Group items tagged

This article deals with website design and what to make note of when designing, as most first-time visitors will give you less than five seconds to "wow" them, making the aesthetics a vital part of reeling in customers. The website must be both visually appealing to your targeted demographic as well as communicate important things to know.

This article covers website aesthetics. Clara Teoh advises web designers to design their websites with: the preferences of their target demographic in mind, the right tone  to focus on designing the layout of the website to capture the attention of users by choosing appropriate colours and  correctly sized buttons. She also says to compare your site using other successful websites as benchmarks. She goes on to say that site aesthetics even affect variables like conversion rates and sales for businesses.  

This article is in the perspective of a blogger who decided to switch from Wordpress to Tumblr and his experience with it. The main point of this article is how Tumblr can connect the world with one single social media platform. It emphasizes how little can say much more. It first starts out with Tumblr's current good aspects, and later details the future of Tumblr.

The CEO of Netflix, Reed Hastings, states that torrent piracy in Canada has gone down by 50% since the establishment of Netflix three years ago, although no research or statistics have been able to support his claim. Hastings claims that piracy helps "create a demand" for legal ways to watch video through the internet. Is this true?

In this article, Jonah Berger explains "what makes things go viral," essentially what common themes tie things together when being virally shared. Berger expresses that there is a science behind why content go viral- for example, he says that virality can depend on the medium of how it's shared and it's level of sharability (ex. Facebook or Twitter). Also, Berger notes that another reason why content goes viral is because individuals want to appear more intelligent by sharing certain links that make them look better. Berger also explains that viral content has a related theme of "triggers," meaning it appeals to our stimuli in the form of sight and sound.

Burstein's article looks into the concept of virality from a marketing standpoint and examines how to use social media in order to market a product or brand in a way that it will reach a large audience and reach a level of virality. Burstein says that although you do you know have full control of whether your message will reach viral status, there are ways in which to encourage virality. For example, Burstein explains getting involved with your audience and being engaged with social media outlets. As well, he advises marketers not to come off as "salesly" or pushy, and to instead recognize the needs of your audience.

This article speaks to the effects of listening to the radio compared to watching TV, surfing the web, or doing none of the above. Radio, according to this survey, makes people happier and gives them more energy as they go about their lives everyday when compared to people that watch television, people that use the internet, and people that consume no media at all. Could this be because of how engaged it forced us to be? 

This article relates to the prior discussion of "blindness" experienced by radio listeners.  To elaborate, radio is a simple form of media which can thus produce a more intimate relationship between host and listener.  Radio hosts often seem to have more authentic personalities vs those on other forms of media, which makes content more friendly and familiar to listen to.  This article reflects upon positive emotions experienced by listeners vs those experienced by other media.  

Continuing the discussion on piracy, this article explains how piracy may not be as detrimental to the entertainment industry as it is described. Although piracy has allowed people to have free access to content they once had to pay for, the initial thought would be that Hollywood feels the effects, and loses money because of it. On the contrary, the article explains that last year was Hollywood's best theater attendance in history. Despite what is being said about piracy, it helped to spread "the word of mouth". As said by writer Julie Bush, "I believe torrents are the libraries of the future," Julie Bush says. "The more people who see and enjoy my work, the more opportunities I will have to be compensated." In addition, piracy may not be an option for those who are technologically inept. Thus the creation of Netflix, or HBO subscriptions has allowed access as easy as piracy, but on simpler and legal terms.

Scripting distorts what people actually want to say when they are preparing for a speech, presentation, or podcast. A contemporary assumption is that if it is written, it will sound better with bigger words and unnecessary embellishments. This article offers 5 scripting tips to make the process more effective. Key takeaways: Write the way you talk. Especially in the context of participatory media, content should be delivered to encourage conversation. Conversational scripting is what differentiates a good script from a great script.

Jeff Stibel delivers his insight on what he thinks the perfect job interview is. He discusses the fact that the traditional question-answer method does not allow a candidate to showcase themselves, but rather puts them in a box. He says recruiters should look for a person who can tell their story; a story that reaches beyond the summary of details that is found in a resume. Key takeaway: Although every job interview is going to involve some staple questions, prepare to tell your own story; why the experience you have on your resume has supported the experience you have as a candidate.

Caputo and contender Dunleavy discuss whether or not new media has changed copywriting. Caputo agrees in that the processes has gone from a thoughtful, multi-step process to the simple process of a few keystrokes. Dunleavy argues that the processes has not changed, but the creative writing process remains the same. She says that the biggest difference is instead of talking directly to the audience, we must engage them in conversation. Key takeaway: Copywriting in new media involves a great deal of participation as a contingency.

This article talks about a new trend in Web design- Parallax- and how it became popular. It shows examples of what websites effectively used this trend, and others that have done the opposite. It ends off with how this trend effects designers and readers alike. 

This short article takes a critical look at the different types of social media platforms. The author has an interesting take on how social media has evolved over the past years saying that: "Within the last seven years, we have been through three waves of social domination: The publishing wave (with blogs), the sharing wave (with Facebook and Twitter), and the curating wave (with Quora, Pinterest and alike)." The author goes on to place further importance on the type of content users post and how that impacts the evolution of social platforms. Towards the end he also touches on the choosing the right social media for different types of business.

Last week Professor McMaster touched on online ecosystems. If you want to know more about it, this Forbes article clearly describes what a social media ecosystem is. The key image depicts the social media landscape in very compact and useful way. It shows all the different ways users interact with their devices.

A commentary on the negative effects social media has on people. The article is saying that social media is hinders the way we communicate with others, instead of communicating with a person face to face we are more inclined to do it over other means. It also speaks about other problems social media might have like cyber bullying.

This video refers to one of our readings, by Jonah Berger. He talks about why things go viral; the causes of it. The video is very informative , and gives us a different perspective of what Berger has to say, since he engages with an audience and demonstrates some pictures and puts emphasis on text on a PowerPoint slide, unlike his article. I enjoyed watching this clip and was able to understand it better than the article itself.

This blog post elaborates upon the possible implications of the continuous technological convergence occurring in society.  He touches on negative issues such as the growing dependence on technology such as cellphones, which have only been around for a number of years.  He also explains positives for advertisers and entrepreneurs such as the ability to reach a global audience at next to no fee.  I thought this article would be relevant because our course similarly reflects upon the impacts of media on our lives as citizens, students and consumers.

This article highlights 5 golden rules for effective web design. The article describes how to make typefaces work to your advantage, how to choose colour palettes, the advantages of correctly sized graphics, how to include space and headings, and the importance of consistency in design.