My website will be used as a tool to promote myself to future employers. I believe it is a fair assumption that most applicants my age that are applying for public relation jobs do not have a website. Therefore, this website could potentially give me a competitive advantage when I graduate from college and search for full time jobs. I will include the link to my website on my updated online resume, as well as email a working link to the employer.
Every project from this semester has either a direct or indirect impact to my website. First off, was the wikiHow page. Though the wikiHow page isn't directly on my website, it was my first introduction to code. Of course I am no master of code by any means, but the wikiHow project began to familiarize code to me. This helped during the coding of my website, because now I had a certain degree of familiarity with coding which I used on the website.
Then, following that was the twitter project, there are direct links to my professional twitter on my website. This twitter project is directly impacting my website by adding more content to my site. This helps me show employers that I am well versed in running a professional twitter account, including their own company twitter.
Next, was the group and self video, though they are not directly on the site, I now have basic video editing skills that can encourage a future employer to hire me.
I have also added a linkedIn and blogger(this one) link on my website. They are in compliment with my twitter link. Though the linkedIn was not created in this class, it is being used to help with this classes' website project. Plus, linkedIn now seems like a necessity for anyone looking for a post-college job. So it made a lot of practical sense to include it into my website. Paired with it is also my blogger, which includes blogs such as this one and all the other blogs I have written this semester for my class. Also, being a public relation major, means I have to be a good writer. So this blog can help show off my writing skills, as well as show that I am capable of updating a blog especially including a company blog.
Overall, I enjoyed the experience of making the website. I did run into some troubles with the coding, but problems with the website were easily solved with the help of my professor. Otherwise, creating the website to my specific tastes allowed me a sense of freedom I would to experience again. My favorite aspect of the website was including all of my professional writing pieces. I have worked hard on these pieces and was pleased to include them on my website for people to see.
All in all, I am very glad I took this class and very appreciative of what professor Pabico taught me. I leaned many online skills I will take with me for the rest of my life, including process of creating this website.
Monday, May 13, 2019
Monday, April 8, 2019
Self Video
The Self Video was more enjoyable than originally anticipated. The theme for it was abstract, and the video was not to rely on filters to make it abstract. Instead the video used interesting camera angles partnered with surreal shots. In one particular shot, the camera represents the conscious of the main character. While it floats around the main character grabs ahold of it and returns it to his vision. Another way abstraction was used without filters was the skull head. The skull head was placed on an actress' head and proceeded to send the actor into a vision quest of sorts. As he is falling down the camera cuts from inside a house right to a remote place in nature.
Filters and audio were used on certain cues in the clips for abstraction. For example, when the needle dropped on the record the music in the video started as well as placing a black and white filter on the shot. Also, the music has audio that says "one..two..three.." and on the three the shot cuts to a different scene. At the beginning of the video it starts with no filter but when the hand pets the dog the filter changes. As well as at the end of the video a filter is still added to the shot and the camera goes to the main character with his eyes open. Then, when he closes his eyes the filters goes away and returns to normal view.
While shooting, struggles included finding a balance between abstraction and reality. The video needed to include elements of abstraction but not so much so that the message of the video would be lost. Also, finding dry spots outside was a challenge as well because of the rain that had hit the day before. Some shots included the main character sitting on the ground outside, so avoiding a muddy butt was a struggle while shooting. Another was that there was too much video shot overall. Though that also goes into an editing problem, in other words it was too easy to shoot over a minute of video, resulting in too much content.
Using a video as a communication tool rather than writing/photos is to exactly portray the movements you want to express. With words you can describe movements and photos can capture still movements, but only a video can include the exact movements you wish to include in your communication. Also, writing and pictures can't include audio by themselves. Video almost always is pared with a sort of audio. Rather if it is the exact audio from the video or audio that was put in there during the editing phase.
The nature of the video ended up working well with the matter chosen to discuss. The abstract way in showing the individual cared about his dogs, music, and nature made for an easy process.
The experience was very smooth overall. Content ideas for shooting took about half a day of thought and shooting itself only took an hour. Filming only took two people, the main character and the skull head character. These two both filmed as well. Filming was shoot all on the main characters property. First starting off in his basement then going to the woods in his backyard. There was also improv shooting, where while filming the team tried out different portrayals and shots to see what worked best. In fact, the end scene with the water wasn't apart of the original plan for shooting. Instead, it was something the two working on the video came up with on the spot.
The idea was to give a little background of the main character, who he is in a sense. Then to follow him in his journey inside his mind. It starts off with him petting his dogs, just to show he loves his dogs. Then it goes to his recored player and him putting an Alt-J album on the turntable, because the song playing during the video is an Alt-J song. Then the character is in a meditative position, while the skull headed character touches the main character and sends him asleep, then to him waking up in a forest. Then his floating conscious is lost but the main character grabs it out of the air and returns it to himself. Following that is him wandering through to woods then to find a body of water. Where then the character finds peace there and gives the video a sense of closure. As if the character had found the peace he was looking for.
