10 imprints Electronic Media Writing has had on my media brain

This has been a great semester and I have learned may things about social media and electronic media writing!!! Here are ten things that I have learned along with a picture or video for each.

1. Using Twitter for connections, not gossip.

I've learned and realized in this class how to use twitter for more than another medium to talk to my friends and update them on what I'm doing. Ive made a few connection and am being followed by companies such as Discovery channel, American Sailing Association, Champlain things, and a few local non profits that I would enjoy to internship with. Using twitter in this class to create conversations using the hash tag is something I've really embraced in this class. Ive also used it for other projects and its worked really well! This class also motivated me to get a twitter application for my blackberry. Using twitter as more of an education conversation tool and for communications and less of a facebook status update is something that I really enjoy. Its been great to see the #CampChamp twitter community grow.

2. Blogging to stay connected, no more useless rants.

I've used blogs since high school but this semester I've branched out and created my own blog. I've learned how to embrace the use of pictures, words, and videos and apply it to my blog. The

use of blogging has changed in my mind since starting this class. I used to think blogs were annoying and a place where people just ranted about their lives. I've grown to appreciate blogs a lot more. This summer I will be living at a sleep away camp where I cant be in constant communication with my friends and family, so a blog makes the most sense for everyone to hear my stories! I have connected word press to my blackberry and can upload blogs, videos, audio recordings, and pictures! I like that I cant spend my time off during the day telling stories about working at the summer camp in Maine and my road trip through Colorado, Yellowstone, and the Bad Lands! Because of this class, I've learned how to be a better blogger.

3. Writing to create a set, new point of view.

My next revelation from this class has to do with writing. I learned in our book that writers have to think about the studio their movie, T.V. show, or commercial will be filmed it. They have to make sure that they plan for how the size and abilities of the studio will effect the quality of the shot and if they put the scene in a too extreme place for the studio, it will effect the quality of the film. I've always viewed things from a director, producer, editor stand point never a writers. For example in the picture I've posted they have created the outside lighting. If they didn't have the ability to do this, the writers might have to re thing the scene. This photo was found on PhotographersDirect but is no longer posted.

4. Making writing easier through technology, can everyone do it?

I know that I'm not a strong writer and I will never try to hide it. My skills fall in the editing and filming area. We learned about the different types of script writing and in the book I learned that there actually is software that can help you with it and make it easier to format. The programs allow you to draw several starboard frames and even give you an analysis of the screenplay that your writing, is so unreal. (Hilliard 66) I'm not sure how much this will actually make a script better but Its very interesting to think about. Will it soon be so easy even a baby can do it? I found the picture by searching and I thought it was very appropriate. I wish at Champlain we had the chance to actually use some of this software, maybe I would find out I'm not as bad of a writer as I thought, maybe even anyone can do it? What is going to be considered skill? Will a computer let anyone have the "skill" to write a script. It's a very interesting world writers are about to come across in the next few years.

5. Writing for news stations, always changing.

I've always thought about working for a news station. I like how you never know what type of a day you're in for. On page 136 Hilliard suggested that one of the most difficult jobs for a radio or T.V. righter might be having to select details and present them in a small length of time.

This video is a new story from CNN. The Iceland volcano eruption has created a need for a lot of stories. The smoke is stranding so many people that new stories are constantly coming out of it. This one (ironically about social media) is well done but its also done presented in two and a half minutes when I'm sure they had to cut a lot of things out. Its a really well done report and could easily fit in a short T.V. slot.

6.What is real news, fair news, fake news?

