So…we made a video. The latest assignment and last assignment of our class included us having the choice of creating a journalistic video or a promotional video. Naturally, we went with the promotional video because it provides a lot of artistic freedom when producing the video and creating content.
The Amanda Biggs, who was previously featured in a post titled “Medium rare interview with Amanda Biggs,” and I sat down at one of our favorite downtown Laramie destinations to create a masterpiece. We decided to promote Coal Creek Tap, a local brewery that has a lot to offer.
Needless to say, once we had decided on this as our focus, shenanigans ensued. We had a great time going around getting artsy shots, in this already artsy location, and we had fun making fun of ourselves.
We decided to go with a funny, but serious tone for the video because that’s how we would describe ourselves. But, we also think it provides for a comforting tone to viewers to feel like they can truly be themselves at this awesome bar. I was not a big fan of being on screen, but when I become a movie star that will just be a part of my life, so it’s good for me to get used to it now.
I feel like this assignment posed its fair share of challenges and learning opportunities. I was a little afraid of some of the tasks required in this assignment, including the use of external recording devices to get better sound quality on the video. However, this proved to not be as difficult as we were thinking. We would clap before we would record so we could see that spike in the audio and use that as our starting point when it comes to lining up the voices with the lips. We were able to pull it off pretty well if I do say so myself.
I could see myself using the experiences and things I learned in this video in the very near future. I will be graduating this May and the future is broad. I think regardless of whether I choose to go into public relations or journalism, the things I learned making this video will help me wherever I end up.
I think having the ability to edit a video and have it turn out fairly well with such limited resources is very applicable to the field of journalism.
I also think that having these skills of developing a small story arc, doing the editing, the sound effects and creating a promotional video, will really help me with the field of public relations.
Whatever happens, this was an assignment that required a lot of patience and a lot of fun, and I thoroughly enjoyed all of that.
Now that we’ve talked about the video, and I’ve built up the suspense and the excitement. The video that we filmed is featured below, so have a click and enjoy the flick.
This last week I had the opportunity of doing some live-tweeting for an event. We were required to live-tweet at least 10 tweets that concerned the event, with one of them including a picture. We had two options when it came to this assignment, we could either report it as a journalist or as a public relations specialist.
The event was hosted by the RSO that I am a part of, the International Student Association. So, because it was the RSO I was a part of, I decided to come at it from a public relations angle. I, not to toot my own horn, also put together this event. The event I tweeted was a panel discussion that revolved around a movie showing. The movie that was shown was “Girl Rising” from 2013.
The movie is about the importance of women’s education across the world, and the good it can do for a country’s economy. This movie was followed by a panel that featured representatives from the gender and women’s studies department, the sociology department, the Her Campus RSO and SafeZone. These panelists included Dr. Colleen Denney, Dr. Tim Nichols, Abbey Williams and Lindy Westenhoff, respectively.
The experience was actually pretty fun. I can honestly say, this was the first time that I have genuinely enjoyed something to do with social media. I like the fact that this assignment was something that I have never done before, and I got some pretty cool results from live-tweeting.
Time for me to brag…again. One of the tweets I tweeted, was actually liked and retweeted by the official Twitter of the movie that we watched, “Girl Rising.” This was one of the coolest things that I have ever had happen to me on social media. The “Girl Rising” Twitter page has almost 111,000 followers, which means that my tweet was seen by 111,000 people potentially.
A screenshot of one of my tweets I made during my live-tweeting event. Check it out ma’, I finally made it.
That’s pretty dang cool.
I learned that it is harder than you think to jot down tweets that are quotes of people talking during a panel discussion, because sometimes it is hard to get the full context in 140 characters or less. However, I was surprised at how easy it was to find things to tweet about because there were a lot of really interesting things being said.
If I could go back, I think I would plan it out a little more, I also would have provided more context to the picture.
I think that my future career is going to mostly revolve around social media. To be honest, my job right now as the online editor at the Branding Iron, the student newspaper, mostly revolves around social media. And I don’t like doing social media as an independent party, but running it for the newspaper, and having a purpose behind it is really cool. I really enjoy doing this stuff because I have a reason to be writing outside posting political things or selfies. What a good time that was to get to tweet about things that are actually interesting.
