Coming into this semester my preconceived notion ,regarding digital writing, was that it was blogs or social media sites. Now at semesters end I have now learned that it is so much more. In the 21st century digital writing is essentially our society’s means of communicating with one another. Working on the course outcomes, I myself became a better digital writer.

Course Outcomes Via Jenkins

Play — the capacity to experiment with one’s surroundings as a form of problem-solving.

This is a outcome I could apply to many of the things we did this semester because, as a whole, many of the things we did was new to me and it was through the concept of play that I gained a better understanding of how do do different class assignments. The audio post card of project 2 was a example of this.

Performance — the ability to adopt alternative identities for the purpose of improvisation and discovery.

This is outcome I feel is very descriptive of project 3. We compared our identities to the digital ones we had and also to the the professional identities we seek.

Simulation — the ability to interpret and construct dynamic models of real-world processes

To me this course outcome is descriptive of the rhetoric on the town exercises we did. In all of them we attempted to interpret what message the advertisers were attempting to get across to their audience.

Appropriation — the ability to meaningfully sample and remix media content

Once again, this course outcome applies to project 2. The editing of the photo in our audio cards is the remix of media content being described here.

Multitasking — the ability to scan one’s environment and shift focus as needed to salient details.

This was a course outcome we applied throughout the semester. This class for most of us is one of 4 or 5 we are taking.  Also within this class due to hurricane sandy we at point were working on project 2 and 3 at the same time.

Distributed Cognition — the ability to interact meaningfully with tools that expand mental capacities

This screams to me C.R.A.P. We applied these tools in order to make our individual web pages a vehicle to get our message out to the audience

Collective Intelligence — the ability to pool knowledge and compare notes with  others toward a common goal

The best example of this was the wiki project. As a class we pooled our knowledge together and compared our definitions in order to define what digital writing is.

Judgment — the ability to evaluate the reliability and credibility of different information sources

To me this is the Diigo page. Prior to linking out sites for our classmates to view, we had to exercise proper judgement in determining whether or not the site we visited was a reliable source of information.

Transmedia Navigation — the ability to follow the flow of stories and information across multiple modalities

I think here in commenting on our classmates works throughout the semester you see how they form a different definition for what digital writing is through their audio post cards for example.

Networking — the ability to search for, synthesize, and disseminate information

This is Diigo again. With the bookmarking we were searching for information from reliable sources in order to share with our classmates.

Negotiation — the ability to travel across diverse communities, discerning and respecting multiple perspectives, and grasping and following alternative norms.

I’d have to say that this is the wiki project. We as a class had multiple people do the same page and negotiation had to take place in order to form the possible different definitions into one clear message.

I would have to say that the course outcome I applied the most was play. With the play most of the applications we used; animoto, photoshop, etc, I had never used before. I essentially did trial and error, I played with the programs until I got a handle on what I was doing.

With collective intelligence I wish I used more. In missing a class or not having a idea on how to do a assignment, I think viewing my classmates posts in order to gain a feel of what was expected for a set assignment would help me do the assignment better.

The most important thing I think I learned this semester was with thru the professional identity project. Not only did this apply what we learned throughout the semester but it applied it toward our professional goals. It kind of told me where I stand in terms of getting to where I want to be after graduation. If my identity doesn’t match my identity then I have a problem as in today’s job market interviews are not the only tool used to evaluate a person, your digital identity is used. Also in viewing my future peers in my desired profession I was able to see what holes I have and need to fill in my own  resume in order to get where they are at.

traditional resume

For my traditional resume I chose a normal format. My font size was 12 and the font I used was Times New Roman. The reason I kept my resume plain is because the format for writing journalism stays the same. AP style is what news organizations use in writing their news stories. While the content may differ in different organizations, the style remains the same. For this reason I kept my resume generic.

scannable resume

For my scannable resume I kept the same format as the traditional for the same reasons listed above. The only difference was that I removed all bold and underlines from the resume and used spacing to dictate what my headings were. I did this because this resume is read by a computer and things ,like bolding or font size, can give the computer problems in reading my resume.

LinkedIn

My profile included all the mandatory  information. Additionally, I added a skills and courses section. The skills makes up for my lack of experience in the journalism field as they can be applied to the job I’m seeking. The courses section demonstrates individual courses I’ve taken that shows I have extensive knowledge on the course subject.

Video resume

I chose to do my video in the crowded and noisy Webb Center. My purpose in doing so shows that I can concentrate and get my message across even amid chaos. Chaos that is often present in the newsroom or at press conference where hundreds of people are asking questions at the same time. I kept this video short as in writing news the lead is the most important part, as it draws in your audience and summarizes the story. If your lead isn’t good then no matter how great the remainder of the story is, it won’t be read. In doing a short video I am simulating my ability to grasp the audience’s attention and giving them the most important reasons I should get the job.

