WikiTravel

Wikitravel’s purpose is to “create a free, complete, up-to-date and reliable world-wide travel guide.” I think it was important to actually keep the pages up to date and correct. Many of the stores and restaurants listed were no longer open for business, and some of the most popular restaurants in town that have opened recently haven’t been added to either page. For my Wikitravel page, I chose to edit the Sleep Hollow and Tarrytown pages. I grew up in Tarrytown, and Sleepy Hollow is the neighboring town, so I felt that these were the two pages I could contribute to most. Over the past few years, many old stores have shut down and new ones have replaced them. For both Wiki pages, particularly Tarrytown, the most editing involved deleting closed down restaurants and stores, and adding new ones that replaced them.

For the Tarrytown page, several restaurants listed were closed, including; Tony’s Pizzeria, Lollipop, Baskin Robbins, and the Chocolate Shop. There were also some establishments that needed to be added included; Subway, Yogurt Le’Crepe, Tarry Tavern, Lubins and Links. Tarrytown was relatively up to date with it’s things to do and see, but I added the annual lighting of the Christmas tree in a local park.

Sleepy Hollow and Tarrytown share a zip code and school system, and most of the stores and restaurants are located in Tarrytown’s downtown rather than Sleepy Hollow’s. Visiting either town would usually include sight seeing and “things to do” in Sleepy Hollow, and shopping/eating out in Tarrytown. Although most of the restaurants and stores were up to date in Sleepy Hollow, I did add the recently opened Huddle to the list of restaurants.

 

Screenshots:

wikitravel

What Works

This class has been a style of teaching/learning that I haven’t really experienced before. Using Lynda was helpful for some things, but a lot of the times when I would watch the videos I felt like it was too slow or included too many basic things in it. I also would’ve preferred if we had access to it for longer periods of time because I felt that sometimes when I actually needed it, I didn’t have access to it. I also felt that sometimes the communication in class wasn’t clear enough or maybe made things too overcomplicated. I understand that a lot of the work was independent and put more emphasis on us figuring things out, but some times things as simple as due dates weren’t clear enough for me. I do think that the process blog helps to sort of lay everything out and allows a time for personal reflection on the different projects we’re working on. I think a big help would be more time in class to work on projects and assignments. I feel that a lot of the times in class we talk so much and sometimes get off topic that the information is overwhelming and then when I go back to actually do the work I often get confused or am not sure of what to do for the assignment. I enjoyed this class and the different modes that we used to do projects. 

Screen Recording

betcheslovethis.com

Video Tutorial

Group Website Analysis

For our group website analysis, we chose to use Pratt Hobby Shop’s website. It is a small town hobby shop in Georgetown, Massachusetts. The audience for this website

The alignment of a website is an extremely important element. The Pratt website’s alignment is ok, but not great. The navigation bar and header at the top of the screen are all aligned correctly and neatly, but the information on the pages that you are actually reading is not. It makes the page appear messy and all of the place. Some things are aligned in the center, but then others are aligned to the right. The directions page has 3 different types of alignment, and make it look messy. Although the homepage is much more aligned then the other pages once your start navigating throughout the site, misalignment makes the website seem poorly designed and unprofessional. If they had chosen one alignment and used it on each page, the website would appear much more organized and easier to comprehend.

The audience of this website seems as though it may be an older demographic. The simplicity of the site and minimal information on it make it less appealing to a younger generation of people who are much more used to resourceful websites. On the news page, there is just a photo copy of what looks like a magazine article. Other pages also have little information on them. Although to someone like myself the website seems too simple and doesn’t have enough information, to others it could be helpful. I would like to see more information on the products available in the store, or even an online shopping option. But to someone like my dad, the website has just the information that he needs, the hours of the store, directions and some information about what services they offer. Although to me the website is not detailed enough, I think for it’s intended audience it has just enough information to be useful.

 

Social Media Bundle

Above is the link to the screen recording. 

 

Here are the links to each individual social media page:

Pinterest- http://pinterest.com/jstanthrgrl/

Facebook- http://www.facebook.com/pages/Just-Another-Girl/252375551551144?ref=hl

Twitter- https://twitter.com/JstAnthrGrl

Del.ici.ous- http://delicious.com/jstanthrgrl

Memo

TO: Valerie Janos, Writer of Another Girl

FROM: Val L. Janos, Account Manager

DATE: October 8, 2012

SUBJECT: Progress

The progress of your PR campaign for you blog, Another Girl, is coming along very well. Through market research, we’ve decided that the most efficient way to broaden and reach your specific audience is through Facebook and Twitter. Your target audience are girls with ages that vary from high school to college. Utilizing links to both your Facebook and Twitter page directly on your blog will expand your reader base and allow for them to become more connected with your product. To promote your blog to the best of our ability, we will include daily Facebook and Twitter posts, and attract more and more followers and friends on a daily basis. We have created a solid plan that will definitely promote your blog to it’s highest ability.

I will be more than happy to meet and discuss any of the above information.

Lynda

I always thought I was familiar with Twitter and Facebook because I’ve been using them daily for quite a few years. But I knew there were more aspects of the site that I wasn’t too familiar with. I also thought I knew what some things were for, like a hashtag, but realized I didn’t.

