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Presentation Reflection

Let’s kickoff with a “job well done” pat on the back. It is more than clear that we each worked incredibly hard to pull together our three genres. Not to mention our other projects and assignments throughout the year. Picking just one successful project was a difficult decision to make, but in the end, I decided that Morgan’s ( @mmmorganrook ) was exceptionally well executed.

Talk about popular... Her Twitter genre was a runaway success, a follow from her favorite author, some from others in the book field (is that an accepted term?) along with lots of other interested parties all tuned in to her tweets. Some part of me envies just how successful the page was with followers numbering in the hundreds. With a topic so specific it was almost surprising to find that the public was so engaged, I suppose the novelty of the subject matter accounts for the interest generated. 

Using a Twitter account to promote a PSA and a Wattpad site was a tactical strategy that I myself tried to employ, but it seems to have worked to an unmatched extent in her work. Memes, a hilarious twitcon, an inarguably creative short story, and successful marketing came together to make Morgan’s campaign a highly commendable whole.

Congrats #ENC26ers #WeMadeIt

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Assembling a Multigenre Project Reflection

Multigenre projects can be used to further your purpose, reaching an audience not tapped into by one genre or another, leveraging rhetorical appeals to your marketing advantage, or to steer away from the mundane. ‘Genre conventions’ of the ‘multigenre’ genre are essentially nonexistant; it is more so a matter of focusing in on the standards associated with the individual genres that you combine to make your final composition. To reach a finished product, as we will need to in Project 3, we must identify what we are presenting, then exhibit them in the most logical order. Thinking back to previous readings, timing and environment are important contextual considerations as well. We can tie one genre into the next to create one super-marketing monster. Our monstrous concoctions should not remain nameless though, a title is key, it makes talking about our compositions easier and hints at what the work centers on. Every last detail means nothing without the proper packaging and execution. In Project 3, our thousand word writing assignment serves as a great spot to include an artist’s statement. We can provide explanations and a brief run down about what our projects are, should be, and how they reared.

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November 17 Reflections

Many parts of the design process often feel intuitive; we make style choices based on what we know will appeal to the masses or what we know has worked on ourselves before. For me, the readings added an extra dimension to this second-nature approach.

What would make this piece of text stand out? Which fonts and colors would make bold statement pieces out of my titles and significant tidbits of text? Usually, the answer to this would arise via gut-feeling, but this week’s texts made the process much more formulaic. In the way Purdue OWL acts a style guide for citation, “SFH Layout and Pages,”  “SFH Images and Photos,” and “Analyzing Visual Rhetoric” each act as blueprints for the design and composition of documents. Size, orientation, segmentation, placement, images, graphical models, demarcations, logical order, flow, minimalism, readability, font, and the list goes on are all primary considerations. The main point is that there is a load of facets to fine-tune in the procedural endeavor, and with a guide on your side, working on the likes of Project 3 is made much more easy. 

I am well aware that, despite the effort exerted thus far, I have barely scratched the surface or made it to the meat of the work.One major purpose of design that will help me reach my audience is to “enliven” my work. Audiences will not stick around unless the producer gives them a reason to. Photographs and illustrations will do well on my twitter fact page and are what the political imagery will center around. It is also critical to avoid including superfluous information and pictures or parts of pictures, but not to cut out so much as to change the message intended. Color, like images, add an element of moodiness to work, and can easily be used to manipulate context, or set a tone. One may even rely on color as a means for organization.

As the Bedford Book of Genres has taught us time and time again, “Analyzing Visual Rhetoric” spells out that composition at large all circles back to conscious recognition of your audience, purpose, genre, medium, and relevance of design choices to the former factors. Effectivity is the chief concern.

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11/12/15

Viral Marketing Wikipedia Viral Marketing is a phrase synonymous with Viral Advertising and Marketing Buzz; the promotion style is a technique common in modern society that makes use of established tools and technologies to accomplish an end goal of marketing. The method relies on the “viral” spread of information, much in the same way a human virus spreads by contact of various sorts, and like viruses, individuals are not always aware that they are exposed to them. For this reason, this vehicle of advertisement is, at times, seen as deserving of chide; a widely held position is that the stealthy nature of Viral Marketing makes it almost inflammatory in nature. Three major methods are common to VRL Marketing: messenger, message, and environment. The first relies heavily on experts, social hubs, and sales agents. Experts are sensitive to nuances in trends and are aware of the latest crazes, they are the initial source of information. Their counterparts, salespeople, maintain and utilize connections to large networks of people crucial to the campaign process. None of the formers’ work matters though if the contextual situation is not in order, and thus Viral Marketing, as a whole, is a very frangible endeavor.

Viral Marketing 101 As expressed in the former article, context is important. If your marketing campaign is not launched in the right timeframe, you have failed; if your marketing campaign is not executed in the right environment, you have failed. Viral Marketing is all about manipulating the situation at hand and the tools already available to your best advantage, milking the most of what you’ve got. The process of disseminating creations while considering environment is called seeding. Maximized exposure is important, but so is content, you want to gain the attention of your audience and keep them interested. The primary goal here is to get people to share with their friends. In sharing with friends, people change their reputations and social personas. Sharing content like a viral campaign’s makes one seem more credible and well-versed in a subject area, but also tightens bonds within communities. It is best to keep this idea in mind when working on a viral campaign for the best results. To optimize one’s promotion, sticking to the general structure layed out for VRL Marketing and bending it slightly to match one’s situation is the way to go. Remember though, viral marketing is calculated and should be factored in to a more grandiose plan of action to properly send a message.