Experience Timeline

For my experience timeline I included my education with images. This included graduating from TNCC, attending ODU, and listing a course I’m taking. Also I added items that I planned to do prior to graduation that would improve my strengths and weaknesses. I added joining the student newspaper and a sports writing class as my future events.

project 3

Five aspects of a journalist

-A news-clipping of past work that give some indication that you are capable of doing your job

-Someone that is technically sound in writing and has the ability to work independently. Someone self-motivated

-Good people skills are a must, as it is the people who create news

-There isn’t a set work schedule, so you must be flexible, when news comes you have to inform the public.

-Must be able to meet strict deadlines and in doing so must be able to work under stress.

Sports Journalist

High School Sports reporter

BleacherReport.com

Travel And Leisure Magazine

Rhetorical Analysis

The purpose of this website is to provide the reader with travel destinations and things to do once at the locales in the magazine. The audience is anybody interested in doing some traveling or someone who enjoys reading about culture around the world. More than likely the age of the audience is older  as young people for one probably don’t have the financial means to travel. Honeymooners or study abroad students may be the exception to that. In terms of gender I would say audience is both as the magazine profiles both favorite destinations of both men and women. A lot of the images on the site are designed to entice the reader to travel to the said destinations.

Design Analysis

The IMAGES on the website are used to highlight either a particular location or an attraction at a location. Travel and leisure are the EMPHASIS as they are in caps at the top of the page to show what the magazine contains. The FLOW of the page is from right to left with the large advertisments leading you to the particular articles detailing travel that are all highlighted in orange font. The size CONTRAST places the importance on the advertisements on the page as this is the money maker for the website and a good travel advertisement on a destination may lead the reader to read a travel article about the place being advertised. REPETITION is used as all the article titles use the same font size and color. The BALANCE of the page is really poor as the right side of the page with advertisements takes all the readers attention. The ALIGNMENT of the page is structured in that the middle of the page has the stories aligned either web exclusives or magazine content.

Design/Rhetorical Analysis

The purpose of this magazine is to entice travel and the website design puts the focus on the advertisements that promote travel.  The balance is lacking on the page as putting advertisements on both sides of the webpage would entice the reader to view the whole website and also ensure that wherever the reader looked a advertisement could be seen. If a reader didn’t want to look at advertisements they could just look at center and left side of page.

Citation

With image citation the site just attributes the photo the person right under the same image. They use very small print in attributing the work this keeps the emphasis on the photos of the travel locations which goes with the rhetorical purpose of enticing travel.

Digital Writing

Photo used was Posted On Flickr by Robbert van Der Steeg

With the rhetorical situation the purpose of this postcard is to spread my definition of what digital writing is. The audience is anybody who uses digital writing. In terms of editing my image I cropped the picture to edit out the previous text on the photo. I then added text “digital writing to the photo.” I also added the sketch tool to the photo in order to bring a more human look to the digitized face.The last thing I did was fill the photo with light to brighten the image.I cited the photo by putting where and who posted the photo and hyper-linked it to show the source. It’s the best way to give credit as I can show the original work and you can see the difference from my finished product and the original.In terms of the meeting the rhetoric situation my audio file details different types of digital writing and identifies that as a whole communication is almost completely done through digital writing.

Reflecting back on the project I am most proud of using programs I had never used before in order to complete the project. Using photoshop and moviemaker to create my video was a good learning experience and these are two programs I can now use to assist in other classes or endeavors I may be involved in. Also using audacity was a new experience. Who knew that creating a audio file was so easy with this program. I had previously envisioned that this would be difficult.With regards to further expanding my project I felt like in 30 seconds I did a good job defining what digital writing is but being that it has many different definitions maybe I should have shortened what I believed digital writing to be in order to include audio clips of what others thought digital writing to be.With regards to the technologies I used photoshop and moviemaker like I stated above. It was required for us to edit the photos we chose and to put them into a video. For that reason these to programs were necessary to complete the project. Also I used audacity which was necessary for me to add my audio to the video.The problem I encountered was with photoshop and moviemaker at the beginning as I have never used them before. Especially with moviemaker I was forced to play with the different things it does in order to know how to create my video. Also watching tutorials was a big help.As a digital writer I learned that I am resourceful. In watching tutorials and playing with different programs I was able to learn on the fly in doing this project. If anything I learned that I am a pretty capable digital writer.Play was one course outcome I used in this project. I played with photoshop and moviemaker in order to learn the programs capabilities and to figure out specifically in photoshop what type of photo editing was available. Another course outcome i applied was multitasking. First defining digital writing, then shrinking it down into a 30 sec audio file all while learning how to use different programs in order to bring all my work together. The 3rd course outcome I used was collective intelligence. Our wikipedia page on digital writing was everyone’s collective thoughts to what digital writing was. I used the wiki page along with my own personal thoughts of what digital writing was in order to come up with the definition I used in my postcard.

