Creative Project

Creative Project about Airlines

Above is the link to my final creative project.  Over the semester, I had become fascinated how social media influences a lot of companies and people's lives on a daily basis.  The inspiration for my video was to focus on the airlines and the travel industry because through my research, I found that travel agencies and airline companies are incorporating social media into their own businesses to promote deals, changes and new information to their public.  Airline companies are also creating Twitter and Facebook pages for their customers to leave feedback about their services.  By providing both positive and negative feedback, these companies can improve themselves in the areas that people are complaining about.  On the few Twitter accounts that I have followed during this semester, such as Southwest Airlines and Expedia, these two companies Tweet back to their customers posts' to offer help if at all possible.  I chose to create a video about the travel industry because it has always struggled with the negative connotations against their services, and I like reading how and what they are doing to improve in everyway.  Social media allows these complaints to be heard quicker in order for action to be taken quicker so these companies have more satisfied customers, rather than disgruntled, unhappy customers.

Enjoy.

Project Essay

ESSAYY!!here is the link to my essay

Creative Project ?

I'm not really sure what the creative project is or haven't really heard it be explained that much in class.  I was prepared to write a blog entry based on what we are doing with the group project; however, looking at the syllabus and some of my classmates entries, it seems that it is another project altogether.  I'm not sure what the creative project entails, therefore I don't know what questions or thoughts I have.

my crazy journey.

My Google Maps Journey

Learning to love you more

I read about the project “Learning to Love You More” which was a project that asked people from all over the globe to participate in helping answer 70 random questions. The people that were willing to participate in the project willing sent in pictures or responses to the questions that they wanted to about any of the questions that were posted on the website.  For example there were questions like, “Draw the news”, “Make an encouraging banner” or “Repair something”.  The topics are so vast, but that’s what makes the project so interesting to read about because there isn’t one response that looks the same, whether it is a photo or an actual text response.  Granted I’m sure someone was monitoring the posts coming in but I doubt that there were many responses that were similar because they are based on individuality and creativity. 

That’s what made this website’s project so interesting to read and go through because you were able to see how some people took the question and responded to it. In some cases you can picture your own responses and see how different or similar it would be if your postings were posted.  Some of the posts were just really random at what they were asking you to do but then again they just wanted you to become more comfortable with yourself and get out in the community. Hence the title, Learning to love you more (maybe, I’m assuming that’s what the title could mean?) It could mean that you have to put yourself in the most uncomfortable positions to actually get to know yourself and love yourself overall? It was just a fun website to look at.

Wunderkammer

When I first clicked the Wunderkammer link my initial reaction was…….. well if long pauses and periods could signify my facial expression, that’s basically what it looked like. I didn’t really know what to expect when I was clicking the “My body” link to an actual sketch of a body.  However, I thought it was a different and interesting how the whole website and story telling was set up. I did like how at some points each of the links with all of the stories would be connected as they were significant to her life at some point, but would always be a part of her by constantly repeating themselves. (e.g. like being memories).

Then I just thought this chick was an absolute crazy person when I was reading about how she felt about her shoulders, I clicked on a link within that story and it brought be straight to another story of a time when she was curious of where pee came from.  I mean to be that open on the internet, cool, more power to you speaking about fondling yourself and wondering if you had a penis and what not.  It just wasn’t expecting any of these stories to come from the shoulder section; I mean I was only at the top of her anatomy.  Then again, this IS coming from the author who had created a full body sketch of herself in order to tell personal life stories.

Facebook Privacy

Facebook is dying. True. Although I still personally go on it out of pure boredum and as a way to see how pathetic my "friends" as Facebook so lightly puts it, from high school are doing, I really have no purpose for it.  I sadly have moved onto the Twitter world but purely for Networking purposes. Being a chapter president for a national organization it's really hard to maintain a proper image while still in undergrad, so I just have my entire privacy page on Facebook....BLOCKED.  What's the fun in that? It's not because no one can see the emabarrassing pictures or comment stupid things on my wall and I even changed my name so I'm basically unsearchable. However, as we all know there are loopholes.  So again, where is the line drawn in the sand for privacy when it comes to Facebook. It's no longer a fun social networking media outlet because I can't connect with my "friends" online.  My co-workers aren't my friends, they are co-workers and there are also boundaries on what you should and shouldn't post about work.  There is boundries for everythin that you want you post and actually do post and yet you find ourself still needing to "clean up" your social media pages should someone happen to skim your page and not approve of what is on it.