On page 157 Hilliard talks about fair news. He explains how news, in a perfect world would be fair, objective, and the facts would be facts, there would be less if no opinion. In the US there are currently 24 different news channels. Also non news channels such as MTV spend a good amount of time teach day reporting on "news". Of course most of these reports and channels spend all their time on gossip or people giving their opinions on the news. John Stewart on his show, The Daily Show even is able to poke fun at "news channels" such as-

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Fox News Panics
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

7. Writing to grab attention.

The next thing that was really emphasized in this course and the course book was catching the audiences attention. With a world that has so many pictures, writing, and other distracting things, the most important thing to do is capture the audience attention. Maybe the only thing that is more important is the ability to hold their attention. The audience is very easily distracted, and it is their opinion that either makes or breaks an ad, message, or what ever it is that you are trying to convey. For writers in the entertainment and media field it is their job to find a way that acts best to hold the target audience's attention. This picture is from the World Wildlife Funds' campaign to spread awareness of what is happening to animals and our environment. It is very effective because its a simple everyday picture turned shocking with the line "Don't buy exotic animal souvenirs". If the writers are not able to hold their audiences' attention, they need to find a new way fast, or find a new job because there is no point in trying to entertain or inform using the technique.

8. The change of electronic writing for fads.

Demographics control almost everything in the world of media. If there isnt someone or some group that writers, producers, or companies are trying to appeal to, there would be no point to produce products. There is a target audience for everything, T.V., shows, books, movies, songs, and sometimes (lately a lot of the time) a combination of these things. I find it interesting that one slight change can throw an entire T.V. channel or publishing company into a new direction and they will then create their own target audience. Recently there has been a lot more tv shows, movies, and books about vampires because of the Twilight craze. Just walking by book stores you can see entire sections dedicated to Vampire books. It opens up a new theme to writers to rapid fire produce new stories. The same thing happened after Harry Potter got popular, you could easily walk into a book store and pick up 10 books on different stories about witches and wizards. Of course none of these books were as good as Harry Potter and Twilight will never be more popular. Fan pictures such as the one I posted found on fanpop.com shows the fight between the two fads. But, these companies will keep trying and they will be able to convince pre-teens that these trends are what you need to know and love to be popular in their schools. Websites, tshirts, movies, books, its all a large part of companies wanting to become wealthy. But it does provide a lot of jobs for people who are screen writers, bloggers, and authors.

9. Simplifying vocabulary for understanding or hindering learning?

The only type of media that I could see myself working in other than documentary work and making movie trailers would be television. I love shows that make the audience think, stay engaged, and learn something new. Whether its a prime time political action show or a morning little kids show, I believe you can always learn something from a good show. In our course book there were five important things to remember when writing for television. Out of the five there is one that really stands out. It is the advice that writers must make sure you do not use too many big words. This is advice because some may be nervous that it might be a distraction from the main idea of the show! I feel like my entire time that I've been in school every teacher (not just English teachers) have told me that I need to use bigger, better, and more descriptive words to enhance my writing. Its annoying to think that producers and writers think that Americans can handle a more intelligent show. Also for shows where the target audience is children, should the use words that help them expand their vocabulary! I understand that if characters on shows spit out uncommon words left and right we might not be able to follow the show as well but at least let a few characters sound a bit more educational and love the wonderful world of a more broad vocabulary and embrace writing like the girl in my picture which I found on a blog.

10. No real need to trick the audience be honest and simple.

The last thing that I learned in this class really kept my hopes high was a little bit about commercials. In chapter four our book talked about good taste in commercials. It keeps my hopes up because it talked about how not every advertiser is trying to trick the audience into buying their products through sneaky ways.This picture from Dove is an example of a recently launched a campaign about how every woman and girl is beautiful and they dont need to be pushed around by the images they see in the media. Everyone has the right to be in a commercial because they are beautiful in their own way. These companies, producers, and writers use tasteful and educated techniques. They've learned that they do not need trick their target audience. The more honest and simple commercial is, the more effective it is. It is not hard for every writing company to use healthy respectable advertising, they might actually make more money by using it.

Thanks for yet another great semester Dr W!!!

~Laura

Sustain Champlain!!!

For my electronic media writing class myself and three other classmates and to make a 90 video of how to help sustain champlain... here is our video!

