Category Archives: Revised Proposals

Storytelling: The Road to Success *Revision 1*

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Project Proposal

Topic: What Makes a Story Successful in Photojournalism?

Overview

All of us have a story to share, however, not many of us are afforded the chance to share their stories. Often times, many of us are silenced because of religion, sexual orientation or out of fear. And then there are those who find courage to share their stories. Today, many stories are widely shared online and are successful. My definition of success in photojournalism is the amount of times a photo has been liked on Instagram and Twitter and how viewers engage with the image whether it is by commenting, sharing the image or if they repost the image. A successfully received story online is one that makes viewers engage in the story. This image can be circulated through many different platforms such as Facebook, popular blog and can end up on the TV.

The development of new technologies has changed the way individuals share their stories. Traditional ways of sharing stories by publishing memoirs or being interviewed are not common these days. One of the way individuals share their stories is by participating in photo blogs such as Humans of New York by Brandon Stanton and StoryCorps by David Isay which has changed the narrative of photojournalism. Photojournalism is a particular form of journalism (the collecting, editing, and presenting of news material for publication or broadcast) that employs images in order to tell a news story. These sites allow viewers to engage with the stories by liking, sharing and commenting. Often times viewers are able to engage with the story on a deeper level. By exploring photojournalism within the blog Humans of New York, I will look specifically at how individuals share their stories on fear and how it presents a opportunity for viewers to engage with those stories. I will track how the image is shared, how many likes it received, how viewers engaged with it and if it was successful.

Objective

For this project, I will examine the blog Humans of New York by Brandon Stanton, a blog that shares stories which provides a new light on photojournalism and cultivates a new type of visual experience. Another blog I will examine is StoryCorps, a nonprofit that provide Americans of all backgrounds and beliefs with the opportunity to record, share, and preserve their life story. I will review photos from Humans of New York and videos from StoryCorps that sheds light on fear. I want to analyze how they share their story and how viewers engaged with the image because it will help me to write my memoir.

In this project, I will explain the following:

  1. Why do people share their story?
  2. What makes a story successful?
  3. Can anyone make a successful story?

Other elements to explore:

  1. Create a image similar to Humans of New York with a person and a quote about their life and post on Instagram and Twitter.
  2. Compare my attempt to try to create a image similar to Humans of New York with a success image from Human of New York, the image will be tracked on Instagram and Twitter via those networks analytics.
  3. A blog post on my personal blog to share the image and write a reflection piece.

Topics and Projected Timeline:

Week of the 15th 

Explain what is photojournalism and visual storytelling.

A.) History of photojournalism and visual storytelling, the new technologies within the world of new media and the platforms.

B.) Write out the history and mission of Humans of New York.

C.) Explain its best practices and strategies that are successful

D.) Select a image from Humans of New York that “successfully” captures a story on fear

  • Examine the photo with the listed Visual Literacy Guideline
  • a. Define the purpose of the image within the project (e.g., illustration, evidence, primary source, focus of analysis, critique, commentary)
    b. Define the scope (e.g., reach, audience) and environment (e.g., academic environment, open web) of the planned image use
    c. Articulates criteria that need to be met by the image (e.g., subject, pictorial content, color, resolution, specific item)
    d. Identifies key concepts and terms that describe the needed image
    e. Identifies discipline-specific conventions for image use
  • How did the image and content successfully or unsuccessfully tell the story?

Week of the 22nd

A.) History of photojournalism and visual storytelling, the new technologies within the world of new media and the platforms.

B.) Write out the history and mission of StoryCorps

C.) Explain its best practices and strategies that are successful

D.) Review videos from StoryCorps that “successfully” captures a story on fear

Examine the photo with the listed Visual Literacy Guideline

  • a. Define the purpose of the image within the project (e.g., illustration, evidence, primary source, focus of analysis, critique, commentary)
    b. Define the scope (e.g., reach, audience) and environment (e.g., academic environment, open web) of the planned image use
    c. Articulate criteria that need to be met by the image (e.g., subject, pictorial content, color, resolution, specific item)
    d. Identifies key concepts and terms that describe the needed image
    e. Identifies discipline-specific conventions for image use
  • How did the image and content successfully or unsuccessfully tell the story?

