EME6414 Journal

I've spent the weekend wrapping up the produsage assignment and spent much of last week struggling with choosing a hashtag for my community of practice on Twitter. First, I tried to choose one that we would 'own' and that hadn't been used before. I originally wanted to use #IPPA, but after searching that, learned that's that is a tag for something currently in the political spectrum (I got out of there fast). Secondly, I had to consider length, as I don't want the tag taking up too much of the 140 character limit. So #IPProgramAssistants was out because it seems simply too long. After much consideration, I wound up with #IPprogramassts. I still think it looks a little funny, but it gets the job done. I hadn't previously realized how much thought goes into tags! Social bookmarking is no joke!

I wrote in an earlier blog post this week about a freshman orientation my office hosted recently. At this event, we decided to make our own Snapchat filter and event story. (If you can't beat 'em, join 'em). We decided to create our own filter for both marketing purposes and to embrace the trends (and to maybe address the issue of students constantly looking at their phones by incorporating social media into our orientation presentations). Our decision was similar to the points brought up in this NPR article about teachers are using Snapchat in the classroom. A psychology professor takes snaps of real life applications of what he teaches so that students can view them as they study for tests. He also records videos with narration about concepts he's teaching about in the classroom.  In our presentations, we encouraged students take photos with each other during the event as well as pull out their phones to snap videos and photos of moments they thought provided ...

We've spoken in class lately about disconnecting and the value it can have. I've been thinking about how disconnecting is really an art form these days (it's so tricky sometimes). For me, the hardest part is in thinking I'm being rude if I miss a message or a post someone has tagged me in. Rationally, I know it's not a big deal if I respond to something a few days later if I want to disconnect, but I feel weird sort of anxiety about it (largely over someone having the perception that I'm ignoring them when in fact I'm ignoring everyone [but I'm not sure that makes it much better!]) I like Snapchat recently because it's the one social media where I feel I can interact and "be" with others without the pressure to respond, which is handy if I need a break from technology. If I want someone to know I'm thinking of them on twitter or Facebook, I might write a post on their wall or tag them in a tweet. But I'd then generally expect th...

My office hosted an orientation last week for about 100 students who are going abroad in the fall. It was an event run by my office and mirrored the typical orientation that students go through, with informational sessions throughout the day followed by evening teambuilding activities and a night in one of the campus residence halls. I worked closely with the group of students who will be studying in London. I led several sessions regarding their future academics, living, and cultural activities. Most of these sessions also included their parents. After spending two full days interacting with these students and parents, many of them sent me friend requests on Facebook. I'm not entirely sure how they found me on there, as I use my first and middle name on my personal profile in order to avoid such happenings. Regardless, I try to keep my work and personal lives separate to an extent on social media. I'm friends with my colleagues on my personal page, as I'm also friends ...

Let me preface this by saying that I love social journalism. I think it's an incredible way for those who are passionate about writing or about a specific topic to get their voice out there and for those who hope to become traditional journalists to hone their skills. Many of my fellow journalism interns got their start on social journalism platforms and many more will spend free time 'freelancing' on social journalism platforms as they try to make the pursuit into a career. I've seen and heard discussion praising social journalism for many of the reasons I listed above. I agree with the praise - it's a great platform for getting one's voice heard, especially on positions/topics that are often marginalized. But I read quite a bit of social journalism and have spent a bit of time perusing Medium, which can offer great content and incredible writing. But it's a wide spectrum and I'd argue that much of it should not be considered journalism. (I think ther...

Just like diamonds... the internet is forever. Ed Sheeran certainly found that out this week when his tweets from 5-6 years ago expressing opinions some would consider problematic came to light in a Buzzfeed article  after he deleted his Twitter account and then re-instated it minus these tweets. (There's a swear word or two in there, fair warning.) It's becoming more and more common while scrolling Twitter or Facebook to see links to Buzzfeed or HuffPo posts calling out celebrities or politicians for misguided/cringeworthy tweets. I've seen a barrage of them in the last six months. I think there are pros and cons to that sort of article. Accountability can be a great way to keep people in line and I do think it's important to foster discussions about political correctness, mutual respect, and general human kindness and empathy, but I'm not sure that the point of a call-out article is to serve as anything more than clickbait in the way that some radio hosts are ...

One of my favorite websites is Longform.org , a curation site for longform journalism. I love reading narrative non-fiction and Longform is a great resource for finding curated pieces that are judged to be the cream of the crop. I've become even more appreciative of websites/apps integrating other Web 2.0 tools into their product and I was excited to see that not only can I easily add Longform articles into my Pocket app, but the Longform website has its own built-in option from which you can click a Read Later button and articles will save into your Pocket account. Generally when surfing Longform, you click a headline of an article, which is linked to the source of where the article is housed. From there, I could easily add the article into my Pocket with the web extension, but it saves me a step to simply click the Pocket button on Longform's site. I think it's incredibly smart for websites to integrate tools like this into their sites, as it helps make web surfing ...