I didn’t know how I could put a Twitter or Facebook link onto my blog, but after watching a video I learned I could use widgets to put boxes and links directly onto my page. I can put a Twitter feed, follow button, Facebook like buttons, and more on my page. I found them with the adding Twitter to your blog video. After following the directions and creating a new twitter, I also discovered that I could do the same thing with Facebook. There are countless numbers of different widgets to use and put right on my blog.

My ah-ha moment was realizing how much more things I could add to my blog. I look at other blogs and they look so much more professional then mine because they have all these “add ons”. I discovered it’s a lot easier to add all of these elements onto my blog. It also helps the idea of the “bundle”, as in more than just one aspect to promote the company. The links to Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and countless other sites really help to promote and put my blog out there. It gives people even more chances of coming across my blog because there are so many different platforms it’s publicized on.

Bibliography Project 2

The theme for this blog is the media’s effect on teenage girls in high school and college. Whether the effects are positive or negative, the media clearly effects every girl in today’s society. We are constantly surrounded by numerous different ways for media to get our attention, but what are the messages they are sending and how are they effecting us?

Through both written articles and other modes of media, like videos, the following sites give an overview of a few of the different topics that will be covered in the blog. Each link provides a different piece of information for each related topic.

 

 

Albert, Bill. “Evaluating the Impact of MTV’s 16 and Pregnant on Teen Viewers’ Attitudes About Teen Pregnancy.” Media Influence L The National Campaign. The National Campaign, n.d. Web. 03 Oct. 2012. <http://www.thenationalcampaign.org/mediainfluence/default.aspx&gt;.

This website provides facts, press releases and articles about the impact of shows like Teen Mom and 16 and Pregnant. It talks about the amount of information relating to teen pregnancy and sexualization of younger girls in today’s media.

I think this website provides great facts and statistics on this topic. It summarizes the main points and figures relating to the media and teen pregnancy. It also talks about the specific shows, 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom which directly relate to an experiment I participated in that will be posted in one of my blog posts.

 

 

Doctoroff, Ariel. “The XX Factor.” The XX Factor. Slate, 27 June 2012. Web. 03 Oct. 2012. <http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2012/06/27/girls_use_social_media_more_than_boys_study_shows.html&gt;.

This article talks about how girls in today’s society use media more than boys. Whether it be Facebook, Twitter or other social media sites, this site provides stats and articles relating to the topic. It also has a very useful and interesting infographic that shows the differences in girls and boys.

I especially like this website because of it’s infographic. It brings the statistics and information more directly and in a more interesting way to the viewer.

 

 

Pugh, Robin H., and Craig T. Dearfield. “The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2012.”Women’s Media Center. Women’s Media Center, n.d. Web. 3 Oct. 2012. <http://wmc.3cdn.net/a6b2dc282c824e903a_arm6b0hk8.pdf&gt;.

This is a much more formal report of women in the media. It doesn’t necessarily apply to teenage girls, but more to women’s positions currently being held in today’s media. It provides information about women’s representation in newspapers, news shows, radio, sports news and other sources of communication in today’s media.

I think this is a great source because it could help high school and college aged girls reflect on the information they are getting now and see how it will effect them in the future.

 

 

Miss Representation. “Cause and Effect: How the Media You Consume Can Change Your Life.” Vimeo. Telling Her Story, 1 Apr. 2012. Web. 03 Oct. 2012. <http://vimeo.com/38593312&gt;.

This video is a short two minute video but that provides many facts about girls and the media. It fills the two minutes with tons of stats about body image, the amount of commercials we see, leadership positions held by women, and other topics. It gives the viewer enough information but in an interesting way.

I think this video is a nice link to add to a related topic because it provides tons of information but in an easy to understand and fun way. It also causes a lot of self reflection, which I think is a really important part of this topic.

 

 

 

 

 

Reflective Post Write 1

My two greatest challenges I’ve had while blogging are keeping up with a somewhat routine post and knowing that it is available for almost anybody to read. Most blogs post on a somewhat routine schedule, whether it be every day or every Sunday, most blogs have a somewhat organized schedule. It’s hard for me to keep up with regular posts or to have sort of routine to what I’m doing. I also find it hard that basically anyone can read my blog. I’ve always been the type of student who doesn’t like to share my writing with classmates or teachers directly. Writing a blog puts my work out for anybody to read, which is an intimidating factor. I’ve learned that I need to be more proud of my work, and that it’s good to have feedback from readers and other students.

I think my project’s greatest strength is my passion for my topic. It makes writing much easier if you are interested in the topic that you are writing about. I think my topic and the different posts I write about are directly connected to my life in one way or another that it makes it much easier for me to write. I think it helps my writing because it’s both easier to write and I am more confident in my writing because I can relate to my topics.

My greatest limitation about my blog is that I feel repetitive. Although I haven’t written all of my posts, I am nervous that a lot of them will be very similar in topic and will start to sound too repetitive. Although I have different ideas for posts, I think that using different ways to get my points across, like videos and infographics will help to switch up the posts and prevent them from sounding too similar.

I think the biggest thing that will help my blog is using different types of posts. In class we discussed the list about all the different types of blog posts that are available. I’m particularly interested in using different types of media with my posts and think that will really help to improve my blog. I also hope to have my reader’s become more involved, maybe with some type of poll or question for them to answer. Finally, I think that creating some sort of schedule for myself, such as a weekly post, will help to keep me on track and provide better posts for my readers.