Week of the 29th

A.) Create a comparative analysis of Humans of New York and Storycorps

B.) Prospect

  • Interview a prospect on the subject of fear and share a photo with a caption similar to Humans of New York which will we shared via Instagram
  • Instagram– The image will be tracked daily on Instagram, by recording how many likes it received, how many comments it received and whether it was remixed.
  • Twitter– The image will be tracked daily on Twitter by recording how many times it was viewed, how many retweets it received or how many times it was favorited.
  • WordPress-The image will be tracked daily on Black Attire Aficionado  by recording how many times it was viewed, how many times it was reblogged it received and how many times it was favorited.

Week of the 6th

A.) Explain the findings on what makes a image successful

B.) Write a reflection on the process of creating the image, was it successful or not?

  • What would I do differently?
  • What other platforms should I have used?
  • Reviews on the image from classmates
  • Was it hard to circulate the image?

Deliverables

  1. A comparative analysis of Humans of New York and StoryCorps
  2. A image created that mirrors Human of New York, this will be located on Instagram,Twitter, and Black Attire Aficionado
  3. A reflection of my success or failure with creating a image
  4. The end-result will be presented in the form of short short film/video of some sort which will be posted to Jodieann Stephenson’s e-portfolio site TBD

 

 

How do YOU present yourself on LinkedIn? (Proposal Revision)

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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.

With ePortfolios, students can give employers and undergraduate/graduate schools a fuller, richer picture of themselves. They can include their essays from their courses; they can include course syllabi to explain the course content; they can add pictures and sounds to enlarge their audience’s picture beyond the written word. An ePortfolio can essentially be used as a learning tool for self-presentation. One may ask, why have an ePortfolio and there are a number of reasons which may include:

  1. Group work
  2. Project Outcomes
  3. Reflections
  4. Personal Development
  5. Work Experience
  6. Skill acquisition

Therefore, I propose that my project serves as a guide to effectively produce a successful or good-looking ePortfolio by presenting oneself accurately and whole-heartedly both on a LinkedIn profile.

My project will address the following:

  1. How to properly present yourself online with detailed instructions and reasoning for the method of procedure.
  2. Students gaining valuable computer skills while developing and editing their ePortfolios
  3. ePortfolios exhibiting wider dimensions of learning than just the traditional methods (paper-pencil reports)
  4. Students can add digital audio, video, and graphics to document evidence of learning
  5. ePortfolios can provide an assessment based on evidence of growth over time and effort rather than test scores

The goal of the project is to inform others on the advantages of using an ePortfolio and LinkedIn profile whether they choose to participate in the platform or not. This project is also for myself in understanding how useful having an ePortfolio and LinkedIn can be influential to my future. I hope to:

  1. learn to evaluate my own performance over time
  2. increase critical thinking skills by developing evaluative criteria and using it to select work to include
  3. improve or demonstrate mastery of specific academic skills

Deliverables:

I hope to deliver in my project an e-book/e-magazine that provides a “E-Portfolio/LinkedIn for Beginners” for students such as myself who have little to know experience with working with them and how to effectively present oneself on their personal profiles and the steps taken to produce a functional profile to curate content.

Guidelines:

In order for this project to be a success:

  1. Student will use  their LinkedIn account to the best of their knowledge without prior knowledge of utilizing the platform successfully
  2. Frequently post/update content to see if it’ll generate “connections”  that will be able to view the student’s profiles
  3. Update any information in hopes that the profile will become better and cleaner over time; presenting oneself professionally rather than personally
  4. Ask people who know the user well if there are similarities/differences in student’s presentation in reality compared to online

Projected Timeline:  

  • Week of the 15th – document and share all content student has to date
  • After initial steps are taken next step will be to begin editing profile to make it better as to begin developing an e-magazine
  • Use the profile to capture the essence and purpose of the profile in the e-magazine that an audience can use to decide whether having a LinkedIn account is a suitable for them

Sources so far include:

Bret Eynon, Laura M. Gambino, Judit Torok. “What Difference Can ePortfolio Make? A Field Report from the Connect to Learning Project.” 2014. Print.

Knight, William E. The Relationship Between Electronic Portfolio Participation and Student Success. Bowling Green, Ohio, n.d. Print.

Nelson, Sharleen. 3 Keys for a Successful E-Portfolio Implementation. Oregon: The Journal, 2011. Print.