wikipedia response

I have read a lot of content on Wikipedia and use their site[s] frequently when needing a quick reference to help me familiarize myself with topic that I briefly forgot or even if it’s to have secondary research on a topic when writing a paper.  I usually use Wikipedia websites as a secondary source of research or information because professors have always stressed to never rely on the information posted in Wikipedia; however posts have been regulated more frequently, so it seems more credible.  Wikipedia can be a great website resource in which students wanted to refer back to or even have as a starting reference so they have some background knowledge of the topic they need to discuss.  The most common search engine used today is Google and when you Google any topic, usually the first site to come up is Wikipedia, naturally people are going to click on it.  That’s why is has become more credible and reliable over the years, because of its popularity.

Wikipedia is also evolving and advancing itself as a website because whatever that is being posted on to the sites about an issue or a topic or anything else needs to have a credible source and these sources are now being linked onto the webpage itself so they can be used for further backup.  I will generally just use Wikipedia for my own personal use when I need to find a quick piece of information and remind myself about something that I forgot or couldn’t remember.

Abstract and Bibliography

Link to Abstract

Link to annotated bibliography

Response to YouTube.

It's pretty fascinating to see how far and how popular the website YouTube has become over the years. It basically started as a place to share original videos to a small community who wanted to document their memories, now YouTube has turned into this personal video diary. Anyone can create an account and if you want your voice heard and share your thoughts on just about anything then YouTube allows you to post just that. YouTube also gives average people to start networking and branding themselves in a sense because talent agents search and scan on websites like these for new artists to sign. YouTube allows people to express themselves in any way they want as well as giving them the opportunity to post and share their experiences, memories and talents in a bigger way than you could’ve years past.

I thought the video of “Noah takes a photo of himself” was interesting. It’s cool to see how you can take clips and photos from anywhere and create a whole video about that just one thing in still shots. The vlogs are again a great way for people to express themselves in a different manner than that has been created before. There used to be websites like Xanga and other online diaries that you could write in but it doesn’t get your message across as powerfully as a video log would. And it’s interesting to see that since one person started a vlog or some sort of video (even the crazy dancing wedding proposals) that not everyone wants to do something similar and post it on YouTube.

Draft Abstract and Bibs

Social media, is it a fad? Or can you really prove that social media is changing the way that we communicate with each other and how it is evolving and consuming our daily lives. Media before was very simple: newspapers, radio, and television. Today, news is updated constantly and through several media outlets. If the news isn’t updated constantly the minute it happens, the public reacts disapprovingly. That’s how our society has evolved. We have grown so accustomed to having news, information, and facts at the touch of a button (literally) that when we have to wait for an update to occur we don’t know how to react. Imagine if media releases were still has slow as they were decades ago?

Media today has drastically changed with not only each other but how we receive important information regarding daily news. Social media has adapted into our daily lives by quickly changing the way we view and use various media outlets. If we wanted to voice our opinions years ago we would write a letter to a company or hold a protest. The chances of the company’s CEO ever reading that letter would rarely ever happen. Now all you have to do is Tweet at the company’s CEO and chances are they will read it and take into consideration what you are posting if it of constructive criticism value toward their company. Social media today allows for a more “open” approach for the public to voice their opinion to be publicized.

1. Herron, Ken. "Why is Social Media Important?." Social Grow. SocialGrow Inc., 07 06 2010. Web. 6 Oct 2011. .

This website discusses the importance of social media in general. It’s almost like an opinion column where the public is allowed to write to the author to discus their major concerns with social media and its effectiveness; and the author replies to specific e-mails that will benefit her public audience. This website is useful for my overall project and helps define my abstract because it defines what social media is. Although there is no clean cut definition of what social media is, it allows readers to grasp a better understanding of what to expect what using social media outlets.

2. "Social Media Dashboard." HootSuite. HootSuite, 10 06 2011. Web. 6 Oct 2011. .
This website is a vital tool for social media. It allows users who frequently update their Twitter accounts to set up their Tweets in advance to be timed and post at a certain time frame.

Project Thoughts

1) What are the key questions for your project so far? What evidence do you have relating to these questions?

Key questions that I have for my project: What angle would I want to take to further discuss the issues about social media? Yes social media is a very vast and can be vague topic to discuss in general; however, I wanted to target how social media is useful and how people are incorporating social media into their daily lives.


