COMM11007 Week 5 Blog Activities

Week 5 – Blog Activities

1. Practical: Establish a Storify account. Do not use CQU or Media Writing in the title – this is your account, not ours. Once you have done this, ‘browse’ some Storify accounts of interest. Write a short reflection of your set-up experience and some of the accounts you review.

I opened a Storify account and browsed some stories. One example:

The Solar Eclipse Update is full of tweets, videos, photos and information about this wonderful natural event. The solar eclipse was on Monday 21 Aug 2017 in North America.

Link: https://storify.com/cmgnationalnews/solar-eclipse-live-updates

When I first opened the Storify account, I was overwhelmed, again, by more technology I knew nothing about. It didn’t make any sense to me, so, I had a quick look around, then logged out, thinking I will come back to it later.

Fortunately, the zoom session, with our Media Writing Lecturer, Kate Ames, on Monday night, 21 Aug 2017, covered this topic. It was very helpful. Particularly the first half where Kate demonstrated how to use and edit Storify, with tips on how to 'pull it all together', write a cohesive narrative, with photos, tweets, and how to write to your audience, (Ames, 2017, zoom recording). It is like a big jig-saw puzzle, where you drag and drop the pieces into place to make your story.

I highly recommend seeing this instruction, if you want help with the technology. Seeing how it is done is worth a million words.

I feel much more confident now, about using Storify, and am looking forward to it, instead of feeling daunted by the task.

2.   Inquiry: Think about your interests. Find a social media networking site that is most suitable and aligned with those interests (For example, Instagram – Celebrity; Pinterest – Craft/Cooking; Flickr – Photography; Houzz – Interior Design). Write a short review of this network (for example, what it is, who uses it) and include a comment on how you use it personally and might use it professionally. Post this review on your blog.

Pinterest is a social media networking site that I have used previously. I say used, but, it has been more in the way of ‘looking’ because I did not know how to use it properly.

I find it an effective way to look for ideas on how to do things I am interested in, like: drawing, painting, arts and crafts, renovating, organizing and DIY ideas.

After doing some research online, reading the week 5 lecture notes, and the recommended reading from the Media Writing book, I now have a better understanding of what Pinterest is, and how it works.

According to Pinterest, it is a, ‘Visual bookmarking tool that helps you discover and save creative ideas.’

‘Pins’ are visual bookmarks that link back to where they originated, so you can find out more about what you are looking at.

‘Boards’ are virtual notice/bulletin boards where you collate your pins into categories. You can make them into whatever you like, eg. Pencil Drawing, Watercolours, Haiku Poetry, or whatever you fancy.

I made a couple of boards for this exercise; one for Haiku Poetry, and another for Writing. When I checked the boards the following day, I was surprised to find there were two ‘followers’ for my Haiku Poetry board.

Whitaker, Ramsey & Smith (2012, p. 292) talks about the proliferation of social and online media, making verification of sources difficult, or non-existent; especially if isolated groups in society just talk amongst themselves. And, there is the concern of technological haves and have-nots; with many people being priced out of certain channels of communication that could be vital to their welfare and knowledge. This can be further diluted with the increasing avenues of entertainment available, fighting for their attention.

Writing for social media is like “‘speaking’ aloud in public.” It is often short, sometimes without context – it could be a conversation between people/forums across cyberspace not making sense to anyone else; it has a purpose, is targeted and adds to the bigger picture.  (Ames, 2017, p. 1-2)

References:

Ames, K 2017 COMM11007 Media Writing Study Guide Lesson 5: Writing for Social Media, CQUniversity, Rockhampton. https://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/resource/view.php?id=502320

Ames, K 2017 COMM11007 Media Writing, Week 6 Online Session Mon 21^st Aug (Recording) CQUniversity, Rockhampton, https://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/echolink/view.php?id=560657

Pinterest n.d., A guide to pinterest, viewed 10 August 2017, https://help.pinterest.com/en/guide/all-about-pinterest

Storify n.d., Browse, viewed 8 Aug 2017, https://storify.com/browse.

Whitaker, WR, Ramsey, JE, & Smith RD 2012, Media Writing print, broadcast, and public relations, p.292, 4^th edn, Routledge, New York and London.

Quiz 5 – Reflection

This was a tricky quiz, probably because is covers 10 common mistakes.

I am still wrestling with floating particples, but if the sentence makes sense to me, it most likely will not have any dangling modifiers.

Trying to work out exactly what a ‘dangling modifier’ is, I went online and googled it. After looking at a couple of websites, I found one that clearly explained this ‘common mistake.’ The website is called Grammer-Monster.com (link). Now, I will make sure to place the noun being modified directly after the comma.

Another tip to remember is to split a sentence, to figure out whether to use ‘I’ or ‘me’.

References:

Hicks, W 2013, English for journalists, Chapter 3, Grammer: 10 common mistakes, pp. 30-41, 4th edn, Routledge London and New York.

Grammer-Monster.com n.d., What is a dangling modifier (with examples),  viewed 23 August 2017, http://www.grammarmonster.com/glossary/participle_phrases.htm