Tag Archives: net med

No comments

Update on final group project!

  By samanthabeniacbrooks • May 20, 2016

In regards to my last post for the final group project, Annie, India, Sally and I have decided to put together a hypermedia story surrounding the notion of adopting dogs rather than buying them from pet stores.

Taken from our groups google doc shared with our tutor Hannah; “as per discussed in the initial planning stages our group hopes to design a narrative cemented around the idea of adopt not shop in regard to puppies. Tracing the story of India’s dog we are hoping through the website to craft a “choose your own adventure” styled narrative where the audience is viewing the site from the perspective of the dog and the various choices which they make are relative to how the story or adventure ends.
Through creating a website like this – we hope to also create a site that sheds some light on Lakia the Russian space dog that got sent into space.”

In today’s tutorial, we sat down with Hannah and explained where the group was up to in regards to the project. The link to the site can be found here.

So far we have included an adventure like beginning, with a simple question and a yes or no answer. Already, any user can simply choose whether they wish to go on the adventure or not which shows great interactivity. We plan on creating an entirely interactive space that will teach audiences to adopt not shop.

We have already outlined what the story will be based around and for each yes or no option, there will be either blog posts or original content audio/interviews to teach people about the topic.

India and I are planning two phone interviews next week, that will hopefully address the issues in which we want to portray and raise awareness about. I am very excited about these interviews as I recently joined SYN’s Panorama team, where I get to interview several different people each week regarding recent news stories.

Our audience that we are aiming to target are dog lovers or those who are looking to adopt a dog and in regards to crew roles, we are aiming to try and split the project evenly amongst the four of us. We are going to ensure that there is an equal share of roles; I’ll be working on particular blog posts (topics within our topic) as well as the phone interviews with India.

I am looking forward to seeing where this project goes!

No comments

Searching da web for dogz

  By samanthabeniacbrooks • May 16, 2016

As part of my final group project, I’ve decided to look around the interwebz for some inspiration. I did a google search for ‘why you shouldn’t buy dogs at pet stores’ and the first link to come up was this.

It’s interesting how this website doesn’t have much interactivity. It means well, yet I reckon listing 8 points as to why you shouldn’t buy dogs from pet stores isn’t the best idea, as people will most likely skim through, or click away.

Perhaps if they had made a more interactive space with a Q&A so that people could learn a thing or two, or even just having some images that click through to the treatment of animals in both breeding places and pet stores, so that people can face the facts.

Screenshot 16 May 2016

Screenshot of dot point 3 as to why you shouldn’t buy dogs from pet stores with links (hypertext).

However, they have provided a few links in some of their points as seen in the image above, yet it appears that they only have this for definitions, in case you are unsure as to what i.e. ‘purebred’ means. It’s a start, but the inclusion of more images or sound as mentioned above would definitely make this more appealing to people and would certainly make me more invested in the topic.

No comments

Group Project + Week 4 = Ideas boom!

  By samanthabeniacbrooks • May 16, 2016

I am one of those people that half start an idea and then completely forget about it. I think it’s just that I’m easily distracted.

Looking through my draft posts on this blog, I found a post in regards to the reading in Week 4. The ideas raised in the Week 4 readings are to be reflected in our hypermedia stories created as a group.

Hypermedia is a nonlinear medium that allows for the use of audio, video and even image to provide information to users.

It’s interesting to think of ways in which this blog is an example of a hypertext/hypermedia especially as I have included a blogroll, categories and an RSS enabling any audience to explore my blog in a way they choose. These options allow for participation that can alter the duration as well as the journey that the texts offer. Every time I post, I am altering the physical structure of my blog. Adding a link to a blog changes the structure of the text as you are guiding the user somewhere else.

My group is planning on creating a hypermedia text that leaves a message about adopting dogs rather than buying them from pet stores. Through various forms of media i.e. audio, text and images, we plan to raise awareness whilst creating a space where people can ‘choose their own adventure’ and become aware of the way animals come into danger when being sold in pet stores.

No comments

Assessment 2 – Finding My Community

  By samanthabeniacbrooks • May 9, 2016

Being a part of a community within this day and age is not uncommon. Whether you know it or not, at some point in time, you will have communicated with various other participants in a community. But what is a community? When thinking about my experience over the past few weeks within the Wentworth Community, I have been able to define what I believe a community is.

A community is a shared space (a forum, an online group etc.), where views, values or experiences are similar, thus resulting in conversation between users whether through text, images, videos or the like. This can give rise to the creation of friendships and the expansion of networks.

