CMN450 (03) Participatory Media

"...your message is the magic that will motivate action!" I believe that the mention of "message" does not involve the surface level features of the message itself, that is the words, but the entire process. This brief article offers 10 quick tips to create more effective participatory audio or video content. Key takeaways: "Write for your audience and make a connection with your potential visitor." It's very important that throughout the entire process of writing, editing, all the way to post-production, the audience is kept top-of-mind. Throughout the piece of media, there should be a strong connection built with the listener/viewer in order to garner the desired level of engagement.

This website focuses on what to consider while trying to make your website as visually appealing as it can be. Specifically the article touches on overall appearance, page layout and a detailed section on the importance of color. This link provides helpful tips that people can utilize to design their website the best they can.

This article looks at the power that people have on social media and how easily it can rally people together for a cause. It uses an air pollution problem in Beijing to demonstrate how awareness of different issues affecting us on a global scale can spread.

This blogger looks at the different ways to utilize word press and how to optimize the site. This could be helpful to skilled word press users to help them find new tools they can use. It also is useful to new users as it gives step by step tips on how to operate the site.

This article explains how although it is not always possible to predict if content will go viral, there are some similarities between content that has gone viral in the past. For example, Walter explains that viral content shares common features like addressing real-world problems, by evoking emotion (such as anger or humour), and usually has an element of surprise. Walter also adds that how material is distributed and by whom (ex. if celebrities are endorsing it) often plays a key role in whether it will reach a level of virality.

Is there a way of predicting if content will go viral? This article, published by Forbes magazine, written by Roger Wu, attributes the viral success of a certain types of media such as videos, images and sound clips into two categories: the "Roadblock Effect" or the "Stagger Effect." Wu explains that viral content can be divided into these two categories and can therefore be used to determine whether or not content will go viral.

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 analyzes the idea of how virality can be influenced by the emotions felt by the audience. For example, the article explains how people who feel emotions such as happiness as result of viewing certain content are more likely to share it with their friends and networks, therefore contributing to it going viral. The article also uses data collected from Fowler and Christakis' study in 2008 which monitored the emotions people experienced when sharing things on Twitter.

This article talks about copyright violations of a company to an individual. The company used a photographer's pictures for their benefit of making it used commercially for their profits. Just because it was posted on Twitter, a public domain, doesn't mean one can steal someone's products without permission. This is related to our copyright lecture of what not to use for commercial use without giving credit to the original owner of the product.

This link refers to a bunch of audio story telling recording of different individuals. By listening to a few if them, you will be able to get a feel of how an individual can bring life to whatever they are talking about with the use of different voices and tone if voice. Also, the use if pauses and sounds are meaningful in some cases. This link greatly helps an individual with making their own narrative story, as we had to do in the begging of the semester.

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.

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 puts Twitter and education together and demonstrates that both can be connected to create a much more valuable and rich educational experience. The teacher in this article used Twitter to strengthen students' current knowledge as well as build a growing library of material for future lessons.

As much as we think that interviewers are trying to pull information from us, they are also delivering us interviewees with a wealth of information. Martin discusses, briefly in this article, that the majority of the information and interviewer delivers you with is at the beginning, either directly or indirectly. Therefore, it is vital to be extremely attentive and listen as much as, or more than you plan to speak. Key takeaways: Interviewing is a cultivated skill that not everyone has at the beginning of their job-hunting career. The presence of non-verbal communication is also something that is learned through experience and cannot necessarily be taught.

Panel discussions are a great opportunity to derive a diverse wealth of information in a short amount of time. What differentiates a good panel discussion from a great one is an effective moderator. Much of the panel discussion's success is attributed to the panel moderator. Key takeaways: This article focuses on the effects of how a good moderator can impact a panel discussion. A good moderator is a person who is responsible, aware, organized and a strong speaker. It's important that moderators differentiate themselves from the panelists but at the same time, also make the effort to create a connection between the moderator, panelists and the audience.

The article provides a commentary on social media. It gives insight on the different types of people - the demographics - that use all the various social media that is out there and relevant. It sorts out the different age groups, ethnicities, genders among other things like the way they are using it - creation vs. curators. One can also find other articles on the same website that link to other various information relevant to the topic at hand. There is also a longer but more in-depth analysis on the usage of social media done by the same group of people here (http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED525056.pdf).

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 article provides different examples as to how social media has made an impact on various social movements that have happened; big and small ones. The article highlights the usage of social media and how it enables people to rally together from different parts of the world to share their opinion on a cause/campaign.

This article talks about the future and possibilities of social media in relation to the youth of today. It speaks about how social media can be used to create awareness and often get people involved with issues going on in the world.