Here it is. The end result of that incredibly raw interview with Katniss Ever-Beans (Amanda Biggs.) I went into editing this audio without hesitation, because I have had quite a bit of experience when it comes to audio editing. I used to produce a podcast through the Branding Iron, the student newspaper, and I would write and edit it all by myself. So, I thought this would be no different. I neglected to realize that GarageBand is a completely different program than that of Audacity.
I had a good time editing the audio. I feel like I learned a lot and it will be very helpful when I seek employment after graduation. Speaking of which, if you know anyone looking for an OK audio editor, I’m your guy. My favorite part of the editing was figuring it out for myself because I didn’t really use the guide. I winged it for the most part and I think it turned out pretty great!
The thing that I didn’t enjoy about audio editing, was my lack of knowledge when it comes to the editing process. I had this idea that it would go pretty easy because I have used GarageBand before, but the two are nothing alike. I do like the fact that it has more options for editing, so I’ll give it credit for not being as easy to work as GarageBand.
I wasn’t surprised by a whole lot, other than how long it took to piece the audio together. I tried to write down which sections of the audio I wanted to use and piece together, but every time I would cut out some audio the times would change, so I would lose the clip I wanted to use. I guess if I would have used the cheat sheet more, it would have been a little bit easier.
If I could do anything differently, I think I would use the cheat sheet more. I think that the cheat sheet would have provided me with a lot more guidance and made it much easier to piece it together and, just in general, make it easier for me to edit the audio.
Overall, this was a great assignment and I enjoy when I get the opportunity to do something that could assist me in my future endeavors. I think that having this type of knowledge when it comes to audio editing will definitely help me in my future.
For this latest assignment, I had the pleasure of interviewing the person sitting next to me, Amanda Biggs. For the interview, I went to her house and we sat and talked for two or three hours, just chatting. I think we were both kind of searching for something to interview the other about, trying to dig up a great interview topic. Once I had found out that she was well involved with the improv troupe at the university, I knew that was it. Surprisingly, she has had quite a bit of time with them and spent quite a bit of time doing it.
The conversation we had leading up to the interview was great and natural, once I turned on the recorder, however, things got weird. Both of us got really awkward, because all of a sudden there is a lot of pressure to not misspeak or mispronounce a word. Also, you don’t want to have this embarrassing voice about you the whole time. So, we both kind of stiffened up and were forced out of are comfort zones. Following six attempts at recording the interview, we finally got it done. I find that by making jokes people become more comfortable because it makes the interviewer more relatable. It shows the subject of the interview that they aren’t the only one that is nervous.
Then the tables turned and Amanda interviewed me. As I state earlier, things were awkward at first. It’s hard to be natural in such an unnatural situation. But, I think having interviewed her first, helped me to stay calm and speak naturally and learn from her mistakes.
The thing I enjoyed the most about this assignment was getting to learn more about my tablemate. It was cool finding out more about her life and her passions. I also enjoyed putting someone in an awkward situation and making one of the more chill people in our class, become unchill.
If I could do anything different when it comes to the interview, I think I would change the way I talk. I’m just kidding. I would probably change the fluidity of my questions because I think I may have gotten choppy throughout the interview because I too was nervous to be conducting the interview as well as being interviewed.
Overall, this was a great experience. I have worked in audio before, having produced a podcast in the past, but I used GarageBand for editing. I am excited and anxious to figure out how to work Audacity.
For my Multimedia Production class, we were asked to take pictures that would tagalong well with stories, in an effort to better understand photojournalism. The photos I took, I believe, would pair nicely with a variety of stories, ranging from sports stories to news to features. Compiled below are all of the pictures that I took and believe fit the categories necessary to be considered photojournalism.
1. Sports Action
Going for Goal – Freshman Taylor Dodd kicks the ball for a successful point after touchdown, also known as a PAT. The Cowboys went on to defeat Texas State last Saturday, Sept. 30, with a final score of 45-10.
The title of this photo is “Going for Goal” because this picture shows a kicker going for the goal after a successful touchdown. I think this picture applies to the Sports Action story because it shows the moment the kicker kicks the ball and it is flying through the air. In this picture, we are able to see a lot of conflict between the players, including the opposing team’s efforts to stop the ball by throwing their hands up in the air. Luckily, Taylor Dodd was able to get the PAT and contribute to the victory over the Texas State Bobcats. I took a ton of pictures during this game and had my camera set to take multiple pictures when I held my finger down, and this just so happened to be one of those captured moments. It wasn’t very hard to get pretty good pictures because I was using my long lens and it was a relatively sunny day so I was able to have my shutter speed set very high, which helped stop the motion.