Filters and audio were used on certain cues in the clips for abstraction. For example, when the needle dropped on the record the music in the video started as well as placing a black and white filter on the shot. Also, the music has audio that says "one..two..three.." and on the three the shot cuts to a different scene. At the beginning of the video it starts with no filter but when the hand pets the dog the filter changes. As well as at the end of the video a filter is still added to the shot and the camera goes to the main character with his eyes open. Then, when he closes his eyes the filters goes away and returns to normal view.
While shooting, struggles included finding a balance between abstraction and reality. The video needed to include elements of abstraction but not so much so that the message of the video would be lost. Also, finding dry spots outside was a challenge as well because of the rain that had hit the day before. Some shots included the main character sitting on the ground outside, so avoiding a muddy butt was a struggle while shooting. Another was that there was too much video shot overall. Though that also goes into an editing problem, in other words it was too easy to shoot over a minute of video, resulting in too much content.
Using a video as a communication tool rather than writing/photos is to exactly portray the movements you want to express. With words you can describe movements and photos can capture still movements, but only a video can include the exact movements you wish to include in your communication. Also, writing and pictures can't include audio by themselves. Video almost always is pared with a sort of audio. Rather if it is the exact audio from the video or audio that was put in there during the editing phase.
The nature of the video ended up working well with the matter chosen to discuss. The abstract way in showing the individual cared about his dogs, music, and nature made for an easy process.
The experience was very smooth overall. Content ideas for shooting took about half a day of thought and shooting itself only took an hour. Filming only took two people, the main character and the skull head character. These two both filmed as well. Filming was shoot all on the main characters property. First starting off in his basement then going to the woods in his backyard. There was also improv shooting, where while filming the team tried out different portrayals and shots to see what worked best. In fact, the end scene with the water wasn't apart of the original plan for shooting. Instead, it was something the two working on the video came up with on the spot.
The idea was to give a little background of the main character, who he is in a sense. Then to follow him in his journey inside his mind. It starts off with him petting his dogs, just to show he loves his dogs. Then it goes to his recored player and him putting an Alt-J album on the turntable, because the song playing during the video is an Alt-J song. Then the character is in a meditative position, while the skull headed character touches the main character and sends him asleep, then to him waking up in a forest. Then his floating conscious is lost but the main character grabs it out of the air and returns it to himself. Following that is him wandering through to woods then to find a body of water. Where then the character finds peace there and gives the video a sense of closure. As if the character had found the peace he was looking for.
Sunday, March 3, 2019
WikiHow Article
Overall, the process of creating a wikiHow article was enjoyable. The topic was "How to Support your Dancer Girlfriend/Boyfriend." The information from this article came from personal experience, from the insights I have from dating a dancer. The general basis of the article was for someone who has no idea what professional dancing is like and how it affects the dancers.
The first topic was "ask questions," here the reader is encouraged to ask their partner questions about anything pertaining to dance. Dancing can be a confusing world to newcomers, this way they can learn about it as quick as possible. The next topic was "understanding the physical demands of dancing," which entailed how dancing is very harsh on the dancer's bodies. Also that you may have to help patch up their cuts and wounds and being skilled in first aid could help. Following that was "understanding the mental demands of dancing," this section covered how mentally draining dancing is and how dancers need a lot of rest because of the mental strain of dancing. Encouraging the reader to stay in with their significant other instead of going out every now and then. Next was "Understand they are probably close to broke," unfortunately dancers aren't paid a whole lot of money and because of this they are usually on a low budget. As well as college dancers, it is hard for them to work because of the amount of time dancing takes up. In that section it's mentioned how treating them to a sandwich or lunch can go a far way for dancers. After that the topic was "Preparing for your first dance performance," which essentially laid out how to go about attending the first dance performance and what to do following it. That after the performance they might be a little confused and how that is normal for someone watching their first dance performance. The final topic was "be prepared to support them when they are emotional," because dancing is such an emotionally driven lifestyle, the dancers themselves can get emotional. Often times they cry a lot when it comes to dancing, which isn't a bad thing but for someone not use to this the topic gives you tips with how to help them through their dancing tears. Although you could potentially include more topics, these ones seemed the most relevant and would help the reader the most.
The information from this article came from my personal experiences as well as from the help of a dancer girlfriend. The layout and format came from the wikiHow article "3 ways to support your boyfriend." This article was the main reference for coding of the article as well as the basic layout for the article. Although I didn't use any information from that article, it helped by giving a reference on how they organized their information. The article also used pictures to help communicate the topic, each picture was the dancer and the dancer's boyfriend. The pictures were relevant to the topic and helped create a visual representation for each topic in the article. The article was broken into steps, although the steps do not have to be followed in order. It was more so just ways to help an individual who is dating a dancer. The article was written with the mindset of something someone would of liked to see before entering into a relationship with a dancer. The diction was casual enough to where the reader could easily understand it and retain as much information as possible. Yes, the article was written for a very small population and not many people could relate to the article, it was written with the hope that even if the article didn't apply to you, that any reader could find enjoyment and humor out of it.