Through my experience within the Wentworth community, I have come to learn that “we can’t exchange social currency in a vacuum. We need other people” (Oatway, pg. 98). In simple terms, a community cannot exist without people. The Facebook groups that I have become a part of, form a space where people from across the globe can come together to discuss ideas about Wentworth.

As stated in my first post within this assessment, I have been a part of the Wentworth community for quite a while now and thought that because I knew a lot about the show, it would be easier for me to become more involved and to explore whether it is a community. My main points of attack were this Facebook group and this one, as I believed that with over 13,000 members in each, there would most likely be daily conversation happening, as you might expect with any large group. The Facebook groups I joined were both administered groups where rules were set out in the ‘about’ section. I go into a little more detail about this here.

However, despite the fact that I have followed the show avidly for many years, I found it quite difficult to interact with others. I believe that I wasn’t successful for the reason that Season 4 commences on the 10th of May 2016, one day after this assessment is due. As stated in this post, due to the fact that there is so little show content to discuss, unless you are the ‘first’ to see new trailers/images etc., you most certainly will not be able to get much of a following around what you post. I have commented on various posts with little or no replies.

Screenshot of my comment on the post about the new Wentworth trailer.

Screenshot of my comment on the post about the new Wentworth trailer.

As discussed throughout the Network Literacy readings and lectures in Week 2, I used tactics such as posing questions and tagging other users within my comments or posts. By tagging users, it increased my chances of getting some sort of a reply as when you tag someone it gives them a notification, drawing attention to the comment. Questions also give more of a reason for others to share their thoughts.

Screenshot of a Facebook Conversation where I only received 1 like for my comment.

Screenshot of a Facebook Conversation where I only received 1 like for my comment.

Whilst walking around crown, I looked up at the television in one of the bars and noticed that Celia Ireland had won a Logie! I received a few hearts and likes but I'm still waiting for a comment reply!

Whilst walking around crown, I looked up at the television in one of the bars and noticed that Celia Ireland had won a Logie! I received a few hearts and likes but I’m still waiting for a comment reply!

This community is definitely something I want to continue interacting with as it paves the way for networking around one of my favourite television shows. I hope that I will eventually spark some deeper conversation, with the new season commencing tomorrow!

 

Bibliography:

Oatway, J 2012, Mastering Story, Community and Influence: How to Use Social Media to Become a Socialeader Wiley, Hoboken. 97-109.

No comments

Pros and Cons of being in a community that’s a TV Show…

  By samanthabeniacbrooks • May 4, 2016

OK so, as the final few days arise and the due date for this community assessment comes into sight, I wanted to address some of the pros and cons of using a TV show community as my assessment piece.

Before I begin, I must make it clear that Wentworth does not commence until May 10th, 1 day after the assessment is due.

Pros:

  • Part of the cast last night joined various audience members for a special Q&A shown on SoHo AU at 8:30pm. Various questions were asked and answered to all members of the cast, giving the fans of this wonderful community even more to talk about!
  • https://www.facebook.com/BeaSmith/videos/1230778160280723/
  • Here I was thinking, the show won’t even start again until the assessment is over, why have I chosen to become more involved within this community. Little did I think about the fact that whilst the show isn’t on, there are always events on whether that be awards shows or Q&A sessions with the cast. The Logies are this Sunday the 8th of May (which is also Mother’s Day so get prepping kiddies), and Wentworth cast members, Celia Ireland and Pamela Rabe are both up for awards on the evening. There is quite a lot of hype around the fact that either of the actors could win an award, which would be incredibly exciting for the whole cast.

  • Logies Nominations

    Screenshot of SoHoTVAU Facebook Post regarding Logies Nominations for Wentworth cast and creatives.

  • And of course with the regular trailers being released, especially the more in depth trailer shown at the end of the Q&A show on Tuesday evening, there are always questions/comments being raised about what everyone wants/thinks will happen in the new season.

    Discussion with members of the Wentworth Community (including my comment below).

    Discussion with members of the Wentworth Community (including my comment below).