Posted on Flickr by StewieD

Rhetorical Analysis

This advertisement advocates for German soccer fans to purchase this phone, debitel, because it has TV capabilities. The audience for this ad are both German and American, as these to languages are used on the add. Also soccer fans as the ad is trying  to use the allure of watching soccer using your phone as a reason to purchase the product. The age range is pretty much anybody capable of using a phone as the phone is not limited to showing just soccer games, it shows all type of television programs that appeal to different age groups.

Design Analysis

This advertisement uses the design technique of flow. The flow pattern of this ad is from top to bottom, with the orange backgrounded text, and from left to right, with the large font leading to the large image of the phone. This emphasizes the phone brand as well as the capabilities the phone provides, watching Europeans precious soccer. The ad flows well and keeps the reader’s attention from left to right and top to bottom.

Key Terms

Sentries – as filters for the information that is interesting and important to know. People depend in new ways on their networks to tip them off to news of all kinds.

Evaluators — when people encounter new information or something that doesn’t map with their world view, they often now turn to their social networks to help them evaluate 1) the accuracy of the information; and 2) the weight that information should be credited. Is this a Richter 10 event that should change my view of everything? Or a pop-gun burp that doesn’t matter at all. Their networks will help them assign weight to the new thing they’ve learned.

Forums for action/chances to appeal to an audience – in the era of social media when anyone can be a broadcaster or publisher social networks now also provide the audience for content creators creations. People have a sense that those who “friend” them or “follow” them are an audience to be entertained, enlightened, or mobilized.

Summary

A company called Social Intelligence began doing social media background checks for employers. They look for sexually explicit comments/photos and anything associated with violence or discrimination. In this search it looks for any material that fits that profile in the last 7 years. So a mature, late 20’s individual could possibly lose his or her job because of literally telling their social network of choice what they were really thinking, both good and bad. Being as that the internet is a large entity finding and deleting such incriminating information is next to impossible. Because of that the only step to prevent this from ruining your career is to really think before you put such information online. Another way is to create other online ID’s and flood these blogs/etc with positive information about yourself in order to make negative information appear lower on search results.

What you post on sites like twitter can be seen by those who aren’t your “followers” Posted on Flickr by Rosaura Ochoa

Discussion

This topic of social media background checks is a touchy subject. A uproar occurred when people found out that this was going on as they viewed their social networks as private information. Unfortunately that is not that case. For example if a person at a younger age was possibly reckless with the things they say they can have the past keep them from getting a job because the search goes back 7 years. This is also a problem because using the course tool of judgement I know that not everything you read online is true. Lets say for example that a lie was spread saying that Joe stole food from his job on another persons blog. The search conducted is going to find this information and flag it even though the statement is untrue. Nonetheless it could affect his job. You can tell people to think before they express themselves to their social networks but you can’t control what other people say about you which can negatively affect you getting a job with these searches.

I used yahoo, bing, and google to search for myself. I don’t have any nicknames or anything so I just checked for my normal name. On bing I found my facebook page on the 3rd search page. With google I found it on the 5th and I didn’t find myself at all on yahoo. So I guess bing is better than google. This doesn’t surprise me as the only online account I have is facebook and I haven’t done anything newsworthy to be in news. I learned that my first name is not as unique as I thought and with my last name being so common I saw a lot of people with MY NAME. I’m a little worried with  the results after reading the assigned readings as the Marcel’s that came up were either in trouble/jail :c. The other ones were athletes it seemed which aint bad. All in all I liked that I didn’t find anything on me as that social media search in the readings was a little scary.

When I graduate I want to be a sports columnist or analyst. Specifically in basketball or maybe football. Sports, these particularly, are something I am passionate about. They are something I spend a lot of time watching, talking about, and playing. Growing up in another country the only thing that I could see on television from America were sports. Basketball was my main passion and in playing for the majority of my life I know it in and out. I wouldn’t say that playing in the NBA was a realistic dream that I had but playing college ball was and it was something that I might have been able to do if not for injury. So if I can no longer play the sport I loved why not cover it and write about it. The training and the constant practice I did put a physical toll on my body and even after seeing the result of that physical toll it is not something I regret doing. In playing and being around the game I can watch a game and know what contributed to the outcome of college or professional games that I would be covering. I can analyze what was done wrong or right because I know from experience what was supposed to be done. While I never experienced it on the level I would be analyzing/writing about, my experience nonetheless would be helpful. Passion and knowledge are important in this profession and those are traits I feel I have. From the technical standpoint, with writing and communication, I am fine-tuning the other necessary skills.