2. Sports Feature/Portrait
Watching the Battle – A referee stands and watches the play of the Cowboys and Bobcats. The referee was working during the most recent game in which the Cowboys won 45-10 over the Bobcats this last Saturday, Sept. 30.
I took this picture while I was at that football game earlier. This picture was kind of a happy accident because I was just snapping random pictures at the game and somehow captured this incredible moment. I took probably 100 pictures at the game and there were only four or five that I was really proud of, and this was definitely the one I was the proudest of. This picture, I think, would apply to the Sports Feature category. I think this because it isn’t the typical sports action photo. Rather than it focusing on the players of the game, it focuses on the person that most of the people think. It also creates a nice environmental portrait, showing this referee in his habitat, showing what he sees and what he does for a living.
3. Spot News
Braving the Elements – Tyler Wolfgang, a UW student, walks to class through the snow. Laramie experienced its first big snowfall of the season on Monday, Oct. 2.
I named this picture “Braving the Elements” because we had our first major snow here and it was hard to get out of bed, let alone go to class. I believe that this picture would fit into the Spot News category because it was taken on a whim out in Prexy’s Pasture Monday. I thought it was a unique shot because it shows the drive of some students to attend classes and brave the elements. It was a difficult picture to get because it was snowing and it was hard to get my camera to focus on the people and not the snow, and it was hard because I was afraid of getting my camera wet.
4. Feature
The Application – Rachel Laker, a graduate student in geology, sits in the Buchanan Center for the Performing Arts working on a resume for a Ph.D. program. Laker was working on the application this last Tuesday, Oct. 3.
I think this picture, and I call it “The Application” because the subject in the picture is applying for a Ph.D. program. I think it applies to the Feature category because this could easily be a story about Rachel Laker and her time here at UW. This picture was an interesting one because I walked into the Buchanan Center and was going to practice piano. However, I saw this girl sitting there, all alone and doing homework. It was a really neat moment, so I walked up to her and asked to take her picture, and here we are. It took me a little while to figure out how to take this picture because I really wanted to capture something unique. If it had been just a plain picture, I doubt anyone would read the story behind it. So it took me a few tries, but I was able to get this one, which I really like.
5. Spot News
Constructing a Legacy – A construction worker assists in the digging out of dirt in front of the Arena Auditorium on Wednesday, Oct. 4. The AA has been undergoing construction for the past several months in an effort to create a grand entry.
I call this photograph “Constructing a Legacy” because it was taken outside the Arena Auditorium where they are constructing all new entrances and restructuring the outside. I called it a legacy because the construction that is occurring now will more than likely be a part of the university for many, many years to come. This is the legacy of some construction workers who are on the job and building these things. This picture was pretty easy to get because I was using my long lens, so I didn’t have to get too close to the action. However, because I was using my long lens, I was unable to get the name of the worker in the picture. I chose this one because it shows a lot of balance between the worker and the bulldozer, which is aesthetically pleasing to the eye.
I enjoyed this assignment very much because I enjoy any excuse to use my camera and test my creativity. I was surprised at how hard it is to get a good picture, I feel like I had to take so many. If I could do anything differently, I think I would want to take more time taking the pictures and take more of them. I took a lot of these with fairly short notice and didn’t take a ton of pictures like I should have. Imagine the pictures I could get if I put in a little more time and wasted a little more memory!
In this post lies a variety of pictures that I believe could be run in a newspaper under various categories. These pictures have the category listed above them and then a brief explanation of their purpose featured below.
Patterns
Parked Cars – Cars sit parked very close together on Fraternity Row at the University of Wyoming.
The predominant creative device used in this photo is patterns. This allows for a visually pleasing picture that would draw the reader into the story because of its aesthetic. The secondary creative device in this photo would be leading lines because it leads the eye through the photo following the cars in the row.
Balance
Deconstruction of a Frat House – Construction workers tear down a condemned fraternity house on the University of Wyoming campus.
The creative element used in this picture would be the balancing of the elements. What we can see is that there are two main subjects in this picture, the construction worker, and the bulldozer, these balance each other out pretty well with their placement. I would say the secondary device in this photo would be rule of thirds, only because of the positioning of the construction worker.
