Wordle Clouds in the Sky

I found that using Wordle to create a story cloud reflected similar points to my own notes. 

Words like story, building, cross-platform, engagement, and experience are all words that I noted as important or key words. The Wordle highlights story and audience as focus words- I think I would have added engagement due to the importance of the audience in transmedia. As the article states, there are two main parts to transmedia and the targeted audience engagement can make or break a work of digital storytelling.  

This application would be a great addition to creating an academic paper or an essay draft when reviewing multiple works. I do find, as an avid note taker myself, I enjoy writing down sentences such as "cohesive audience experience" as the whole sentence allows for more of a direct definition of the important points. I also notes the authors point about being two parts, as transmedia is not only about a creative storyline, but also about a multiple platform experience and how this experience interacts with the audience. 

I also enjoyed the term "audience architect." I believe this term applies to all users and creators of content for social media. Not only is it important to have great content, the content must be applicable to the audience it is being showcased to. 

- Samantha 

Assignment C – Animoto Review Video

Assignment

In this course we have covered a variety of topics such as Twitterature, born digital fictions, transmedia narrative and hyptertext. Think of a topic or even a specific work that is of great interest to you. Perhaps you were drawn into the growing pains of Alice in Inanimate Alice or would like to dig deeper into documentary born digital narrative. I would like you to choose your topic and create a (free) 30 second video using Animoto. You will need to include text, images and sound. You can draw from Animoto’s offerings or find copyright free images using the Creative Commons search on Flickr.

Your finished Animoto video must be shared both via Twitter (@JessL and use our class hashtag) AND the class blog, include a link to it in the comments of the Assignment D: Animoto Review Video blog post.

You must also include a comment about another student’s Animoto video. This comment can be separate or included with your video link comment.

Due in class on June 20^th

NOTE: our eclass does not accept links so please paste a link to your assignment blog post into a word document and upload that to moodle.

What is Cross-Media Storytelling - A Storify experiment

*Google Photo - Creative Commons

If you have a computer and you have searched the web, you have unconsciously been reading and experiencing cross-media storytelling for years! Using multiple platforms such as: Twitter, Facebook, Blogs and other social media platforms, digital technology has slowly been changing the way we read, interpret and experience the world.

I undertook to explain to an average person the concept of cross-media storytelling using a multi-modal approach through the use of Storify as a visual pathway to understanding the concept, execution and reasons for the changes in our storytelling world.



Research resources chosen: I attempted to conceptualize/visualize my research using information from both experts and professionals in the media/social media/marketing fields.

Platform resources included: Twitter, Blogs, Infographics, YouTube, TedTalk and resources from our course. My Research tools: Storify medium for searches. 

•  Twitter Hashtag tracking: Used to find interesting conversations and posts about my topic matter: #Digitalstorytelling, #Transmediastorytelling #crossmedia. Although difficult at first due to a sensitive case issue with hashtag searches, I finally found a number of sources that proved fruitful and selected one that would fit the educational and entertaining experiential tone of the piece.
• Google: Used Google search in Storify by searching terms such: Digital Narrative, Cross-Media Storytelling, Trans-media and finally found some great blogs and videos that would be appropriate to the flow and information set I wanted while being visually compelling where possible. Pictures - I used Google to search for creative commons pictures.
•  Links - I also attached Hyperlinks where I wished to provide an outsource to the information and finally provide a link to my Twitter site for following with a call to action to conclude.

Storify Experience- The platform has been purchased and therefor has changed a great deal in the last few months and has taken away some of the customization options previously offered. I certainly found it a lot more cumbersome to work with than previous projects. I certainly think that the topic could easily expand into a paper and the possible inclusions are endless.

Comments on Assignment B - Storify "Twitter Fiction"

Storify allows you to tell a story using your own words along with curated items from various social media platforms. I wanted to explore the topic of Twitter fiction, so I searched for the words/hashtags twitter fiction, twitter stories and microfiction.