When the article was published for the first time it was met with objections from the wikiHow admins. They had said the article couldn't be published because they said it was a "joke topic, wikiHow is not intended for joke pages," and they also said that it was "sarcastic, a how to manual is not the place for sarcasm." Yes this article was written with some light hearted humor and jokes, but the majority of the content was very serious and none of it was sarcastic. Even after explaining this to the admins they still said that the article needed to be changed. Although not before contradicting themselves, in one message they explained that they do allow jokes but in a following message said that all the "jokey parts" needed to be taken out. So then after pleading the case that the article wasn't sarcastic, they still denied that the article should be published. After that changes were made to the article and the majority of the jokes were taken out as well as most of the humor. Still this wasn't enough for the wikiHow oligarchy, they had then said that more research had to be done on the topic. This was strange because the "research" came from actual personal experience and not from second hand sources. So then article was edited around three more times and messages were exchanged back and forth on what else needed to be changed, added, and taken away from the article. Eventually after trying to please the oligarch, it became evident that she could not be pleased. It seems wikiHow has a joke ban, similar to how the fictional town of Bomont, Utah has a ban on dancing and rock music. So the article was left as is and the dream of publishing it was lost. But not without some personal satisfaction, the unedited version of the article was shown to the SUNY Fredonia dance department, where the pictured dancer dances, and all the dancers there loved the article and thought it was great and funny. Having approval from dancers seemed better than having approval from wikiHow admins. Although the article couldn't be posted, knowing that actual dancers enjoyed it was fulfilling in its own right.
Tuesday, February 5, 2019
The pressure from social media
"You know we actually had to talk to people back when I was your age," is the main grievence most people in the younger generation have to listen to about social media. And although this complaint can get annoying once you've heard it enough, there is some truth to it. While it is important to acknowledge social anxiety is a very real thing, but unfortunately social media is allowing most people to hide behind a screen while lacking the development of needed social skills. While real life social situations teach us to respect the personal space of others and avoiding rude confrontations, social media is allowing users to develop an intrusive attitude towards others. Social media itself isn't intrusive, social media is just a platform and it becomes whatever the users make it. Though this is a general observation and doesn't apply to all social media users, overall users are falling victim to the intrusive nature the public has developed. Users are pressured into sharing everything interesting about themselves just to fill the imaginary social status quota. Also, with the fight for "likes" and "retweets" requires users to allow the perpetuating of this intrusive behavior. Social media participants have to open up their whole lives to the world if they want a chance at climbing the online social status ladder. Of course there is a responsibility to social media, there is a responsibility to everything. Whether or not we decide to collectively respect this responsibility is up to the users.
Even with all that being said, there are still positive aspects to social media. Just recently during the harsh blizzards that plagued Buffalo, people took to social media to ask for help from the people of the community. From being snowed in and needing medicine or having a shortage of food and water, individuals with the resources to help went out and helped those who called for help on social media. Police, firefighters, and town officials do a great job with helping people during blizzards like this, but unfortunately their numbers are limited and so by going to social media to ask for help resulted in members of the community stepping up and lending a hand out to those in need. Without social media, many people could of been in a very scary situation and the results could of been terrible. But, in this instance, social media saved lives.
Social media will stay on the track it is already on, it'll continue with the intrusive behavior perpetuated by the users and influence them to share their personal lives with the world. Although it still will continue to help people, like it did during the Buffalo blizzards. It's very difficult to weigh the benefits and disadvantages of social media, but it won't be going anywhere soon. Social media isn't some fad, it'll stay around as long as technology is around. Maybe laws will be passed in the future restricting social media usage, or maybe it'll be left alone for the world.
Picture Credit
Even with all that being said, there are still positive aspects to social media. Just recently during the harsh blizzards that plagued Buffalo, people took to social media to ask for help from the people of the community. From being snowed in and needing medicine or having a shortage of food and water, individuals with the resources to help went out and helped those who called for help on social media. Police, firefighters, and town officials do a great job with helping people during blizzards like this, but unfortunately their numbers are limited and so by going to social media to ask for help resulted in members of the community stepping up and lending a hand out to those in need. Without social media, many people could of been in a very scary situation and the results could of been terrible. But, in this instance, social media saved lives.
Social media will stay on the track it is already on, it'll continue with the intrusive behavior perpetuated by the users and influence them to share their personal lives with the world. Although it still will continue to help people, like it did during the Buffalo blizzards. It's very difficult to weigh the benefits and disadvantages of social media, but it won't be going anywhere soon. Social media isn't some fad, it'll stay around as long as technology is around. Maybe laws will be passed in the future restricting social media usage, or maybe it'll be left alone for the world.
Picture Credit
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