Rule of Thirds
A Local Celebrity – Pistol Pete looks out over the court as the Women’s Volleyball team plays.
This shot’s leading creative device would definitely be the rule of thirds because of its positioning of the subject in the far left side of the picture. This is a good picture because it also blurs the background, leading to a more focused subject. One might also note that the vectors in the picture are set up fairly well, Pistol Pete is looking in the direction of the open space in the photo. The secondary creative device is focus because the main subject is so in focus and the background is so nice and blurred.
Depth
In Your Face – A UW Cowgirl spikes a volleyball down on the CSU Rams.
This photo, I believe, creates a lot of depth for those viewing it and that would be what I think the creative device used is. We get to see the focus of all of these different players, which gives us much more context and leads us to feel like we are watching them. We also get to see the context given by the fans in the stands who are just sitting and enjoying the game. The secondary device in this photo could be the rule of thirds because the girl who is doing the action, the one hitting the ball, is on the far left side of the picture.
Focus
Making the Dream Work – The CSU Rams stand huddled together following the first set of a volleyball game.
The creative device that I think was used in this photo was focus because the players who are in focus are the obvious subject of the picture. The background of this photo is nice and blurred out so it draws more focus to the subject, leading it to have the subject as the primary object of attention. We are also able to focus on these subjects and notice that they each have individual facial expressions. The secondary creative device in this picture is depth because it has the background for reference and feeds into the rest of the picture.
I thought this assignment was a little confusing for me personally, but it was a good assignment. I feel as though it was a great opportunity to build a foundation for photography and learn more about the people-behind-the-camera’s jobs. I enjoyed having a misunderstanding of the assignment because it allowed me to take as more of a photojournalism approach to the assignment. All of the pictures I took used creative devices and were able to be tagged along with news stories.
Disclaimer: This story utilizes an anonymous source in an effort to gain insight and further depth. The source chose to remain anonymous out of wishes to maintain privacy and a fear of the current political climate. Some background on the source: Anonymous is a 20-something student at the University of Wyoming who came to the U.S. under illegal pretenses. They came here fleeing from gang violence in their home country located in Central America and spent 28 days traveling through Central America, three of which were spent in the deserts of Mexico, to make it to the U.S.
“It’s an important program.” – Anonymous
The Program
DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, is a program that former-President Barrack Obama created during his tenure in an effort to address the issue of immigration status for children who came to the United States illegally.
A screenshot of the overview of DACA from the official website.
According to a Newsweek article, there are approximately 788,000 people currently enrolled in the DACA program. In order for people to be eligible for DACA, they must have been under the age of 31 in June of 2015 and must have been a resident of the United States since 2007.
There is no specific counseling or assistance available to recipients of DACA at the University of Wyoming.
“So, there’s nobody that just works with DACA, there are a few individuals on campus who will help them file paperwork to extend their DACA, who will give them general legal counsel about it,” Maria Almendares, immigration coordinator, said.
While Almendares does provide immigration services, she does not provide them to DACA recipients in any official capacity. Almendares’s primary job is to provide these resources to international students coming to the university to study either on study abroad programs, exchange programs or just to attend the university.
DACA, as a program, provides many opportunities to the immigrants who came here without following the proper channels.
“It allows them to get a work permit, it allows them to get a social security number, it allows them to be on the books, as we say, and allows them to go to school because many schools require some kind of status to go to school,” Almendares said. “So, it provides them all of those opportunities.”
DACA is not a permanent solution, however. DACA provides only two years of this status before a recipient has to reapply.
“The idea (of DACA) being, that eventually we would hope that Congress would pass some kind of a, like the DREAM Act, or some kind of a bill that would then provide them with some kind of path to residency or citizenship, because as it is, DACA is only a temporary stay,” Almendares said.
A common misconception among people is that immigrants here on DACA have a choice to get citizenship, which Almendares was quick to clear up.
“They can’t just apply for a green card. They can’t just change to a student visa, there is no path forward for them,” Almendares said. “So, that was the program, was that just with, created with the idea that then they would maybe have the chance to get residency or citizenship.”
However, a change of pace has come with a change of leadership for the U.S.
“Still hopeful, we have about 6 months,” Almendares said. “Still hopeful for that to happen.”