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

Storytelling: The Road to Success *Revision*

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Project Proposal

Topic: What Makes a Story Successful in Photojournalism?

 

Overview

All of us have a story to share, however, not many of us are afforded the chance to share their stories. Often times, many of us are silenced because of religion, sexual orientation or out of fear. And then there are those who find courage to share their stories. What makes these individuals share their story and how it provides them an opportunity to have a voice? Is there a successful way to share your story?

The development of new technologies has changed the way individuals share their stories. Traditional ways of sharing stories by publishing memoirs or being interviewed are not common these days. One of the way individuals share their stories is by participating in photo blogs such as Humans of New York by Brandon Stanton and StoryCorps by David Isay which has changed the narrative of photojournalism. Photojournalism is a particular form of journalism (the collecting, editing, and presenting of news material for publication or broadcast) that employs images in order to tell a news story. By exploring photojournalism within the blog Humans of New York, I will look specifically at how individuals share their stories on fear. I will look at the response viewers, commentators engage in within the platform of Instagram.

Objective

For this project, I will examine the blog Humans of New York by Brandon Stanton, a blog that shares stories which provides a new light on photojournalism and cultivates a new type of visual experience. Another blog I will examine is StoryCorps, a nonprofit that provide Americans of all backgrounds and beliefs with the opportunity to record, share, and preserve their life story. I will review photos from Humans of New York and videos from StoryCorps that sheds light on fear. I want to analyze how they share their story because it will help me to write my memoir.

In this project, I will explain the following:

  1. Why do people share their story?
  2. What makes a story successful?
  3. Can anyone make a successful story?

Other elements to explore:

  1. Create a image similar to Humans of New York with a person and a quote about their life and post on Instagram and Twitter.
  2. Compare my attempt to try to create a image similar to Humans of New York with a success image from Human of New York, the image will be tracked on Instagram and Twitter via those networks analytics.
  3. A blog post on my personal blog to share the image and write a reflection piece.

 

Definition*

Photojournalism-is a particular form of journalism (the collecting, editing, and presenting of news material for publication or broadcast) that employs images in order to tell a news story.

Storytelling-is the conveying of events in words, sound and/or images, often by improvisation or embellishment

Visual storytelling-is a story told primarily through the use of visual media. The story may be told using still photography, illustration, or video, and can be enhanced with graphics, music, voice and other audio.

Success-the accomplishment of an aim or purpose.

Image- a representation of the external form of a person or thing in art.

Visual literacy– is the ability to interpret, negotiate, and make meaning from information presented in the form of an image, extending the meaning of literacy, which commonly signifies interpretation of a written or printed text

 

Multimodalities:

WordPress Blog, Instagram, Twitter, Prezi, hyperlinks

 

Topics and Projected Timeline:

Week of the 15th 

Explain what is photojournalism and visual storytelling.

A.) History of photojournalism and visual storytelling, the new technologies within the world of new media and the platforms.

B.) Write out the history and mission of Humans of New York.

C.) Explain its best practices and strategies that are successful

D.) Select a image from Humans of New York that “successfully” captures a story on fear

  • Examine the photo with the listed Visual Literacy Guideline
  • a. Defines the purpose of the image within the project (e.g., illustration, evidence, primary source, focus of analysis, critique, commentary)
    b. Defines the scope (e.g., reach, audience) and environment (e.g., academic environment, open web) of the planned image use
    c. Articulates criteria that need to be met by the image (e.g., subject, pictorial content, color, resolution, specific item)
    d. Identifies key concepts and terms that describe the needed image
    e. Identifies discipline-specific conventions for image use
  • How did the image and content successfully or unsuccessfully tell the story?

Week of the 22nd

A.) History of photojournalism and visual storytelling, the new technologies within the world of new media and the platforms.

B.) Write out the history and mission of StoryCorps

C.) Explain its best practices and strategies that are successful

D.) Review videos from StoryCorps that “successfully” captures a story on fear

Examine the photo with the listed Visual Literacy Guideline

  • a. Defines the purpose of the image within the project (e.g., illustration, evidence, primary source, focus of analysis, critique, commentary)
    b. Defines the scope (e.g., reach, audience) and environment (e.g., academic environment, open web) of the planned image use
    c. Articulates criteria that need to be met by the image (e.g., subject, pictorial content, color, resolution, specific item)
    d. Identifies key concepts and terms that describe the needed image
    e. Identifies discipline-specific conventions for image use
  • How did the image and content successfully or unsuccessfully tell the story?