2) What do you like most about your project so far? If you were explaining your project to someone, and you were conveying what you like about it and why you're interested, what really good examples would you use? (Try for at least three...) Why do you like these examples?

What I like about my project so far is that although it is a general topic, I have the ability to take any angle I want when discussing social media. I have decided to prove that social media is not a fad and that it social media's rapid growth has allowed us to improve on how we interact and communicate with each other in the United States as well as around the world, internationally. What I specifically liked was that I found video clippings of President Obama saying he doesn't know who Snooki is when he was interviewed. However because of social media, he does now and when passing the new tanning tax he made a comment about "Jersey Shore." This shows that social media can keep almost anyone connected with what is going on in the world at anytime.

3) What citeable evidence is associated with these examples? The examples may be citeable in themselves, i.e. they may be a video or a text, but they may also be a trend or practice. So, how would the examples appear in your bibliography? Start by drafting "a statement of use" for each example, based on the definition above.

I took most of my statistics from multiple websites when compiling information into my trailer. I also used inspiration to see how people are connected with social media in general by re-reading mine and my classmates Diigo Links that were posted on the group we have generated.

my main question would be (at this point): Am I in the right direction with my Trailer video and my overall project goals of wanting to prove social media isn't a fad.

Lessig Chapter 6-8

In these sections of Lessig's Remix he discusses the importance about economy today and defines that it is split into two groups that exchanges general ideas or anything that they need to that can be shared. One group will directly give something like intangable or intangable to a second group, which then that second group will choose to directly or indirectly give something back to the first group. He proposes this idea as a sharing economy in his article since you are sharing information with people that you already know.

This coincides with his inital and overall message that everything does not really have a starting point since everyone naturally shares everything with each other. For example, when you're friend asks if you have taken a class before and you have the notes or a portfolio that you can lend them to help them get their own perspective, you have shared information. This is resuing and rebuilding information that you probably had gotten from elsewhere yourself.

He also talks a great number about Netflix and Amazon. On these websites, people are allowed to search for certain things to rent and/or buy (specifically movies when talking about them both). These websites have drastically changed, enhanced, and simplified the way we shop and rent movies today. Typically movies would have to be rented from a store like Blockbuster or bought from Wal-Mart; however since the immense increase in their services online, these companies struggle in technology.

Movie Trailer on Social Media

YAY! Watch my trailer about social media and how it has revolutionized the way we interact with each other.

Abstract Position

My topic is generally about how social media effects society today and proving any negative connotations about social media being a fad. Social media has rapidly increased over the course of the decade and even more so since the very first e-mail in the early '70s; however people are becoming so reliable on social media that they are starting to believe that it is only a fad. Yet it is the quickest and most reliable source of information that we have and is constantly improving on the way we interact with old friends and how we maintain and build relationships with new ones.

Lessig Response 3-5

While reading the next few chapters of Lessig’s “Remix” I was particularly interested in with the opening statement of chapter 3. Because how often do we retain information from just reading books, or listening to a song, or watching a movie…and then reiterate that quote or phrase or lyric to our friends because it means something to you. This is the RO culture that Lessig explains how we process and perform culture.

We’ve all used Napster, Limewire, Frostwire or some sort of file sharing host that allows you to download music for free. If you didn’t know, but it’s illegal to download free music because artists and producers pay a lot of money and time to record and release their albums to the public. That’s how they make a living as a career for them themselves and to build their record company’s brand as well as increasing popularity with fans. “The “natural” constraints of the analog world were abolished by the birth of digital technology” (Lessig). This then brought on the “piracy” law wars since there was no way to stop new technology from developing and/or redistributing copied music.

ITunes Music Store was proof that within three years of it being launched, 1 billion songs were downloaded in that time. “And while iTunes music was digital, iTunes tokens of digital culture contained a technology to limit their (re)distribution code (called FairPlay, a kind of Digital Rights Management, or DRM technology) was used to remake the code of digital tokens of RO culture” (Lessig).

Digital Technology is changing the way companies redistribute a lot of their material. For example, when the E-reader and Nooks came out, people did not have to physically go to the bookstore anymore to choose a book and read it in that same time they purchased it. Today we are seeing a faster approach to getting things when we want them in a higher demand.