“I feel like, I don’t want to overthink it, but at the same time I can’t pretend like I’m going to be okay because I don’t know if that’s going to happen. At times I feel like I don’t really, I can’t think about a future, just because I don’t know where I’ll be in 2 years.” – Anonymous
The Problem
Things have gone steadily for the five years DACA has been an active program in the United States. However, in recent weeks, the program has been in the headlines with President Donald Trump discussing the program and the re-introduction of the program into the legislative process and the legislative branch.
Tensions rose for DACA recipients as Trump mentioned the re-examination of the immigration program via a series of tweets.
Tweets from President Donald Trump’s Twitter page show his open dialog about the DACA program.
“I like his, his premise of, ‘I’m going to undo it so that it can go through the right processes of going through legislative branch,’” Andrew Server, senior adviser to College Republicans and graduate student, said. “So that the people that are more directly elected by the people can have more of a say, and that it goes through the process that the founders intended for legislation like this.”
For many people, this issue has seemed to be polarizing. However, it might not be as right and wrong, or as left and right, as people make it out to be, Server said.
“It’s not as black and white of an issue as I think a lot of people are trying to portray it out to be as,” Server said. “There’s not just one specific evil on one side or the other, it’s not evil Trump trying to kick out everybody. It’s not evil immigrants trying to come here and take your jobs or do like lines of anything or do anything, commit any crimes in particular.”
“We didn’t come here because we wanted to. Like, the thing is, people know that kind of, but they don’t know that my parents didn’t want us here either…Our family became involved with the gangs, without wanting to…We came here literally running from gang violence, and that’s what people don’t understand. Like, I didn’t ask for this. ” – Anonymous
Server made sure to point out when College Republicans has discussed the issue in the past it was with the mindset of legalities and not necessarily with empathy. However, that does not mean that some of the members of the club do not understand the moral implications of this issue.
“And, to be honest, with a bunch of the members that I talked with, they understand the empathy side of things and they are kind of willing to negotiate, it’s not just a: ‘Hey, get the heck out of here, you’re not supposed to be here,’” Server said. “They do understand the childhood aspect of it all.”
These aspects of morality and empathy have made it difficult to come to a consensus on the issue.
“It’s gray,” Server said. “And it’s hard to come to a decisive and concise stance on a gray issue, especially if you act on empathy and consider those aspects. So, here we are.”
I get my news from a variety of different platforms, but it has been a while since I actively consumed news. I have been avoiding it, not because I’m lazy, but because I am tired of reading the same old same.
However, it is time for that to change. Avoiding the problems of the world or the repetitiveness of the news does not mean that it will go away. It’s time for me to be an actual journalist, an active journalist, a journalist with a healthy news diet.
Now that I’ve made this decision. I would say, I tend to consume my news from two main sources, either NPR or The New York Times. I also get my local news from the school paper, the Branding Iron.
I have placed my trust in NPR and The New York Times because they have been empirically objective when it comes to reporting on important stories. I also trust the Branding Iron because I worked there for 3 years and trust the way the paper is run and who runs the paper.
However, in recent times it has been hard for me to trust The New York Times, only because they too have given into this idea that objectivity isn’t a necessity when it comes to reporting on important issues. I do think that they too came to this realization. I believe that they have decided that they need to focus on getting back to their roots in order to maintain their good reputation.
Regardless of how things have played out, I still have much respect for both of these news sources, I just don’t blindly follow them.
I read the stories they report on and then compare them with other news sources to gain a better understanding of what slant they could have. I also take everything that I read with them with a grain of salt.
I have found that discussing the news with my friends can be fun. Because, if they have different viewpoints than me then it is open to debate and I can better understand the opposing side, but if it’s the same then I get to reaffirm my beliefs and discuss something with like-minded folk.
I also find talking with my family can get interesting because I am definitely of the same mindset as them, but I still enjoy challenging their very traditional beliefs in an effort to help them understand a different perspective. I could care less about changing their mind on issues, because I highly doubt I have that power, however, I do believe I have the power to show them a different side of things. That’s my favorite thing about discussions, is being an advocate for something that I don’t necessarily believe, only so we can have a debate and others can see the side they are, for whatever reason, unable to.
Now, when it comes to other forms of journalism, like entertainment journalism, I would say my diet is relatively healthy and has a lot of variety. I don’t usually consume entertainment journalism from the same sources, only because I look at it off-handedly when I am scrolling through Facebook. I would say that these sources are informative but not as much as a necessity as actual news because more than likely it will not affect my everyday life.