Week of the 29th

A.) Create a comparative analysis of Humans of New York and Storycorps

B.) Prospect

  • Interview a prospect on the subject of fear and share a photo with a caption similar to Humans of New York which will we shared via Instagram
  • Instagram– The image will be tracked daily on Instagram, by recording how many likes it received, how many comments it received and whether it was remixed.
  • Twitter– The image will be tracked daily on Twitter by recording how many times it was viewed, how many retweets it received or how many times it was favorited.
  • WordPress-The image will be tracked daily on Black Attire Aficionado  by recording how many times it was viewed, how many times it was reblogged it received and how many times it was favorited.

Week of the 6th

A.) Explain the findings on what makes a image successful

B.) Write a reflection on the process of creating the image, was it successful or not?

  • What would I do differently?
  • What other platforms should I have used?
  • Reviews on the image from classmates
  • Was it hard to circulate the image?

Deliverables

  1. A comparative analysis of Humans of New York and StoryCorps
  2. A image created that mirrors Human of New York, this will be located on Instagram, Twitter, and Black Attire Aficionado
  3. A reflection of my success or failure with creating a image
  4. The end-result will be presented in the form of short short film/video of some sort which will be posted to Jodieann Stephenson’s e-portfolio site TBD

 

Taping Into Your Personal Brand *revision*

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While doing the activity of analyzing my media presence, I realized I didn’t have one. This led to the idea of documenting the creation of my personal brand. The brand I am creating will be based on natural hair and my personal experiences. This ties closely in with my personal goal of becoming a professional natural hair and beauty blogger. My objective is to create a blog and media presence while document the evolution and productivity while following the rules of creating a personal brand.

Through the semester we have gone over many methods of successfully using social networks and I will be applying all of this to my project. This research stems past my existing experience because I have always been a viewer and not a creator of my own brand. While creating my brand, there will be daily progress of what it takes to create and maintain a successful platform. The end goal of the project is not to obtain the most viewers but to understand and successfully implement the methods of creating a successful brand.

Definitions

The key to analyzing the success of the project will be in the definition of successful branding. Successful branding will be considered remaining authentic and transparent throughout the entirety of the development process. The goal is to create content for the benefit of the brand and not to bring foot traffic.

Guidelines

  1. Audience interaction will be measured to objectively view how others interact with my brand.
  2. Daily content must be produced for the purpose of furthering the brand. Any content not directly related to the brand is not considered authentic and therefore unsuccessful.

Deliverables

  • What makes a successful brand?
  • How to establish a productive media presence?
  • How does multimodality influence my target audience?

Multimodal Forms Used

  • WordPress: “Getting It Together” blog hosted outside of the ePortfolio
  • Twitter
  • Instagram

Tentative Timetable

Week of Nov. 23rd

  • Create daily blogs, pictures and tweets
  • Record the traffic to the blog
  • Immerse myself in the existing community to gain viewers

Week of  Dec. 30th

  • Create daily blogs, pictures and tweets
  • Record the traffic to the blog
  • Immerse myself in the existing community to gain viewers
  • Use hashtags to boost online visibility

Week of Dec 7th

  • Create daily blogs, pictures and tweets
  • Record the traffic to the blog
  • Immerse myself in the existing community to gain viewers
  • Make adjustments to increase visibility
  • Compile data gathered

 

“Signed Off” – Revised Proposal.

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Vision:

To successfully and adequately capture through daily vlogging reflection and blog posts how ‘signing off’ from social media networking sites (SNS) such as Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram strongly affect a persons’ attention and participatory structures, along with the effects it has our wants, needs, and interpretations of people, persons, and things. All of which will be justified and supported through research of willing individuals and attestable written resources. The end-result will be presented in the form of short film/video of some sort which will be posted to Mariah Rajah’s e-portfolio site (I Am More Than My Words).

Introduction:

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. A key component to understanding this project will be understanding that unavailability in this aspect means to not to be connected to an SNS—as in being signed off or disconnected. For all purposes these terms in this project are interchangeable.