Cons:

  • So as stated earlier, the show doesn’t commence until May 10th and so the whole community is only hyping around short 1 minute trailers released every couple of weeks. This means that if you aren’t the ‘first’ to see trailers/images etc., you most certainly will not be able to get much of a following around what you post. I have attempted to comment on various posts with no reply.
  • Because I have always followed the show from a different aspect to the way in which I am for this assessment, I am finding it very difficult to break into the community. I have always been fascinated by the actors and have always wanted to support all of their works, not just the work they do on Wentworth. This means that trying to spark conversation with new people so soon can be difficult as there is definitely a sense of hierarchy within the community. Both groups have around 10,000+ members, yet I would say about 1000 are probably active avid fans.
  • I have also joined groups that I probably wouldn’t have joined if it weren’t for this assessment. I tend to steer clear of large fanbases as from past experience, sometimes other people can get in the way from the enjoyment of the person/thing you are a fan of. For example, I have always really loved Jessie J and followed her very closely. However I find that often there are a lot of horrible comments/posts between fans about other fans or even Jessie and sometimes that can be hard to deal with. Twitter has always been my ‘go to’ as I enjoy being part of a community space where the talent is actually able to interact as well. With these Facebook groups, it is purely just the fans, so getting comments from the actors/writers etc. is not possible.
No comments

Moderation in moderation

  By samanthabeniacbrooks • May 1, 2016

In reference to my last post, I would like to raise the issue surrounding Online Privacy in regards to my community. As stated in my last post, I mentioned the fact that Facebook groups were the main space I used to interact with fellow Wentworth Fans.

The Facebook group has a few admins, meaning that a lot of what is posted is moderated. This also means that if you want to get into the group, you must be accepted by one of these further up the hierarchy people.  It’s interesting to think about the way in which communities are an attempt to create a space where everyone who has similar interests/likes the same things are welcome, yet there is a need for ‘acceptance’ into a group.

“I declare that I am an avid Wentworth fan”.

I think it’s important that there is an aspect of moderation as it can stop arguments/comments arising that may not be wanted. However I think it’s also important that we allow some sort of ‘freedom of speech’ within these groups. I know that there are characters in Wentworth that I don’t particularly agree with, but I feel that if I were to raise this, I would most likely cause some sort of prison-like riot, whether online or in real life.

In one of the groups that I am a part of for Wentworth, one moderator recently had a go at all the viewers from the United Kingdom, who seem to flood the group with queries regarding when Season 4 will be released over there. I can understand why the moderators would be angry as the group seems to be flooded with these queries, however I don’t like that there are people who think they can tell people what to do in such a large community, as it makes them seem as if they are better than everyone else… #justathought #newsflashtheyaren’t.

No comments

Week 8 is here.

  By samanthabeniacbrooks • April 29, 2016

This week in class we discussed the ideas around Online Privacy. Now that we are all venturing into our own communities and exploring ways in which we can interact with people within them, it’s important to remember how our comments can come back to us.

In regards to my community, the main space I use is Facebook. Because I use a Facebook group to interact with fellow Wentworth fans, my name is over every action or word. I need to be careful about my actions as they could potentially come across incorrectly, causing detrimental effects to my current life and future aspirations.

Whilst some extreme cases of issues surrounding online privacy were mentioned in class, I think it’s important to consider them as they remind us as to what can really happen.

One girl mentioned the fact that a woman had tweeted a very racist comment before getting on a flight to Africa, and once she had landed, the tweet had gone viral and she was met with journalists and reporters at the airport.

I will ensure that whatever I do post is still in line with RMIT’s guidelines and it’s something that I would be happy for others to see if it were to be leaked.

 

No comments

Cowbird?!

  By samanthabeniacbrooks • April 19, 2016

“Cowbird is a public library of human experience, offering a simple set of storytelling tools — for free, and without ads. 72,274 authors from 185 countries have told 89,402 stories on 28,228 topics. We invite you to join us and contribute your stories.” (Cowbird Website, About Cowbird, http://cowbird.com/about/)

If I’m correct, at first glance, the site acts as a wider community where anyone around the world can share their stories. By using the ‘search’ bar, you can type any key word that interests you and be taken to a story that is relevant. Cowbird houses stories that have been ‘tagged’ or ‘categorised’, allowing for people to connect with each other’s stories. This is very similar to the way in which I use tagging in my blog posts, in order to connect with both my own and other people’s blog posts.

Cowbird reminds me of the site FMyLife or in other words, FML, that I used to visit when I was a little younger. It’s a site where you can read daily ‘FML’ moments but also submit an FML moment; if you have one. The site creates a community of people who seem to have unfortunate things happen to them, leaving readers around the world with either a light of glimmer that their lives aren’t so bad or a “omg this happened to me once too”.

Screenshot taken on Tuesday April 19th 2016, Cowbird Homepage.

Screenshot taken on Tuesday April 19th 2016, Cowbird Homepage.