There are some instances where it can be informative in understanding what controversies could be plaguing a show, and whether that would be a show to support if it does have certain negative connotations about it. I don’t want to blindly follow a show, especially since I know the power TV and movies have over me and my interactions.
Overall, I think my news diet is a pretty healthy one. I do believe that just as a balanced diet helps one to grow strong and healthy, a balanced news diet would help one to grow strong in terms of being a better-informed, more conscious-of-their-surroundings person. I am definitely guilty of not consuming my share of news, but it is time for that to change.
So let’s climb the stairway of this pyramid to being healthy together. Let’s not allow the current state of our news, state of our country or state of our world affect the way we contribute to each of these things. Lets be informed and healthy, news healthy.
Ah. Finally. We’ve gotten to my favorite thing in the whole world: Social Media. *sarcasm*
I’m just kidding. As time has gone this semester, and I have begun a position at the Branding Iron, I have come to thoroughly enjoy Social Media. I enjoy getting to use analytics on Facebook and through WordPress to see which posts are the most effective and which sites are the most effective.
With that being said, our latest assignment is one that I am kind of excited to explore. We get to do an analysis of two similar sources. The sources that I chose to examine are the University of Wyoming and Colorado State University. I get the opportunity of going deep into the depths of the Social Media accounts of these two universities. I will go through the accounts that each one has and make comments about what they are doing right and wrong.
I will begin with the UW because CSU is the worst, and it sucks to be a CSU Ram, and we have the Border War coming this weekend.
University of Wyoming
Facebook:
One of the themes I noticed with the Facebook posts is that they are all written with an informal voice. I enjoy this and it is a good technique because they are sticking with a more conversational tone, which is what people want to see. If the posts were written in a formal manner, then they wouldn’t be as engaging because they wouldn’t be relatable to the audiences they are trying to reach. I did enjoy the fact that with some comments they liked them, but they didn’t like all of them, so there were some inconsistencies. They also did not comment on any of the comments made on the statuses, which is a deterrent to engagement with the audience. I do believe they are doing something wrong with Facebook because they have 52,343 followers on their Facebook page and, on the last five posts, they have only had on average 135 likes. That is substantially lower than the amount of people who are seeing these posts on a regular basis.
Instagram:
The Instagram main page, which is neat that they stuck with the same picture.
The first thing I notice on their Instagram is that they have the same profile picture as they did on their Facebook. I appreciate this because it shows consistency with their Social Media accounts. The other thing I notice is that the posts are very similar to the ones shared on their Facebook page. One thing that I know, through past experience, is that the types of things you post on Instagram versus Facebook should be relatively different. While they do have their small differences, they aren’t big enough. I think Instagram should be all about the art of photography with conversational, short captions, and some of them are the exact same thing they wrote on Instagram. Their Instagram account, on the other hand, is doing very well because it has had on average, with the past five posts, 336 likes. Those are some pretty good numbers for a site that has way fewer followers than the Facebook page.
Twitter:
Screenshots taken from my Google searches. As you can see, we have an immediate problem of too many similar options.
The first thing I would note is that there are many different pages. I actually had to go to the UW website in order to find the link to their official Twitter account. I ended up finding it and they tweet the right way. They are sure to post with short captions, that are concise and to the point. They also share the shorthand versions of the URLs so people don’t have to look at the long URL, which is shown to be important too. They are also sparse with the way they do their postings, to ensure that they are not posting an excessive amount of stories with photographs, which was important to avoid because people get frustrated with too many pictures, though they are the most effective way to ensure engagement, too much is a bad thing. Since I’ve made not of it in all the other discussions, I will note that they have 2,359 followers and I am not sure how to work Twitter so I don’t know if you can tell how many likes they get (Returning from CSU’s Twitter page, I now know that you can tell, and we just don’t have any on our last five posts). But this is the account with the least amount of followers so far.
Pinterest:
There are many Pinterest accounts attributed to UW, and I think I was able to find the most relevant one, however, it is hard to tell because there is no direct link to it from their website. I like their use of nice pictures from around campus, but I think it serves essentially the same purpose as the UW Instagram. It just provides another platform to share much of the same type of media. They do have 405 followers, which is actually their new lowest Social Media account.
Followers: 405
Average Likes (five posts): They don’t do likes on Pinterest.
