Black Mirrors

     I loved this show and hated it at the same time. Contradiction? Totally, but I honestly have no other way to explain this show to those who have both seen it and not seen it. In this British show, it shows the relationship that people have with technology but in a more over exaggerated manner.
     In the first episode, we learn of a princess being captured and being held hostage. The only way for her to go free is if the Prime Minister engages in a sexual act with a pig on live national television. He does. And if that wasn't gross enough, he does it even after the princess has been released unharmed but no one knew she was because everyone was glued to the TV to watch him.
     In the second episode, we see of a man trapped in this seemingly future world. They bike to earn points that are then used as currency to buy things like food and gifts for others, along with using points to skip ads that show up on their screens. 
     The third episode is essentially the book Feed. In this episode, people have microchips behind their ear and through that they have access to all of their memories. They have the ability to replay their memories over and over and essentially live through them. 
     The thing that I liked about this show was that it is extremely well done. I feel as each episode was masterfully pieced together and filmed phenomenally well. Now, onto the things that I hated. Believe me, I didn't hate anything about the actual quality of the show. I think I hated more how it made me feel. I would end each episode with a feeling of anger. I don't know if the lack of conclusion on the episodes which left me wanting to know more. I think that because I didn't have a sense of what happened next, I was left to imagine what I thought and I honestly didn't like what I was thinking. Watching these episodes made me unsettled because unfortunately, I think this is the way that we are going with technology. 50 years ago no one would have believed that we would essentially have handheld computers that let us access anything and everything at our fingertips or have self-driving cars that parallel park for you, but yet we do. As much as we would like to believe that we would never live in a world where we would have a chip implanted in us to access information that is the way that we are moving. I think it is scary to think that in our lifetime, all of these scenarios are totally possible. 

Geek Heresy: Introduction and Chapter 1

     When I was reading, I often found myself questioning opportunity as a whole. In the text, Toyama says "talent is universal, opportunity is not". This quote was used to basically explain that the internet is now our opportunity and because of this, it creates a divide between the "haves" and the "have nots", in terms of people with access to internet.
     As a soon to be college graduate looking for employment, this shocked me a little bit. I don't think that I have ever thought of the internet as giving me opportunity in the job sense until now, mainly because the internet has always played a pivotal role within my life. While stepping back and looking at the past though, I can see the difference. As college grads, my parents relied on newspaper ads and word of mouth to find employment, it wasn't just a quick Google search away. While thinking about it, it almost evened the playing field, where even the people that were not as directly connected to the internet, had the same opportunity as other people. I think the internet definitely has changed the idea of opportunity, especially in terms of the job market. I think if anything it makes it a lot more competitive because more and more people have access to these job openings. I think it also makes opportunities such as jobs hard to come by, because those without have to work that much harder to find them.
     I think that one thing that we need to remember going forward is that the Internet, in a way, makes people lazy. We need to find a balance between "doing the dirty work" while also having essentially endless opportunities. We also really need to find a way to bridge the divide between those with Internet and those without.

Nate Herzog

     I really enjoyed listening to Nate speak. Before he came in to talk to us, I was really unsure as to why story hack was. I have heard of it before, but I was still confused about the whole general topic.
     When he explained StoryHack VT I finally understood what it actually was. I really liked looking at the website to see all the past competitors entries into the competition. It really put everything into perspective for me. I remembered my friend Gabbi Hall talking about StoryHackVT (she won!). It finally all made sense to me. This project seemed a lot less daunting after hearing him speak. I also liked when he said that the different aspects of StoryHack apply to different things. Like when he said most groups are made up of people from many different technical backgrounds. It made me realize that StoryHack is possible with many different focuses and that we can apply it to many different things, such as colleges.
     I think it would be a really interesting concept to bring to Saint Mike's. I think a lot of students would be interested in participating. It sounded a lot like the 24 hour play festival that we have on campus, except more technology based. I think it is something that we definitely can incorporate on to campus in the coming years!

Transmedia Storytelling #2

     Unlike the first few chapters, I really enjoyed and understood the recent chapters that we read. I was finally able (I think) to get a grasp on what trans-media storytelling actually is, and I think that is because they explained it in a way which seemed normal to me. When they actually explained it in terms of a story, including the conflict, rising action and conclusion, I was able to actually grasp the concept. Using this breakdown allowed me to make a diagram in my head and actually relate it to storytelling.

     Not only are this things important in actual storytelling, like writing a book, but I can really see where they apply to the realm of trans-media storytelling. It is all about getting your audience hooked on your "product" and engulfing them within a story. It is about making sure that a customer knows the ins and outs of whatever business or product you are trying to promote.

     One example of this that has really stood out for me would be the story of Captain Richard Phillips. For hose unable to think back a few years, he was the boat captain that was captured by Somali pirates and eventually saved his crew and escaped. Captain Phillips is actually a close family friend and it was interesting for me to see the media around this story evolve. Originally, it was just new broadcasts. In recent years this story has become a feature film, websites along with a book and many speaking engagements on Captain Phillips' behalf. It is interesting to see how his identity and story have been shared over different platforms in a way to tell his story to a number of different audiences.