I am very interested in the way in which these sites create a sense of Community, despite the fact we all live in different places and will update you all if I find more sites just like Cowbird.

No comments

Assignment 1 – Blogging IS important!

  By samanthabeniacbrooks • April 6, 2016

Due to the shift of the media platform to the internet, it is important that we understand ways in which we can express our ideas and thoughts freely to the universe, as you would with a magazine or newspaper.

Despite the fact blogging was a prerequisite for Media One in 2015, this semester in Networked Media, I have truly begun to properly understand both the theoretical and practical aspects of blogging and how they intertwine.

As mentioned in my Week 1 Reading Blog, I refer to the idea of blogging and the importance of having a place within the online community, stating that “I think that it is so important that I continue to use my media blog throughout my degree, as it is a public document that showcases my folio of work.” Blogging “also enables me to become a part of the “larger community” (Miles, pg. 67) whenever I contribute or others comment on my work”, which in turn, is also relevant to the ideas presented in Week 4 about Hypertexts and Hypermedia.

By acknowledging the works of others, we not only become network literate but we can make our writing intertextual; “we must write with an awareness that we are writing in the presence of other texts” (Landow, pg. 77). Whilst it could be said that it is very hard to be original, the opinions we offer on the various ideas within the docuverse are original. We each have our own set of thoughts and blogging allows us to express these opinions, whilst linking back to the work of others.

As seen in my ‘Am I Lazy?‘ post, I have also begun to develop an understanding of general licensing practice and more specifically, Creative Commons. Below each of the photos within this blog post, I have included a clear caption that cites where the screenshots have been taken from. Whilst it is important to show a clear link to the opinions of others, it is important to give credit to the original owner, especially in order to avoid plagiarism and the legal consequences of plagiarising. In my opinion, it is also important to cite others works, as you are clearly showing evidence surrounding your topic of choice. Furthermore, I like to relate my ideas to the ideas of others, as I can show that I am placing my work within the wider docuverse, and proving my online presence.

I have placed a Creative Commons license in my blog’s sidebar which allows anyone to read and distribute my work as they please, as long as I am credited. Without this license, it would be a lot harder for others to comment in their own spaces about my ideas, thus making my opinions more ‘closed’ to the wider network community. The use of Creative Commons “facilitates sharing, building and remixing on top of content, where the authors opt into this more balanced and rational copyright system and supports the idea of remix or participatory culture” (Lasica 2006).

Now that I have a deeper understanding to the real reasons we blog, and the best ways to do it, I feel that I am really beginning to enjoy it. I have never been much of a writer but because of the theory presented to me each week in regards to blogging, I am becoming more and more aware of the ways in which work can be presented online. It is clear to me that these theories are relevant even to professionals in the media industry (as seen in the blog posts of this blog linked in my blog roll: Refinery 29), so I feel that I am becoming more professional too!

Bibliography:

Miles, Adrian 2006, Blogs in Media Education: A Beginning [online], Screen Education, No. 43, pg. 66-69.

Landow, G 2006, Hypertext 3.0, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, pg. 69-85, 107-124.

Lasica, J 2006, Prof. Lawrence Lessig Explains Creative Commons Licensing, accessed April 6, 2016, from <https://youtu.be/AWxyx5iYdvI>.

 

No comments

CHROMATICITY

  By samanthabeniacbrooks • April 4, 2016

I’m not a big Vimeo user. It’s one of those sites that I’ve signed up to, purely for rare University use. However today I decided that I might take a look at the wonderful ‘Staff Picks’ section.

This section shows off, well simply, videos that the staff LOVE (“We really love videos, and these are the videos we really, really love. All of these videos have been hand picked by the real humans who work at Vimeo. We hope you enjoy them!” – Vimeo Curation, Vimeo Staff Pick Page, https://vimeo.com/channels/staffpicks).

One video that particularly took my fancy, posted by Paul Trillo has taken out a Staff Pick this week, for very obvious reasons.

CHROMATICITY is a video capturing “an ethereal flight over the ocean as mysterious coloured smoke leaves its mark across the sky. A beautiful choreography between four drones simultaneously in flight and hundreds of smoke grenades.” (Paul Trillo, https://vimeo.com/channels/staffpicks/160730254).

I’m not sure whether it was just the colours that took me or the fact that they used drones, but something about this video really caught my eye. The music is dreamy, the setting is simple, and we have beautiful colours dancing across the sky. The only thing I do wish, is that I could have been there.

Check it out below or click this link to watch it on the Vimeo website: https://vimeo.com/160730254