Snapchat:
N/A
I was unable to find a Snapchat that was attributed to the university, however, there were stories attributed to the location of UW.
LinkedIn:
I was able to find the LinkedIn of UW, but I did not like what I saw. Yes, they have many people associated with them and it is a very popular location, but their last post was 9 months ago. That is a long time to go without posting on a Social Media site. It is also terrible for people who would reference the university as their place of education to potential employers because employers could look at this and be left wondering what is going on at the university. Why haven’t they updated their professional website? It’s an interesting thing. The post that they did 9 months ago was a welcome back to students, and I’m assuming it was following the return of students from winter break in the 2016-2017 academic year. There are only four posts on the LinkedIn, so I think they created it and then realized that they had to manage it and stopped. That is not good.
Followers: 49,694
Average Likes (five posts): 167 <- This actually the last four because there are only a total of four posts on the website.
Colorado State University
Oh, how I’ve dreaded having to look at CSU’s Social Media accounts. Good luck to me, am I right?
Facebook:
First impression, dang. They don’t just have an aerial view of the CSU campus; they have an entire video representing the things CSU has to offer. This also includes videos of students, which I think is incredibly important in creating that connection to the students that attend. Also, browsing through the posts on their Facebook page, I noticed that there are so many interesting posts. For instance, they have a video showing students how to carve a pumpkin. They also have interactive posts asking students why they chose CSU. They also, on the posts I saw, were sure to like the comments made on their posts. They are doing a very good job keeping with a diversity of posts on their sites and continuing to interact and have fun with their audiences.
Followers: 141,212
Average Likes (five posts): 856
Instagram:
The posts they have on their Instagram are also very similar to those on their Facebook account. However, they do make some small edits to the captions they include with their posts, in some cases adding more to give more context to the post and continue the conversation. I think it is important to have some differentiation in the quotes that they use for their posts. This helps to keep people both checking the Facebook and the Instagram and not just thinking about the one account. Also, they still maintain their shorter captions, which is very important with a Social Media platform that is not about words and is about photography.
Followers: 54.5 thousand
Average Likes (five posts): 2,512 <- They are doing something very right.
Twitter:
It took me a second to figure which Twitter was actually theirs.
Their Twitter account was much easier to find even though it was among many other Twitter accounts. It is nice that it would be such an easy to thing to find, and that I was sure that I had found it right away. This is a major contrast to UW’s Twitter. The posts on their Twitter account are very personable, they have a very human element. I can tell this by looking at the fact that they share GIFs with their posts. They are also sure to have short, catchy captions that bring in people through their comedy. The one thing I would note is that they may use GIFs too much, using it as a crutch to seem more outgoing and personable. The overuse of these tactics like pictures and GIFs makes it repetitive and is not sustainable for a Twitter account, as we read.
Followers: 54.3 thousand
Average Likes (five posts): 21
Pinterest:
In finding their Pinterest account, it was hard to tell which one was there. The top three results were of similar description, meaning it was very hard for me to differentiate. However, the third result did say athletics so I assumed that wasn’t it. Then, I realized the second one was for the online college and not the actual campus, so now I know. Their actual Pinterest has quite a good following and is pretty active as well. They also have the different boards that help in various aspects, including future students, styling for students and other examples.
Followers: 5,287
Average Likes (five posts): They don’t do likes on Pinterest.
Snapchat:
N/A
CSU also does not have its own Snapchat account, at least from what I could find. The too had the stories attributed to them as UW did.
LinkedIn:
This is where they have UW, for sure. No questions asked. The last update that CSU made to its LinkedIn was 16 hours ago (at time of posting). The story they posted was about a course that they offer about “Water, Gender and Human Rights.” It was cool to see that they do update their LinkedIn and they do focus on the things that highlight their university and build a good name for their alum.
Followers: 205,592
Average Likes (five posts): 90
Conclusion:
In closing, it still sucks to be a CSU Ram, but the Social Media accounts of CSU are not sucky by any means. Now, UW, on the other hand, needs to get its crap together. We have so much potential with the way we post, it is just going untapped. There are many ways that UW could improve its Social Media, and I would suggest reading the articles our professor shared with us would be a dang good place to start. I would also recommend that the people who run the Social Media accounts should limit the amount of Social Media accounts for each site.