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The information that I learned and expanded on in class this afternoon relates to what I posted this morning about Lessig's Remix. The three layers of writing (in examples) on the internet are: writing a blog post, someone coming in and commenting on that blog, and then linking my blog onto a site for everyone to read that has similar opinions. This relates to what we do everyday in multimedia writing because we post blogs about what is currently a topic and then comment on each others, which is linked onto a website. We are generally using Lessig's 3 layers of writing on the internet.

Trailer Ideas

I have been trying to pinpoint a specific topic to create my Trailer on. Since I am a public relations major, social media and its effects are an easy topic for me to choose. However, I have created a blog from last year about health and fitness. Naturally, I have become very knowledgable about this topic as well as having a personal interest in it.

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My thoughts about my trailer now have changed gears completely. I have decided to shy away from the healthcare idea for my trailer. I decided to do so because, although there are a ton of resources to maintain and track your diet online, it usually becomes the same few sites. Therefore, I have decided to create a trailer about the social media revolution itself. e.g. how it got started, how popular/important social media is now to companies, and how did social media evolve from previous media decades ago.

I would include still-shot pictures from past generations about media and incorporate live video about social media from today and how it works and wwhere is it advancing to.

Lessig Remixx

Very similar to Lethem’s article about copyright law, privileges and coincidences was Lessig’s “Remix.” We have all seen a million videos (I could be exaggerating) on the website YouTube. Some are parodies of a movie, some are direct re-enactments, and others however little there are… are original. It was heartbreaking to hear that the mother wanted to post a video of her infant son, but was violating copyright laws. This poses a question in my mind of, “What makes this video different from any other?” People sing and post cover songs all of the time; however that is not considered copyright infringement—at least not to the severity that the mother was threaten with. It just baffles me how someone can consider an innocent mother and child as violating copyright laws but when someone has a song mash-up, and post it, that’s not in violation. CRAZY.

In Lessig’s article, what really stood out to me was that we can only make the best progress when we are aware of all previous efforts. This generally means that our society is progressing and the only way to really achieve re-creation of a finished project is to be informed of what was done before you and giving credit where credit is due. “The extreme of regulation that copyright law has become makes it difficult, and sometimes impossible, for a wide range of creativity that any free society— if it thought about it for just a second— would allow to exist, legally.” Since the internet openly allows everyone to share their songs, art, literature and everything else publicly, it’s easier to trace back and define who was “first” to say it blatant; however there is no clean cut answer on where copyright laws are appropriate.

Reaction to Lethem's Influential Plagiarism

I have always known about the progression of social media/technology since you can physically see it…e.g. the effectiveness of the cell phone or records to CDs. It’s visible. However, you don’t necessarily think about the progression in literature or TV shows as frequent. This article, “The Ecstasy of Influence” by Jonathan Lethem was very interesting to read because it highlights eerie similarities and possible “plagiarism” of all previous/present works of ‘art.’

“The Ecstasy of Influence” discusses the progression of music, literature, and modern TV shows of today, which are nothing more than a reproduction of a past storylines (with a bit more creativity and updated affects).“Was the photographer stealing from the person or building whose photograph he shot, pirating something of private and certifiable value?” Lethem poses the argument that there are similarities between the Brothers Grimm fairytale stories, Shakespeare, and Walt Disney’s overall vision; however there are minor exceptions. Personally, I wouldn’t associate fairytale stories with Shakespeare but rather recognize them as “Disney characters.” It was Disney that took those stories and reinvented the personalities. To reiterate Lethem’s point, “If these are examples of plagiarism, then we want more plagiarism.” In a lighter tone, Disney took the photo that was already shot and built on it having his own spin on it.

Although plagiarism is not tolerated in social media or really any aspect of creative art…you can't reject it all that much since most creations had to happen from somewhere in order for a re-creation to happen. Overall, Lethem proves that although these works literature or film were published and printed before, if it was not for someone else’s stealing and manipulation of their creation, we would have a progression of the arts. Is it really fair to label this progression as plagiarism?

English 303 Survey Response

Most of the comments from the survey taken in class basically said the same things as I did when I commented. I didn't know how far into detail to base my answers because it's been a long time since I've used the internet. But reading some responses saying they remember exactly when/what age they had received their first computers, what it looked like and all of the details like that. The one post that stood out to me was the one about whoever remembered playing Oregon Trail. There weren't many games that you could play way back in the day on the computer (although they were fun at the time). However Oregon Trail was the best game when the computers became popular. I personally would play it for hours.

English 303

This is a new blog post for English 303