Another part of this assignment was to answer some questions and here they are-

1. What was the most difficult moment in making this video?

For me personally the most difficult thing was the team. I loved working with them all and getting to be friends but there wasnt really a drive or motivation that we all shared to get this project up off the ground. I know that I'm not a strong writer and I'm not good at creating concepts so I rely on other people to get the concept and then my strengths come in and I can branch out with new ideas and then my creative side comes out. It was hard to work with a group when I said "does any one have an ideas" we all sat in silence and I actually had to come up with the idea to do a simple day in the life of a Champlain student. We didnt even have a full concept until the day we started filming.

2. Other than finishing it, what was the most rewarding moment in making this video?

The most rewarding part was when it all came together. For myself I can pin point the exact moment. It was our fifth shot where Steph was riding the bike. I felt at that moment we had a good concept and we really were pushing the limit of cheesy old school "how to" movies. Also as a group we were no longer stressed and actually enjoying the project, it was great.

3. Discuss 3 specific lessons you learned about film production and/or "group process" in making this video.

The most important lesson that I learned while making this video has to go with group work. I really enjoy when I have a group that has a bunch of people I'm working with and no one has an idea, you have to really poke around and try to find something that works, and if no one speaks up and says they like it or not, you have to just run with it and make it work.

I learned you have to be prepared and have time to re-do anything multiple times. The first voice over didnt come out the way we wanted to later that night we had to find another person to do it. I learned to always have to plans because something might go wrong.

The third thing that I learned was its never a bad idea to finish early. My group finished a head of time and we were able to watch the movie in class. Then we go back and make the suggested changes and we'll get a better grade, it always pays to be early.

4. Discuss 3 specific things you learned about Champlain College and/or the "Sustain Champlain" project that you did not know before completing this project.

I learned that 8 out of 10 water bottles get thrown in the land fill in America! This shocked me so much and I'll never forget it and it inspired me to make sure I always recycle and reuse water bottles.

I realized that it might be easier to print out papers but its still a better idea to email documents and read it on screen.

Another thing that I learned about Champlain College is how much time and effort they put into making being green easy for their students. If you go through your day to day routine you realized your helping keep our community sustained with out even trying!

I really enjoyed this project because I love filming and editing. Also, being environmentally friendly is something that I take pride in and my dream job is to be a producer and editor for the Discovery Channel so this was a perfect project!

MEDIA MEDITATION#5 on Sailing

This will be a very interesting media meditation and I'm not exactly sure how it will work out. This summer I'm a sailing instructor and Camp Kippewa For Girls in Monmouth ME. Its a 2 month sleep away camp and when I went there for 7 years, it was the best thing ever. I'm excited to go back and teach sailing, but I haven't sailed since my sophomore year of high school, and mostly since my years at camp. Because of this I've started to use different media tools to review.

My first step in refreshing my memory was to set up google alerts for "Teaching Sailing", Sleep Away Camps", "Sailing", "Monmouth ME", and "Camp Kippewa". I would get bi-daily emails about these topics. The most useful ones were "Teaching Sailing" and "Sleep Away Camps". Of course I would get a lot of media clutter for websites like "Meet sailing singles" but I did get a good amount of useful information and tips on how to teach new sailers the basics. For myself the most useful thing was youtube videos such as this one.

It appealed to my limbic brain because I was able to see the images of sailing as apposed to the awful diagrams online. The voice of instructors telling me what should be done was a lot easier than reading page after page.

There was one blog that I really enjoy to follow is the American Sailing Association's blog http://asa.com/social_media. I think its great that they have a section of their webpage just for social media where they highlight their blog,youtube, facebook, and twitter! I also follow them on twitter@_ASA_. The ASA has been around for a long time and I'm sure they have had to make a lot of technological shifts, most recently twitter and their entire social media site. Everything is very well laid out and the pacing, lack of clutter, ownership, and value messages all come through very well. I would love to have a job where I could go around to companies and organizations revamping a section of their page and maybe even starting their social media. I dont learn the basic stuff on this section like how to teach kids to sail like I wanted to this summer. But i feel connected with the sailing community and really enjoy reading about all the things they have to say!

I've learned quiet a bit and also found great places online to order myself a new life jacket, rash guards, sunglasses, and everything else someone might need to be an awesome sailing instructor!