to Savvy Use of the Web. Independence: Taylor and Francis, 2015. Print.

In chapter two of Cohen and Kenny it is stated that everyone with a user account is a content creator. Making us all authors, photographers and reporters may seem like a powerful tool however in such a large sea of creators one needs to stand out, which correlates to the idea of branding present in chapter 7. It is important when producing content to remember whom you’re talking to, remember who may see it and what image of you that will portray and what content you would like to be associated with. When preforming the ” google yourself” search a user is able to quickly tell what is tied to their name and what misconceptions it may cause. While completing my twitter experiment I plan to turn a close eye to detail and the content i feature on my newsfeed.

Kricfalusi, Elizabeth. “Twitter vs TweetDeck vs Hootsuite: Which Is the Best Twitter Client?” Tech for Luddites. Tech or Luddites, 3 Apr. 2015. Web. 17 Nov. 2015. <http://techforluddites.com/twitter-vs-tweetdeck-vs-hootsuite-which-is-the-best-twitter-client/>.

Kricfalusi provides a quick and realistic view of the various apps available for managing twitter content. While critical of twitter itself not being able to sort newsfeeds (written prior to moments) she notes that these apps enable a user to separate what content they see. TweetDeck, Hootsuite and Twitter itself revolve around fast paced content. Being able to sort through such content makes the site more user friendly and in turn allows select content to be viewed by a target audience. Meaning when posting it is important that a producer of content realize some people prefer to only view certain things. Here it will be important for me to remember this when using hashtags to spark interaction.

Prattler, Adam. “How to Use Twitter Hashtags to Get Noticed.” Social Media Today. 22 Oct. 2013. Web. 17 Nov. 2015. <http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/how-use-twitter-hashtags-get-noticed>.

Prattler discusses a crucial part of the twitter universe, the hashtag. Over the course of twitter evolution the hashtag has become a dynamic part of starting a conversation and millions of users all over the globe engage. Using a hashtag is a great way to stand out and get your content noticed, remaining relevant, staying engaged and tweeting to provoke response are key ways to increase your twitter base. In week two of my twitter experiment i will focus on hashtags to stay visible, the content of Prattlers article provides interesting ways to do so.

Armstrong, Russel. “Marketing Pros and Cons of Twitter.” Linkedin. Linkedin, 1 Feb. 2015. Web. 17 Nov. 2015. <https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/twitter-marketing-pros-cons-russell-armstrong>.

On his personal blog Armstrong is quick to highlight the bright aspects of twitter but more importantly also remembers to cite the drawbacks. One of the most globally agreed upon downfalls of twitter is it’s ability to easily bury content or loose it as spam under millions of other tweets. He notes it often takes years to brand something and get it noticed as more than typical content. This information is important to understand while attempting to build a brand on twitter. Content strategy takes time and consistency is key.

Olanoff, Drew. “Twitter Debuts Moments.” TechCrunch. 6 Oct. 2015. Web. 17 Nov. 2015. <http://techcrunch.com/2015/10/06/project-glacier/#.cxicwgi:TMDC>.

In october 2015 twitter launched a new feature which it hoped would draw back in the skeptical user base it had lost. Twitter, known for its fast paced and rapid environment scared off many users because they felt it was too confusing to use. Olanoff quotes the CEO of twitter as saying ” it’s not a new house, its a front door”. Which gets to the main point that a fresh tool of organization has been added to the apps main screen making it easier to see the most talked about topics, it enables you to join the conversation, reply to other users and retweet stories. This information will be a starting point while i engage in current content for my project.

Cave, Andrew. “Will Twitter Be Dead in Three Years.” Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 2015. Web. 17 Nov. 2015. <http://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewcave/2015/01/31/will-twitter-still-be-around-for-super-bowl-lii-in-2018/>.

Cave is blunt in his findings about twitter, claiming twitter lacks value for its users. Famously being limited by 140 characters twitter users are often frustrated by having to commit grammatical woes while typing or create multiple tweets to relay one message. Knowing there is opposition or wariness around your branding tool of choice is a factor to consider when attempting to get your content notices, not all people may share your platform. It is clear to see that some people seriously dislike the platform and that limits an audience to some extent.

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Reflection 

While writing a bibliography is not a new concept by any means for me it is totally alien and confusing to me. Though it may seem shocking I have never had to create one outside of listing websites and having just learned about citation machine I was thrown for a loop. I won’t beat around the bush i strongly dislike, possibly even loathe citing, and sourcing thing it is so tedious and boring to get through.

Though in the end I do see the point vaguely, in order to effectively use the source the writer should have a clear and quick understanding of the content and how it fits into the mainstay of their project. If i had to do it over, I wouldn’t.. I’m kidding I would but i still wouldn’t like it. Personally i would rather draw solely from my project over the sources but I understand it needs objectives and reference points to not be biased. Overall I am glad thats over with and I can move forward with my project.