To return to focus, when thinking of this project idea I drew upon three main topics that are of interest:

  1. Availability
  2. Attention structures
  3. Participation

After focusing in on these three topics the realization came that they each play a part in tackling the question of, “How does signing off completely from a social networking site affect us?” First of all, availability is by far one of the biggest affordances and constraints of the internet. SNS’s have 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 oriented.

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 affects 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.

Objective:

This project proposes an experiment in which I will purposely disconnect or sign off myself from all social media networking sites (such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr) which 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 or signed into these SNS. Since a large portion of the project will be reflections I plan to capture this by doing daily vlogs that give detailed descriptions as to how I am dealing with the disconnect.

In tracking this I want to highlight the shift in myself and the transition from an avid online user to someone who has become “signed off”, “disconnected”, or “unavailable”:

  1. Test subject will research how other people have dealt with taking breaks from social networking sites ( 7 Important Reasons to Unplug and Find Space Get Off The Internet: A Challenge to Reconnect With Yourself ), and interview colleagues; then compare this to self-assessed criteria in order to accurately record whether or not it is an internal or an external issue that has had the same effects across the board.
  2. By conducting research that almost entirely embarks on the premise of availability and the affordances and constraints it entails, student will try to also highlight the psychological effects this disconnect has upon an individual such as anxiety, worry, detachment etc. Also with the hopes that this project demonstrates that availability has changed our wants, needs, and interpretations of people, persons, and things. (Facebook effects on social distress: Priming with online social networking thoughts can alter the perceived distress due to social exclusion, When Your Smartphone Is Too Smart for Your Own Good: How Social Media Alters Human Relationships)
  3. Lastly, in this project the student wishes to prove that there is a way by which we can become unavailable in a world that desires for everyone to constantly be signed in and involved. (Measuring Emotional Contagion in Social Media, Generation Z: Technology and Social Interest)

Deliverables:

As the nature of this project is to produce multimodal aspects I hope to:

  1. Capture daily videos reflection that track my changes in behavior (participation & attention), needs, wants, interpretations, and emotions. (which will be posted on openlab e-portfolio by the end of each day for the 2 weeks)
  2. Photographs that highlight how I spend my time in being ‘unavailable’. Which will be accompanied with short captions/posts as to explain the thoughts and noticed changes. **all which will include hyperlinks to sources that either support or argue against points** (which will be posted on Openlab e-portfolio by the end of the day)
  3. PowerPoint presentation at the end of experiment to showcase learnt experiences, changes, and understandings of how unavailability effects more than what we think it does.
  4. In its entirety, answer what I have found the answer to be for the question: “What does it mean to be unavailable?”

Guidelines:

In order for this project to be achieve as much success as possible:

  1. Student will only be signed off from SNS such as Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Snapchat, and Instagram.
  2. Student will still be allowed to read email, text, and news both print and web, but only relating to worldly events.
  3. Student is not allowed to engage in trending social media videos, memes, treads, or profiles by either search engine or from shared sources.
  4. It is to be understood that even in the event that it arises in a verbal conversation student can only inquire through that conversation and not engage in outside research.
  5. Student is to be completely signed off and apps are to be deleted from any or all smart devices.
  6. Student is not allowed to check or engage in activity on other users smart devices.

Target Questions for Daily Vlogs:

  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 other activities have you been participating in?
  5. How has your attention shifted? Has it shifted?
  6. Do you appreciate the new found freedom that comes along with not participating in online social media networking sites?
  7. What is the biggest and hardest part of this transition?

Projected Timeline:

Initial starting date- TBA

  • First two weeks – document and capture the ‘signed off’ time period. Keep detailed records in reflections that will allow myself to compile an archive as to which draw information from for film.
  • After initial steps are taken next step will be to begin the editing process as to allow enough time to properly capture essence of project.
  • Further capture video, composite adequate research which adds to an archive that will support short film and answers the question of unavailability.

Research Materials:

  1. What Does Profile Unavailable Mean on Facebook?
  2. 7 Important Reasons to Unplug and Find Space
  3. Get Off The Internet: A Challenge to Reconnect With Yourself
  4. Facebook effects on social distress: Priming with online social networking thoughts can alter the perceived distress due to social exclusion
  5. When Your Smartphone Is Too Smart for Your Own Good: How Social Media Alters Human Relationships
  6. Measuring Emotional Contagion in Social Media
  7. Generation Z: Technology and Social Interest

Resources to be Used: TBA

 

What Makes A Story Successful in Photojournalism? *Revision*

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Project Proposal

Topic: What Makes a Story Successful in Photojournalism?