Since my Storify article was meant to be a basic introduction to Twitter fiction as a creative writing genre, I chose social media elements that would best exemplify this concept. I added simple photos from Google and Pinterest, YouTube videos of authors discussing their Twitter fiction creative process, a tweet linking to examples of Twitter fiction, and a slide deck of Twaiku posters. I also searched for user discussions about their Twitter fiction experiences, but I couldn't find any relevant Facebook posts since its a relatively new art form.

Twitter fiction, like any literature genre, is a broad topic and difficult to encapsulate in a few sentences or examples. While my Storify captures the pithy nature of this particular fiction format, I doesn't tackle how this story writing format could impact our societal view of what defines worthwhile literature. 

Good writing requires practice and exposure to good literature. But today's students are from a generation that grazes for snippets of ideas on line and trades cryptic text messages with friends. Why read a book, when you can wait for the movie to come out? 

But ironically, as Carla Raguseo point out, “Twitter fiction can provide learners with a rich language experience in easily digestible fragments. It challenges them both as readers and as writers to attempt and explore multiple meanings and to develop academic skills.” 

Twitter fiction has the potential to incite students to write in a coherent, creative and grammatically correct manner. Some people argue that it might even be a gateway to exploring more traditional literature. However, this would be the topic for a longer academic essay.

The Power of Visual Storytelling

New visual storytelling site highlights how to engage your audience via The Next Web

NewsCred, the visual content marketing and syndication service, today launched a new microsite called The Power of Visual Storytelling, in conjunction with its partner Getty Images, the stock photo agency.

The site, and its accompanying free 34-page White Paper of the same name, provide advice and examples for marketers tasked with selecting imagery for various campaigns. Said Erika Velazquez, NewsCred’s brand marketing and communications manager on the NewsCred blog, “The project that we launched today with Getty Images is pretty meta: a piece of visual content that explains the power of visual content, and how to get it right.”


New visual storytelling site highlights how to engage your audience The site outlines four basic principles of visual storytelling:

Authenticity: Real, candid moments and emotions from everyday life.

Sensory: Visuals that highlight details and imperfections as well as overall scenes.

Archetype: Projecting “aspirational” audience personas that concentrate on interpersonal connection rather than demographics.

Relevancy: Delivering localized content in real time.


NewsCred pulled together some essential guidelines its says are critical to the visual creative process and packaged them into a free, downloadable White Paper that offers details, examples, statistics and conclusions.

Module 6: Cross-Platform Stories

Module 6 Cross-Platform Stories

Activities/Assignments ●      Add a comment to Module 6’s blog post with your reaction to the transmedia story examples. Have you ever read anything like these works before? How can you be sure you have read the whole narrative? Jill Walker suggests that the disunity that arises from reading such works highlights a different kind of unity – that the work unfolds at the same time as our reading. What do you think? ●      Assignment C – Animoto Video Review due at end of day June 20 th

Module 5: Twitter Fiction

Module 5 Twitter Fiction

Activities/Assignments ●      Add a comment to Module 5’s blog post in which you respond to Carla Raguseo’s statement: “Twitter fiction can provide learners with a rich language experience in easily digestible fragments. It challenges them both as readers and as writers to attempt and explore multiple meanings and to develop academic skills such as synthesizing and paraphrasing while fostering structural and semantic awareness in playful experimentation.” ●      Live tweet @JessL THREE initial reactions and responses as you make your way through ONE of the three Twitterature readings

Module 4: Writing for Social Media (Marketing)

Module 4 Writing for Social Media (Marketing)

Activities/Assignments ●      Add a comment to Module 4’s blog post with your reaction to infographics. Are you a staunch supporter of their engaging presentation of information or do you abhor their excessive inclusion of unnecessary design elements? ●      Tweet @JessL with two examples of how Twitter can sharpen your writing.

Module 3: Born Digital Fictions

Module 3 Born Digital Fictions

Activities/Assignments ●      Add a comment to Module 3’s blog post with your response to TWO of the digital fictions we read this week   ●      Send a tweet to @JessL with a comment about the Module 3 PowerPoint lecture. What did you learn about transliteracy and from reading born digital fictions like Inanimate Alice? Will you read more born digital fictions?