The Biggest Bigger Picture

Transmedia storytelling seems to be a growing phenomenon - no complaints from me. It brings a story to life, if you let it. Marvel is a big one that I know is catching onto this budding new style, and by far it's one of my favorites but I'm pretty biased - I'll be watching Marvel in my grave. Transmedia is storytelling through multiple platforms, but this isn't the same story being told from theaters to web series - they are all little puzzle pieces. Again to the topic of Marvel, they have their film franchise (Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, etc. whatever they come up with next ) All of their stories connect, hence why we have to sit through what feels like 20 minutes of credits to watch not one but two sneak peaks which will connect all of our favorite heroes together for the next Avengers film. But Marvel takes it one step more with the TV series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. which gives us an eye into the agency behind our heroes, thanks to our 'back from the dead' Agent Phil Coulson. Last night's episode was a major game changer, no spoilers here - I'll let you watch it, but it tied in with Captain America: The Winter Soldier which was released this last Friday. As I was watching it I was glad I rushed to the movie theater on Friday, I had a feeling I would've been spoiled in the next week or so - I felt bad for those who hadn't, but this way is definitely one way to get people rushing to the theaters opening weekend and make the newest Marvel film number one in the world and break records.
As a writer, this is a style of writing I want to learn more about - and learn how to do it well, but I know it'll take a lot of planning (Marvel already has their media planned out till 2028!) But as a viewer this is a storytelling I enjoy, it almost feels like I am apart of this world where superheroes save the day - and leave a huge mess for S.H.I.E.L.D. to clean up.

Media Journalist by Day, Singer/Songwriter by Night

On the 28th my New Media class at DSU had a wonderful guest speaker by the name of Adam Hammer. He started out as a photo journalist in college but found a career in media. He writes for the St. Cloud University Outlook magazine and his official title is Director of Media Relations. During his time here he talked about his life and how that took him to changing career paths. A lot of it was due to job demand and his previous experience in writing for newspapers as well as the loss of his job when his newspaper company at the time was cutting down on writers, and now having an uneven ratio of editors:writers. He had found a job with St. Cloud University, which had a very similar problem and he created a lot of changes to the program to widen up the audience and keep everything fresh and up to date.
In his spare time he performs in small towns as a singer/songwriter and that information can be found on his website.

Convergence, Collective intelligence, and participation

Today I decided to venture into the world of 'reality tv', not my favorite genre in the world - but it's big now, so why not try to figure out why. The sites I took a peak at were Survivor's and American Idol, reality tv that was huge before reality tv was.

From a first glance, I was really impressed with the appearance of American Idol's website. It's super easy to navigate, but my favorite detail was when you scroll down all of the features fall into the center of the page. It creates some major eye appeal.
Then as you get further into the website a whole American Idol world can be seen. It has pages for everything - from news to host and judge biographies and behind the scenes, even how to get tickets to attend one of the shows.
A lot of it has options for users to have a voice in the show, with a link to vote and even questions for live Q+A sessions with the contestants. Everything about the site is to enable viewers to basically be apart of the show - and more than just a viewer.

Now, a look at the Survivor's website - it doesn't have nearly all of the bells and whistles that American Idol has. It's fairly straight forward with links to help you catch up on episodes you might have missed, a merch shop, and biography and summary links. It isn't nearly as interactive in comparison to Idol.

And despite not having watched either show, I was more obligated to want to linger onto the American Idol webpage just because it was more interactive and I was allowed to input some of my own thoughts about the show that ventured off from more than just the usual social media websites.
It kind of shows the type of world we have now, new media has given us the ability to have a voice in these bigger media outlets and we will take those opportunities as often as we can, we have a voice and we want to use it! We want to see our favorite contestants strive, and we want to be part of the key to help them get there.