15 of the Best Viral Marketing Campaigns Turn to the Old Spice guy if you need an example of successful viral marketing, there are arguably few more notable instances of runaway hits of this sort in the advertising field. This campaign tapped heavily into surreality as a mechanism for expressing humor. Funny, innovative, hip was the way to go. Perhaps this is not best for my own Project 3 endeavors, but comedy couldn’t hurt if injected into my political cartoon and hints of exaggeration may also cross over. Virgin Blue’s campaign used Twitter as a means of marketing and the whole scheme rested on the audience’s willingness to share and communicate with their networks. They needed to make a lasting impression as I will if I hope to raise awareness through the Twitter fact page. By contrast, the Obama campaign, behind the scenes, likely involved a lot of formality to rally support as my letter to the Secretary General will need to. In short, there are a great many mediums that we as marketers can operate through. Depending on what we hope to achieve— raise awareness, gain support, make a difference, or attract customers— we can always see similarities in VRL Marketing; the same stealthy core is common to all Viral Ad campaigns. The minor differences in constituent parts are what make the major differences though, and I will need to consider this moving on into Project 3.

ANYWAY I realized based on other students’ work that all we need to do is one reflection that answers the questions asked. I think through these first three I have done so, so I won’t try to stretch out some more fluff for the other articles we read (especially given my time constraints). LOL! :-) Sometimes getting a head-start bites back…

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11/10/15

Jack, a 14 year old miniature schnauzer, has been my best friend since 2002. The old geezer, still young at heart and in soul, is the most loving individual that I have ever encountered in my lifetime. He has acted as a brother, a guardian, and a reinforcer of my personhood over the years that we have spent together. Growing up and bonding with Jack, was like perfecting fine wine, both inwardly and outwardly. I had learned to live symbiotically with him back home, and now, in college, the thought of him motivates me through my newfound independence. If and when I felt low, as though he could smell the pheromones emanating from my skin, Jack was there to nuzzle me. The German pup would shoot his puppy-dog glance my way as though to let me know with those big glossy eyes, and his understanding way that all was going to be okay; in some way, he knew where I was coming from and where I would end up. The reverse always felt true as well; if Jack seemed down and out, a scratch on the hand told me he needed some massage, belly-rub encouragement. ‘Fingers like magic,’ he must have thought.

SORRY I DID NOT FINISH WAAHHHH

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Bedford Book of Genres Ch. 9 Reflection

The Bedford Book of Genres “Revising & Remixing Your Work” was another relevant checkpoint on the seemingly endless list of readings. Pertinent? Perhaps. Necessary? Not necessarily. Arguably, I could have done without it given that I have already gathered all of its core information naturally over the years by simply being in English composition classes. Although a lesson about working through the peer review process is relevant it is not necessary. I think, for the most part, we all know how to give and take constructive criticism, and this far into the semester, it seems like common sense. Where the ninth chapter takes a turn for the better is with the “Remixing Your Work Into Different Genres” section; it covers exactly the waters that I have never before treaded. Even after developing by Project Three proposal, it seemed that the waters were unnavigable and too murky to muddle through sans past experience to use as a guide. Luckily, the latter half of Chapter Nine comes in to save the day, it covers exactly what we are tasked with doing— maybe not in the greatest detail, but with just enough content to make me more comfortable than before. I learned it was done before by the likes of Martha Stewart, and it could be done again by me.

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Media Studies Reflection

Going into this reading I did not expect to leave with much useful info to go on. In every higher level English course I have taken, I have been told how and why to appreciate media and the various ways to study it. It always seems a bit pretentious and overcomplicating something as simple as opinion; different people will like things for different reasons. I still feel the same way, to some degree, but I do recognize a bit more of the value in the industries built up around them. Cultures, economies, politics, and societies are built up around media industries. Depending on their context of use, a plethora of interesting influences can be wielded on people of all sorts. Social trends, tastes, and traditions of the public center around mandate(goals), conditions, practices, and texts(outlets). For my project, noncommercial mandate will be central to achieving the regulatory and egalitarian goal in mind, and with the most developed nations being the targets, technology, or lack there of, should not be an issue. With a better understanding of Media Industries and their uses, I can apply my knowledge to improving and better gearing my tactics to meet the needs(mandate) of the project.

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Media Industries Reflection

Stage one— “Gaining the Green Light” is no laughing matter. Arguably, the toughest parts of projects are the initial phases of management, requiring creativity and consideration of realities; one needs an idea that will grab attention of some sort and that can actually work given the stipulations of the real world. It usually does not make sense to move forward with a project of which assumptions and figures indicate probable failure. Crafting something viable is difficult, then, as not only does the concept have to be feasible, but the fruition of the idea must be workable as well. Project 3, short assignment number one is hence likely the most streneous of the short assignments, not in terms of time-required, but in terms of energy demanded.

Stage two— distribution is an important concern as the end goal of the project one creates cannot be achieved if audiences cannot even be reached to begin with. Though, if planned well from the jump it should not be too difficult to put in practice. The noteworthy concerns here are usually monetary and access to vehicles of execution.

Stage three— should I choose to work with film, might be a sticky area. Large firms, companies with a foot in the industry door, or individuals with established connections will have greater ease in navigating these waters.

Stage four— “promotion and protection of the industry” includes examples that might not directly apply to my work, but they do parallel it. The objective of this project is to send a message to a selected audience. Although I have yet to decide the who’s and how’s, it will be interesting to consider how “logic and discourses” of various sorts will mesh to form a finished product.