Category Archives: Projects

Online Personal Branding – Digital Footprints

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My project is about online personal branding. The purpose of my project is to show how people brand themselves online by expressing their interest, beliefs, ethos, values, talents and skills, and how social media plays a significant role in how our peers and employers perceive us. I am interested in this project because an online identity is a growing trend and is very important in today’s society.

This project will teach me how to use social media platforms to create a digital footprint and analyze how I can build my reputation by contributing to online communities. This project will address the following questions:

  • what do you want to be known for?
  • what differentiates you from everyone else?
  • where are your passion areas?
  • who are you at your core?
  • what makes you unique?
  • what do you do everyday that is true to you?
  • what content do you want to share?
  • how do you want to be perceived?
  • what is your authentic brand?
  • how can you best enhance social relationships?

This project will also act as a quick reference guide to personal branding. With the growing job market, it is important to create contacts that will provide options for establishing networks and embrace social media. I will examine blogging, social streaming, video channels, and websites as mediums for networking and reputation building.

I will discuss the following steps to building a personal brand and the tools to engage on social media and develop an authentic voice:

  • identifying personal passions
    • likes, dislikes, unique creativity and personal style, natural talents and gifts
  • Developing a core message
    • mission statement
    • own unique view
  • Choosing web mediums
    • domain name
    • content management
    • creating a theme
  • Blogging and starting a website
    • embedding videos, presentations, and images
  • Actively participating in the following communities:
    • Twitter
    • facebook
    • linkedIn
    • youtube
    • google+
  • Using Social Media Dashboard

I will discuss some of the following advantages that can result from having a personal brand:

  • Increased recognition
  • opportunities
  • partnerships

Sources:

quicksprout.com/the-complete-guide-to-building-your-personal-brand/
Producing New and Digital Media: Your Guide to Savvy Use of the Web, Cohen and Kenny

Visual Rhetoric and Culture

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Since the emergence of digital media, it has led to the creation of how various online communities play a role in shaping visual rhetoric and culture. An online community is a group of people with common interests who use the Internet (web sites, email, instant messaging, etc.) to communicate, work together and pursue their interests over time. Each of these communities has attracted individuals of all kinds to participate within that community of shared interest. Some of the communities are within platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, OkCupid, Buzz Feed, and Flickr to name a few. When I examined all these communities there was one common thread, many individuals used photos as a way to use visual rhetoric/ visual storytelling to quantify themselves. This had led me to several question, Do photos need content? Are images cultural? How has multimedia affected visual storytelling?

The key elements of my project are:

*Visual language

*Are images cultural?

*Multimedia storytelling

I want to explore the following questions “Has our cultural beliefs affected the way we interpret a image and why does it affect the way the see a image?” Over the span of all of our lives we have digested millions of images. Many of these images has shaped how we perceive the world and it has been reinforced by digital media. The visual language/ visual rhetoric, multimedia storytelling, and how our cultural beliefs leads to misinterpretation of an image has affected how we quantify ourselves and the people around us. Perhaps culture does not only play a role in who we are but severely affects how we see the world. Often times the media reinforces their interpretations of an image and try to feed it down viewers throats. This can have many affect on the psyche’s development, whether for good or for bad.

For this project I propose an experiment in which I will research 5-10 images with and without content and interview people to see how they interpret them. These images will stem from online sites such a Human of New York, famous paintings, images that have been remixed into memes. In my research I hope to identify how different cultures interpret visual images with and without content. Secondly, by . I want to examine the phycology, environmental factors, traumatic events, fear, and age to chart how those factors play a role in how our psyche interprets an image. I hope to shine a new light on how we interpret images and perhaps how we can begin to un-train our eyes. I want to provoke the questions, are we an extension of all the images we have seen throughout our lives.

Questions:

  1. How does cultural beliefs affect visual storytelling?
  2. Can an image stand without content?
  3. Is age an important factor when one views an image?
  4. What factors play a part in interpretation?
  5. How does culture affect the way we interrupt an image?
  6. Why does culture affect the way we interrupt an image?
  7. Can we un-train our eyes?
  8. Are your mind and body performing better?

 

Sources

“Producing New and Digital Media”-Cohen and Kenny

“Writing & Editing for Digital Media”- Carroll

Wikipedia

 

 

Unavailable.

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Throughout the semester we have covered a wide range of topics but in all of them we always seemed to return the topic of availability. We question time and time again that in this day in age is it possible to be unavailable? And what does it actually mean to be unavailable in a world where not being able to reach someone is a sign of tardiness and carelessness.

When thinking of a possible project idea I focused on three main topics that interests me:

  1. Availability
  2. Attention structures
  3. Participation

After focusing in on these three topics I came to realize that they each play a part in tackling the question of, “Do we have the ability to ever become completely unavailable? ” First of all, availability is by far one of the biggest affordances and constraints of the internet. Social media has allowed us to constantly be in touch. We can tag, track, and see when we’ve read each other’s messages. All of these affordances have in a way lead us to always be online even when we aren’t. Being available online means you are expected to participate in conversation both personal and global. As an individual of an online community you have the responsibility to share, comment and create and if you do not you are therefore doing that community a disservice. Your participation is always needed and wanted on both your and your audiences’ end. This want and need to participate ultimately allows us to choose whether we are or are not available.  It also means that you are aware of what is going on around you and you are in a way forced to take part or else you are “creeping”.  Being available has also had an impact in the way we divide our attention. What we focus on and how we focus on these things ultimately effects our participation and our availability. These three concepts all interact and interfere with our ability to actually disconnect and become unavailable in a world that demands availability.