"The Medium is the Message"

Mobile devices are great for when you're on the go so you can have the freedom to go about your day but still feel connected to friends and family, knowing that they are just a few clicks away from a text message.
Smartphones are even better. The entire world is at the palm of your hand, but if smartphones were so great then why are laptops and desktops still as popular today as they were when they first came out, even more really.
It's the medium, what the medium says. People don't want to read a huge article on their phones, not if they don't want a hand cramp from scrolling through and enlarging the text. It's great for quick messages, messages that inform you but still allow you to be on the go rather than being that person clogging the aisle because you so kindly decided you needed to read an article, or a book, while grocery shopping in Walmart.
This is why Twitter was invented. Short and precise messages that inform you on what's going on, depending on who you're following of course, and it allows you to continue about your day and you only had to sacrifice maybe a minute of your shopping experience to catch up on local news or world news, or whatever it is the tweet was about.
Messages on a mobile device should be short and precise, like Twitter, which was what Twitter was made for, because you're mobile, on the go, you've got better things to do right now than read a five page article. Mobile devices keep you in contact with the people and the world around you, but only for a minute or two at a time. If you want to do heavier work then that's why people save it for their computers where they can go into further detail, or have the time to watch that 15 minute YouTube video.
The message continues to change with the introduction to Nooks, Kindles, and tablets. It's lightweight technology, might not always be on the go when you use them, but you certainly have more time to read something larger, like a book, without getting a hand cramp.

These are different platforms to read, and it really changes our time and what we want to read on them. One device says we have a little bit of time to look at something, while the other might say that we have hours to look at something. The differences force people to think more creatively, to make the message worth the device that the app was made for.

Those are positives to the technology, and the positives should be kept in mind. But cellphones have ruined face-to-face communication, even voice-to-voice communication. No one wants to verbally talk to anyone anymore, they just want to send people a text because it's quicker.
My phone hardly rings a day and when it does, it's probably a notification from one of my social media outlets. I'm not much for communicating via text because I love long, large conversations, as can be seen by this huge tangent bucket I am typing up for you here today. A person is more likely to get a hold of me through Skype or Facebook, where it's easier to type more, and Skype even gives the opportunity to call someone for the conversations that text just can't cover, and there is still so much that text can't do. Text cannot properly convey emotion, not without adding a million emoticons to show just how sad or happy/excited you are. Text will never be able to do that, that's why IM developers are creating face-to-face communication for our mobile devices, apps like FaceTime and Skype. We just need to pull ourselves out of our little socially awkward bubble to see our friends again instead of seeing a black on white screen that supposedly represents our friends.

Stop Motion Video

This is my first time creating a stop motion video and it proved itself challenging, but I don't think it was a total failure.

Kandee Johnson

Kandee Johnson has been an inspiration to not only myself, but by many, as you can read in the comment section of her blog or in her numerous vlogs or makeup tutorials. She blogs about her life as a mother and a makeup artist. Kandee writes on two blogs, the one previously linked is where she keeps readers up to date on her make-up tutorial videos, while her other blog she talks more about her life as a mother. Now I'm not sure if her blogs are as successful as her videos, but I know that she has made a huge impact on her readers/viewers because she doesn't hesitate to put herself out there and help others. She has a huge heart and that might be why she holds a place in people's hearts, people who haven't even met her. To me that's a real success story, to inspire and love others you don't even know.

My source for new music

8tracks has recently come into a big part of my life. It has unleashed a new creative side to me, the part of me that loves music. All of middle and high school I had been a huge participant in band and in college I am no longer partaking in it. I have to find a new way to get my music fix in and I found that in creating playlists, which is 8tracks specialty.
For a while I had used Spotify for listening to music, but I grew tired of the app because I only used it to listen to music I was familiar with. 8tracks has provided me with a great balance between the two. All you have to do is go in the search bar and type in an artist that you love and playlists that have a song or two with that artist will appear.
Through the site I have been introduced into new genres and artists that I didn't think I would be interested in and have given me a new muse for my writing.
While creating a playlist, generally it is a genre or general theme that is used for inspiration and users go from their to provide their take on a theme, some even do characters from their favorite movies, shows, books, etc. I have yet to find a playlist that hasn't introduced me to a new artist and it's enlightening to hear more than what the Top 40 radio stations have to put on.