Give Me Something To Look At!

What makes a web page something that you want to visit over and over again?  Content, of course!  However, once all those words start to blur together, give me something  visual to look at.  That's where the use of multimedia tools come into play.   Multimedia tools are tools that allow you to insert text, audio, still images, animation, video, or some type of interactivity content to your web page.  The use of multimedia tools should enhance your site (Sniderman, 2010).    The picture of the moving waterfall came from a site called Photobucket.  This site has tons of animated pictures that can be used for a variety of purposes.  You can even add sound.  I started to add sound to the waterfall, but I thought it might be too distracting for some people.  That brings me to my second point.  Too much multimedia might not be such a good idea.  Can you say sensory overload?  

Now, let's pretend I was writing a blog about a trip to the zoo.  It would be one thing for me to describe the majestic beast, perched on top of the rocks, with a roar that put fear in everything within a one mile radius, or I could simply do this : 

Okay, so maybe he wasn't really perched, more like sleeping, but wasn't the video nice?  The video is thanks to a site called PhotoPeach.  This site allows you to take your pictures and create a story.  You can add music, sound and text.  All of these things enhance your story, and allows the viewer to live in the experience, exactly like you did.  

Every multimedia tool will not work for everything.  As a writer, you must consider the message you are trying to create, your audience, and the method of dissemination first. Once those details have been worked out, finding the perfect tool will make your page much more creative, entertaining, and appealing. 

Zachary Sniderman (2010). How to: Add multimedia to your blog. Mashable.
http://mashable.com/2010/07/28/add-multimedia-to-blog/

This Lady is Crazy! And I Love Her!

The Bloggess

While I was perusing the list of the "Top 25 Blogs," I came across one that captured my attention solely because of the name, "The Bloggess."  I believe the title captured my attention so abruptly because it called out to my inner diva, something that all women have, but may not easily admit.  As I clicked link after link on her page trying to determine the purpose of her blog, I found it, sitting right there looking at me.  "I wrote for the Houston Chronicle, but I needed an uncensored space to say the F-word and talk about ninjas."  This lady is crazy, and I love her!  But why?  What makes her blog so successful?  She has widgets to Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.  This helps her readers share the content that they love with others, which brings in   more followers (Guest Author, n.d.).  Her content is also full of unscripted wit.   And who doesn't love a natural comedian? The Bloggess' page also has links to other sites that contain information she thinks her reader may find interesting and helpful.  Or, at the very least, funny!

THE BLOGGESS' BEST PRACTICES!

1.  She decided what she was going to blog about, Life!

2.  The name of her blog is synonymous with diva, and anyone of the female persuasion loves that, and men just want to see what women are talking about....#nosy!

3.  Her theme and logo, well it's obvious no expense was spared here.

4.  Widgets and buttons, she's definitely not afraid of social media! (Guest Author, n.d.).

The New Super Hero, or Shero, maybe Villain?

There's really no need for me to continue with my count of  The 12 Steps to having a Successful blog.  The Bloggess has covered all of them.  Her page is a sarcastic, insightful, foul mouthed trip into the life of being female.  Any one who knows a female, is a female, once was a female, thinking about becoming a female, or likes or dislikes a female should check this blog out!

Reference:

Guest Author (n.d.). 12 steps to launch a successful blog. Retrieved from 

www.dailyblogtips.com/steps-to-successful-blog/

The 2nd Time's A Charm!

Houston, we have a problem!

Is he or isn't he?  Two well known media giants, CBSSports.com and The Huffington Post are being heavily criticized for reporting the premature death of former Penn State coach Joe Paterno.  The two media giants who are known for their accuracy and timeliness dropped the ball when they repeated the false report from student web site Onward State.  The inaccurate report of Paterno's death began to surface on Saturday night and went viral shortly afterwards.  Several large news organizations picked up the story and eventually had to apologize and make corrections for their untimely and inaccurate reporting tactics.  Mark Swanson, managing editor of CBSSports.com put out a heartfelt apology to the family and stated that "the mistake was a result of a failure to verify the original report."  Onward State has since retracted its original report and manager, Devon Edwards has stepped down from his position.

Joe Paterno dies for the 2nd time!

How in the world could this have happened?

Joe Paterno reportedly died Saturday night and Sunday morning!  Which report is correct, and how did The Huffington Post and CBSSports.com get caught up in this mess?