For this project I propose an experiment in which I will purposely disconnect myself from all social media sites that I participate in for two weeks. In those two weeks I will vlog, blog, and capture photographs daily about how I am dealing with not being available online. In tracking this I want to highlight the shift in myself and the transition from an avid online user to someone who has become “unavailable” which will be captured daily via video interviews. Secondly, by conducting research that almost entirely embarks on the premise of availability and the affordances and constraints it entails I will try to also highlight the psychological effects this disconnect has upon an individual such as anxiety, worry, detachment etc.  I hope to  to demonstrate that availability has changed our wants,needs, and interpretations of people, persons, and things. I also hope to answer the question of if we are truly able to become unavailable or not.

Possible questions:

  1. How are you feeling today without your online presence?
  2. Have you noticed a change in yourself?
  3. How has your relationship with your smart device changed?
  4. What will you or have you done to replace the time you spent being available online?
  5. What other activities have you been participating in?
  6. How has your attention shifted? Has it shifted?

Research Materials (thus far):

Cohen & Kenny

Jones & Hanfer

http://smallbusiness.chron.com/profile-unavailable-mean-facebook-72521.html

http://www.becomingminimalist.com/unplug-please/

http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/challenge-to-disconnect/

 

In-Class Work for Tu 11/5: Researching / Drafting Proposals

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Hi everyone, from utopia (aka, the Society for Utopian Studies annual conference, this year in Pittsburgh):

Today in class you’re working to flesh out your ideas for your final project proposals, conducting research, developing the specifics of the project you are designing, and drafting the actual proposal.

Work Plan for Class Today

2:15pm-2:25pm: Freewriting

  • Continue the freewriting you did in class last Tuesday. Take some time to gather your ideas, get the ideas flowing. Remember, the goal with this short activity, as it is with all freewriting, is to simply keep writing, and let the ideas get down on the page.

2:25-2:45pm: Research

  • Using the Internet, but also the texts, materials you’ve brought with you, do some research surrounding your proposed project, to work on becoming informed about the particulars of your topic, to learn key concepts, phrases, and keywords, and to help you to refine your focus
  • This research process should prompt you to ask new questions, explore new potential trajectories for the project, and spur your thinking. Take notes on what you’re finding, and include these sources (with citations) in your proposal.

2:45-3:10pm: Proposal drafting (I encourage you to do this on OpenLab, drafting a new post–that can then be revised to the post you need to have completed by Saturday)

As you draft your proposal, make sure you consider / address these questions:

  • What is your project? What is its purpose? Its motivation (why are you interested in this?)? What do you hope to learn / gain from doing this project? What will others gain from your project (how should others care about it? ask yourself, “so what?”). Really attempt to articulate a clear vision for this project.
  • How can you focus/narrow down your topic so that it is manageable in this short-term project?  Remember, you don’t want your topic to be too broad or general … isolate just one variable (focus is very important).  What kinds of questions do you hope to address through your research?  What, specifically, do you want to learn about this topic?
  • What kinds of sources will you use in your project?
  • What will the components (process, products, deliverables) be? What forms of new media composing will you experiment with (what genres will you work in, what online communities will you explore, etc.; use the textbooks to remind yourself of the various genres you can include)? What do you hope to achieve? How will this be practice-oriented (not a standard, traditional research project)? How will you build reflection into the process?
  • How do you plan to present this material in a portfolio (on your individual ePortfolio)? What kinds of write-up will you provide? What kind of multimodal compositions will you create?
  • Timeline: What is the proposed timeline for conducting / completing this project? What are the logistics involved? What makes sense, for your particular project? (remember, as we discussed, for example, if you are exploring the impact and analytics of some type of new media composing, you will need to produce the content relatively early in order to allow time for this analysis)
  • What questions do you have about your proposed project? What do you most want feedback on (for both the peer review today, with classmates, and for discussions with Professor Belli)?

3:10-3:35pm: Peer Review of Ideas

  • You’ll work in groups of two: Mariah & Fola, Pam & Jodie, Ashley & Sam
  • Taking turns, each person will first present, orally, her proposed project to the other, talking through it for five minutes or so, and then hearing the other person’s response, and having a discussion after to help revise (this is meant to be a conversation: do not simple read each other’s drafts).
  • Your goal is to provide helpful feedback to your peer at this early stage at the proposal drafting process. While you may not be an expert in the proposed topic area, don’t feel as if you have nothing to contribute. The most helpful thing you can do is to offer your impressions as a “reader” (of this proposal): is there a clear sense of the project? Does it seem like it will be do-able in the timeline of this assignment? Does it address the particular expectations, guidelines, and requirements of this project? Are there considerations that are being overlooked? Underexplored? You should ask clarifying questions and offer suggestions, to help your classmate to think through / articulate the particulars of her project,

3:35-3:55pm: Drafting (with focus on revision / expansion)

  • Return to drafting, based on the feedback you’ve received, and revise your proposal accordingly. You should take notes for yourself, noting where you need to do further research or thinking (before you submit your full draft to me, as a post on OpenLab, by Saturday night)

 

HW / Reminders / Announcements:

  • Proposals Due by Saturday night (11:59pm), 11/7. Must be submitted completely and on time, in order to receive feedback
    • Remember to be a specific and detailed as possible, and at the end, to ask for targeted feedback (what are you most struggling with? what can I offer most help with as we work to design / focus the project?)
  • Response blogs due M 11/9
  • In-Class Presentations on Th 11/12, on revised versions of proposals
  • Professor Belli’s office hours have slightly changed, due to her being assigned to advise from 4-5pm on Tuesdays. Office hours remain Tu 1-2pm and always by appointment.

Looking forward to reading your proposals, and seeing you all next week. Again, if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to email me. Have a wonderful weekend!

Cheers,
Professor Belli