     The thing that I find most interesting is that through this approach, we as consumers can become so closely tied to products or businesses, that it helps us to form our own opinions about things. We are inundated with these stories so much so that at times it is hard to decipher what we are being advertised. It becomes commonplace for us. Personally,  I would much rather be told a story about a product or business than a straight advertisement, but then it gets difficult at times to filter out the advertisements in your life to actually see the truth behind things. This is where I think media literacy really comes into play.

Transmedia Storytelling

     When first hearing the concept of transmedia storytelling, I thought I knew what it was. Upon reading further, I realized that I was completely wrong in my assumption. Being a self-proclaimed social media nerd, I thought that I knew all there was to know about social media. Unfortunately, I barely knew that this side existed.
     Transmedia storytelling is a way to combine multiple media platforms around one single things. The types of things it can include is a feature film, interactive website, a TV spin off plus many more features.
     After hearing this, the first thing that came to mind for me was the Bible. I am not really sure why, but, hear me out, I think it may fit. So the Bible was initially created in a time when there was no media as we know it to be today. Over the years, as technology got more advanced, things, including the Bible, turned to technology to keep current. Today, there are ebook bibles, TV shows and movies that tell the stories and apps that people can download to view the daily word. I think that this shows the impact of media to the point where now we can take things that used to be as far away from media as possible and adapt them into different platforms.
     While the Bible was the first thing that came to my mind, there are certainly others that fall into the category of transmedia storytelling. These can be things like Harry Potter, Star Wars and Avatar. I do have one question though about transmedia storytelling. While we mainly focus on movies or books, can music and bands also be considered transmedia story telling? The main example that I think of with this is the Jonas Brother (I know, throwback). Back in the day, I loved the Jonas Brothers, a guilty pleasure of sorts. After their rise to fame, they came out with books, TV shows, online websites, action figures and eventually a concert movie. Does it matter the platform that it was created, or could essentially anything with a multi-platform media presence be considered transmedia storytelling?

Super Bowl 50

     I will say that I do love a good football game. I love watching the game, the commercials, the food and the halftime show. Basically anything and everything during the game, I love. It makes perfect sense that the Super Bowl is one of my favorite "holidays" and for it to be the 50th Super Bowl made it even more special. Unfortunately, I was completely let down. Actually, I was so disappointed that I didn't even make it past the halftime show. In general, everything about it for me was disappointing.
     Besides the game just being disappointing overall, I thought that the commercials were extremely dull and boring. One would think that if you are paying millions of dollars for a few seconds of air time then the commercials must be the best you can possibly produce? Well clearly a few companies were not in this frame of mind. I know that football stays, for the most part, in one demographic, but you would think that during the SuperBowl they would think to engage all of the people watching, including the large female population.
     I also think that the social media presence was quite lower than what it normally is during football games. I think that while CBS had commercials all throughout the season talking about the game and the hashtag that they would use, not as many people engaged in it as I would have liked to see. The majority of people that were tweeting about the Super Bowl on Twitter were not even using the hashtag. Personally, I did not know that the hashtag existed until midway through the first half. Also, a lot of the activity on social media was complaints about the lack of replays and bad audio. Personally, I thought that it was a major flaw in the coverage of CBS and something that should have been more closely monitored.
     Overall, I was really let down by this Super Bowl. The only saving grace for this was obviously Beyonce slaying the halftime show. Other than that, the social media coverage and commercials were a major let down. Here's hoping that Super Bowl 51 will be better.

Chapter 4: Communities and Networks

     In this chapter, Baym talked about online communities and their creation and role within our lives. In class, we discussed what our definition of community is. For me, a community is a thing that unites people, be it through a certain location, demographic, topic of interest or end goal. This definition though, makes things a little difficult. Now that we live in a digital world, are websites such as YouTube and Facebook able to make a community?
     While I would argue that physical communities, such as friend groups where you interact face-to-face create much stronger relationships, I would not completely cross out online platforms as having the ability to create communities. In some instances, online communities transcend into the real world. This can most commonly be seen through dating sites, where people create a relationship through the digital world then end up making it face-to-face. Also, there are times when bonds created in an online community may be stronger than in real life. In this instance, I think of forums or chatrooms for people that struggle with something in their life. These can be things like depression, anxiety or an eating disorder. These communities are created for people to talk to one another to give them a safe space for them to communicate with people who understand what they are going through. In that case, the people in the community often feel a closer bond to people in this online world than they do with people that actually exist physically in their life.
     I think the major thing that I realize about communities in my life is that I act differently on each one. For some, I am very active and vocal. In others, I'm a passive community member where I just sit back and watch. I think that much like social media, we use different communities for different things. We have different sides to us that we allow to show in different communities, just like we have that ability on social media platforms.