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Social Media Tools

First, let's get a simple understanding of what social media tools are.  Simply put, they are an Internet based way of sharing and discussing information with people, near and far. There are several types of social media tools available for a variety of functions.  For school, I'm using Wiki and Blogger constantly.  I actually enjoy blogging!  I see it as an outlet for creative writing, while at the same time sharing your views about something, supported with credible sources.  Over the last few days, I have been experimenting with new social media tools.  Well, they're not actually new, but they're new to me because I never use them.  My first experiment began with Podcast.  The Department of Health & Human Services (DHHS) describes a podcast as a digital audio file that is available to download on a computer or other device for listening (n.d.).  When I clicked on the link, there were a variety of tabs that you could choose from.  Being an EMT, and a budding fitness nut, a "health" tab peaked my interest.  More specifically, there was a podcast about yoga.  Two years ago, a friend of mine talked me into going to a "hot" yoga class.  Hot yoga is yoga that is held in a room that is heated to roughly 100 degrees and has high humidity.  This was also my first experience with yoga.  Needless to say, I never returned.  However, my curiosity about yoga didn't fade.  Now fast forward, here's this podcast about yoga, rachelnelsonyoga.podbean.com.  I actually changed my clothes and dived right in.  This was not a good idea for a novice yoga enthusiast!  Somehow I got distracted, and missed the part where Rachel says get on the floor.  So now I'm standing up trying to do moves that I can't began to replicate because I can't see her, and I'm not on the floor!  Future Podcast users, if you are a visual person with the slightest attention issues, this will not work for you!  

My second experiment was with widget.  I see widgets everywhere, my phone, Facebook, my tablet, it's on everything.  Even with all this, I still didn't really know what it was.  A widget is a stand-alone application that can be embedded into third party sites by any user on a page where they have rights of authorship, e.g. a webpage, blog, or profile on a social media site (Wikipedia, 2013).  This definition didn't really didn't help me too much, so I decided to do some experimenting on my own.  Once I accessed the widget link, I decided to play with Photo Snack.  It's an application that allows you to group pictures so that they tell a story.  Once you're done, you can embed the link almost anywhere so that others can share your experiences. 

 Here is what I created, http://www.photosnack.com/966EB67D75E/ptuj4kuc.  Creating this was actually fun.  The scary part was trying to decide where to embed this work of art.  Since I didn't want my pictures floating around in cyberspace, or hoovering around in the ever so elusive "cloud," I decided to embed them on my Google+ page, and on my Facebook page.  What I realized is that people can experience my journeys as well as get information about Photo Snack.  They can even create their own works of art!  Since I really enjoyed Photo Snack, I also visited photo sharing sites.  I chose Google+ because I already have a profile.  I wasn't really into posting lots of pictures, until I noticed people telling amazing stories through their pictures.  Here is a story about a Sunday afternoon with my girls, 

https://plus.google.com/113523137544633007325/posts.  If given the choice, when it comes to picture sharing, I prefer Photo Snack.  The editing options are so fun!  You can incorporate sound, change themes, share with friends, and embed on other sites.   You are only limited by your own creativity.

With all this experimentation, it's tough to decide which tool is the best method to disseminate information.   I guess it depends on what message you're trying to disseminate.  If you're anything like me, certain tools won't work for you because the message gets lost in the mode of transmission...podcast!  

References

Department of Health & Human Services (n.d.). New media tools. Retrieved from website

http://aids.gov/using-new-media/tools/index.html#tool-bookmarkingNew

Wikipedia (2013, September). Wikipedia the free encyclopedia. Retrieved from website

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_widget

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Unrestricted Web Publishing

Today I came across an article in the Huffington Post called The South Is Essentially a Solid, Grim Block of Poverty.  Since I was born and raised in Georgia, I almost took offense to the title alone!  So putting hurt feelings aside, I read it.  I have to admit that it was an excellent article, very informative, but how reliable are the sources?  Well, the sources used in this article are the Census Bureau and the Department of Health and Human Services.  When I visited both of the sites, the first thing that I noticed is that they are both government websites.  Websites that end in .gov are federal government sites.  All branches of the United States federal government use this domain.  Information such as Census statistics, Congressional hearings, and Supreme Court rulings would be included in sites with this domain.  This type of  information is considered to be from a credible source.  These sources are also considered to be unbiased.  The second thing that I noticed about the sources from this article is that they are both authorities on the subject.  Both sources track this type of information and keep up with year to year statistics.  This is what they specialize in.