By exploring photojournalism and visual storytelling, these two disciplines can potentially aid in how individuals share their stories in various new media platforms, which can offer insight in what makes a successful story. I intend to introduce three types of images from the blog Humans of New York and Storycorps that successfully captures the narrative of photojournalism and how it presents an opportunity to give individuals a voice. 

For this project, I will examine the blog Humans of New York by Brandon Stanton, a blog that shares stories while offering a new light on photojournalism and cultivating a new type of visual experience and StoryCorps, a nonprofit that provide Americans of all backgrounds and beliefs with the opportunity to record, share, and preserve the stories of our lives. I will view 3 photos from Humans of New York and 3 videos from StoryCorps that I find visually captivating and content that sheds light on the individual in an effort to chart what makes a successful story.

In this project, I will explain the following:

  1. How can you successfully tell your story?
  2. How does reading or watching a story transforms an individual?

Other elements to explore:

  1. Create a image similar to Humans of New York with a person and a quote about their life and post on Instagram and Twitter.
  2. Compare my attempt to try to create a image similar to Humans of New York with a success image from Human of New York, the image will be tracked on Instagram and Twitter via those networks analytics.
  3. A blog post on my personal blog to share the image and write a reflection piece.

 

Definition*

 

Photojournalism-is a particular form of journalism (the collecting, editing, and presenting of news material for publication or broadcast) that employs images in order to tell a news story.

Storytelling-is the conveying of events in words, sound and/or images, often by improvisation or embellishment

Visual storytelling-

Success-the accomplishment of an aim or purpose.

Image- a representation of the external form of a person or thing in art.

 

Multimodalities:

WordPress Blog, Instagram, Twitter, Prezi

Topics and Projected Timeline:

Week of the 15th 

Explain what is photojournalism and visual storytelling.

A.) History of photojournalism and visual storytelling, the new technologies within the world of new media and the platforms.

B.) Write out the history and mission of Humans of New York.

C.) Explain its best practices and strategies that are successful

D.) Select three images from Humans of New York

  • Examine the photos, critique the photos using the visual literacies guidelines
  • Discuss the process of this via online journal
  • How did the image and content successfully tell the story

Week of the 22nd

A.) History of photojournalism and visual storytelling, the new technologies within the world of new media and the platforms.

B.) Write out the history and mission of Storycorps.

C.) Explain its best practices and strategies that are successful

D.) Select three images from Storycorps

  • Examine the photos, critique the photos using the visual literacies guidelines
  • Discuss the process of this via online journal
  • How did the image and content successfully tell the story

Week of the 29th

A.) Create a comparative analysis of Humans of New York and Storycorps

B.) Pros and Cons

C.) Prospect

  • Find someone to try and successfully create a photo similar to Humans of New York and shared to Instagram and Twitter
  • The image will be tracked daily on Instagram, I will also use hashtags to help circulate the image on Instagram and on Twitter.
  • Perhaps embed this image and write a blog post on OpenLab

Week of the 6th

A.)Explain why it is important to create  successful story in photojournalism

B.) Write a reflection on the process of creating the image, was it successful or not?

  • What would I do different?
  • What other platforms should I have used?
  • How should I promote the image?
  • Reviews on the image from classmates
  • Was it hard to circulate the image?

 

Deliverables

  1. Analysis of Humans of New York and three images
  2. Analysis of Humans of Storycorps and three images
  3. A image created by me that mirrors Human of New York, this will be on Instagram on my personal account because I have a decent number of followers
  4. A comparative analysis between the two sites.
  5. A reflection of my success or failure with creating an images
  6. A recommended guideline TBD
  7. The end-result will be presented in the form of short short film/video of some sort which will be posted to Jodieann Stephenson’s e-portfolio site.

 

 

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

Establishing a Personal Brand

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My focus for the final project has shifted. While doing the activity of analyzing my media presence, I realized I didn’t have one. This led to the idea of documenting the creation of my personal brand. The brand I  am creating will be based on natural hair and my personal experiences. This ties closely in with my personal goal of becoming a professional natural hair and beauty blogger. My objective is to create a blog and media presence while document the evolution and productivity while following the rules of creating a personal brand.