Recently, in an effort to better understand websites and their usability, I visited a website and a web page, and just spent some time looking at it to gather my thoughts on how this website functioned. I also asked one of my friends to do the same thing so I could gain a perspective that wasn’t my own. We each spent quite a bit a time browsing the website and both came to our own conclusions, however, they did have their similarities.
For me, I thought the website was very interesting and had an intriguing design. My first impressions were that the website had really cool graphics, using short video clips instead of pictures, and it was easy to navigate the story because I just had to scroll down. There were some portions of it that I didn’t think fit too well. For instance, there was purple in it that didn’t tie in well with the rest of it, also, there was auto-play on the videos that were featured, which is incredibly annoying when you start scrolling through a story and all-of-a-sudden there’s some loud sound going off.
Imagine this picture, but the swing is actually moving. Pretty cool, right?
For my friend, she did not like it from the start. She thought the video-pictures, which I thought were cool, were awkward. She also did not like the pull-quotes provided throughout, and she did not like the level of uncertainty when it came to what was coming next. There were some things she liked, for instance, she liked that the videos that were halfway through broke up the content and allowed to capture the attention that had been lost through the reading.
Now, we then started to browse the rest of the website to see what it was all about. It was actually fairly difficult for each of us to find our way out of the article page because the home button was very small compared to the rest of the story. It was a small little name of the publication on the top left-hand corner. But, once we found our way away from this one small thing the navigation was fairly simple.
Look at how much is going on with this drop down menu. That is way too many things.
For me, I did notice that the drop down menus were overly cluttered. There were too many different sections going on and they were incredibly small, so they were hard to read. In the initial page, it was easy because the words were relatively large, but they shrunk them quite a bit. The drop down menus were quick to show up, so that was nice, but they were loaded up. The rest of it was pretty easy to navigate otherwise. I did go to one page that I thoroughly enjoyed. I clicked on the drop down menu titled “Things To Do,” then clicked on “Movies,” and scrolled around. I liked this page because it showed all the movies that were playing in the area and then had a map of the locations of each of the movie theaters that were playing the movies. I enjoyed this and it was easy to navigate and enjoyable for me. Another positive thing that I noticed, was when I clicked on the rest of the website it actually took me to the rest of the website in a new tab, which as I’ve been told is a very good thing.
For my friend, it was a different story. One of the things that she did, that I forgot to do, was click on the social media pages. We both had the thought process that it would take us to the Facebook page of the website. However, instead, it took us to our Facebook and then gave us the option to share the website to our news feed so our friends could access this article too.
I can see how they might think this is a good idea, but I think that it ultimately would turn people off of the website because it is not what they would expect. It made me kind of mad because we wanted to get to their social media pages to find out more about them as an organization, instead it was trying to force us to share the story.
We did have a similar experience on one thing. We were both able to find the contact information for the publishers and editors within 15 seconds. It was easily found because it was at the top of the page under “Contact Us.”
With all of these issues taken into consideration my friend and I were not in agreeance. I thought overall the website was pretty solid, but she thought that it could be WAY better.
I guess it ultimately is up to the user. I enjoyed it because I thought the story was easy to understand, though both agree it was way too long, and the website was easy to navigate. My friend thought that the story was awkward, long, choppy and that overall, this could use a lot of work.
There are THREE things that we believe should absolutely be improved on.
For the story specifically, cut down the length. It is way too long and will likely lose readers attention. If you want to have a long story, maybe consider putting it on different pages that people can flip through.
For the website, increase the font size so that it is easier to read. It is way too small and there are too many words. Also, limit the amount of stories’ headlines available in each drop down menu. It should not exceed seven otherwise it is cluttered.
For the website, change the hyperlinks on the website so that when people click to view your Facebook or Twitter page, they are redirected to your Facebook and Twitter page. It is incredibly frustrating when you are forced to share something on Facebook.
Also, there are THREE things that we absolutely love and believe should stay the way they are.
For the story, the moving pictures were the best part. They were comparable to GIFs, but they served a purpose other than just making people laugh. It also caught my interest right away.
For the website, keep up the good work on the “Movies” section. If I were to visit a website to find out about movie times in my area, I would definitely want it to be like this one.
Overall, both the website and the story page were very clean. So, I would recommend keeping it this way. Limit the advertisements. Limit the unnecessary stuff. Just focus on the content, because that is the most important.
Seth Sigward Haack 