If this article were published on an unrestricted website, using unreliable sources, the impact on southern states could be harsh.  New businesses probably would not want to move into an area that functions under the poverty line.  They couldn't take the risk of their business not growing and making more money.  Tourist certainly wouldn't come to an area like that. Those types of areas are known for higher crime rates.  Because of this, money that cities usually make from the tourist industry would be none existent.  This article could also be biased.  It could possibly only approach the truly negative side of the story, which could hinder the cities overall growth.

References:
Bishaw, A. (2014, June). Changes in area with concentrated poverty 2000 to 2010. Retrieved from https://www.census.gov/content/dam/census/library/publications/2014/acs-27.pdf

Gangloff, M. (2014, July 2). the south is essentially a solid, grim block of poverty. Retrieved from https://huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/02/poverty-increase-map_n_5548577.html?utm_hp_ref=business

Health and Human Services (2014). 2014 poverty guidelines. Retrieved from https://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/14poverty.cfm

How Do You Know What You Know?

Today, while I took my casual, routine tour of Facebook, not really looking for anything in particular, something struck me.  There it was, a picture of a woman, obviously late in her pregnancy, running in a track and field event.  The story reads, Pregnant runner Alysia Montano finishes 800.  The 28 year old, 34 weeks pregnant, five-time national champion competed in the U.S. Track and Field Championships.  My first thought was that this can't be real!  I clicked on the link and it took me to KHON2.  This is apparently a news station in Hawaii.  The reporter, Michael Wagman wrote a convincing story about Alysia Montano. "The five-time national champion finished in 2 minutes, 32.13 seconds - nearly 35 seconds slower than her personal best of 1:57.34 in 2010 in Monaco" (Wagman, 2014).  I still wasn't completely certain this was true.  However, there was a video.  No, I don't believe that every video I see is necessarily true.  Video technology has advanced in such a way that it allows people to create incredible images.  This was no distorted image of an over weight woman trying to run.  This was an actual interview with Montano.  Montano's main point was that her doctor had advised her to continue to do whatever she had been doing prior to her pregnancy.  She was a runner, so she continued to run!

So, how do you know what you know?  Research!  After reading the article and looking at the video, I decided to do some of my own research.  I went to a few medical websites.  My favorite is WebMD.  They were actually running a feature story, Staying Fit While Pregnant.  Dr. John Botti, the Director of maternal-fetal medicine at Penn State Geisinger Health System states "that exercise is not a process to be eschewed or prevented during pregnancy" (WebMD, n.d.).  The belief is that if you were a healthy, physically fit person prior to pregnancy, you should still be able to enjoy a fitness routine.  Will you be able to perform at your optimal level?  Maybe not, but you certainly don't have to become a coach potato either!  Bonnie Berk, creator of Mother Well, a pre and postnatal fitness program states that only 20% to 30% of the population exercises on a regular basis, so the typical pregnant woman hasn't done much exercising prior to her pregnancy (WebMD, n.d.).  After all is said and done, I believe this story.  No, Montano didn't finish first, she actually finished last, 35 seconds slower than her personal best.

Do I think that social media is a reliable source for obtaining credible information?  Not all the time, but it can certainly be a great place to start!

References
Wagman, M. (2014, June 26). Pregnant runner Alysia Montano finishes 800. Retrieved from www.khon2.com/2014/06/26/pregnant-runner-alysia-montano-finishes-800/.

WebMD (n.d.). Staying fit while pregnant. retrieved from www.webmd.com/baby/features/staying-fit-pregnant

New Media

When I was in college, there weren't too many forms of media to choose from.  You either heard it on the radio, saw it on television, or read it somewhere.  Now, "new media" has taken over!  You have Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and that's just to name a few.  There are websites for the fun loving social butterfly, and websites for the suit and tie businessman trying to get ahead.  My personal favorite, I'm social butterfly girl!  I love Facebook.  I have a LinkedIn account also, but my profile is atrocious!  I've got to change that.  I just finished studying about "branding" yourself.  My profile certainly doesn't promote a good brand.  One thing I have noticed about social media, is that there is so much information available.  It can be as simple as how to bake a pie, or as serious as where the latest bomb was dropped in Iraq.  Regardless of the type of information you are looking for, you must consider the source!  Actors, singers, they get killed off all the time on social media sites.  However, you'll see that same singer, two days later, at the next awards show.  When Michael Jackson died, I heard about it on social media first.  I didn't believe it.  It wasn't until I got in my car to head home and heard it on the radio that I believed it.  I use social media for fun.  I don't rely on it for things that I think are important.  I use print, radio, and television for that.  I guess I'm telling my age now.  I'm just saying....