The questions I will address in my research are:

  • What makes a successful brand?
  • How to establish a productive media presence?
  • How do I make people feel?
  • How do people benefit by working with me?
  • What words do others use to describe me?
  • How does multimodality influence my target audience?

Deliverables:

As someone that has successfully learned to hide their media presence I will observe how personal branding works while integrating myself in several discourse communities. I will be using Tumblr, Twitter and WordPress throughout this  project.

Proposed Timeline:

Being that my goal is to track the growth of my personal brand, I  will be posting daily blogs, tweets, and posts to create a sense of accountability.

  • Sources:

Forbes

Quick Sprout

Quint careers

Social Media Examiner

 

 

Revised Proposal – Search Engine Optimization

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Project Proposal

Topic: Search Engine Optimization Techniques

All major search engines have primary search results. This is where content like web pages, images, and videos are listed. These listings are free results and are ranked based upon what the search engine considers most relevant to users. Although there are no guarantees to have a number one spot through a search, by understanding and using search engine optimization, it is possible to achieve a high ranking on search engine return pages (SERPs).

I propose a detailed analysis of search engine optimization which includes the techniques and contributing factors that influence them. In this project, I will explain the followng:

  1. The main objectives of search engine optimization and the method it uses to boost the frequency of a website results returned by a search engine in an effort to maximize user traffic to the site.
  2. How to measure website success using indicators and analytic tools.

As an interactive component of my research project, I will conduct the following case studies:

  1. Select a webpages, images, or video and track its ranking over a 4 or 5 week period and record any changes daily in a progress report.
  2. Compare a competitors ranking in a comparison report.
  3. Create a webpage, image, or video and track its ranking daily over a 4 or 5 week period.

Multimodalities to be used:

  1. Excel for progress reports
  2. Video maker/image maker to create personal image
  3. Pinterest/Youtube
  4. Other.

Topics and Projected Timeline:

Week of November 15th

  • Explain search engine optimization (SEO)
    • Strategies, techniques and tactics used to increase the number of visitors to a website by obtaining a high-ranking placement in search results.
  • Explain search engine return pages (SERPs)
    • Discuss the process of listing results returned by a search engine in response to a query or search word.
  • Select a webpage to track its ranking.
    • Examine the contributing factors.
  • Select a competitor’s webpage to track its ranking.
  • Create a comparison report.
  • Create a personal image or video and post to Pinterest or Youtube.

Week of November 22nd

Discuss SEO obstacles and look at two SEO philosophical approaches:

  • White hat approach – follows all search engine rules and policies. Focuses on relevancy and organic ranking Topics:
    • Keywords
    • Spiders/crawlers
    • Headers
    • Keyword stuffing
    • Link analysis
  • Black hat approach – use of aggressive SEO tactics that do not follow search engine rules and policies Topics:
    • Redirecting
    • Page stuffing
    • Selling and farming links

Continue:

  • Update webpage progress report
  • Update competitors webpage tracking progress report
  • Update comparison report.
  • Update personal image or vedio tracking progress report

Week of November 29th

Discuss how to measure a website performance and search engine optimization rankings using a website speed test.

Continue:

  • Update webpage progress report.
  • Update competitors webpage tracking progress report.
  • Update personal image or video tracking progress report.

Week of December 6th

Finalize project and conclude progress reports and comparision report.

  • Webpage progress report.
  • Competitor’s webpage progress report.
  • Personal image or video tracking progress report.

Material Resources:

Producing New and Digital Media, James Cohen and Thomas Kenny

“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/>.
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/top-31-seo-experiment%E2%80%8Bs-you-want-to-know-about/63855/
“How Search Engine Optimization Works.” HowStuffWorks. 17 Jan. 2008. Web. 12 Nov. 2015. <http://computer.howstuffworks.com/search-engine-optimization.htm>.
“SEO Experiments – Google PageRank Logarithm Scale Base Experiment – Best SEO Tips.” SEO Experiments – Google PageRank Logarithm Scale Base Experiment – Best SEO Tips. Web. 12 Nov. 2015. <http://seolutions.net/Google-PageRank-Log-Base-Experiment.php>.
“Website Rank Tracking in Real Time – Rankinity.” Website Rank Tracking in Real Time – Rankinity. Web. 12 Nov. 2015. <https://rankinity.com/>.
“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/>.